Just back from China Fall 2012

This month’s blog is so far my most exciting to write.  I don’t even know where to begin.  I just returned from my fifth trip to China and it was my best trip yet.  My relationship with Joey and his dad has evolved into one of friendship and trust.  Joey’s dad moved into a new factory since I was there last and I was excited to see him again and tour his new facilities.  We also made some selections of other fabrics that we are going to be working on in the near future. 

Also, while I was visiting the factory, what did I see sitting on their shipping dock ready to be delivered?  Our next order of jeans!  The Danny, Jacob, Charlie and Michael were all boxed and ready to be shipped.  Unfortunately, China started another big holiday this week and won’t be back to work until October 8.  So these won’t get shipped out until next week.   I wanted to strap them on my back and bring them home with me.  But once they are loaded on a ship, it will take about 4 weeks until they reach our shop. Just in time for the Christmas season!

Also while I was in China, the Jonathan and Timmy jeans were delivered.  These two styles are for men with larger round tummies.  There are ten sizes in all for each style and our largest size is really LARGE!  We feel that we can now accommodate those men with Down syndrome who really struggle to find comfortable pants due to their unique body shape.  I can’t wait to get them into customer’s hands to see what people think.  That’s the true test of our pants…how the customer likes them and how well they fit. 

When I got back to work this week, I was able to get our model in for pictures in our two new style jeans.  We put him in two different colors of our men’s shirts and in the Jonathan and the Timmy jeans.  He looked amazing!  Ray Sawyer has been working with us for months and to finally see him in the finished product brought tears to my eyes.  Jillian did a fantastic job designing the jeans and the factory did a great job manufacturing them.

I also spent time with my friend Andy, who is now working with a very large factory and seems to be doing well.  He's even got his own brand and is selling it to other countries.  When he sold his factory, he was able to keep his brand name, "Jeansburg".  I was so proud to see his own label on a pair of jeans that he designed.  His first order was being shipped to South Africa while I was there.   Andy is also working on black pants for us in the Jacob and Danny style.  We're still tryting to find just the right fabric.  

Well, my Chinese lessons are finally paying off.  I was much improved in my communication skills since my last visit.  My Chinese is still very limited, but I was able to have small, simple conversations.  I was really proud of myself for how much better my Chinese was compared to my last trip.  Both Joey and Andy have been helping me as well, but my Chinese still needs lots of time to develop (maybe the rest of my lift)!

With all the positive changes happening, my excitement and enthusiasm is hard to contain most days.  Seeing the growth of our product line and the increase in sales renews my faith in what I am trying to achieve.  There have been so many disappointments along the way, but I’ve never lost faith.   I see the vision clearly in my head and I know exactly where I am going.  It seemed that for a long time I was going the long way around and forced to take detours.  But now the road is beginning to straighten and I’m overjoyed with the current path I’m on.

September has good news!

Well, at last things are starting to fall into place.  I have such exciting news to share! 

First…the Jessica and Marcia style jeans have finally arrived.  When the truck backed up to the warehouse, I had no idea what to expect.  The driver opened the doors and, to my pleasant surprise, they were packaged perfectly and the boxes were not damaged.  The shipment was small (about 15 cases);   250 of the Jessica and 250 of the Marcie. 

In this industry, it’s rare that a factory would agree to make such a small minimum quantity.  But the new factory I’m using now has been so helpful and cooperative and I’m so impressed with the quality of their products.  Their samples have been amazing and now to see the final production, I’m “over the top”! 

The next two styles on their way are the Jonathan and Timmy “Dip Down”, our larger men’s style jeans.  They should be arriving about September 20^th and now I have confidence that this will be a successful delivery also.

The factory has started production on four more styles as well:  The Charlie and Michael “Dip Down” for smaller men and the Danny and Jacob “Dip Down” for larger teen boys.  They should be arriving near the end of November, just in time for the holidays.

The last size group, the Youth style pants, are now being designed and I'm hoping to have them available by year end.  Unfortunately, we hadn't been able to find any models in that age group until just recently,  But at last two adorable models have been found and Jill has begun working on those pants styles.

With product finally becoming available, it’s now time to develop a marketing program.  So I’ve added a new addition to our team, Laura Smiley.  Her experience in Marketing and PR should bring improved sales and more public awareness. 

