By the year 2025, the swimwear market is expected to reach $28.7 billion. The industry is booming as consumers have more disposable income to enjoy holidays around the world.
Launching a swimwear line can be very profitable provided that the designs appeal to customers and have prices that match their value.
Here’s a quick guide to launching a swimwear line and the factors you need to consider:
STEP 1: Understand Your Motivations
This is potentially the most important factor.
Did you notice a gap in the market? That’s great! Do you want to cater to a trend? This can certainly work.
Did you want to create something for yourself? Or can it really be something that others can/will also want to share in?
Being able to answer these questions, and to know where you stand (at least for now) — will help you to get grounded in yourself and your idea. This helps you to honestly understand if you are creating something that can be shared with others (a functioning business). As opposed to something that is interesting to just yourself for the moment.
This can be a harsh conversation to have, but necessary — and so good for the business and yourself in the long run.
Understanding your motivations will help you to feel confident enough to create (research and execute) a line/business you believe in.
It will give you the motivation you need to really get yourself going. Not to mention the motivation you’ll need down the line when you have a day where you’ll need a little extra push (which does happen!).
So — why do I want to create this swimwear line? Do I believe that this will work?
STEP 2: Put Your Designs on Paper
Whether you want to launch a business that focuses solely on swimwear or you want to create a swimsuit line for an existing fashion boutique, you’re going to need to start with sketches of your designs. Your sketches are your ideas on paper.
The designing process will test your creativity. You’ll challenge yourself to create designs that are different from what the market is offering. With time you’ll develop a signature style, you’ll see the kind of colors you like to use and the sort of styles you prefer. Your designs will set the tone for your brand and help narrow down your target market.
If you need help with sketching, find a reliable design and development company that uses state of the art digital sketching techniques.
Custom Design
If you can hire/are a designer or technical drawer — make a detailed Illustrator/CAD-drawing with measurements specs and labelled detailing of each design. Some manufacturers, like us, will accept simpler drawings, photo references, or your samples — but technical drawings will really make it a more straightforward process for everyone, i.e. get everyone on the same page.
Ready Design
These are ready-made designs that you can customize and add your label to. You won’t go through a design and sample development process. You can just choose materials, colours and adjust hardware as much or as little as you wish.
STEP 3: Make a Business Plan
Now that you have designs and an idea of your target market, you can begin making a business plan. The business plan will be your plan of action so the more detailed it is the better. It should contain specifics on setting up a team, investments and finance, marketing plan, profit margins, all associated costs, projections, prices, and manufacturing and production.
Something we’ve noticed about successful swimwear startups and independent designers isn’t only that they are aware of where they stand — but that they are ready to shift if something isn’t working.
This is where Plan A.1, A.2 (and sometimes B) come in handy. They aren’t plans you have down on paper, but an open-mindedness. A curious eye on your own brand — that will help you to build understanding, resilience and a better business.
That said, a written plan will certainly help you. It needn’t be a lengthy book. Even a one page business plan can really help. It can pave your way, and it will be a very useful tool for you to refer to.
It can even be an enlightening document to put together. Really.
It will help you to see what the industry looks like. It will help you to identify where your strengths and opportunities are within that. This awareness will help you to feel more confident. It will help to clarify your ideas about how you would like start building your business; and it could even help you to shape it — into something that works better for you and your market in the long run.
STEP 4: Hire a Manufacturing Partner
To fill out some of the details in your business plan, you’re going to need the expertise of a reliable garment manufacturer. The garment manufacturer you choose will depend on several factors including the batch sizes you intend to produce, costs, and lead time. You’ll need to decide whether local or international production is best for you. For emerging businesses, it makes a lot more sense to produce locally.
A garment manufacturer with experience can help enhance your designs for you, make reusable patterns that minimize waste, source the best fabrics, create samples, take care of fittings and measurements and produce your line while prioritizing quality assurance. Manufacturers can also install labels, tags and assist with packaging. The costs of production and packaging process will determine how you price your product and its profit margins.
If you’re looking for a garment manufacturing company China, then RUNNI is the partner for you!
RUNNI has years of experience as a swimwear manufacturer China. With our industry knowledge and technical expertise, we’ve helped our business partners launch profitable swimwear lines and find success.
Our services consist of sourcing and design, pattern making, laser cutting, production, packaging, and marketing and consulting.
Questions to ask:
ㆍSpecialized in swimwear? (Swimwear manufacturing is very different to other garment production)
ㆍMOQs? (Minimum orders, per collection/style/colour)
ㆍLead times? (Sample development/bulk production/overall)
ㆍExample prices? (Per piece, development fees, etc.)
ㆍPayment terms? (Deposit %, payment methods)?
ㆍService inclusion? (Sample development? Fabrics? Prints? Hardware?)
ㆍEcological & ethical? (Fabric types/work conditions?)
ㆍThe Manufacturing Process
Sample Development
Once your designs are developed into ready products/samples (unless you are doing private label, which omits this step). You need to really think about fit — try hire a fitting model that represents your target market well. On them, try, measure and give feedback to the manufacturer on what needs to be improved or adjusted. When fitted well, your manufacturer can grade from the sample size to other sizes. When the fits and details are as you want them, most manufacturer can provide you with either SMS (salesman samples) or PPS (pre-production samples). Both SMS and PPS are variations of your designs in colours and prints that you can use for online marketing, shoots, look-books, trade shows, sales reps, etc.
Bulk Production
Last step is bulk production where your approved samples are being produced in larger numbers. Before ordering bulk, make sure all details of the designs are completed and well-understood with your manufacturer and that your grading (sizing) are agreed on for the lot of your production.
Some swimwear manufacturers will provide you with detailed tech specs of all measurements, sample prints etc. before running bulk. You should have at least one of your styles in all the sizes you want in hand before bulk order.
STEP 5: Launching Your Swimwear Line
You can have the more gorgeous swimsuits in your fashion line, but unless people know about them, they aren’t going to sell. This is where your marketing plan comes into action. Small fashion businesses may not have the budget to buy TV spots, but they can utilize digital marketing channels to reach out to their audiences.
Setting up an effective website is crucial for any business today. Hire professionals who understand your brand’s story to create a powerful website. Once that’s ready, you can start focusing on building an online presence on social media platforms and even invest in digital advertising.
We do hope that this write-up was useful for you. We have found the points mentioned to be consistent amongst the independent designers and brands that thrive with us. Of course technical quality makes a great product that speaks for itself and adds deeply to a brand. But there’s a holistic approach that really makes up a lasting swimwear line — and we wish you all the best in grounding and growing in that!
