Absolute Athleisure
Absolute Athleisure wanted to find clothing manufacturers in the UK to help bring a unique collection to a sportswear market - learn how we did this for them
Overview
Absolute Athleisure were re-branded from Absolute Fitness and searching for clothing manufacturers in the UK.
Kalan, the Director who purchased the brand approached us with the vision of bringing unique and distinguishable collections to market as he was aware of the crowded nature of the market during the time.
The concept involved continuously discontinuing previous collections to ensure a consistent forward-innovation approach for the brand with the intent of keeping consumers excited and engaged with the brand.
This would also involve a lot of direction from brand ambassadors and direct market, and consumer feedback so we worked comprehensively with Kalan to ensure the collections maintained the critical feedback which would directly result in the collection success. We worked closely with the brands team to meet target pricing and ensuring healthy margins thereafter.
Below is the brands first ever design sketch back from 2018, before a succesful acquisition in 2020 where Kalan took on the business.
Our contribution
High-Level Strategy
Consumer, Market & Competitor Research
Trend Forecasting
Technical Product Design
Pattern Creation / Grading
Fabric Sourcing & Treatment (Pre-Shrink / Washing)
Extensive Fabric Testing
Sampling & Production
Logistical Management
The Team
1 x Project Lead
1 x Brand Strategist
1 x Product Designer
1 x Garment Technician
7 x Production Team
3 x Video Editors
2 x Models
1 x Photographer
The Deliverables
Conduct Market & Consumer Research to Establish Opportunities
Design a Launch Collection
Sample to Perfect Fit, Feel & Wash
Follow Stringent Quality Control Measures (AQL)
Deliver Initial Collection
Establish Product-Market-Fit
Gather Feedback For New Styles
Process
High-Level Strategy
A succesful re-brand can be hard to achieve in a fast paced and dynamic industry like the fashion sector. We therefore spent a lot of time with Absolute providing high level strategy behind the products they were releasing - reviewing the current metrics to understand the design cues, colour-ways and styles that currently sold well to design and build out a new collection to align with the new brand message and direction.
Research Is One Thing, Implementation Is Another
Once this research and planning phase was complete, it was onto establishing how we'd successfully find product market fit as quickly as possible for these new styles.
In order to minimise the risk of Absolute overstocking, we opted for utlising the blanks on unbndblanks.com to access lower MOQs, without compromising on quality or workmanship. UNBND stocked the silhouettes we were looking to utlise with the new brand direction.
Savings - £78,000
Throughout this process, we managed to save Absolute £78k on their re-brand collection and this is solely from a product cost perspective and doesn't take into account the money and time we'd saved them through the high level strategy and implementation.
Outcome
Absolute saw success with their rebrand, with a retargeted market more inclined to pay the higher RRPs due to longer-lasting, sustainable garments being manufactured with an ethical and transparent supply chain.
Key achievements included:
- Producing 300SKUs (and counting)
- Utilising our services, we saved Absolute Athleisure £78,000 in production spend on their rebrand
- Conducting in-house fit sessions, R&D and dyeing to meet clients requirements
- Utilising overseas production capacity to bring heavier weight fabrics to market, whilst maintaining established RRPs, without sacrificing margin
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