Episode 13 - Starting a Fitness Brand from the Ground Up with Aprille Moyster
Episode Notes
Host Heather Zager interviews Aprille Moyster, creator of FitUWrap, about her journey from having an idea right through to manufacturing. Aprille’s idea for FitUWrap came from personal need. As a runner, she wanted a way to keep her phone from slipping out of her hand while she ran and couldn’t find anything on the market that worked. So she made it. Heather hears about Aprille’s idea, her prototype, the woman who helped her understand the manufacturing process, how Heather assisted in her tech pack, and finally to manufacturing and actually selling her product.
The journey was not a smooth one, and Aprille learned a lot about the manufacturing process through trial and error and by finding helpful people along the way. She recalls the first helpful woman she reached, who walked her through the entire process with gratitude. Heather learns about all the hurdles Aprille faced once she reached the manufacturing stage - from shipping delays to logo application to decision fatigue - Aprille very transparently shares her whole journey.
This episode contains a detailed breakdown of the entire process of having an idea right through to selling it, and will be not only interesting but also useful for anyone engaged in the manufacturing process or curious about bringing an idea to market.
About Aprille Moyster:
Aprille Moyster developed her product, Fit You Wrap, to solve the problem of carrying a phone while running, without risking it dropping or getting sweaty. Nine years ago, she created her first concept of the FitUwrap. Her initial prototype was a twisted neck gator that would wick away sweat and help secure her phone to her hand. Her refined product, the FitUwrap, is professionally designed with high-performance moisture-wicking materials, comfortable stretch, silicone back elastic bands, and secure Velcro.
Resources discussed in this episode:
American Made Apparel Manufacturing, Inc - Sunny
About Aprille Moyster:
Aprille Moyster developed her product, Fit You Wrap, to solve the problem of carrying a phone while running, without risking it dropping or getting sweaty. Nine years ago, she created her first concept of the FitUwrap. Her initial prototype was a twisted neck gator that would wick away sweat and help secure her phone to her hand. Her refined product, the FitUwrap, is professionally designed with high-performance moisture-wicking materials, comfortable stretch, silicone back elastic bands, and secure Velcro.
Contact Aprille Moyster | FitUWrap:
Website: FitUWrap.com
Blog: TheRunningGeek.com
Contact Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services:
Transcript
Heather Zager: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to the MADE Apparel Services Podcast. My name is Heather Zager and I will be your host for this series. I am also the founder of MADE Apparel Services, which is a sewn product development company for small brands. Whether you are just starting out or a seasoned pro, I have a lot of resources to help you on your journey to manufacture. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter and follow me on social media for other fun updates. Links to both are always in the show notes.
Heather Zager: [00:00:29] Welcome everybody! Today I'm chatting with Aprille Moyster, who had an idea for a sewn product that she developed and tested many times, and is now in manufacture and selling. Welcome Aprille, I'm excited to have you here today. Let's start by having you tell me a little bit about who you are, what 'FitUwrap' is, and how you got your idea.
Aprille Moyster: [00:00:49] Thank you Heather, I'm excited to be here. It's been a very long process, which I'm sure other people could probably identify with. The initial idea for my product was probably born about nine years ago, and I would say that it's probably similar to many people. I was looking for a solution to a problem. I didn't find anything that suited my needs at the time, so I improvised my own unconventional solution. The problem that I had was a way of carrying my phone in my hand when I started running, after 20 years of never being able to keep any kind of an exercise routine. I just hit my early 40s, I was looking for having aerobic activity, something sustainable to do three times a week as they recommend. Mainly for the mental benefits, for everything I was coming back to just kept saying that aerobic activity is the one thing that's been known to improve your mental clarity, memory and all those other things. I needed something that was going to be sustainable, and I was never a runner in the past. I was athletic, I played tennis, but never a runner. The easiest thing that I could think of to do that would be sustainable would be walking/running. Because I get bored walking, so I figured I'd work my way up to running. That literally would fit the bill, as the only thing I would possibly need are good running shoes. That part I knew. That would be sustainable, convenient. I had got the shoes, and the phone. I really wanted something that I could carry my phone in my hand because I was doing this interval walk for three minutes, run for 30s. So I'm looking at my phone to see when those 30s are up.
Heather Zager: [00:02:41] Right, when's it over?
