Custom apparel is a multi-million dollar business that continues to grow year-on-year.
When you consider the versatile marketing methods custom apparel lends itself to, this rise in popularity isn’t much of a surprise.
These days, most people have heard of custom apparel in some sense of the word, and many have tested it out for themselves.
When so many people are creating custom apparel items every year, however, it can be difficult to know how to stand out.
How can you determine whether you’re creating something that’s already been done? Is there a way of putting a creative spin on your own?
Yes, there is! In this article, I will be providing you with the best advice to help you create a custom apparel design that is anything but ordinary.
Choose A High Quality Custom Apparel Company
One of the major downfalls of custom apparel is that many of the companies create low-resolution copies of the design you have created.
The images also tend to be badly embroidered, or printed onto low-quality apparel that will leave the design barely recognisable after being washed a few times.
With custom apparel especially, it’s important that you don’t automatically look for the cheapest option on the market.
If you want to stand out and make your custom apparel unique, you need to find a company that is reasonably priced, and has several hundred positive reviews.
For example, Screen Print This offer lots of unique options I couldn’t find on other websites at a cost I could justify, and came out in a higher-quality than I had seen from other similar brands.
Check Out Your Competition
If you’re looking to create a unique custom design that stands out from your competition, you first need to understand what they’re doing.
Think about the most successful designs by companies within your niche, and asses what they’re doing right about their designs so that you can incorporate those factors into your own.
You should also look at the least successful designs within your niche if possible, so that you can determine things you definitely shouldn’t include in your own unique design.
This will stop you from making mistakes that could cost you a lot of money in the long term.
Determine The Style You Want To Target
As well as checking out your competition, you also want to think about the style you’re targeting when creating your winning design.
The easiest way to do this is to narrow down your target audience for the design you’re creating.
After that, ask yourself what style your target audience lean towards. Are they hipster-esque? Do they prefer to be comfortable, or would a more ‘traditional’ style be better?
If you’re planning to release the design at a certain time of year for marketing purposes, you may also want to think about what’s appropriate for that time of year.
For example, you aren’t going to get as many people buying t-shirts in the winter as in the summer.
Determine The Elements Of Your Design
There are many different custom apparel designs on the market at the moment, and you need to determine how you want your unique design to look.
Do you want a text only design, with a quote, saying or brand name that resonates with your audience?
Perhaps instead you want an image, because pictures speak a thousand words, after all.
It’s not a case of either or, either, so you could decide to involve both elements in your final, unique design, but going in prepared in the best way to create a unique design that lives up to your expectations.
Brainstorm Until You Have A Few Winning Designs
After checking out your competition and determining the style of your target audience, you want to start brainstorming.
Write down every design idea that comes to mind for a matter of days, or weeks, until you can pinpoint four or five winning designs.
These winning designs should lean more towards the unique side of your list, but you should also think about how realistic it would be for someone to wear it.
Is your design going to be too unique, to the point where nobody in their right mind would purchase it?
Ask For Other People’s Input
One of the easiest ways to make sure that your design is profitable and unique is to ask other people about it.
This is sometimes known as market research, and involves showing your idea(s) to your potential target audience.
I recommend doing this with a few of your designs so that you can determine the best, most unique option out of those you have chosen.
One thing I’d advise you against doing, however, is consulting your friends, family or work colleagues for opinions that may influence your final decision.
This is because those who are close to you, or understand the business model more than your target audience, will have an undesirable bias.
Hire A Designer
One of the easiest ways to make sure your custom apparel design is anything but ordinary is to hire a designer.
They will be able to sit down with you to analyse the four or five designs you have come with, alongside the advice you have received from your market audience, to come up with your final custom apparel design.
You could also use them earlier in this process, during the brainstorming stage, where they can advise you on what’s unique and what has already been done before.
They may also create mock-ups of the design for the target audience, giving them a better idea of what to expect from the finalised designs.
The most important reason to hire a designer, however, is so that you know your final design has been created by a professional—and it looks like it has been.
There is definitely a market for homemade designs, created by amateur artists and excited entrepreneurs, but if you want your design to be unique and high quality, a designer will be best suited to teach you how to do this.