Back in 2016, I was running a clothing brand that did about three thousand dollars in total sales. Not per month. Total. Fast forward to 2026, and that same brand has generated over ten million dollars in sales.
This post breaks down exactly how my thinking changed over that decade and how I would build a clothing brand from scratch today, knowing everything I know now. It all starts with one rule most brand owners never consider.
You either make something extremely premium for a small, obsessed group of people, or you make something very affordable for a large audience. The middle is where most clothing brands slowly die.
The Core Math of Every Clothing Brand
Every clothing brand plays the same game. What does it cost you to acquire a customer, and how much money does that customer generate over time? That is the entire equation.
You are turning fabric and design into attention, and attention into revenue. If your pricing does not match your numbers, it does not matter how cool the brand looks. It will not last.
This is why starting in the middle with forty to sixty dollar hoodies, average blanks, generic designs, and no real story is dangerous. You are not premium enough to justify high margins, and you are not affordable enough to win on volume. You are just stuck.
Why Premium Is the Missed Opportunity
If I were starting over today, I would either go premium or go mass. I would not live in between.
Premium does not mean charging more for the same hoodie. It means designing an entire experience. Think limited, numbered drops. Think bundles instead of single pieces. Think packaging, exclusivity, community, and access.
A premium offer could be a limited varsity jacket drop with only fifty units, each numbered and signed, shipped with custom packaging and bonus accessories. It could be a full head to toe capsule where customers are buying a complete look, not just a single item.
When someone buys premium, they are not just buying clothing. They are buying belonging, scarcity, and identity. Ten people buying a four hundred dollar bundle is very different from ten people buying a forty dollar shirt. The perceived value is higher, the margins are stronger, and the cash flow changes everything.
How Premium Anchors Your Entire Brand
Many brand owners ask who would ever pay that much for my brand. The truth is there are plenty of people who will. They just do not want another basic t shirt. They want something rare, early, and meaningful.
Starting with a premium offer also makes your lower priced items easier to sell later. When your brand has a six hundred dollar bundle, a seventy dollar hoodie feels reasonable. A forty dollar tee becomes an easy entry point.
Premium acts as an anchor. It lifts the perceived value of everything underneath it.
The Numbers Behind Premium Tiers
Let’s look at simple math. Imagine you sell a sixty dollar hoodie and a six hundred dollar premium bundle. One hundred customers buy from you. Ninety choose the hoodie. Ten choose the bundle.
That is fifty four hundred dollars from hoodies and six thousand dollars from the premium option. Almost half your revenue came from ten percent of your customers. In most cases, those premium sales also carry better margins.
You do not need everyone to buy premium. A small percentage changes the entire financial structure of your brand.
What Makes a Premium Drop Feel Worth It
If I were starting again, I would ask one question. If my brand could only grow from customers telling their friends, what would I include?
That might mean better fabric and custom fits, thoughtful packaging, handwritten notes, or free accessories. It might mean early access to future drops, private community access, or behind the scenes content. In some cases, it could even mean in person events or pop ups.
Everything still revolves around clothing, branding, and community. The difference is depth. You are building a relationship, not just selling a product.
Once that foundation is built, you can step down into more accessible pieces like tees, hoodies, and hats. Those items now carry a story and a reputation instead of feeling random.
The Affordable Mass Strategy
The other valid path is going wide and affordable. This means clean essentials, fair pricing, simple designs, and scale driven margins. This approach works too, but only if you fully commit to it.
What does not work is sitting in the middle. Kind of premium. Kind of affordable. Kind of generic. That is where most brands stay stuck for years.
The Big Picture
No matter where your brand is today, there will always be a small group of people willing to support a truly premium version of what you do. Those customers can fund growth, improve cash flow, and give your brand real positioning.
If I had to start from zero again, knowing I went from three thousand dollars to over ten million in total sales, I would not start with another forty five dollar hoodie. I would build something premium and special for a focused group and build everything else around that.