Aprille Moyster: [00:02:46] Exactly. That's pretty much how this all got born. Like many people in middle age to try to establish an exercise routine when you hadn't already, I knew myself. I knew I needed to have a goal to make myself exercise three times a week. I knew if I just signed up for a 5K, I could literally wake up the next morning and I could walk the whole thing. I'd be sore, but I knew I could. I set this ambitious goal of, I'm going to do a marathon, so don't ask me why. Because I thought, even a half marathon, I was afraid. I knew I'd have to train for months to do a full marathon. And I didn't care how much I walked or ran, I just needed something that was going to force me three times a week to do it. I did meet my goal, except that I did not run a marathon. I ended up doing a half marathon.
Heather Zager: [00:03:44] I've done a half marathon before, myself, and it is no easy feat. I don't know how people go twice as far.
Aprille Moyster: [00:03:51] My invention to carry my phone in my hand worked so well that after my event I would still do it. Because then, after I got to the point that I could run the whole time, it was like, how fast am I running? I was always looking at my phone to check the metrics, because even after I was done with the event, I never felt like a runner. To this, I've recently started feeling like a runner, and that was nine years ago and I have run three times a week since then. I never invested in a running watch until, I think, two years ago. And even then, I still use my phone because I listen to the YouTube playlist, and you have to hit the skip ads, so I like my phone in my hand. I'm just not a real techie trying to get all those metrics on your running watch.
Heather Zager: [00:04:46] If you're talking about the age range you're talking about, for me, I can't see anything anymore unless I have my cheaters on. A small watch is really hard to navigate so I can appreciate having a phone.
Aprille Moyster: [00:04:59] When I came back to the States, because I was overseas at the time, I kept looking. I was like, finally I'm back in the States, Amazon. I can look for this product, that I can hold my phone in my hand and find this thing that would be better than what I've been using. I didn't find anything. I was so shocked that I could not find anything that was similar to what I was using. It would also absorb the sweat, it gave you that fabric behind your phone, so it absorbed the sweat. Then it was soft, and it was easy to put on and take off. There was no plastic. I used the arm bands when I came back and they would just break after some time, and I didn't like it because I couldn't even put my passcode in to use my phone while I was running. I kept coming back to this product. Fast forward, three years ago, I started a running blog, therunninggeek.com, with the intention of journalizing and sharing all the research that I would do, especially tracking some of my progress. Since I was doing the research already, and tracking some of my progress with heart rate training, I found that to be really good for keeping my injuries down. Since I was tracking all that metric and everything I figured, I'll start a blog and see how that goes, maybe I'll like it. And maybe it could be a source of passive income in the future. Like most blog types of business, though, the way that they make money primarily now is from selling products which are usually digital products or services. Seeing that I still barely feel like a runner, I did not feel qualified to sell any kind of digital product, nor was I going to offer any of my services for any kind of coaching. So that was completely out. But I thought maybe others might be interested in my gaiter or hand wrap for carrying your phone in your hand comfortably. That's when the idea of my invention actually got started, of bringing it to life.
Heather Zager: [00:07:11] Nice. Then along that process, I think we met at that time. Because you had some illustrations or some samples that were at least a close representation of what you wanted, but it needed some improvement, and you kind of hit a wall on where to go with that.
Aprille Moyster: [00:07:29] Actually, I had less knowledge than even that at that point. Two years ago, I started with some very rudimentary sewing skills. My husband has a commercial sewing machine that he would sew for me with his commercial sewing machine that he would do boat and car seats. It was not by any means anything for the kind of fabric that I would be using, but it worked. I would have him do some sewing for me, and I'd try them out, and I tried out different fabrics and realized the amount of things I could try was pretty much endless. About a year and a half ago, and I laugh to think about this now, I finally worked up the nerve to contact a vendor at Alibaba to see if they would produce my product for me. I literally looked for a vendor that did neck gaiters, sent them some homemade pictures and asked them for a quote.
Heather Zager: [00:08:26] Okay, that's quick and easy.