We’re also building an advisory board and preparing a business plan.  I want to take Downs Designs to the next level and will start to look for outside funding.  I want to manufacture pants in khaki, navy, black and another style denim.  This will take a large sum of money, so I think it’s time I reach out for help. 

With the economy in such bad shape, banks will not loan a startup company money, they say you must have sales, but how can you sell something if you don’t have money to make it.  It’s a frustrating situation…the chicken or the egg!  But, I’m going to see what other options are available and I’m certainly open to suggestions.

I’m thrilled with the direction Downs Designs is headed and so encouraged with all our progress!  I think we have a bright future ahead!

Karen
www.downsdesigns.com

Making Progress (August 2012)

I cannot believe that August is already here.  Next month I'll be heading for China again; where does the time go.

Well, I must admit that I'm so encouraged about what is happening and the progress we are making.  Here's where we are so far with what's available and what will be available:

Our ladies jeans are available and so far have been a great success,  The photo on the left is a picture sent to me from a customer that was thrilled with our ladies jeans and sent me quite a few photos of his daughter wearing them. I wish there were more sales, but since I really haven't don't any marketing, what should I expect.  The children's jeans have been in stock for about 2 months and I've sold about a dozen pairs.  They are awesome little jeans, but I think part of the problem is the heat.  Who is wearing jeans this time of year?  And the fact that only my Facebook page followers really know about our clothing line doesn't help sales either, 

The large teen girl jeans are on a ship as we speak and are due in our shop about August 22.  We made one big mistake already that I can see.  We ordered them unhemmed at 27".  OMG, what was I thinking.  First of all we need 1" for the hem, so the longest length I would be able to sell is 26".  In my wildest dreams, we haven't seen any young teens with Down syndrome with an inseam that long.  But while we were at the conference, there were several.  So I've learned a huge lesson from this...make all the unhemmed jeans at least 30"

Our large men jeans (left photo) are in production and the small men's jeans (right photo) will be in production in about one week. These photos are only samples, they are not a finished products, but at least you can get an idea of the different body shapes and the look of jean.  These samples are not hemmed and are not the jeans after production.  There were small changes made even after these samples. 

Our large teen boy styles are being prepared for production also.  Production should begin in about one week.  This photo shows our teen model in the jean with a high rise in the front, it will also come in a jean with a low rise in the front (called our dip downs).  Again this is only a sample and not the finished product.  There's even a tag hanging from this pair.  As you can see these jeans are made for a boy with a fuller figure.  The other two styles will be coming out later for the thinner teen boy.  We are working on the harder to fit sizes first, then we'll finish up with the smaller sizes later.

The good news is that we finally found a girl and boy model at the Buddy Walk for our large youth sizes.  Up until now, we have had no models for this size.  We found some volunteers at the NDSC Conference, but Jill told me it is just too difficult not have a model close by so she see how each fitting looks and feels on the model.  Jill has begun to make test samples already.  She's even had her first fitting with the little girl model.  The one problem is the models both live in Medina and it's a little bit far for Jillian.  But, as usual, she always goes the extra mile to get the job done.  What would I do without her.  Also, with the experience she has gained developing these pants, she just gets better and better at figuring out how to made these jeans look right on their unique body shapes.  

With all this good news, I'm really hoping that by the Christmas holiday, I will have completed some jeans for all the age groups.  We may not have all the styles for each age group completed (we're creating 26 styles in all), but the harder-to-fit kids should be able to fit into a pair of our jeans. With the adult line, I think we will have all the styles completed and even startto make some of the styles in black denim.  Let's hope we continue moving forward.  I'm finally thrilled with our progress!

The NDSC Conference and The Buddy Walk 2012

July was certainly a busy month for Downs Designs.  We had our booth at the NDSC Conference in Washington, D.C. and also had a booth at the Upside of Downs Buddy Walk at Progressive Field the following weekend.

This year we were able to drive to the conference.  It made a huge difference because we saved hundreds of dollars in shipping costs.  There were three of us, Jillian, Robin and myself.  Robin works for my husband’s medical practice and has been with us for eleven years.  She also helps out at Downs Designs when I need her; so three women and all our “stuff” packed into my SUV made for quite a carload.   The drive was actually not so bad.  It took us about 6.5 hours in all and the weather was picture perfect.

