I
can’t believe I've been back from China for two months already. I haven’t posted since early March. There’s been so much going on and not so much
going on all at the same time.
My
trip to China was absolutely vital. We
were having issues with some of our patterns but by sitting with the pattern
maker at the factory face to face, I was able to clear up some of his
concerns. Our designs are unlike
anything they make so it can be a bit confusing for them. For example, he doesn't understand why the
knee placement is so short. But through
Joey, my sales representative who speaks good English, we were able to work
through the issues at hand. Having photos and samples are a great help in
communication as well.
We
received the samples about a month later of the youth girl and youth boy in
denim and three different styles of the ladies jeans in black. We've redesigned our ladies styles with
improved sizing and we've changed the waistband that the ladies jeans currently
have. We’re also going to offer more
sizes as well.
Once
our samples arrived, Jill made appointments with all the models. The youth boy was a successful fitting and we
just started production on those. The
youth girl, unfortunately, was not a good fit.
We still have a few more adjustments to make before I feel we are ready to
put them into production. This youth
girl style has been a real challenge for some reason…not sure why!
The
Sheryl jean and the Diva jean samples were also good. We will no longer be reproducing the Emily
Dip Down style; we've altered the style now with a different shape that we feel
will be a better fit for more ladies. This
new style will be called the Rebecca Dip Down jeans and all three ladies styles
are now in production. The other factory
that I have been working with just sent us samples of the Danny and Jacob Dip
Down style in black. The fit was good so
we’re starting production on those two styles as well.
We’re
also introducing our new website this month.
We’re making our website more user friendly and more fun. Photos and testimonials of our customers who
have sent us pictures of their loved ones wearing our jeans and tees will be splashed
throughout the site. We can’t wait to show off their happy faces.
Our
new site will also explain in detail about our exclusive “try-on” service. This service makes ordering risk free and
assures each customer of a perfect fit or their money will be refunded. The first order takes a little time to get it
right, but once the correct size is established, the next order is easy. We’ll
help each customer with their order every step of the way.
Since
our first video is now a little outdated, we are starting production on a
brand-new one. We hope it will bring
everyone up to date on our progress. We
also will include a how-to-measure video to make measuring more clear as
well. We know it can be intimidating to those who
have never sewn or taken measurements.
But getting a great fit is worth the extra effort!
We
also have some new marketing plans. WE
NEED MORE SALES! Downs Designs needs to
get the word out to more people who need our clothes. I think I will talk about these ideas in my
next writing. I want to discuss in more
detail about some of our new ideas to “spread the word”.
Follow
our progress on our Downs Designs Facebook page…so much is going on these days!