Aprille Moyster: [00:08:31] Not surprisingly, I didn't hear back from them. And of course, I was so disappointed. It took me days to work up the nerve to do this because I was really nervous and scared about having others know about my idea, which it's kind of a dumb idea, but I don't know why I just couldn't let it go. I decided when I did not hear back from Alibaba, much to my disappointment, I would have to find my own manufacturer here in the States. Again, still nervous and scared. It's a very vulnerable thing when it's your idea. I started looking and researching manufacturers and watching YouTube videos, and it was probably a couple of weeks, three weeks. I kept putting it on my calendar to call them. Finally worked up the nerve to call them, but you know how hard that was. I was completely out of my league, and did not know what I was doing. The one company, they only did sublimation. I didn't even know what that was. I just assumed, I guess they just don't do what I need them to do. I finally got a hold of one company. One woman, the actual owner, ended up answering the phone. She was so busy, I could tell she was really busy, but she took the time and she was like, you're not even ready for the manufacturing stage yet. You need to source your fabric, you need to know what kind of stitch you need, you need to know what kind of fabric you're going to have, how it's going to be constructed. The list went on and on. I told her my idea, and she's very quickly going through all of this. I'm taking notes. She gave me the name of a company for fabrics to try and source from, Spandexbyyard, So she gave me that little tip. I took all of those notes down, and I am so grateful that she spent that time. She pretty much set me on the track of, you need a tech pack. You need to know how this is going to be constructed, all of the types of materials you're going to have and to have some sketches and designs with it. She said, we can do that, but you have a lot more things to do before you even get to that point.
Aprille Moyster: [00:10:51] With that knowledge in hand, I started researching a little bit more about how to do that. At the same time I came across the 'licensing of your idea' Youtube videos. I never really wanted to be an entrepreneur. I have a good job. I like the stability, you know what kind of income you're going to have. The whole starting your own business, I do not like that. It never appealed to me at all. But I just couldn't let this go. The idea of somebody else making my product, and I just give them the prototype, the design kind of thing, I thought, that is perfect for me. At that point, that was a year ago. I got my PPA, which is a provisional patent application, which is what they recommend if you have a novel product, some unique design kind of thing. I did that and did my sell sheet and my infomercial, and I even submitted it to one of those 'as seen on TV' brands. Needless to say, I didn't hear anything back. At that point I thought, I'm going to have to take this into my own hands and prove that there's a market for my product. I cannot even tell you why I could not let this go. Like I said, I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. This is not something like, I'm set on having my own business, kind of a thing. It's just been this iteration of this process. Anyways, back to now I need a tech pack. I go out to Fiverr and I'm looking for some freelancers that can do my product. Three different Fiverr individuals that do tech packs for the kind of stuff that I do, all refuse to do my product. They all said they couldn't do it. So after three people, then I turned to Facebook and I'm like, maybe there's some Facebook groups that could help me with the next step. That's when I came across this ad for a tech pack that actually happened to be your ad, but I didn't know. Of course, I'm doing my research. Then I found other companies and now I'm like, now I know how to find the tech pack companies here in the States that aren't freelancers. So after doing all my research, I see that your company seems to be exactly what would fit my bill for what I was looking for. That is when I ended up reaching out to you to get my tech pack done. And of course, like you said, we went through some iterations. That was probably ten months ago.
Heather Zager: [00:13:44] Yeah, that sounds about right. And you were off to the races.
Aprille Moyster: [00:13:48] Then we finally landed on a design.
Heather Zager: [00:13:52] Yeah, we did a couple different samples, and they're all very good ideas. I think I contributed a few aspects to it. You put it to the test and really figured out the functionality. It has a lot to do with what you like and don't like, also. Then you get it the way you want it, then you start showing it off to others, then start getting their feedback and they tell you everything they don't like about it. It's a really hard process. It can be a little bit of a blow to your ego, but you're right, you just don't let it go. You're like, I have to bring this to a logical conclusion. That's a lot of momentum that keeps you going forward when concepting something new and different. I had a question, who was the nice gal that helped you that you called at the manufacturer?
Aprille Moyster: [00:14:37] Her name is Sunny, and she's with American Made Apparel. This company is not even in the same time zone as me. Which was what I was going to get to, I just felt really comfortable, I knew I could trust her. She had this little snippet with the local news, they did a piece with a man that had a very novel idea. She had that on her website as well, and they interviewed her. I've never met her. Some phone calls, mostly just emails, but I knew I could trust her.
Heather Zager: [00:15:13] That's why I asked, because anybody who is that busy in the manufacturing world, but is still gracious enough to give you some tips on what direction you need to go, that's worth a lot these days. That somebody actually goes, pay it forward, try to help somebody out and you never know when they might come back too. I love that she was so helpful to you. A lot of manufacturers, as you've experienced, they're just so busy. They don't even call you back unless you're ready with the tech pack and you can get your foot through the door. So all very good points.
