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How to Start a Tights Business? (2021 Updated)

 

Are you willing to launch your tights brand? Nowadays, tights are the most trendy bottom wear for women. Women are most likely to buy a pair of tights rather than a pair of jeans. Tights are comfortable and super easy to wear; maybe that’s the reason why they have gained huge popularity. Starting a tights business can be challenging but an exciting venture. Here are some essential tips which may help you start a tights business.

Do Tights Market Research

Before launching your tights, it is better to develop an idea about how your tights will make a mark in the market. There are tons of successful tights brands. You need solid reasons why consumers will prefer your tights over your competitors’. This process is critical for the brand’s successful future, yet it is pretty simple.

First, make sense of how you want your product to be. Second, determine your target customers, your customers’ needs, and issues they face with their tights. Also, know from where do they buy their tights. Then, from the data gathered, list out the brands trying to solve the same issues. Such brands can be your potential competitors. If a billion-dollar, well-developed brand happens to be your potential competitor, then you must look for different issues to solve. It is not a good idea to directly compete with a top brand on the same issue.

Examine the bestsellers of your competitors and look for any commonalities. It will give you an idea of what’s already in the market and what are opportunities you can exploit. This helps you develop innovative tights, better than your competitors.

Two major areas will consume your time and money: Manufacturing and Marketing.

Tights production manufacturing

To start the tights business, you will need a safe place to set up your manufacturing plant. The area of space depends on the size of your business. In the beginning, you can set up a micro-level plant in your home. Besides, you can hire a suitable apparel manufacturer to make the tights for you. In this setting, you do not have to set up a manufacturing plant, but the choice of manufacturer is extremely important. After you decide on the manufacturer, the following things will demand your attention:

  1. Technology

Find out what technologies other brands are employing to make their tights. And choose the one that matches your needs and budget. Communicate the selected technology with your manufacturer.

2. Raw materials

Generally, the raw material for tights are fabrics that depend on the type of tights you want to manufacture. However, some common fabrics used in tights are:

  • Lycra
  • Spandex
  • Nylon
  • Polyester
  • Polyester blend
  • Silk
  • Cotton

3. Tights Design

Designing is a tricky process; that’s why it is better to consult with an apparel designer. Set measurements and dimensions of tights of different sizes and communicate such information with your manufacturer.

4. Tights Packing

Mainly, two types of packing are used for tights. There are cardboard packing and transparent plastic packing. In cardboard packing, you can add various manufacturing particulars like colour, size, company etc. Generally, individual pieces are packed separately. But for wholesale supply, multiple pieces can be packed together.

Marketing of Tights

Marketing and distribution are the major determinants of how much profit you make. To grow your sales, you need to focus on various promotional aspects during branding, product launching, and distribution. Hire a professional sales team to develop an efficient marketing strategy for your tights business.

Consider launching tights in a single city, build a small population of loyal customers, and expand smoothly to other cities. Appoint distributors or wholesalers to spread your business across other cities.

Here are a few marketing tips to increase the sales of your products:

1. Social Media

Social media is a cheap and excellent tool to boost sales. Use various social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) to make your brand recognized and attract more customers. You can hire a creative agency or a local videographer to help you make Ads. The more creative the ads, the more impact they will have on the audience.

2. Website

You create a website of your brand and sell your tights online. Through the website, you can take orders from anywhere in the world. Moreover, to further expand the business you can create an e-store on different e-commerce platforms such as:

  • Shopify
  • Amazon

3. Friends and family

Spread the word among your friends and family about the launch of your tights business.

  • Introduce them to your business, show them your products and tell them about the range of designs you have.
  • Your friends and family can also be a marketing source, so impress them with your product range. Consider any marketing or business ideas they have.

4. Business cards

It is primitive but effective. Make decent business cards of your brand with contact and website printed on it. Business cards are intended to leave something with someone, so they have something to look back at it.

5. Distribute to local businesses

You can be a wholesaler and sell your products to small businesses, not directly to the customers. But being a wholesaler means you have to make tights in bulk amounts without a handsome profit in return.

6. Be your own billboard

Wear the tights you want to sell. It will not be very convincing if you are not wearing the product you are trying to sell. That’s why it is better to show your tights by wearing them and matching them with fitting tops. This will increase the confidence of in your products.

