HN Explorer

Show HN: I'm building the Costco for apparel (blnkfabrics.com)

21 points by smplftr ↗ HN
Hey there, I’m building blnkfabrics.com

Think of it as a Costco for apparel, pay a yearly membership and get the best prices on high quality clothes with no weird logos or designs. The apparel is typically sold at cost+10%(to cover handling and logistics)

Site is almost finished, technically is fully operational meaning you can buy the membership right now and the orders will fulfill, but need to fix some factors(landing page, copy, favicon, etc.)

Also make sure to check the FAQ page, will answer most questions. If there are other questions you think I should answer let me know

Would love any feedback, be honest! Thanks.

62 comments

[ 1549 ms ] story [ 1163 ms ] thread
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
robnado
Is it USA only?
smplftr
For now yes, International will be available in early 2023. Thanks for the question.
jnwatson
But... Costco already sells apparel. I buy a lot of clothing there.
smplftr
In my experience their clothes are typically more on the rugged/outdoor part of the spectrum and will oftentimes have logos. Our clothes have no logos, are modern fitting, and high quality! Thanks for the feedback.
droopyEyelids
I'd love to see more of what you mean by high quality.

People have different ideas what that implies with regards to materials, fabric weaves, stitching and construction.

And TikTok videos that go into detail get a lot of views! it can be very interesting and informative.

Plus, for someone like me, when I see you say "high quality" I assume you're just doing marketing puffery, and dismiss your sales pitch, assuming you mean poly or a poly blend with simple construction. If you were like "long staple cotton" then I would really pay attention.

lscdlscd
I love this concept. Where is the apparel manufactured? How much transparency / accountability is there re the supply chain?
tsol
I like the idea, I like the prices I see(all 2 of them), but ultimately the thing with clothes is it's physical. I need to be able to order one and try it on before I know whether this is worth it for me. Let us know when you're actually selling
smplftr
Yeah we might be doing a free sample feature in the future, where you can buy one shirt without membership to see the quality for yourself. Website is almost finished, there are more products but have to where you can only see them if you have a membership for now, will fix that soon. Thanks for the feedback.
ericb
The idea is cool. Not sure I get the cardigan with shorts thing, or see a giant market for cardigans for boys at the moment, though? Seems like since covid, kids only wear athletic clothes in my area. My kids think jeans are "dressy!"

On a related note, I cannot believe how expensive socks are, especially for something so simple and invisible. I'd buy socks from something like this. You could make it a subscription (only need them every year, though).

smplftr
Haha, that image is just a placeholder image for now while i get better imagery. Not selling cardigans lol. We will be expanding our products and catalog in the future, socks are definitely in consideration. Thanks for the feedback.
julee04
This is more expensive than H&M
adenozine
This person is posting this to gather attention for his work on HN, so he probably doesn’t have billions of dollars of dirty slave-labor fast fashion empire money to advertise with like H&M…
smplftr
We will become more cost competitive as our volume and scale increases. H&M is usually quite low quality.
akgerber
Interesting and worthwhile idea. Costco's clothing is mostly ugly even if well-made.

The general concept appeals to me, but I already have my own specific taste in materials & cuts and would thus like more details as to what 'high-quality' means without having to go through a signup process. Uniqlo is a also pretty challenging competitor in this space, with no membership required.

smplftr
Our clothing prices will only get lower as we get higher volume.

With Uniqlo specifically, their clothes generally seem to look more streetwear-esque and usually fit a bit bigger than usual.

Thanks for the feedback though.

rdtwo
Your biggest cost will be returns. How are you going to manage that?
rubyist5eva
I'm in Canada so I can't use this yet - I'm a very no-nonsense clothing, run of the mill-type man so being able to get things like plain t-shirts, sweaters, blue jeans, socks...etc is very appealing to me.

Joseph Mimran made his mark by selling plain, white t-shirts.

I'll be keepign my eyes out, good luck with your business!

smplftr
International shipping coming early 2023, Canada shipping maybe even sooner, Thanks for the feedback really appreciate it!
barbazoo
As a fellow Canadian, do you also happen to care about sustainability (ethical and ecological)? If so, if you don't mind me asking, where do you shop currently?
barbazoo
> With a membership, you'll have access to our catalog which are high quality and have no logos/brands or silly designs, this way you’re paying for quality, not status.

Why does it have to be a membership though? Subscriptions creeping into the real world is a real bummer. Could you just increase the price instead? I want to spend money on clothing that's durable, ethically and ecologically responsible, and I don't have a problem spending more than at other retailers. But why should I pay money for a subscription if I don't buy anything that year. I guess I'm not the target audience.

smplftr
We're experimenting with this, 2 options:

1. No membership, but higher prices (we may try this in the near future)

2. Membership with ultra low prices on clothing

With option 2 you actually end up saving more in the long run and its the same result.

Membership helps to run the business while passing all the cost savings to you, that's the main idea about this business model, but definitely open to experimentation.

Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it!

chrstphrknwtn
How many t-shirts do I have to buy a year for it to be cheaper?
dorfsmay
Are you aware of the Indochino chain and how they work?
personjerry
Have you heard of Primark?
garfij
Have _you_ heard of Primark? What about Primark even pretends to be about quality?
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
dhfbshfbu4u3
You’re not building Costco for apparel. This is just Gilt.
chrstphrknwtn
Your login / signup flow is broken.

