# It's all in the marketing



## featherbottoms (May 28, 2005)

I just have to say that some of you here are really not marketing your wares in the right places

*Rise of the $2,000 designer sweater: How a lowly winter staple has joined shoes and handbags as the newest luxury status symbol

*(be sure to check the price, AND how long it took to make, for the one in the first photo)*
*
 Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...ewest-luxury-status-symbol.html#ixzz2ogV7pD8d​


----------



## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

lowly winter staple

















:smack:

















Somebody need to get with the program. :indif:




Agreed on the concept, though....right place, right time, right approach........ real knitting fashion could go faaarrrrrrrrrrrrrr.............

ETA....... incidentally..... I might know a knitter who could just go up two needle sizes and three strands and do that sweater in about 25 hours.......likely even ending up with a more striking product...... :shrug:







.


----------



## featherbottoms (May 28, 2005)

FR, I was thinking about you when I read that about taking 90 hours to make that sweater. And I sure don't think it looks any better than many of your creations.


----------



## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Thanks. 


Did I mention that.......if I got even a _one_ thousand dollar offer, for say....my best sweater, yet......I'd faint, straight away ? ?

I mean, honestly, 7 pounds of natural fiber yarns ain't cheap...... though, using ebay, I generally spend, I figure, 200-250 per sweater, tops (some come much cheaper) ......and twenty hours at even 25 bucks/per is still only a total of 750 bucks, yuh know ?


Now, if I had me a stout modeling team......and a full-blown fiber studio (you know....the rustic lodge set in the North Woods)....
....and hadn't the pre-existing obligation of sacrificing myself on the alter of American Liberty....well.........










:grin:


----------



## featherbottoms (May 28, 2005)

Not to turn this into anything unfibery but ..... many folks don't under that sacrifice part and Liberty is just the name of a statue somewhere.


----------



## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

It's your thread....... and I couldn't agree more. :grouphug:


----------



## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

The color of the second picture is a bit more normal, the flash does odd things sometimes. The white and gray is English angora.

These shawls are three and a half, but that's hundreds, not thousands. They would get more at the higher end markets, but the sellers there take a much higher commission. So, even though the price is lower here, more of it ends up in my pocket than when it sells at a high price. So with that really high end stuff, out of that several thousand, how much of it actually shows up in the pocket of the people who did the actual knitting?


----------



## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

Okay, I get it. So, as you walk in my yarn shop, you see the $2,200 shrug. Then, the $1,300 shrug, which you buy because it is such a good deal.


----------



## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Well, only if it weighs over 5 pounds.

















:grin:


----------



## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

You can also have the $500 shrug kits available, too, for folks who want to knit their own. 

Folks are willing to pay a lot for handmade knit things if you make them out of really high end yarns, original patterns, etc. etc. It is a very small market, but it's out there.


----------



## Falls-Acre (May 13, 2009)

I bank on that every week, and I've seen it for myself. For "specialty" items, those who have the bucks won't bat an eye shelling it out... as long as they know it's there! I only have a few higher-end specialty items like that, but they rarely stay on the table for long! Folks like natural and love handmade. The tide is turning in our favor!


----------



## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I need to learn those marketing skills.


----------



## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

A lot of it is in the intentions of how it is made. Don't make things to make money, make things to make the best whatever it is on the planet. The best whatever it is in the universe! If you can provide the absolute best whatever it is, folks will pay to get it.

You do have to consider the market involved, though. High end angora, qiviut or cashmere might be too much for the local church bazaar, (depending on your local church bazaar, of course). But, for the local church bazaar, well done wool might sell better than acrylics. You have to gauge the market, choose what will appeal to the folks that have the most money in that market and try to knit what those folks want.


----------



## Kasota (Nov 25, 2013)

Hotzcatz, isn't that the truth!!

When I had my pet shop it was in a really wealthy area. The first year I was literally stunned. People would come in and want a fish tank for a graduation present and they'd choose a large one and outfit it with all the latest greatest...hundreds and hundreds of dollars. At checkout they would show me a picture of their 5 year old who was graduating from kindergarten. They had $ and were not shy about spending it.


----------



## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

And they were willing to pay out the money to get the best, which in this case was mostly accessories. If you had a craft shop, those are the folks who would buy the silks, angoras, qiviut, vicuna and other high end yarns.


----------



## MoVikingSheep (Oct 12, 2013)

Speaking of marketing, I have a question for people out there who sell dyed roving and batts, top, etc. I'm getting ready to do this. I sell things I no longer want on ebay. However, when it comes to buying roving and fiber for myself, I search Etsy. Does anyone have thoughts on Etsy vs. Ebay? Which gets your products more exposure and brings in more buyers? I've watched one of my fave Etsy shop owners. I've liked her Facebook page, read her blog when she updates it, and I know she goes to regional fiber shows and teaches workshops. I want to start slowly then ramp up. I like the idea of the FB page and blog. I don't know if I'm up for traveling all over to sell at fiber festivals.


----------