7. Consignment at other Storefront Businesses

Consignment means that you distribute the product to a retailer without being paid at that time. But you will get the payment at a predetermined future date, i.e., weekly, monthly, 90 Days. You should have an agreement in writing with the retailer and for large consignments, it is strongly suggested seeking legal advice to guarantee that your interests are secure.

The cost required to start a tights business

The cost to start a tights business depends on the size of your business. Here are some factors that may influence the cost required:

1. Location

A key factor in determining the cost of launching a tights brand is location. Business consultants and realtors can help you chose the ideal and profitable location for tights business.

2. Licenses and permits

To start a tights business, it is mandatory to get official licenses and permits in most countries. It may include building license, operational license, zonal permit, etc. There is a separate fee for each license which will add to the overall cost.

3. Size of the facility

It is also a major factor in determining the initial cost of the tights business. The larger facility will require more machinery and ultimately more numbers of workers, which will increase the overall cost.

4. Branding and marketing

Marketing is essential for the growth of the tights business. It requires the hiring of a special team for promotion purposes. There are many means to promote your products, from cheap to expensive. The type of marketing strategy you select will influence the budget.

5. Furnishing and equipping

Besides essential machinery and equipment for tights production, an investor must want the facility to look unique. The budget should also include the cost of the counter area equipment, store equipment, security cameras, furniture, fire alarms, and safety equipment.

6. Insurance

In many countries, you cannot start a tights business without having some basic insurance policy. The insurance amount will also be an addition to the overall cost. It is suggested to consult an insurance broker to assist you in getting the appropriate insurance coverage.

7. Fabrics

The cost of fabric used to prepare tights to depend on the kind and quality of fabric. High quality fabrics are expensive and will raise the budget accordingly.

8. Staff and workers

The hiring and training of staff and workers for your organization will cost money. Moreover, the salaries of employees will also influence the total cost to start the tights business.

Thriving is a successful tights manufacturer. You can click here to visit various tights we made in the past. >>

We hope that reading this article will help you start a tights business.

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How are Pantyhose Made? (Detailed Pantyhose Manufacturing Process )

Pantyhose, also called tights in some countries, are common accessories for girls nowadays. The first pair of modern pantyhose were invented in 1959 by Allen Gant, a hosiery mill owner in North Carolina. The name was originally called Panti-Legs, a vivid description of how this new invention looked like.

news about Panti-Legs in 1960s
                   news about Panti-Legs in 1960s

Changes happened in pantyhose since its birth, such as name, raw material and of course, its trajectory. What remains no change is its basic construction. From this angle, how a pair of pantyhose is made nearly has no difference compared to the era of Allen Gant.

a pair of sheer pantyhose
                    a pair of sheer pantyhose

Production of pantyhose, no matter sheer or opaque, consists of 5 basic procedures: knitting, sewing, dyeing, boarding, and packing. None of these procedures are dispensable if we are referring to pantyhose with good quality. Let’s start discovering the manufacturing journey of pantyhose.

Knitting is the first procedure. It includes two basic elements: yarn and machine. Nowadays, the yarn used for pantyhose production is mainly covered yarn which means spandex yarn inside covered with nylon yarn outside. One spandex yarn covered with one nylon yarn is single covered yarn, SCY in short. One spandex covered with two nylons is double covered yarn, also known as DCY. Actually, it is hard to judge them by their look as they both are quite fine yarns. Single covered yarns are more popular while double covered yarn will be considered when durability is a high priority for one style.

pantyhose manufacturing process

single covered yarn (SCY)
single covered yarn (SCY)
double covered yarn (DCY)
double covered yarn (DCY)

The physical properties of spandex and nylon are influenced by temperature and humidity. Therefore, a good knitting room needs to be steady in the two areas. The temperature should be 25 degrees centigrade within a tolerance of 2 degrees and humidity of 50% within a 10% tolerance. When yarns are in, they need to be conditioned in knitting room for at least 24 hours before they are loaded to machine for knitting. This will let yarns gradually suit knitting environment. Without this step, yarns will be easily broken during feeding into machines. And it could also cause uneven fabric appearance issues etc.

yarn conditioning in knitting room
yarn conditioning in knitting room
Uneven fabric appearance VS even fabric appearance
Uneven fabric appearance VS even fabric appearance

