how micro apparel brands are outgrowing Nike.. and printing millions

Whew.. this one is fire. I mean, I think it’s our best so far.

One of our most requested topics is clothing and apparel brands, so today we’re jumping into the strategies behind the fastest growing apparel brands in the world and how they’re outpacing the likes of Nike, Supreme, Kith and more.

If you’re new here, this is the Up Next newsletter where we bring you the latest data, trends and story telling to help you launch products that actually make money.

Some quick house keeping before we get into the guts of this one..

A quick thanks to you all for providing feedback on what you’d like to see from the content.. so far the clear winners are:

1. More info on building brands and brand storytelling
   

2. More breakdowns on how to design, manufacture and launch products (that actually make money)

   We’re going to play around and test a section in the newsletter focused on bringing product to life. How to find product market fit, reach out to manufacturers and launch / sell your products for big profits.
   
   With that said, let us know in the poll below what you’d most like to see featured in the newsletter, and we’ll put more emphasis on that every week.

Vote below..

Today we’ll be looking at…

• Apparel brands with rocketship growth (and the strategies they’re using to stand out)

• The story telling and tactics they’re using to build life long customers

• How to bring apparel brands and products to life 👇👇

Micro Apparel Brands Printing Their Way to $50 - $100 Million

ASRV is an athletic apparel company seeing hyper growth. Their philosophy hinges on a commitment to fabric technology and design principles that unlock the potential of anyone leading an active lifestyle.

ASRV was born from a simple yet powerful idea: to craft premium activewear that seamlessly integrates into daily life - whether you're running, training, or embracing recreation. Each collection is an intricate blend of style and cutting-edge technology. Style meets performance.

But many clothing brands state this, what’s allowed ASRV to reach 9 figures in sales and become one of the fastest growing consumer brands on the planet?

Let’s start with their marketing strategy that’s grown brand searches by over 50% in just a year

ASRV has a unique marketing strategy using both influencers and meta ads to drive bottom of funnel conversions for the brand (ads designed to bring in sales and drive revenue).

To start, ASRV is running 60 ad creatives in meta, with dozens uploaded already in May. Clothing brands are constantly rotating through new drops and creatives to match the new drops. It’s a ton of work up front but can yield amazing results and high repeat customer rates.

Here’s an example of an ASRV Kit creative on Meta ads:

The ads themselves are much more focused on the kit, materials and selling the active and active rec lifestyle. It’s less branded (which we’ll get to in a minute), focusing on driving revenue and pushing customers over the edge to make a purchase.

This ad strategy is just one part of the equation. In addition, they’re using influencers and organic social to drive top of funnel awareness (brand awareness and recognition).

They sponsor hundreds of athletes to make content for them. Users visit their site and gain initial awareness through the organic content they see. Example of their organic content below..

From there, ASRV can run pixeled ads either retargeting potential customers back to the apparel piece they initially viewed or taking them to the entire subcategory to browse other pieces, for example, their training products page

It’s a simple playbook that’s worked incredibly well, allowing them to build a 40 million per year business in just 5 years.

To recap, ASRV has recognized there’s still a large arbtirage with the amount of attention influencers and social campaigns can drive. By targeting hundreds of influencers and sponsoring them in exchange for regular content, ASRV has driven millions of views to their website every month.

From there, customers are retargeted using Meta and instagram ads, driving them back to the pieces and categories they were initially interested in.

The drop model also allows for huge repeat customers, we’re talking 50%+ in many cases. It’s an incredible use of marketing efficiency and brings a huge return on spend when you can sponsor an athlete and have their audience purchasing from you over and over.

This initial online success has also allowed them to collab with Everlast and New Era as well as expand their retail presence. Massive distribution from a simple marketing strategy.

Next We’ll Look at the Apparel Brand Kill Crew

And most notably, their ability to tap into the brand story and connect with their customers.

Kill Crew is an apparel brand growing 50% to 100% YoY and hitting milestones of $45+ Million per year. Another success story started just 4 years ago in the pandemic.

While Kill crew doesn’t use a top of funnel influencer awareness strategy, their success comes down to 3 elements:

1. Consistent drops with amazing quality (I’ve purchased multiple pieces and loved all of them)

2. A ton of bottom of funnel meta ads

3. A message and story that resonates strongly with gym goers (see below)

Kill crew has tapped into the mental health benefits of the gym that most other companies seem “too fancy” to focus on.

Their one of a kind pieces speak to a much deeper meaning of why many attend the gym outside of aesthetics and “gains bro”.

Their founders have been pretty open about the brand initially running a ton of tests to see what messaging resonates with customers. The extreme focus on loud designs, language and mental health have struck a chord.

After dialing in on the initial designs, Kill Crew went further by designing Women’s apparel pieces with the same messaging - and it’s worked. The brand is more than doubling it’s sales every year with this approach and is now on pace to do north of $50 million with a small warehouse team and designers.

Their women’s line even seems to be outgrowing the mens.

Couple this with strong ads that deliver the same punch as the designs and it’s easy to see why they’ve scaled so quickly. The formula is simple, find a message that resonates and scale it across all demographics. Lastly, make sure the tone of the ads match the product designs.

Kill Crew has also put an emphasis on “influencers” but in a more old school, organic fashion. They let their customers do the talking for them by uploading and reposting user generated content their customers send in (check their instagram to see how much they’re reposting from real customers).

This creates a viral effect for the brand and matches their “authentic feel” - I’m not sure how well this would work with ASRV who’s taken the professional influencer approach.

In both cases, each brand is staying true to it’s DNA and what resonates with the customers. For Kill Crew this means an organic, community driven approach, and the results speak for themselves.