Aprille Moyster: [00:15:43] There's also some manufacturing companies that actually aren't manufacturing companies. They're services that present themselves like manufacturing companies. They go out and source everything and do everything for you, which means you're paying them that additional intermediary on top of it. To your audience, beware of that. To find a manufacturer, it's not as easy as you think.
Heather Zager: [00:16:07] Exactly. That's interesting and good that you say that because, just a little side story with my business is, one of the key words on my website to attract people when they do a Google search is 'clothing manufacture'. But you have to be very careful that once they get to your site that that's relating to something. Not saying 'clothing manufacturer' and then you sell donuts. It's got to be relatable. I've been very careful with that, but if your audience only knows to search for a certain key term, and that's the only way you can capture your audience to ultimately then help them to understand how they're not ready for clothing manufacture but you can get them there, it is important. And you're right, a lot of people do that to capture the audience and sell their services, but it doesn't necessarily mean they are manufacturers. It just means that they can help you with a step in that process. Very good observation that you learned from that. In your process, now that you have your idea and we got it developed and got you a tech pack, what part of that process went easier than expected? What part of the process was harder? I think that was pretty much a process in and of itself, so that question may be more relevant to after you got into manufacturing. So what turned out the way you expected and what didn't through the whole process?
Aprille Moyster: [00:17:32] I was really happy that I ended up with people that I could really trust. Yourself for doing the tech pack, you worked great with me. I wish my manufacturer had more availability, but she's been great and I know I can trust her. I've been trying to be very conscientious with her time because she's been working with me a lot. Once this all gets some downtime, I would really like to have more of a one on one with her as well. Because there were a lot of hurdles once we got to the manufacturing process. From my perspective, there was good and there was bad. The good part was she really worked hard with me to get everything that I needed on time. But like I said, good and the bad. The bad part of it was everything just took so much longer than what you would have thought. Part of it was, you have to respect their time. They had other clients, then there was the holiday time. Because right when we left off, it was the beginning of November, the end of October. By the time I was actually able to get a product from them, it was the second week of December. Even just shipping times. With the shipping rates anymore, if you're going to do it the more affordable way, which is USPS, it's going to take a long time, a week or more. And UPS, all of those that used to be two, three, four days are now incredibly high with the cost. I keep running into this, that the shipping rates are not what they used to be. As many people have already noticed, USPS is taking much longer. And I think that's probably some of the offset because people are shipping it the cheaper way.
Heather Zager: [00:19:21] Did you have deadlines? The shipping took longer, but did that interrupt any deadlines that you had? Or was it just self-imposed?
Aprille Moyster: [00:19:32] I thought I would have plenty of time because my whole thing has been, let's not drag this on forever. The more iterations you go through, the more money you're spending, and you still don't have anything that you can sell, which means you're not making money, you're just spending money. At some point you have to call it quits. Just like I did with the marathon, I set a goal deadline for myself. Once I signed up, I was committed to that time frame. I did the same thing with my wrap. I signed up for an expo two months out, and I talked with my manufacturer, she said that would be plenty of time. Plenty of time had nothing happened or gone wrong. At the time, I thought that I was being very generous with my time frame. Then things got out of hand with regards to all the things that you still have to go through.
Heather Zager: [00:20:34] In that process, what set the schedule back? Was it an improvement to the tech pack? Was it an error in manufacture on their part? Or just something that was like, who knew? This stuff happens. How would you classify that?
Aprille Moyster: [00:20:52] Some self-imposed, others not. Timing was one of the biggest challenges because timing with regards to which you had emphasized. Any listener of yours that's listening to this, I'm going to liken this to a marathon. There's a cardinal rule in the marathon, that on the marathon day you do not do anything different from what you had been doing in training the whole time. You don't eat anything different, you don't wear anything new. There is that same similarity that you kept emphasizing, that when you have your prototype, you make sure that you do not change anything from the prototype. You have the material, the color, the tags. Don't swap out a different kind of material. I found out with this elastic band, a silicone back elastic band, if you swap out a material last minute, you can have problems. Part of it was I had the tags I didn't think were going to be a problem. I ordered the tags, and of course they sent samples because, FYI to your audience, the logo tag, if you get a woven tag, that's going to be one of the more expensive parts of your product. It's pretty expensive for how little it is. But because it has your logo, it's expensive, you need it. So they send out the samples, but with all of those woven tags, they have to set the looms. Doesn't matter. I had two different companies I was working with, it did not matter for either one of them. One was a little faster than the other, but pretty much ten day lead time is what you need. And that's if you have them ship it overnight when you're done. So FYI to your audience because we can get everything delivered the next day from Alibaba. We are in this mindset that those things are not that important. Those were some of the things that you come across. That you can swap out a product and possibly get it the next day with Amazon, but not at the quantity that you're going to need if you're starting to talk about not just a prototype. Anyways, it took a while for the prototype to get to me for final approval because there was one little change. There was a change and they said, let's do one more prototype. Then it took almost a week for me to get the prototypes.
