guys today we made it out to this very secret facility located in New Zealand
and I want to share with you guys streetwear's best kept secret in fact most clothing brands
don't want you to know about this so I want to show it to you myself
come check this out in this video we made it out to the other side of the world to the beautiful
country of New Zealand a country that blew me away in its natural beauty and surprised me with their
sustainability efforts and attention to every single detail this is also where I discovered
how the softest t-shirts in the world are made and it begins with one key ingredient cotton
when it comes to Cotton there's five types of cotton globally which include Pima cotton
Upland cotton Egyptian cotton tree and Levant cotton Upland cotton makes up to 90 percent of
the cotton grown globally and in the US it makes up 95 percent of our production but the secret to
the softest t-shirts in the world are the ones that use Pima cotton which is considered to be
the most luxurious cotton in the world why is it considered the most luxurious cotton in the
world part of the reason can be attributed to where it's grown places like Australia
and Peru typically have wetter climates and this results in longer strains that are more durable
breathable stronger and softer making the softest t-shirt in the world begins with selecting quality
fabrics and the quality is determined by the type of cotton it's safe to say that there's levels to
Cotton at the bottom are all the low price Cottons that you typically find in cheap graphic tees this
is the kind that scratches your nipple after a day of wearing A Cut Above is Upland cotton
which is found in most Major Brands such as Gap and Old Navy or typical department stores then
comes Egyptian kind which brands such as Amiri and Armani use now some would argue and say that
it's Superior to Pima cotton but the difference is that any continent of Egypt is considered
Egyptian cotton so you don't know what strain you're getting a Pima cotton stays consistent
in quality is more breathable and absorbent than Egyptian cotton which helps it rank higher Brands
such as Lacoste Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren use this in their product lines but the softness
of a t-shirt is only part of what makes a quality product because when it comes to Quality strength
and durability play a major role which is where a cotton such as Australian cotton comes into play
Australian cotton is A Cut Above Upland cotton and is similar to Pima continent strength and
softness without the premium price tag this allows companies such as as color to produce
premium products that are built to last a test of time and maintain their integrity wash after
wash now what's amazing to note is that this company started with a simple t-shirt out of
a garage 18 years ago and today they operate five distribution centers globally which power clothing
brands of all stages to access a premium offering with no minimum order quantity we're also going to
be showing some of the things that blew me away in this facility including the world's largest
t-shirt vending machine which has over 20 000 totes and millions of dollars worth of t-shirts
as well as how this team operates to design wholesale products that aren't just t-shirts
but also include bags hats jackets and much more in addition to this I'm letting you in on some
secrets of how Brands such as Supreme Stussy and DC started and grew in the market so let's begin
with how the fit of a t-shirt played a critical role in their brands join me as we speak with
Larry who's the founder and CEO of this business and Joe who is the head of design we start with
the fabric and then you work on the fit and that can take a long time and that's you know to do
with all the specs and the measurements so this t-shirt here has an inset sleeve this is like a
classic t-shirt kind of shapes this one on the men's t-shirt is the Raglan sleeve cut so this
is where your sleeve seam comes through to your neckline at the front and back this has a bit of
a slight kind of drop shoulder cut to the inset sleeve makes it drop off the shoulder a little
bit gives it that street wear Edge that makes sense so you relax it here and it comes down
more so it's not so tight up on the top right so you're not worrying about uh yeah I'm holding too
tight or things getting too restrictive now as a brand owner it's a lot of work to manufacture your
own cuts and styles from the ground up and this is where wholesale blanks come into play now when it
comes to as color they're truly changing the game because they're not just doing the basic t-shirts
and fleece products they're really elevating it by producing stuff such as bomber jackets
nylon quilted pants shorts almost anything you can think of but it's equally important to understand
how you can embellish these products you can get inside you can get inside underneath so
screen printers you know when they're trying out or embroiders they want to get into here
to get the logo in so they don't want things obstructing it so we have designed products
um Joe and the design team are always trying to make sure the product is easily accessible
for printing now the jacket we're showing you here is a wholesale blank that's available to
purchase from their site the way that the team created this jacket allows brand owners to fully
customize this garment and make it seem as if they were the ones to make it from scratch now
the best part is that customers are unaware that this is something created by as color
