Tempatan Fest 3.0 is over and what an epic event it was. A turn out of approximately 30,000 pax PER DAY to support our local clothing scene. Tonnes of t-shirts, caps, crew necks and sweatshirts flew off the shelves of 118 brands. Also not forgetting some of the legendary bands like Sub Culture, Flop Poppy and Kugiran D’Tepi Pantai that performed to the crowd some true homegrown classics.
One of the highlights of the event was the Mind Sharing session whereby 3 renown individuals from the local clothing industry, Mie Abdullah from Rare Distro, Zulkarnain from PK Apparel and Dr. Faiz from Abstrax Jingga, got together and shared their thoughts on how to grow your brand in our local industry. For this round, we highlight below some of the tips and points that was mentioned by Dr. Faiz of Abstrax Jingga when he shared his mind.
Don’t Wait For The Customers
Don’t have a habit of waiting for the customers to come to you. Not many brands have the luxury of opening their own shops, and even if you do have a shop, don’t just wait for the customers to walk in your store or come contact you. Plan marketing strategies that will bring the brand out there to be known.
“My brand Abstrax Jingga, don’t have a shop. Our sales rely most on our online store and social media. But not too long ago, we planned a Abstrax Road Tour where we visited various parts of Semenanjung Malaysia. Our sales for that road trip was more than RM15,000.”
Your Product Itself Is Important
If you are planning to start your own brand and would be starting out making tshirts, don’t just “belasah” the designing process or any process for that matter. Have a product that has it’s own story behind it. A product that has a story behind it goes further than a product that is created just for styling purposes. Going further in the sense, the product and the brand has a continuity factor that would be useful to market.
Passion > Getting Paid
When you are starting up the brand, or when you are designing your products, do it with passion and don’t think about making money. Make sure the purpose is right, and if it is, the products that you produce will show and your customers will see it.
“If you follow your passion, God willing, the money will eventually come”
Be A Trend Setter
When you design, design ahead of time. A brand is suppose to be a trend setter not a trend follower. Always challenge yourself to do things differently from other people. That way you will be unique and one of a kind. Many times it is pretty tempting to follow the trends set by international brands, or even local brands which has become popular in the scene, but if you follow what they are doing, you will always be just another follower.