Aprille Moyster: [00:23:21] By the time I got back to them, and if there were any changes to the prototype, now we got to do another prototype. There was a point where it was like, we just have to go with it. I'd already signed up for this. We thought there was going to be enough time, there was not enough time. The logos came after we had already made the decision to go with it and the logo tag was too wide. They were the samples. Now I had to get the three quarter inch, and I really needed to have the samples sent, but there was almost no time so I kept working with this company. One company dropped off because now it was Chinese New Year, so for almost three weeks they were out of commission. Now I'm just working with the other company. They can't even overnight the samples because they still have to set the loom, so it's still at least five days, and that's overnighting it, just the samples after five days. I went ahead and placed the order for the number of units that I needed, which was 500. Because otherwise I would not get that logo on my sample, on my product, in time for the expo. We're in the middle of, and my manufacturer I'm keeping her abreast by the way. You need to check your email all the time. My manufacturer got in touch with me and she's like, the logos came in, the samples came in for the woven labels. The width is fine, but they didn't allow enough gutter for the sewing allowance to sew it in. That was all part of the initial. So now I had to call the company, but they didn't pick up the phone. Email the company, but they didn't respond. I emailed again the next morning and told them the issue. The girl gets an email back to me right away and she's like, we were in a meeting yesterday afternoon. I don't know if they're halfway around the world or in a different time zone or what. But she said, let me check with the production department. They were in the process of doing the labels. She's like, I'm not going to know until the next day whether or not how far. She finally did get back the next day and she's like, they can redo it, and they'll put in the extra sewing allowance that I needed.
Heather Zager: [00:25:37] Okay, but then you're back to a delay.
Aprille Moyster: [00:25:41] Then we had a snowstorm that affected the labels getting there as well in the Midwest, because now it's January, or beginning of February. I'm telling you, the amount of things that happened were just insane. And this is just the label. Then I came into the other part of my product. I thought, I ordered off of Amazon, no problem. I went to order the quantity that I needed, it's all coming from China. You're not getting that product anytime soon. That's what I'm going to tell your listeners, if you think you can source stuff from China with Alibaba, or a lot of Amazon products in bulk are coming from China, you are not going to get them in time. You're not.
Heather Zager: [00:26:28] That's so funny that you say that because I have a product of my own that I invented. I don't sell a bunch of them, I haven't tried really hard to market or advertise them, but I noticed I can get 20 of something overnight no problem. But as soon as I get 21, three weeks. I was like, how did that happen? Which is fine because I don't sell more than ten of them in half of a year, but it was an interesting observation. That when I was trying to ramp up I went, that's good to know. That could be stressful at some point. I hear what you're saying, and all this timing of your situation, that's so funny. I mean, in a bad way, but in a good way. At least it's over. On that note, it's not over, but you did get to the expo, you had some quantity, I think. So how did that go?
Aprille Moyster: [00:27:23] My product, and this was one of the things that was easier than I expected. The manufacturer I'm working with, American Made Apparel, they will also do packaging for you if you want. Which, by the way, the amount of decisions that you need to make if you're going to manufacture a product, it's just endless. It's almost like decision fatigue. I ended up going to ChatGPT just to help me with some of the decisions. I just had decision fatigue, and then once I saw, I would put my question in, and then see the results that it came to, which helped me with the decision making process. They didn't tell you what to do, but they at least gave you the pros and cons and then they would give a recommendation sometimes. It was overwhelming. On that note, because of the number of decisions that I had to make, one of them was packaging. How do I package this? At this point, my costs had all gotten much, much higher. It's always going to cost more than what you think. There was also the elastic band. I couldn't get all of that on Amazon in a timely manner, so I switched it out. Then they were curling. The manufacturer called me in the middle of the day, they weren't sure they were going to be able to use it. I had to reach out to the sewing company, which cost an arm and a leg overnighted, just a few yards that they could test before I ordered more quantity. That's why I'm like, the cardinal rule, make sure that you are happy with the prototype, and that you can get all of those, the materials that you're going to need, in bulk. Just make sure you check that out before you set yourself a deadline for producing your product.