Bringing An Apparel Brand to Life:

Let’s do a deeper dive into how you can bring an apparel brand to life, the opportunities available and how to get your first pieces created.

1. Create a brand and piece that resonates
   Starting out, the goal is to validate an idea you have. When it comes to apparel, we suggest using Kill Crew’s approach of testing different brand messages that you feel will resonate with your audience.
   
   Clothing is art as much as it is product, customers are buying the messaging and the brand is used to display a perception.
   
   In this case, you’ll probably see the biggest wins in markets you’re familiar with. To start, you can get inspiration from other apparel brands you love. Play around with their designs, find similar messaging (without ripping them off) and iterate until you find a message and design that sparks inspiration.
   
   This is what we do in my textile bag company. Each design is tweaked and under constant changes until we feel like we have a solid product we can then run by customers and begin testing.
   
   One of the O.G. fitness brands in the apparel space is LVFT. Over the years I’ve noticed many companies using similar designs. Many of the modern day fitness and athletic wear t shirts, shorts and more got their inspiration from LVFT.
   
   Important to note, in this phase the design matters much less. You’ll have many designs you release over time, it doesn’t have to be some unique, perfect work of art. The goal is minimum viable product.

2. Create an ideal customer avatar (we suggest starting unisex brand, and potentially start with female demo)

   Who is your ideal customer? If you’re creating a brand you would be a customer of.. you’re the ideal customer. In this case, create an avatar made up of you and others similar to you (who would be your initial customers).
   
   If you’re struggling to come up with a brand identity and customer base, I suggest starting with a brand that can be unisex. Outside of K.C. many companies have taken the unisex approach and dialed in on both male and female demo’s.
   
   Female’s in general do most of the online purchasing (especially for apparel), if you’re 50/50 and not sure which demo to lean into more I would start with female and give yourself the opportunity to expand out from there.

3. Test purchases with meta ads

   You can easily setup a website with shopify or landing page using replo. From there list your product on the website or landing page, setup an ad creative that displays the same messaging and drive traffic to the product.
   
   You can also take inspiration from other companies’ ads. Here’s a link to ASRV’s ad library where you can view their ads and get some ideas.
   
   The best part about processing orders in shopify is you can pre-sell the orders, meaning customers buy them knowing there will be a delay between order and shipping times. You hold their money while the product is being produced.
   
   Or, you can collect the card and order info, without actually having to process the charge (and refund the order). If you’re getting purchases, (even just a dozen orders) with a great return on your ad spend, you’re probably onto somthing and should be placing orders for the product ASAP.

4. Order Your Pieces and Start Scaling

   You’ll need to start sourcing samples from various factories. These factories are available to search online but there’s a few things you’ll want to look for when sourcing:
   
   1. Low Minimum Order Quantities
   Each factory will offer different MOQ’s. You typically want to start with no more than 100 to 200 pieces. This allows for you to move enough units to know you’re onto something, without taking a huge risk and potentially losing thousands of dollars.
   
   2. Ability to customize your pieces
   The factory should allow for customized logo’s and pieces, never try to dropship or sell someone elses pre-made concepts or design. There’s no longevity or brand building in this strategy and it defeats the entire purpose of creating something that stands out and lasts.
   
   The goal is to get better at building and designing your vision for the pieces, messaging and brand. This takes time but ultimately is what separates you from other clothing brands.
   
   Over time you should be getting used to understanding different fabrics, materials, seams & cuts and overall design. Take inspiration from what other brands have done and then make it your own.

   
   3. Quality Blanks and Materials

   As mentioned above, it takes time to understand materials. This is not something you need to worry about right away, however, there’s a ton of options when it comes to apparel.
   
   From synthetic to cotton, pre shrunk, TTS (true to size).. there are many factors to consider. Understand what quality means to you and the brand you want to build. Order a ton of different samples, lay them out side by side, make note of what you like, ask friends (who have good taste) and the winning design will become clear pretty quickly.
   
   For example, I’ve noticed a huge gap in the market of women’s apparel brands that aren’t made from synthetic cheap, fast fashion materials. Command a higher price point and offer a better product while taking advantage of a gap in the market.
   
   4. Quick Turn Around Times
   Each factory’s turn around times will differ depending on who they work with and their clients. Ideally to start you don’t want to be waiting 6+ months.
   
   If you’re just doing a test run you can try sourcing domestically within the U.S. - you’ll pay more, however, turnaround times should be quicker and often times you can go visit the warehouse to check out the blanks and materials.
   
   5. Numbers and Profitability
   Obviously everyone is here to make money. I don’t believe you have to make money on your first production run. You can use the first 100 pieces as a test to gain traction and find if you have a viable design - with the goal of making a small profit. If you break even on the first order due to mistakes - it’s all good! This stuff takes time and it’s a process.
   
   If you’re willing to break even on the first 100, you can then come back and order much larger quantities where you can make real profit (this is true for many physical product brands). You can also try to make profit on the first 100 just know you’ll need to charge more as 100 initial order units will be more expensive than your 2nd and 3rd orders which should be considerably larger.
   
   The initial goal is to find if you’re design sells and the brand resonates with customers,. The 2nd and 3rd orders with higher units is where you should be putting a focus on a larger ROI.
   
   Note: As you place more orders with higher units, your factory should start giving you some breaks on pricing, turn around times and materials. It takes time to build their trust but ultimately once you do, it should result in a fruitful, long term relationship for both of you.
   
   We view our factories as business partners and family. This has served us well over the years.

That’s it for this week’s report. If you have any questions just reply to this email, I’m happy to help. Grab a few ideas and run with’em. Someone will, why not you?

Later!

-Ken

P.S. Let me what you thought of today’s newsletter.. we’ve got some killer ideas coming up, fill out the poll below and let me know what you think.