and this is a similar strategy to what Stussy and Supreme did when they got their business
off the ground they use wholesale blanks and were able to expand into new product
categories quickly without having to put money into manufacturing you see by using wholesale
blanks you no longer have to come out of pocket for manufacturing products in bulk because these
blanks combined with supplies from websites such as streetcrafter.com it allows you to create a
quality garment in minutes and with less than one hundred dollars we're able to fully customize this
jacket something that would have taken thousands if we did it the traditional way we then took it
to a luxury shopping mall to get real audience feedback can you guess what they valued it at
all right thank you guys what would you price it at it's got the inside lining upper 500 to a
thousand guys this was insane and in an upcoming video we'll show you all the details but this is
truly a testament to the quality of what as color is doing equally important though is
how the facility operates which allows you to purchase and get products delivered anywhere
in the world fast that's where the t-shirts live okay yeah so this looks like something
out of a futuristic movie like a Terminator so my first Warehouse the roof was only this High
um four warehouses later this is our newest facility let's see it let's see it in action
let's go start so as you guys can see there's a lot of different stock located on these shelves
but then there's also an automation site but what's really cool is that it actually starts
here now it wouldn't be proper if I didn't get my hands dirty in this job and a fun fact
is that I was meant to work with essay who's a driver of this forklift because in New Zealand
a Maori language greeting is que hora in Spanish it roughly translates to que honda so by combining
the two you have que hora ese now after safely being tucked into the harness me and ese received
our first assignment which just happened to be at the top of the building let's go as high as
we can go that's a really small down there wow there's even stuff up here this looks like um
like you know your uh your parents attic when you just when you just stock stuff back there you're
just I'm gonna leave all my old stuff with you Mom this is as high as I've ever been on a forklift
now the reason the shelving goes so high and the forklift is so close to each side of the racks is
to maximize the square footage remember how I said that in New Zealand everything is so advanced in
design and architecture they truly think of all the details that make this possible now
every time somebody orders from their website it gets taken from the T-shirt vending machine this
requires that it be reloaded by a warehouse member with a forklift this forklift moves
carefully with the help of tracks hidden under the ground and it brings them into their picking
Zone once the pallet is filled up it comes into the T-shirt vending machine loading zone once
the products are picked they're actually going to be replenished into this area over here so it's
telling us we need 12 units in here and once the product is stock into this t-shirt vending machine
and is now ready to take on orders and ship products out of this Warehouse within 30 minutes
we put it to the test ourselves but before we do I wanted to share something that I noticed
here something that I haven't witnessed in any other supplier I've ever visited and that's the
genuine happiness people radiate it's not to pretend to be happy for the camera happy but
people genuinely enjoy the work they do here and it shows to this collaborative setting
in the office they have design marketing Logistics e-commerce manufacturing and operations all on
the same floor they all have a pulse of what's happening and they honestly all genuinely like
each other it's really crazy to see and personally this was inspirational for me because this is just
one location of five that they have globally in addition to multiple retail stores that they
operate around the world This truly is a global team that's working towards the same Mission and
the customers can feel the love and attention to detail through the products that they purchase now
for brands that are just getting started it's difficult and expensive to build a team to do
this and that's the reason why Brands such as DC Etnies Supreme and stucy all started with a simple
t-shirt that they Source through a wholesale company and before starting as color Larry was
a sales distributor of some of these brands in the late 90s and he shares some strategies and
takeaways that new brand owners need to consider when you started your career with DC Shoes Etnies
those are all really iconic like skate skate brands for even Me growing up in the 90s like
yeah so we were the distributor in New Zealand so I worked for the distributor and I was in charge
of Lifestyles and marketing for new Zealand what were some of the lessons that you learned from
some of those big brands that maybe people can can learn from and use for their brand today
um I think you know you when you're running a brand you've got to look at every part of how it
looks to the customer I mean at the end of the day we're here for our customer and so everything the
customer sees is of the highest importance whether that's the photography it's the website it's the
box or packaging the products presented in I think you know every touch point of the brand needs to
be of the highest caliber and I think you know the way those Brands you know evolve in the late
