Episode 12 - Starting Your Own Brand with William Hardcastle of WannaHug
Episode Notes
Host Heather Zager interviews brand entrepreneur William Hardcastle of WannaHug. WannaHug is a clothing line that aims to help every customer make a difference in someone’s life. Every garment purchased allows the customer to select another garment to donate at no extra cost. William talks with Heather about where the inspiration for WannaHug came from, how he set up the brand, what it cost, and how to handle setbacks.
Heather finds out from William how long it took him to get WannaHug from a concept to where he is now, in online selling. William is very transparent about timeframes, marketing, and the cost of the start-up, breaking down the initial costs for listeners curious about starting their own brands. One of the things William is open about is how he reshuffled his sale garments to better drive revenue and allow for more options in donatable items. The vision William has for giving back to his community is as admirable as his enthusiasm for the manufacturing process, something he truly enjoyed being part of.
This episode contains insights, detailed itemization, and inspiration for anyone interested in a brand startup, manufacturing, or creating a purpose-driven sales model.
About William Hardcastle:
William Hardcastle is the founder of WannaHug, a purpose-driven clothing brand that emerged from his time in Seattle. While working as a commercial diver, William and his wife were deeply impacted by the stark contrast between the city’s wealth and the needs of its underserved communities. This disparity inspired him to create a brand that not only provides high-quality clothing but also empowers consumers to make a meaningful impact. With every purchase, customers can choose a donation, enabling them to contribute to positive change at no additional cost.
Contact William Hardcastle | WannaHug:
Website: WannaHug.com
Instagram: @wannahugclothing
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: [00:00:28] Welcome everybody! Today I'm chatting with William Hardcastle who started his own brand called WannaHug. William, welcome. Let's start off by having you tell me a bit about who you are and how you started your brand.
William Hardcastle: [00:00:42] Thank you Heather, it's a pleasure to be speaking with you again. My name is William and I started the WannaHug brand when I was in Seattle. I was there at the time doing some more professional skills as a commercial diver. And whilst we were there, my wife and I found the discrepancy between the wealth and those in need quite large in Seattle, and it gave me the idea to start a purpose driven clothing brand, which empowers the consumer to make change at no extra cost. Through your purchase at 'Wanna' brand, you get to choose a donation, therefore empowering yourself and making a change in the world.
Heather Zager: [00:01:19] That's a great idea, I love that. You just got that from what you saw going on in Seattle, the homelessness and things on the street?
William Hardcastle: [00:01:28] It's a beautiful place for a start, Washington. And Seattle has a certain buzz about it. There's obviously a great wealth there in Seattle, but unfortunately there's also a very large issue with homelessness and abuse that happens on the street. It seemed to me that those people tend to get left behind, even though there is such huge wealth there that could help that issue. One thing led to another and I thought, why isn't there a place for people to go where they can do what they're going to do anyway through consumerism, but make a difference and make the power of their choice, making it a positive impact in society.
Heather Zager: [00:02:05] And bringing that across everywhere, not just Seattle. Absolutely, it's a great idea.
William Hardcastle: [00:02:09] It's a good place to start, but we hope to service the Midwest and beyond as it carries on.
Heather Zager: [00:02:15] Excellent. How long would you say it took for WannaHug to get where it is today, from your concept and your idea up to where you're at right now? And expand a little bit about where you're at right now too. Are you in manufacturing or are you online selling?
William Hardcastle: [00:02:29] It all started when I came across your profile online back in February. Your page was very helpful, very self-explanatory as to what you'd be looking to do. It was a comfortable place to start because I was new to the industry. I'd never done anything in apparel or clothing or anything like that. I just knew where I wanted to go, so finding somebody like yourself was really helpful in getting my conceptions down on paper and then into design. Which came with a lot of things like the tech pack, your expertise, small business and what you need to have sorted before you reach the manufacturing stage. We worked together for maybe 3 or 4 months where we went through everything from design, cut and sew, choosing materials, everything that you need to get ready in order to go to manufacturing. Now as we approach the 9th or 10th month of WannaHug, we are at the manufacturing stage. We have signed off on all of the designs last week. We have seven garments in production and they will be due to release at the end of the year. And they will be sold through the website and marketed through our social media platforms. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, the usual ones.
Heather Zager: [00:03:49] Great, that sounds excellent. What goals are you still trying to reach, if any, with your brand?
William Hardcastle: [00:03:57] With experience, and the more we experience within the industry, I'd like to get better at streamlining. This is the first time I've done anything myself, and there's always a place to streamline. I think that comes from being more thoughtful and perhaps planning better and being more realistic on timelines. That was a big thing for me. Being more realistic on timelines would be a good goal, because that way it unburdens pressure on yourself. Then a goal is to continue reaching as many people as possible and empowering those people to help others, like I said, at no extra cost. I guess a big thing for both of those things would be planning, I think that always helps to have a good plan.