The next morning we were busy setting up our booth.  The doors were opening at noon and we had a lot to do to get ready.  But with all three of us working together, we were all set up with time to spare.  The exhibitor’s hall was huge and there were so many vendors, about 80 in all I believe.  We had one slight problem; there was no internet available in the exhibitor’s area, so our credit card equipment was useless.  But it was only a slight aggravation and we worked around it.

With people in and out of sessions all day long, the traffic was extremely busy during the “break outs”.  We were glad we had two dressing rooms this year and both were in use at our peak times.  We had all our ladies’ and children’s jeans available to try on and order.  We had samples of the sizes of the Large Teen Girl jeans but ordering those will have to wait until they arrive in our shop.  They are due in around the end of August, just in time for school shopping I hope.  We also had a sample of men’s jeans to show as well, and everyone was disappointed that they were not available yet.  They are in production now and will be arriving in our shop about the end of September.  We are also waiting on the samples of the Large Teen Boy jeans.  Once we test the fit on those, we can begin production. 

The last size we are working on is our Large Youth Size.  We have not had a boy and girl model for that size group yet, but we did find some volunteers willing to help us out long distance.  It’s certainly not the best way for Jillian to design a pair of pants, but at the time, it was the best we could do.  So we’ll see how that works out…still not sure.

The event was great exposure for us and we met so many people that were excited about what we are trying to create.  But one of the most important things we get out of these events is that we are able to see how our jeans fit a lot of people, not just the model that Jill uses to design them.  Everyone is shaped so differently and Jill’s designs must be able to fit most people and we also realize that we cannot fit everyone perfectly.  But I must say, she has done a brilliant job!

Sunday afternoon the event was over so we loaded up the car and headed for home.  We were tired and happy to be home, but I must say I enjoyed the entire experience.  I look forward to next year’s event in Denver and Robin will definitely be joining us, she was a great help!

But no rest for the wicked…the Buddy Walk was the very next weekend.  I love the Buddy Walk though…it’s so much fun.  I don’t take dressing rooms or have people trying anything on; I just talk to people, show samples of our jeans and have brochures to hand out.  The energy and excitement at the Buddy Walk cannot be described.  About 4000 people are in attendance and it’s like one big party in the street. 

My favorite part comes after the “walk”.  The disc jockey gets everyone moving and the kids start dancing.  Thanks to the hard work by the staff of The Upside of Downs, this is one of the most fun events of the year.  Even the weather cooperated.  It was not too hot and the sun was shining.  Funny thing though, right after the event was over, it rained like cats and dogs. 

Some really good news too … we found a boy and girl model for the youth sizes.  Their parents are so kind to help us out.   Now Jill will be able to work her magic with this age group.  I can’t wait to see how the Youth sizes will turn out.

So with July coming to an end, I’m satisfied with the results.  Hopefully by the end of this year, we’ll have a pair of jeans for most of the hard-to-fit kids and adults.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

July 2012 Heading to the NDSC Conference

I’ve been so busy this month; I haven’t had time to work on my Blog.  With summer here and being so very hot, the 1000 impatience that I planted have certainly needed some extra TLC.  The extreme heat this year has been so unusual and besides stressing the trees and flowers, sales are showing the strain of this heat as well.  I haven’t had one sale in weeks.  But, in truth, I haven’t had much in sales at all.  Because I haven't had much to offer so far, I really can't expect people to be kicking down my doors to get to me.  But things are going to improve and in the next few months, we're going to start getting in more products.

I have done no marketing whatsoever … I’m waiting until I have more styles.  Not much point in disappointing people when they call looking for a boys pair of jeans and having to tell them I don’t have any…YET! But I’m so encouraged now with our new factory, that our future is looking so much brighter. 

Here’s the status as of mid-July:

Ladies and children’s jeans are in stock and the ladies full-figured, long-sleeved T-shirts are now available in two sleeve lengths.  Not that anyone needs them now, but fall in truly just around the corner and before you know it, the leaves will be falling.

The large size teen girl style jeans will be on a boat July 20^th and arrive at our shop around August 22^nd.  The factory did us a huge favor and made one of each size for us to take to the conference next week so we’ll be able to take preorders for those.  We have decided to only concentrate on the larger sizes for now.  What we have seen in the smaller girls and boys is that shopping is a little easier for them and being self-funded for this entire business, I’m just focusing now on the hardest to fit sizes.  We’ll get to those smaller sizes later on.

