We’re Open For Business
After six months of painstakingly reconstructing our website, Doo Dah Apparel is open for business again. As an e-commerce business, building a marketable website is essential.
We’ve built our website using Shopify, a Canadian company focused on providing e-commerce brands and companies, both big and small, all the tools they need to operate successfully online. For our company, Shopify is turning out to be a cost effective way to leverage their expertise without breaking our budget. We purchased an attractive theme called Impulse designed specifically for brands and fashion retailers by Shopify experts.
One way to rationalize the work Shopify is doing for e-commerce businesses is to liken their approach to what Apple has done for the computer industry. Shopify is an all-inclusive e-commerce platform. Like Apple products, everything we need is there. Shopify has made it easy for us to integrate our social media stores at Google, TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram with the inventory on our website. We’ve linked our email marketing campaigns, newsletters and blogs with Avada, an app designed to work well with Shopify. Okendo is another app we found on Shopify that is helping us build customer loyalty, post-purchase engagement, and product reviews. Simply put, Shopify offers everything a website developer needs to build a successful website, including some of the nicest and helpful tech support representatives in the industry.
If we had the money, we would build a WordPress website from scratch and integrate an e-commerce provider like Shopify or WooCommerce into the website. The initial cost to build a WordPress website from the bottom up would start at $15,000 and could end up well over $30,000, depending on how much time and effort is put into it. The Impulse theme we purchased at Shopify cost $380. We are paying a wonderful website developer to help us add our products, images, and attitude to the Shopify theme, but the structure of the website and everything they need to build it is already there for them, and it’s saving time and money.
We feel comfortable that we have a website that will enable us to grow our company. We’ll be able to sell directly to consumers (DTC) online, sell our brand wholesale to other businesses and retailers (B2B), as well as in person at a store of our own, if we choose to open a store when we’re financially able to.
Doo Dah Apparel will continue to function as a retailer of like-minded brands while developing a brand of our own. We will always work with brands that value social responsibility and acceptance, and American workers over profits and stock values. We love slow fashion brands finding ways to make sustainable and environmentally responsible clothing cool like the folks at The Reformation! Oh my gosh, we’re in love with what they’re doing at The Reformation! Our next marketing campaign will feature me with a ring and a “Will You Marry Me” sign outside one of their stores! Each slap I get will earn Doo Dah Apparel a truckload of followers on social media! I’ll be black and blue, but baby, we’ll have followers!
We’re just getting started on our own brand for men. We continue to believe there’s a niche for a cool, sustainable menswear line similar to Marine Layer and Outerkknown, but with a SoCal vibe. We’ve been working on our first jacket for months with a manufacturer in the LA garment district using a remarkably comfortable Cone Denim blended with Tencel Lyocell, a fiber made from wood pulp harvested from responsibly managed forests.
We’ve been having difficulty finding an environmentally responsible dye for the art on our jacket. Most dye is made with a PVC based plastisol, a chemical that is not only unhealthy for the environment, but the workers applying it as well. Fabric doesn’t absorb plastisol, the dye sits on top of the fabric until it wears off a garment with regular washes. Although a water based dye is a healthier alternative to plastisol, it still uses large amounts of water, which is also an environmental concern.
If we’re not able to find a water based dye that will work for the art on our jacket, we’ll consider sew patches and/or embroidery. We’ve been searching for a company to make our patches here in California, but most of the companies we’ve spoken with manufacture their patches overseas. We’ve found a good company in Florida called the Patch Superstore that makes an American made, azo-free, Oeko-Tex patch that might work for our art. Azo-free means the dye doesn’t include harmful azo compounds, which are known carcinogens that cause cancer. Oeko-Tex is a certification verifying that the thread has been tested for harmful substances and it’s safe for people to use. We’re pleased to know the Patch Superstore is an option. Another option would be to embroider the art directly to the jacket, if we can afford the additional cost.
All we need to do is find one way to make the jacket we’re looking for, then we’ll have a blueprint to build the rest of our denim line with.
At the moment, that’s where we’re at at Doo Dah Apparel. We’re thrilled our new website is open for business, and we’re looking forward to meeting new customers, growing our business, and developing our own brand of clothing for men.
It’s going to be a pleasure to share our journey with you!
Brett Bridgman
Doo Dah Apparel LLC