Heather Zager: [00:04:38] You make a great point because, obviously, everybody's goal is to try to do more marketing, get more reach and sell more and spread the word more. But it's also very difficult, I think, in the development because there is no real cycle, yet you're still learning the whole way. When things start to repeat, then you start to get something of a cadence and a process and you can start streamlining. I think that's a good point to get to because it does feel more comfortable. You feel a little bit more organized, you know what to expect next, you know where to pivot because you learned something from the last version. That's a really good thought to have, and a good reminder. My listeners are always curious about startup costs, so how much do you recommend someone budget for starting their brand? I know you did many garments and I normally recommend people do only about 1 to 3. Keeping that in mind, what would you suggest is a good budget to have to start your brand?
William Hardcastle: [00:05:35] Like you said, mine was a slightly wider range on the garments themselves. I had put aside $50,000 in order to get from point A to point B, but that encompasses everything from our initial conversations to creating the prototypes and getting through to a place where we are ready to launch, including marketing costs and things like that. The initial costs, I suppose, would be more pertinent to this conversation. I was looking at trying to spend between $1500 and $3,000 per garment to get it to a place where we could look at it, feel it, hold it, talk about it in person, see what works, see what doesn't, and then go on from there. I think that those marks, $1500 to $3000, will give you something in hand, and will give you a good point to go on from.
Heather Zager: [00:06:28] That's actually really good, thank you for breaking that down. You had embroidery, and a lot of times I recommend to my clients not to worry about logos and branding, especially custom printed fabrics and embroidery. If you can just sew in a tag that you can get made somewhat inexpensively, then that is a less expensive route. So does that number for you include doing the embroidery?
William Hardcastle: [00:06:54] No, embroidery was separate because I understood that was going to be more. I wanted to go all in and see how it really felt and looked and how appealing it was, because a lot of WannaHug is appealing to people on its level of quality. I was willing to spend slightly more in order to get that first off, so I could show it and share it. But you certainly don't need to spend the big bucks on design features when you're just getting off the ground. You just want to get your prototypes in hand, your real copies, in order to get an understanding of where you need to go. And design aspects, like you said, printing of a logo or something like that, that can always come later. I also found that throughout the early stages of this journey, what changed the most was the design and the branding itself. I spent a bit of money in places that I could have saved by just playing with ideas beforehand before committing to them.
Heather Zager: [00:07:57] What percentage of your total expenses do you think the embroidery played? Was it just 5%? Did it reach a quarter percent because you had some changes to your logo idea? What would you say was the percentage?
William Hardcastle: [00:08:14] From the initial stages, it was small. We spent money on creating a corporate identity manual, and I guess you could include that in the logo and everything like that. But the embroidery itself, it was a cost, but it wasn't an overbearing cost just to see what it looked like. It was just the fact that it wasn't necessary at that point in time. Even though it wasn't a bank breaking cost, it was just one that I thought was possibly unnecessary.
Heather Zager: [00:08:43] Great, thank you for expanding on that. In general, what has been the hardest part about launching your brand?
William Hardcastle: [00:08:53] Setbacks, they come in all shapes and forms. Whether that was financial, individual expectations and time scales too. You're relying on this industry, particularly that you're relying on other people's, not necessarily response time, but their busy lives. This seems to be an industry where there's a certain hustle and buzz going on, so there's always something going on within this industry. Setbacks for me personally were like, I'm so motivated to keep this moving, there's a lot of working parts with materials, fabrics, time it takes to have things made or designed, so that was weighing on me. Thinking, I'm just waiting for this to go stagnant and for me to lose momentum. But you've just got to keep putting that foot in front of the other and keep moving forward, because it takes time to build something. If you're passionate about it, that will come through. And that actually spreads to the people that you speak to as well.
Heather Zager: [00:09:51] Did you have to take the lead on working with the people that you hired? Especially when you get to the manufacturing level and life is really busy for production and there's a lot going on, you can tend to filter to the bottom. Were you constantly emailing people to remind them, I'm here, where are we at with this? Or were manufacturers and other people that you hired helpful, and did they stay on task? Is that something that helped to keep the momentum for you or was it that you had to be there on their time scale and wait for them to contact you, and it was just a matter of gaining patience? Does my question make sense?
William Hardcastle: [00:10:34] It does, it makes perfect sense. From a personal standpoint, I was quite proactive in reaching out and saying "how are things going?", and trying to be very sensitive to not chase people, because I understood. The more I got into the industry, the more I became sensitive and understanding to the fact that it's so busy. Just because you deal with these people, it doesn't mean you're necessarily the only one. They have hundreds of other people they're speaking to. It was never a frustration of mine, it was more of a misunderstanding. I enjoy relationships anyway, so I never had any problem reaching out saying, "where are we up to" or anything like that. Sometimes you might not get a response because, like I say, it's a busy industry as I'm sure you can attest to. I never had the feeling that anybody was going quiet on me, for example. Or they weren't interested because I found that everybody is passionate when it comes to clothing and making clothes, because it's also unique. You also meet those unique characters, which has been great. Then as you get to manufacturing, the further that you go on, the people who make clothes like yourself are super passionate and they bring ideas to the table, they're super helpful, you get to meet them in person, which is great too. So you really get a feel for it.