If I signup, then I get the membership purchase view. If I log out to go look at product, I go back to the signup screen. If I login again, I'm back at products.

I can't get back to the membership screen. This will likely hurt your signups.

smplftr
we have taken note of this and are literally fixing it right now, thanks for pointing that out, appreciate it.
smplftr
This issue has been fixed with a more permanent solution coming soon, thanks for your feedback. Email us at blnkfabrics@gmail.com if you'd like a special discount.
chrstphrknwtn
Are these real products I can buy today?

Most of the photographs look like stock images.

mh-
Both items I see [0] on the home page are from Uniqlo's 2020 collection[1][2]. Hopefully these are just placeholders and OP has posted a bit early. I am definitely the target audience for what's described in the post.

[0] https://i.imgur.com/K2eTHXv.png

[1] https://www.pinterest.com/pin/524036106644188732/

[2] https://www.broadsheet.com.au/national/fashion/article/styli...

smplftr
Hey there, most images you see on the website are placeholder images until we get our own product photos. Thanks for the feedback.
smplftr
You can buy these products, they are real. we still have some fixes that need to be made to our website, but the site is technically functional.
dongxu
Well, that reminds me of Muji
__derek__
This sounds like Italic[1], albeit maybe a different target segment (budget versus luxury). Speaking as a Costco member, I don't see Costco tie-in.

[1]: https://italic.com/

jasonladuke0311
I presume you are just selling blanks, LA Apparel/Comfort Colors/whatever?
mfonda
I'm exactly the target audience here--simple, blank (logo free) apparel is exactly what I like to wear.

That said, I would need to see the prices come down before I'd consider using it. I see the Signature Shirt is $12. For comparison, I recently purchased 6-pack of blank t-shirts [1] for $21 ($3.50/shirt), and found them to be excellent quality. I've ordered similar packs in the past for similar prices, and have always received high quality products. It would be hard for me to justify spending 3-4x per shirt AND a $70 annual membership on top of that.

Without the membership fee I might consider it, but I think it's simply too expensive as it stands. I do think it's a great concept.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086L1PM8V

smplftr
Prices will come down with volume and scale, and we do sell more than shirts, we have jackets, flannels, hoodies, and shirts. Planning on adding more in the future as well. The 12.00 is pigment dyed, meaning the color will last longer and is more resistant to fading. We are coming out with a 6.00 shirt very soon, at 3.50 we found that the quality gets too low, almost like that of an undershirt, but in the future our prices will only get cheaper

We're experimenting with this, 2 options: 1. No membership, but higher prices (we may try this in the near future)

2. Membership with ultra low prices on clothing

With option 2 you actually end up saving more in the long run and its the same result.

Membership helps to run the business while passing all the cost savings to you, that's the main idea about this business model, but definitely open to experimentation.

Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it!

yamtaddle
I buy pretty nice clothes (though not super-high-end) but don't buy them very often (if you shop carefully and for quality, that's one benefit—it doesn't necessarily end up being cheaper than buying cheap clothes, but at least it's not anywhere near as bad as just comparing the prices would suggest) with the result that $70 is a pretty damn high percentage of my average annual spending on clothes, excepting years when I've picked up a suit or a couple pairs of leather shoes or boots. In a normal year when I'm just buying a handful of shirts and sweaters and trousers and such, that's probably like 15-20% of what I spend on clothes all year. Way, way too steep just to buy the option to buy clothes from a single retailer.
dinkelberg
The imagery on the frontpage seems to be taken from Uniqlo advertisement material from 2020. There seem to exist no terms of service. The site doesn't look legit to me.

Edit: A source: https://manofmany.com/fashion/mens-fashion-trends/uniqlo-u-2...

smplftr
This is just a placeholder image we will be changing it very soon as the site was just a prototype, and we are going to add privacy policy and terms of service very soon.
mongol
Honestly, this is absurd. The garments should be your product, but you treat them as content for your website. Your pitch is not credible.
mmcclure
I think they've made a few pivots in terms of model at this point, but this is reminiscent of Italic[1]. Their premise was "we figure out where the luxury stuff is made and then make our white labeled stuff there without the markup" and (at least originally) charge an annual membership fee for access.

I'm not sure how true the "same manufacturer" stuff really was, but it was pretty effective marketing. Same with Everlane and others ("we're direct! cut out the middleman! no markup for logos!"), but you might want to consider speaking a little more to why someone should trust your quality versus better known brands.

Good luck!

[1] https://italic.com

jasonladuke0311
> Their premise was "we figure out where the luxury stuff is made and then make our white labeled stuff there without the markup" and (at least originally) charge an annual membership fee for access.

"Luxury" stuff, even t-shirts, are generally "cut and sew"[0] and not made with sourceable blanks. So I assume they were being a little weaselly with the word "luxury".

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_and_sew

hoofedear
How are the clothes sourced? I’m looking for a way to purchase clothes online but trying to avoid companies like Shien or ones that operate with the same level of ethical standards (or lack thereof)