The knitting machine plays the role of turning yarns into greige tubes. Different from what they look like in the finished pantyhose stage, greiges come out of the machine in single legs with half panty connected to each of them. They are usually quite long and fragile after knitting.

knitting machines and yarns
knitting machines and yarns
greige legs coming out of knitting machine
greige legs coming out of knitting machine

Preshrinking, also called an autoclave, is the cure for fragile legs. Basically, it is a steam setting machine in container shape. Greige legs are hung inside and steamed at 95 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes. As chemical fiber will shrink under heat, these legs turn out to be shorter and thus more durable. This will allow workers in subsequent procedures to easily handle legs without worrying about the fragility.

autoclave machine
autoclave machine

After autoclaving, legs will be moved to the next procedure: sewing. Sewing is general wording. It actually includes 3 different steps. The first one is panty cutting. As previously said, what we get from knitting is a single greige leg with half panty. Now it is time to cut a sewing line on the panty part, a necessary preparation for joining.

panty cutting
panty cutting

After panty cutting, we will move to panty joining. With joining the two panties, two separate legs become one pair. Overlock and flatlock are two main sewing ways. Although customers always see flatlock as a feature of sophisticated pantyhose, each of the two ways has its own advantage and disadvantage. Overlock is quite stretchy while not that flat. Flatlock, as its name suggests, feels quite flat while not that stretchy. It all depends on which feature the designer looks for.

panty joining
panty joining
overlock on panty joining
overlock on panty joining
flatlock on panty joining
flatlock on panty joining

During the panty joining process, gusset, the main material of which is cotton, will also be sewn into the bottom of the panty area. Never look down upon the function of this little piece of fabric. Compared to nylon and spandex, cotton is able to bring more breathability to body needs. The secret of comfortable wearing is always hidden in a small bit of technical design like a gusset.

cotton gusset at the bottom of panty
cotton gusset at the bottom of panty

The third step is toe-closing. Unless it is a footless style, all pantyhose will need toe-closing. By finishing this, a greige pair of pantyhose is done.

toe-closing
toe-closing

Before greige pantyhose move to dye, they will be put into net tubes for protection purposes. These net tubes are made of polypropylene fibers. Polypropylene fibers are so smooth that no snagging will be caused when they are in contact with the pantyhose surface. Meanwhile, due to the properties of polypropylene fibers, they won’t absorb any chemicals during the dyeing process, which will cause no influence on pantyhose dyeing.

polypropylene net tubes
polypropylene net tubes
greige pantyhose in net tubes
greige pantyhose in net tubes

The dyeing procedure is where a chemical reaction happens. Light colors will need 6 hours and dark colors will be around 1-2 hours longer. A complete dyeing process usually consists of 4 main steps. The first one is washing. This is just like washing clothes. Cleaning chemicals are used to wash off the oil and stains on the greiges. The second part is dyeing. With the temperature increasing, dyes gradually transfer from water to greiges. The third step is fixation. By adding a fixation chemical, the absorbed dyes will stay on greiges and not come off easily. In professional words, that is good color fastness performance. Softening is the final step. This gives the product a soft touch hand feel. As a garment next to people’s skin in wearing, a soft hand feel is not only necessary but also indispensable. When all steps are finished, products will be taken out of the dyeing machine for hydro extracting. A humid condition after hydro extracting will be ideal due to boarding requests. Being too dry will cause snags and being too welt could create mildew issues.

dyeing machine
dyeing machine

Boarding is for creating a good outward appearance. The boarding machine is pretty much similar to an autoclave machine. The only difference is dyed pantyhose are set in these metal boards and go through the heating room for a fixed shape. When it is done, garments are taken off from boards and sent to packing.

boarding machine
boarding machine

Packing also includes inspection. Each pair of pantyhose is stretched out on inspection boards for quality examination before being wrapped into packs. In this process, products with quality issues such as holes, snags, or stains will be picked out.

inspection board
inspection board

Last but not least, metal detection to packed products is essential. There should be no metal parts in the pantyhose as it contacts skin every day. The solution is the metal detection process. A metal detection machine will raise the alarm when products go through the machine and metal parts are detected so it is very important to make sure the machine is calibrated regularly on sensitivity.

metal detection machine
metal detection machine

The manufacturing journey of pantyhose comes to end. Looks simple? Not really. Some people say a pair of pantyhose equals a piece of artwork. From a delicate operation point of view, that is indeed no exaggeration!