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JUNE 2017
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THINK
FIVE MINUTES WITH
Adam Walterscheid
One-Stop CustomShop
If you’re a fan of all-in-one options, you’ll find a friend in Adam Walterscheid. The president
and CEO of T-Shirt Tycoon in Garland, Texas, has kicked the private-label game up a notch by
creating YourCo., a custom solution that allows distributors to sell decorated apparel under their
own personal brands with the help of a modular sales system. Read on to learn more about
Walterscheid’s innovative approach.
PPB
What inspired you to offer a private-
label option for your clients?
Walterscheid
It was toward my last year
still running my previous business, Pony
Xpress Printing, and I saw a lot of small retail
apparel brands asking what it would cost to
get a tagless label inside the neck of each
tee. Hanes had gone completely tagless and
had published a report on how 16 out of 17
consumers preferred a tagless label.
So my confidence and creativity in the
idea began to run wild. Month after month of
pondering the what, why, when and how, my
conclusion was that in a branded business,
real brands want their own brand inside each
and every tee.
PPB How does a private-label option
like YourCo. benefit small and mid-
sized distributors?
Walterscheid
It helps them compete in
multiple facets:
1.
Private-labeling a t-shirt is the ultimate
annuity. The competition will have no idea
what to use to replace your efforts with the
exact same fit, fabric, size range, soft-hand
print, plus their own brand on a tagless
label. Once your clients start using their
own brand to label custom shirts, they will
never quit it. No one quits their own brand.
2.
The YourCo. solution is made to help small
to mid-sized distributors compete by being
able to offer products from the largest
category in our industry with the highest
customization, in the lowest quantities and
within the quickest turnaround times. It
doesn’t matter if the distributor’s client is a
promotional or retail buyer—that should be
music to their ears.
3.
YourCo. offers such innovation inside a
well-merchandised, modular sales system
that anyone can truly get to market faster,
and manage fewer purchase orders (P.O.s),
because of our single P.O. offering. Our
private-label option is really about having
a proud, silent, third-party supply chain
partner that has built a solution with small
to mid-sized distributors in mind.
PPB
What kind of training and sales
assistance do you provide distributors who
want to sell your decorated apparel to
their clients?
Walterscheid
We prefer to book a free
consultation with prospective clients, during
which we discuss the distributor’s distribution
model, explore strategies using case histories,
target product economics and review logistics.
We can do this in person for a facility tour, or
over the phone. From there we deploy our
sales tools, samples and kits to help us build
sales. Our dedicated team of private-label
experts help clients with project management
once they are on board.
PPB
How does your business model/
production process allow you to offer lower
minimums and to build a sales kit/portable
showroom for your clients?
Walterscheid
We have built a module system
with which to merchandise each project.
Talking about pricing is easy when our clients
also have an end-user catalog with sample
hangtags that cross-reference all relevant
ordering and pricing information.
PPB
Do you think custom sales kits like
yours are a feasible option for suppliers of
other types of goods that can be decorated in
multiple ways? If so, what should a supplier
examine within their business to determine
if such an element is beneficial to them or
their clients?
Walterscheid
Absolutely! We have built a
modular sales sample kit system that builds
up to a continued education path focusing on
our capabilities and customization options.
We have determined that this is the easiest
way to teach a complicated product and
processes. I think we will see more of this type
of continued education from suppliers that
choose to lead through innovation.
A supplier should look at how much
customization is inherent in their products
and processes. How long does it take to
train an employee to be well-versed in
this knowledge? Suppliers should figure
out how they can teach their employees
and distributor clients to speak the same
language, specific to their products
and services.