Heather Zager: [00:29:05] Excellent. Sourcing is a big thing.
Aprille Moyster: [00:29:08] We're not going to pack it, we're not going to pay for packaging. Somehow, I'll figure it out. The product arrived Monday and my expo was on Friday. So yes, it was that close. And it was just a portion. I was hoping to have the 500 for the expo, but thankfully they got me 300, which was wonderful. More than enough, really. This was one of those things that went better than I thought, I had a little packaging party with my niece. We sat on the back lanai, and that part actually went much faster than I expected it to. Because the prototype, at least I was able to plan a little bit ahead of time. At this point now I am totally budgeting with costs. I did package it and get it very economically, I feel like. There were postcards for the labeling, and then on the back on the inside had the product details, how to use it. I just did one card for the package, put the stuff in, and had the cellophane that's resealable. Since I was going to be doing direct to customer, I didn't have to worry as much about displaying it.
Heather Zager: [00:30:23] You just had to have something in a clean bag so that it looked somewhat like a purchasable item to your customer. Very good.
Aprille Moyster: [00:30:33] So that actually went much easier than I thought it was going to be, because then, like I said, at that point I was getting such decision fatigue for all the things that would need to happen.
Heather Zager: [00:30:44] How did the expo go? Did everybody like it even though they may not have purchased it? Did you get a lot of purchases, a lot of feedback? What happened there with the customers now that you had it truly out in the market?
Aprille Moyster: [00:30:58] I made my husband go with me because I needed somebody to help me. I did get a little bit of information from some friends of ours. That's what the husband does a lot of, he goes to a lot of shows with expos. So he kind of prepared me and my husband. Of course before this, my husband thinks I'm crazy, but he's great. He supports me and he's helping me every step of the way. It was really nice, he just stood in the background until there was too much going on. Then of course he was coming to the fore and demoing it. So it was busy nonstop. It's a novel product, so a lot of it was instructing people, showing people how to use it because it's not intuitive. It was a really big learning experience from that perspective. It's not like, here's this juice product. The guys next to us were for an electrolyte drink, so they were just handing out samples. There's no instruction needed. I was busy the entire time, and could barely eat anything. Now, I will say my target audience was probably not exactly that event. There were a lot of marathoners, half marathoners, and I knew that. I knew that my target audience was not the long distance runners because they're not going to carry their phone in their hand for 26 miles, no way. And the people that are experienced runners, they're used to having the vest or the belt. That even when they do shorter distances, that's really where they just keep their phone because they're really training for their longer events. My target audience for this was pretty much the 5Kers, the occasional runner/walkers, and there were not as many at that event that were in that category. But the people that did, if anybody used their phone in their hand, they thought it was genius. They loved it, they thought it was a great product. So that was really good, and I did get some good feedback. There was one guy that was like, could I use this on the back of my hand because I'm a biker. I was like, I don't know. I never even thought, just because I don't ever do that. But of course, since then I'm like, yes it works perfect on the back of your hand. It works on your forehand, it works at your wrist area. There was another girl that rollerblades and she didn't want it in the palm of her hand, she wanted the back of her hand.
Heather Zager: [00:33:30] Yeah, if you fall, you want your hands out.
Aprille Moyster: [00:33:32] And then you have that fabric too, on your hands. I rollerblade and I was like, I don't know why I didn't think about this before. Yeah, this works great. There was a lot of good feedback with that. I found my target audience, and I got a lot of great feedback for how this could be used in other ways than what I was necessarily using it for. I did come up with another way that makes it even easier to instruct people on how to use it.
Heather Zager: [00:34:04] So that event was successful in one way or another for you.
Aprille Moyster: [00:34:11] Absolutely. It would have taken me months otherwise to get that kind of feedback. That was one of the lessons learned at the end. I'm going to tell people, do not trust your friends and family. Do not trust them.
