retiring designs?

Posted September 29th, 2008 by fright-rags

I'm not sure if this has been discussed already (I did a search and came up with nothing) but how do you all feel about retiring designs on your site, or just trying to keep everything in print?

It seems to be a trend in some companies to only print a design once (or for a limited time) and release new designs seasonally throughout the year. I like this because it allows fresh new stuff all the time without being bogged down with reprints, storage, etc.

But what about the lack of variety when there aren't as many designs to choose from on a site that sells only new (or relatively new) designs? And what if a design is a great seller? Take it off the market anyway?

Who here deals with these types of issues? Just wondering how you felt about retiring designs vs. just adding to them to make the site bigger and bigger...

6 Comments

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G-rant said about 4 years ago

JC does bake sales...
Kyle Crawford said about 4 years ago

i think in your line of business ben you need to keep your stuff up... then maybe when the sales arent so hot and they have been around for over a year a 2, maybe slowly get rid of them. You work with a market of nostalgia and culture. someone might not even discover a movie you print until later on in life... know what I mean?
RustyEight said about 4 years ago

I mean of course your gonna have some shirts sell better than others. Keep those around, sell of the ones that don't work as well and replace them with new designs. Simple :)

Limited runs are great for promotion.
derekdeal said about 4 years ago

i think its subjective too, if there are designs that just arent keeping up with the progression of the line then id say, sure, clearance those beasts and move on, but often times the reality is...more is more. I dont think they would do any real damage to the perception of your brand to keep them on display.
miles to go said about 4 years ago

i know personally i have about 6 designs staying, 6 going away when the new flock comes in. just to keep things moving. certain designs ill keep around based on sales online and retail, but others tees will fade out and go on sale at some point til they are gone

fright-rags said about 4 years ago

Thanks for the responses. My main concern is tying up money and resources in the designs that just don't seem to do well enough to keep around. They take up needed shelf space and I'm kind of tired of trying to keep track of them all...it's getting a bit crazy over here, haha.

Plus, I would really like to re-design some older ones (i.e. the Exorcist, Carrie, etc). And while I don't mind having two (or more) from the same film, I'd rather just have one if the older design is weaker and not selling as well.

I think I may just start by weeding out as much of the not-so-good sellers as I can and just feed that back into newer designs. And then repeat in a year or two when some of the other ones have trailed off.