Starter Kit. Idea 396 of 500. Cluster 20
A Sri Lankan lingerie and swimwear brand, since the factories that make everyone else's are here
The mechanism, from the book
Sri Lankans make the world's underwear to the world's standard, and the country has no fashion brand of its own that the world has heard of.
The first step
Ask a factory's merchandising manager whether they take small orders for a new brand, and at what quantity and price. With that price, have 10 samples made of one design and sell them to friends and contacts abroad at full retail price through a simple order form. If all 10 sell, and people ask for other sizes, the brand has a buyer.
- Who pays first
- A woman abroad who already buys lingerie made in Sri Lankan factories under a foreign label, and would buy the same quality under a Sri Lankan name.
- What leaves today
- The factories make the world's underwear for other brands' margins; a Sri Lankan brand keeps the design, the name and the retail price here.
Ask first
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask which registration suits a brand made by another firm's factory.
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask whether support exists for new apparel brands selling abroad.
Check before you spend
The factory's minimum order and price in writing, who owns the design, and the labelling and size rules where you will sell.
Find out these three numbers
- What minimum order will a factory take for a new brand?
- Did all the samples sell at full price?
- Which sizes and colours did buyers ask for next?
A comparison from the book
MAS Holdings. Chapter Three
"MAS Holdings began in the late 1980s making lingerie."
The making skill is proven to world standard; what is missing is a brand owned here.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.