Heather Zager: [00:34:20] Actually, it's funny you said that. I just did a blog post today that I was talking about testing your prototypes. Try not to use friends and family for opposite reasons. One is they may be super critical and not really be very delicate, or they may just not tell you at all and just try to be supportive. You don't just get a true evaluation of your first prototype or your final prototype or wherever it is that you are in your process. Very good. Now the one question I know that my listeners like to understand is about startup costs. You don't have to give actual numbers or anything, but were you budgeting for X and ended up spending two X or X squared? Where did you end up in that? How would you evaluate that?
Aprille Moyster: [00:35:10] I will tell your listeners, watch Shark Tank. I could never watch Shark Tank before. I thought it was always too contentious with them yelling and being mean to people. But actually in the last ten months since I started this whole process, I have come to love Shark Tank. They really do give you a lot of good, realistic viewpoints for that. As far as manufacturing costs will go, there's the tech pack portion and then there's the actual manufacturing portion. Of course, with both it depends on, how many products do you have? Do you have different sizes? Do you have different colors? And then if you have different colors, is it the same fabric or is it different fabric because they have to test all of those things with the way that it's going to be sewn. If it's the exact same fabric, just a different color, not a big deal. But of course they have to change out the color of the thread. Then how much tweaking are you going to do? When are you going to call it, enough is enough. Depending on how long that process goes, tech packs, that can be hundreds to thousands. But for your manufacturing, it's going to cost even more. It just depends on the amount of units that you're looking for. And if you watch Shark Tank you'll know this. They know that the more units they produce, the lower the cost is going to be for the manufacturing point of view. That's if you're talking a lot of units or a little bit of units. 50 units is going to cost you more than 100 units, likely, or 500 units. The more you get produced, the lower the cost per unit. But of course, the cost goes up.
Heather Zager: [00:36:58] Yeah, that's how manufacturing works. Because if you order more of something, then they don't have to charge you an upcharge as high as if you order less. Because they're trying to make a profit also. If they know you're going to make 1000 of something and they're going to get a penny on every 1000, they're like, great, that's enough money, that pays all my people. But if you're only making 100 of something, they have to make the price higher because those people still need to be paid the same amount of money, but you're making fewer. That's the reasoning behind making more can get less per piece, but your grand total still ends up being higher. Then it becomes about the profitability at retail. What are you going to sell it at and make sure that you get that spread cleared for your own profit for your business? It's a lot of thinking about that, an interesting experience. I would say you had an unusual experience, but it makes sense. It's a great interview because it's kind of like a comedy of errors, unfortunately, but with a happy ending. I'm glad that it turned out. That's why I wanted to do an interview with you, because I think you really could speak to the overall process and how ready that you do need to be before going into manufacturing. Because other constraints come up, like your time frame, and you don't even realize it's going to catch up to you.
Aprille Moyster: [00:38:19] I was going to say one other thing with the cost, because I had absolutely no idea of what it was going to cost to manufacture. What I did, which I'm going to tell your listeners, do not do this because this is not going to give you any realistic idea of what it's going to cost. I looked at how much it costs for a similar product. I have a hand wrap that I originally used a neck gaiter for. I looked on Alibaba, and how much do they sell wholesale neck gaiters for? I was like, they're as low as a dollar per neck gaiter. You can get them even lower than that. It'll be more than that, I know that. I took that number and I 3x'd it, 4x'd it. I figured $5, that'll be my top. That's where I'm going to be. And I was so wrong.
Heather Zager: [00:39:14] It's so interesting. You have to prepare for more. I tell a lot of my clients, too, that even if you find a sewist who can sew one at a time, your goal at that point is just to break even. If you spend $50 for them to sew it and you sell it for $50, that's okay. You're still in business. It's not profitable yet, but you're still getting your product out there, getting your name out there, getting that recognition. You might have to do that for a while, but at least you're not losing money anymore, you're just breaking even. You might be spending it on advertising and marketing, but the manufacturing side of it is under control now. A switch doesn't just flip on, it's a lot harder than that. If you could take all of your experience and summarize it up into advice that you would give listeners, one thing that you would give them, what would it be? Expect the unexpected?