90s you know early 2000s you know they were like Market leaders in their industry and very driven
by marketing was a big part of those Brands you know how they presented the brand from you know
the ads I'd run in skate magazines or you know the team writers they had and the people they align
themselves in the industry so you know I think that's a really key thing with any brand with it
starting out today or tomorrow it was about it's really about thinking of how you're presenting
it to every buddy who you work with yeah I mean the customers at the core at the end of the day
you're here for your customer without a customer you don't have a business so you basically need
to make sure you know every touch point is focused towards the way you want that brand
to be perceived by your customer how are some of the successful Brands using as color to help grow
their market share and help really establish their brand yeah I think the benefit of using a supply
like us is that when you're starting out with a new label you know you can't afford the inventory
to make a thousand shirts or a thousand jackets so you know that would tie up a lot of your money
so you know the benefit of our business model is that we have stock service of you know our
core products and you basically can rely on us for inventory and we you can get it within a couple of
days and you can try new designs out and see if it works and eventually once you get big enough then
you can go offshore and do your manufacturing but there's a lot of benefit of using a local supplier
that's close to your Market we're here for our customers to build great blank apparel products
for them to put their logo or embellishment on so you know it's built around the quality and we this
because these customers there that want a you know really high quality blank apparel product then
they're interested in a t-shirt that falls apart after three or four washes they want something
that's going to last 30 washes and that's what I think most customers are blown away by that how
fast we get the waters out and if you look at the Investments we've made into the warehousing and
Logistics side of the business we can get orders picked within 30 minutes and out the door to the
customers 30 minutes by the time they Place their order by the time it's in the Box yeah and it's
amazing how fast it is now they claimed it would be ready in 30 minutes so we had to put it to the
test so we went over to ascolor.com to order a couple products and we submitted the request
guys when they said that it ships in 30 minutes it's real because we were just having a little
bit of tea and it's already in the process so let's hurry up and get it done I'm gonna
actually pack some of these orders here what's really cool is that this computer will actually
tell you exactly what you need to pick so this one just came in there's a medium here confirm
it's a medium but it's already all packed before it arrives once we hit OK the next one comes in
so it gives you some time so now it's telling me hey I need to pack this order so this order
is ready to go for a customer it'll print out this label and this label
I fix it to the top of this one and now throw it in the trash hit confirm
that one goes out and now I'm actually going to pack my own order so
so it's picking the large one that I chose putting it on this table here am I hit okay now it's got
the blue one you see how we chose the brown the blue and the hat it all comes in order this is
crazy to see that like it's literally in the order that I placed it we're gonna hit okay
it's moving
and a hat the hat that we place an order for one size black hat hit okay now that's it now what
we're gonna do is we're actually going to place these into these totes this tote is going to be
the one that goes down to the facility where it's actually going to go into shipping so are
you ready to follow along with it let's see what happens guys check that out all these lasers this
technology is making sure that you get the product that you ordered and why is it and why that is
important to your brand that's just getting started is because you don't have to invest
in any inventory you could choose as little as one unit to get started but more importantly you
can rely on the fact that whatever you order is going to come out right so let's go check out this
final product and deliver on the fact that this is definitely streetwear's best kept secret it
was really cool that I've been noticing about as color is that their commitment to reducing waste
in the entire fulfillment process I mean you don't see any bags or packaging here but they also keep
a really clean facility in order for it to ensure that it's your products aren't going to get dirty
by the time they arrive to your door so I've been blown away by this Factory and by this overall
distribution center by the brand by the team here and the product quality definitely speaks for
itself so I highly encourage that you guys check out the links through the description right down
below to place a test order and hit that subscribe button if you enjoyed this video as we're going
to be releasing a couple different video about as color that's going to be diving into details such
as cut and sew and things that you need to know if you are going to be developing your own brand
they have a wealth of knowledge and I'm excited to share this all with you guys so make sure you hit
the Subscribe and turn on the post notification Bell for future notices of those videos
nice shot
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