Heather Zager: [00:11:55] That's fantastic. And you absolutely understood my question, so thank you for filling in the blanks for me.
William Hardcastle: [00:12:00] You asked it well.
Heather Zager: [00:12:02] Another question I had was, what would you do differently? Do you think having seven pieces was manageable for you, or would you do fewer and you think everything would have gone a bit smoother? Or is there something else that you would have done differently?
William Hardcastle: [00:12:18] I did a reshuffle. Initially I was looking to sell, I'm still selling those seven garments that we've come to, but I've changed them, so to speak. We're selling two of them as the big pieces, the hoodie and the lounge pant, and we're focusing on those being the revenue driver. As well as the other five, which are going to be the choice of a donation, the free donation at the end. Which is a beanie, brief, towel, sock and pillow, and out of those five, you get to choose one of those five as your donation with your purchase. The majority of people will go to buy a hoodie or lounge pant, so that's where we ended up putting most of our attention and focus, into getting those high quality, comfortable, ergonomically great. Then we ended up buying beanies, towels, pillows and then just adding labels. To answer your question, if I could have done something different, I would have really focused all of my energy on just those two garments rather than the whole spread. But that comes back to an earlier question with regards to, what goals am I still trying to achieve and what would I have done differently? That would have come down to the planning process too. If I had had better foresight, I could have seen that we don't have to make the pillow different like we discussed and make it super comfortable to sleep on. That's just something to help somebody out, it doesn't have to be a groundbreaking new design. It's a pillow.
Heather Zager: [00:13:48] That makes a lot of sense, and I did not realize you had done that. Now that you say that, that is a brilliant idea to just focus on those two designs and then make the others the contribution. I love that. And then people get to choose which one of those things they want to donate.
William Hardcastle: [00:14:04] Quite right. You can also get them for yourself if you wish. Even if you went on to buy a pair of socks, you still get the option to donate one of those five items. So even though they are up for sale, you can still add them on.
Heather Zager: [00:14:17] I think that's a fantastic idea. It's also a little bit different of a donation model than I've heard of before. It's not just buy one, donate one, like a popular sock brand that most people are aware of. It's buying something and donating something of your choice, and I think that makes it really cool. Are you going to be providing, once you have momentum, statistics on what's being donated? Online for people to see and they can also track what they need more of to help decide which thing that they want to donate?
William Hardcastle: [00:14:53] Yes, absolutely. It's going to be quite straightforward, which is easy to deal with from our standpoint. Every purchase is going to be matched with a donation, so every purchase that we make will be the equivalent amount of donations. With those choices and the popularity of what to donate, I'm sure that we'll just say, when we've run out of socks for this cycle, socks are no longer available. Congratulations. Well done, thank you everybody. We've run out of socks to donate. Please, if you wouldn't mind choosing from a beanie or whatever's left, that way their choice is still powerful and weighty, and they still get to make that choice themselves.
Heather Zager: [00:15:32] So they can track and see what other people are donating and where the need might be. They may go, I want to donate a pillow, but it seems like everybody's donating pillows. I'll pick something different so I can change it up a little bit. That's fantastic.
William Hardcastle: [00:15:48] I imagine a counter on the website that'll be ticking over, as donations made rather than sales made. That's why people will be coming to WannaHug, to make that difference themselves.
Heather Zager: [00:16:02] It makes it very interactive and live, so I think that has some good traction for you.
William Hardcastle: [00:16:07] There's some tangibility to your choice of choosing WannaHug. Actually getting to make that choice yourself, as you said, differs from other models.
Heather Zager: [00:16:17] Exactly, very cool. The last question I have is, what do you think went easier than expected for you in this whole process? It's a stumper.
William Hardcastle: [00:16:34] It's a good one, because so much can go wrong. I was quite lucky to work with the people I did, such as yourself, who teed me up in such a good way to be received in the industry being well prepared. The best thing that could have happened for me was being in Seattle at the time I was, and meeting you, being there, and you were close enough to come over and visit your studio and your place of work where you made the garments. I think getting off the ground was easier than I thought it was. When I first started planning, and wrote my plan out in my book one evening, as it came to me I just started scribbling down on pages what the goals were and how I wanted to go about it. Within a month, I'd spoken to you, we decided on a design, and because of your help and your expertise in what you do, it accelerated me on the path to get going. Fortunately, and I don't know if every entrepreneur will agree with me, I thought the easiest part of the process was getting going.