The large men styles jeans will be following shortly behind the large teen girl styles.  We’ll let you know as soon as they are available.  The large teen boy samples are almost complete and when they are, they will send them on so we can test them on our model.  If the fit is good, we’ll start production on those soon too.

We’re headed to the NDSC Conference this week with a whole new look.  We have really pumped up our display area and now have two dressing rooms as well.  We hope to meet lots of new people and visit with some we have met in the past.  Since we have no model for our last size, the youth sizes, Jill has made some muslin samples for both boys and girls.  We hope to have some volunteers stop by our booth and test the sizing.  We’re hoping that it will be a good fit and we won’t need too many changes.  We’ll have to wait and see about this way of testing our sizing.  But with no models here at home, we don’t know what else to do.

I’m keeping this posting short and will make another posting after the conference.  

June 2012

June, 2012

June is an exciting month for Downs Designs.  Finally our children’s jeans arrived in our shop.  Due to all the problems I’ve had with Andy’s factory and all the delays he caused me, it took five months for me to finally get them in my hands.

They arrived a few days after I got back from China and when the boxes came in they barely survived the trip.  One of the boxes was completely ripped open and I was surprised I lost nothing from its contents.  The other shocking factor was the jeans themselves.

In all the samples he had sent us, he used a fabric that was much different, but the waistband fabric was the biggest disappointment.  It was nothing like what we had ordered.  I’m not sure why he chose the color, but I wasn’t happy.  The entire day I was so upset, I was beside myself.

We called our little girl model (Jessica) right away and her mother was able to bring her in the very next day to try them on.  I showed them to her mother and she felt like I did, that the color of waistband could have been better.  But, the moment her daughter put them on, all those bad feelings I had felt went right out the window. 

She looked fantastic and they fit her perfectly.  The transformation was amazing!  It was an exciting day for me after that.  I realized that all our hard work and all the delays had been worth it.  Even the color of waistband seemed a minimal problem.  I managed to find a shirt sample from last year that fit her perfectly, so I was able to photograph her in both our jeans and our shirt.  What a doll she is and she loves to pose.

Next we called our little boy model (Danny) and I set up an appointment to try on the little boy jeans.  A few days later we were able to photograph him in another sample shirt of ours that fit him well and our jeans that were just perfect on him also.  His mother was so happy and she didn’t care what color the waistband was, she loved them!

Now our website needed to be updated and I have also been making some improvements and changes.  It’s really started to shape up and I’m feeling very good about how it looks.  I even added a printable tape measure on the “How to Measure” page so if someone doesn’t have a tape measure, they can just print one out.  Since our sizes are unique, measuring the hip is crucial.  Also, since we hem every pair to order, the inseam also needs to be measured.  We’re trying to make the website as user friendly as possible and I think adding the printable tape measure will be helpful.

Now, all I need is for people to start to place orders.  It may be the wrong season for jeans right now though, so I’m hoping that by school time, we will get busier.  I need to start making sales.   Every month my expenses are high, but income is low.  It’s got to start turning around soon.  I’m sure people don’t realize the overhead costs I have and the debt that’s I’ve incurred.  So I’m hoping as I gradually get more products to sell that more and more people will start trying them out. 

I know our ladies jeans are working out very well because almost everyone who purchased their first pair has reordered more than once.  To me, that’s the greatest compliment of all.  Many have even had us cut them into shorts or capris.  I know they were not designed for that, but most are so happy with how they fit, they want us to hem them at these different lengths.

The new factory is working on one last experiment on the waistband.  Once we determine what fabric we will use in the waistband then we’ll be ready to start production on two styles of teen girls.  They also have the men’s patterns and we’ll see how those samples fit; I should have them by next week.   We’re also sending them two styles of the teen boys.  Getting samples always takes a while, but I’m hoping we can get these in production soon as well. 

I hope by year end that we’ll start to see our store have more products available.  But I am realizing now, that we may not be able to complete all of the 27 styles we have patterns for.  We’re going to focus primarily on those body shapes that are the most difficult to fit into standard clothing sizes.