Aprille Moyster: [00:40:23] I know. I was going to say, having the idea is the easy part. It's bringing the idea to life. If it was easy, everybody would do it. So watch, but be realistic. I made a business plan. It was self-imposed, but I am so glad I did a business plan because it kept the land of reason and logic when you feel like everything's kind of going out of control. Because of course, you're spending money now and you're not seeing anything come in. Watching things like Shark Tank, there's a couple of good autobiographies, Sam Walton's 'Made in America', Phil Knight from Nike's 'Shoe Dog', I listened to that twice over the last few months. They'll keep you motivated and inspired. I keep telling myself that, if nothing else, you're going to have a story to tell. Both of those people were resourceful. I think of that when the different challenges come up. If I was one of those guys, do you think they would just be like, I give up? No, they would find another way. I did have some challenges with finances, there was some family issue that I really wanted to help with, and my funds that were allocated for this particular project. Then I was like, am I going to resent the person? I was the one who agreed to help. I thought, no, I'm just going to find another way to do it, and I did. You don't regret the things that you do, you regret the things that you don't do. That's why I say the business plan is to make sure that I don't want to be one of those people on Shark Tank when they're like, cut your losses. Nobody's interested in this.
Heather Zager: [00:42:04] Cut your losses. They're telling you, just get out of here. Oh my goodness.
Aprille Moyster: [00:42:09] Somebody's mortgaged their house, has all this debt, and they have no sales.
Heather Zager: [00:42:13] I've seen a couple of those episodes too. I agree with you, some of it is a little contentious. But other episodes I'm like, that's about in line with what I've experienced and heard from other people. That's definitely a good kind of barometer. You learn a little bit from that show, so keep it with a grain of salt. We've talked about this a little bit, why don't you describe exactly what it is, describe your wrap and we'll give people your website so they can go check it out themselves. But describe what it is that it does, how does it work?
Aprille Moyster: [00:42:45] It is basically a wrap that's almost 20 inches long, that has a Velcro attached that has an elastic band in the middle that's silicone backed. You think of those headbands that are the elastic that sometimes have this silicone. You wrap around your hand or forearm, wherever you'd like, but I always wrap it around my hand twice. Secure the Velcro to the back if you want to carry your cell phone in the palm of your hand. You fit your cell phone behind, once you wrap it around twice, now you have two elastic bands. So you can fit the phone, the top portion, the bottom portion. Then you have the flap, the fabric that folds over the top and the bottom to really lock it in. But you can take the fabric off to be able to use your phone, basically. That baby is not moving, you can jump rope with that thing. But the most important thing is it keeps your cell phone in your hand dry. A lot of times I run with two of them because I notice my other hand is all hot and sticky. Then this morning it was in the 50s, so it was too warm for gloves, but my one hand that I didn't have the wrap on was freezing cold, but the wrap with my phone was perfect. It's just a great way of carrying your cell phone if you want it in your hand. I'm not trying to convince people who don't want to have their cell phone in their hand. It's for the ones who do want to use their phone and are going to be using their phone, and you're not going to drop it because I've dropped my phone and broke my phone before, too, with my running vest. Bent over to tie my shoe and it fell right out of the pocket.
Heather Zager: [00:44:23] Exactly, I know exactly what you're talking about.
Aprille Moyster: [00:44:27] It's at fituwrap.com, fituwrap@gmail.com, and my running blog that I've had now for three years. I do have running experience. I'm not a fast runner, but I'm a very consistent runner. That is therunninggeek.com. I have a lot of articles on there about heart rate training, beginning runners, and there's a little bit of my stories too.
Heather Zager: [00:44:52] Very good, that's excellent. This is a great interview, and I appreciate your time. Thank you for joining me today. Are there any last minute comments or anything that you want to add?
Aprille Moyster: [00:45:03] If you are looking for a manufacturer, it's great if they can find somebody local. But in my case, I live in a vacation destination, so there really weren't any local manufacturers. You would have that shipping cost reduced and you'd be able to check in with your manufacturer to actually have that one on one. That's great if you can do it. Even the lady, Sunny, was surprised. She was like, when do you want to come in? I'm like, I'm not even in the same time zone. She was used to working with local clients. But it can be done remotely. We've all gotten used to Zoom and video conferencing. So that would be my last thing, some things would have been a little bit easier had I been able to have somebody local.
Heather Zager: [00:45:50] Be able to run right over and drop something off or pick something up. Yeah, that makes sense. And they're out there, it's just they don't always all have websites, so you have to ask around. So that's another good point, very good.
Aprille Moyster: [00:46:03] Different kinds of manufacturers. This has been great, thank you Heather.
Heather Zager: [00:46:08] Thank you for listening to today's episode, we hope that you enjoyed it. If we didn't answer all of your questions, or you just have some comments or suggestions about future podcast episodes, please email me at heather@madeapparelservices.com.