Heather Zager: [00:17:40] Nice, that's a very good point.
William Hardcastle: [00:17:42] I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I still do now. Now it's just 'the next thing'. In comes manufacturing and production and that's all very exciting.
Heather Zager: [00:17:51] Everything expands and becomes somewhat exponential, that makes sense. Actually, I did have one more question. For those that are new to starting a brand, a common question they have is, it's such a big world out there, and when they're first envisioning the idea, they have no idea what manufacturing looks like. So do you have any recommendations on how to find and choose a manufacturer?
William Hardcastle: [00:18:14] I would start by searching locally. It helps because you can go in and you can put names to faces. It's a lot easier to talk about your passion in person, so you can get that emotion across and ask questions in real time. You're going to have a lot of questions, you're going to want a lot of answers. You might find some super cheap option overseas, or on the other side of the country, especially being in America, it's such a big country. I think for a startup, there's so much emphasis on getting things right to begin with. It pays to go somewhere local, to someone that you're familiar with because you're from the same part of the country. So you already have that in common, which is nice, you've got a natural rapport. Then being able to stop in if something goes wrong or something needs changing and a personal conversation to have. So I'd say go local, you can't really go wrong from doing that.
Heather Zager: [00:19:09] Adding to that point, I've had several people, that have found me eventually, that have told me that they have reached out to manufacturers and didn't get the communication they wanted, or felt like their questions were answered, or they're getting the runaround to some degree. I'm just reiterating that if you don't feel comfortable with the manufacturer, it's okay to let them go and look for somebody that you are going to resonate with, who does listen to you or understands you. There are many manufacturers out there, and they're not all just on the internet. You have to ask somebody who's in the industry, and there's referrals to a lot of places that just don't have websites. So don't feel bad about disconnecting if you feel like you're not getting the communication that you need from your manufacturer. Just building on what you said there, it's a very good point.
William Hardcastle: [00:20:02] Absolutely. As you know, when I started out, I was looking for production on the West Coast. They were great people, but our goals and our vision didn't necessarily align. I guess that could be a setback, but that was one that you just have to stay on top of and get that other foot back in front of the other one. There are these hurdles that you can soon see disappearing behind you.
Heather Zager: [00:20:27] I've mentioned in a blog post previously that I did that manufacturers are shifty. I don't mean that in a bad way. Covid is a great example. They're producing t-shirts, but then the demand required masks, they shift and make masks, and then you can no longer contact them for a t-shirt, but in six months they may not be making masks anymore. So call them again because they may be more aligned with your goals and your priorities. Your brand and your goals may not change, but theirs will. They do constantly shift and they constantly change. They bring on new talent or find a new niche to fill. Call them back in three months or four months if you need to. Anyway, that's my plug on choosing a manufacturer.
William Hardcastle: [00:21:13] You make a good point. They are already very intricate working machines and you're individual and unique, so finding one to fit into doesn't necessarily happen quickly or well the first time, because you have to fit them as much as you want them to fit you.
Heather Zager: [00:21:31] Exactly, very good point. Is there anything else you'd like to share with me about WannaHug in your brand, how people can reach out to you or buy your product or learn more?
William Hardcastle: [00:21:45] I would love to share with anybody that's interested. This is what we look like.
Heather Zager: [00:21:51] That's beautiful. I love your logo, that's a good logo.
William Hardcastle: [00:21:53] That's going to be on the boxer and brief. We're on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, which is @wannahugclothing. Our logo and branding itself is rather recognizable, so you can't miss us. If you'd like to make a difference in the world and spread some positivity at no extra cost, and be conscious about your consumer choice, then please join us on our mission to drive some positive change.
Heather Zager: [00:22:21] Excellent. And you have a website, too. Is it wannahugclothing.com?
William Hardcastle: [00:22:27] We do. It's actually just www.wannahug.com. Through that, you can read more about our story and follow links to our social media pages.
Heather Zager: [00:22:37] Wonderful. I'll have a case study on my website so people can go there too, to learn more about what it is that you do and then follow through that to your website if they want to make any purchases or anything.
William Hardcastle: [00:22:49] Great. If I could say one more thing, if anybody's listening and wants to get into the market, Heather is a great place to start. She helped me tremendously, and the foundation of WannaHug today is because of Heather's work in the primary stages, so I will be forever grateful.
Heather Zager: [00:23:05] Thank you very much, I very much appreciate that. It's been great chatting with you today. We know how to reach you, and I guess that is the end of our podcast. Good luck to your future and all your endeavors.
William Hardcastle: [00:23:18] Thank you. You too Heather, thank you for your time.
Heather Zager: [00:23:21] 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 have some comments or suggestions about future podcast episodes, please email me at heather@madeapparelservices.com.