Hey /r/smallbusiness, I’ve been having a discussion with my wife and a good friend regarding a shipment that came in, and I’d appreciate you all’s take on the topic.
I’m starting an e-commerce sport accessory brand. I wanted to make hats and shirts, even if only for me and some local players, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on 50 hats at roughly $10 per hat. I worked with a manufacturer and the sample etc seemed solid. Embroidery was good, the other details were nice, but upon receiving the full 50, the logo placement is “off”.
Shortest explanation, the logo is technically centered but because of the left side being “heavier” it looks off center. That’s not the only thing though… the logo is about 1" off of the brim vs closer to 5/8" of the sample.
This makes the logo look pretty wonky on the hat (universal opinion). At some angles it isn’t awful but front on it looks a bit weird. The material is also a fair bit stiffer than expected. Ultimately because I received the hats and the embroidery itself is solid, and I should have been clearer in my placement directions after even receiving the sample, there isn’t much in the way of recouping money there. That’s okay, I made a mistake and will learn from it for if I pursue a larger batch of hats again.
So with all this said, I don’t feel comfortable selling the hats at what I’d banked on, I don’t actually think I feel comfortable selling them at all.
So what do I do with the hats? My friend says use them as a sales tactic for if you buy x you get a free hat. I was thinking they would be free promo items at an upcoming tournament in sponsoring. My wife thinks sell them close to cost.
But even with these 3 thoughts, I can’t help but feel that even giving away a suboptimal product will actually hurt me in getting my yet to be established brand off the ground. I’m at literal 0 exposure so it’s a blank slate. Do I eat the $550 and the hats get trashed? Does even donating them to goodwill/Salvation Army/schools in the area cheapen my brand at the local level due to the quality? What do you think?
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I agree with others that at this stage you don’t want bad product going out with your logo. You have no brand reputation at this point so you don’t want the initial impression being bad.
It might just be worth throwing them in a box and forgetting about them for a few years. You might feel differently about blowing them out or giving them away for promotion when you inevitably rediscover the box.
If you are stressing over this $550 you probably shouldn’t be in business
It’s a loss, write it off, move on
Yes you eat it and write off as a brand lesson. Maybe in 5 years you pull them out and give them away at your company birthday as a cool first mistake.
This happened to me with my first large purchase in my business. Sadly they misspelled a part of the tag and I couldn’t use them at all. The vendor kept saying no one would notice, but the fact is that would be my first impression to everyone. I ate the mistake and have not once looked back.Donate it to Africa like those merch from losing teams in championship games
Find an organization that donates clothing to underprivileged children in Africa. Plenty of them out there.
You can give 50 kids a lifetime worth of joy with that much product - I promise they won’t care about the placement of a logo!
With this amount of hats and the investment of $550 which is nothing to stick your pinky up about I understand and appreciate your concern. The best and most appropriate option is to do with them to go on a search engine like Google and find s local landscaping company. Call them over and have them do some yard work or whatever you need, as a favor ask them to throw the hats in the wood chipper. They won’t mind so it’s a win win! Hope that helps. Good luck in your endeavors my friend!
Free gifts that are “from” your competition
If I get bad product from a vendor, ask for the credit. They either get it back or it goes into the dumpster, their choice.
No credit, time for a new vendor especially if you have an approved sample
Do NOT add them as a free item. People will know what you are doing and it will feel icky.
Sell them as irregular misprints for $3 each.
Giving them away to shelters would be your best bet. Even if it looks slightly off, the awareness is probably worth it.
if you really dont like them as-is, would it be possible to get some iron on decals, slightly larger, to cover up? and then give away. or sell if they turn out nice enough
I have a small print business. Sometimes prints are off in a way that doesn’t make the print look bad, but we can’t sell it to the client because we know it’s off. our bad.
If we still feel the print is OK and would look good, we let them have it. If we feel that the print would look bad, we trash it. Our bad. The idea is what you worried about in your post. You’re afraid it would be a minus to your reputation due to the obvious sub-standard quality. Up to you what to do, but it happens. In fact it happens enough that you need to learn to figure misprints into your costs.
Start a different, competing company and sell the hats through that. Then when you sell your products, use it as an example of a poor quality product your competitors use.
Start a different, competing company and sell the hats through that. Then when you sell your products, use it as an example of a poor quality product your competitors use.
Throw them out. If they look off and you are trying to make a name for yourself you don’t want people associating them with your brand.
Throw them out. If they look off and you are trying to make a name for yourself you don’t want people associating them with your brand.