After realizing how much identity matters in clothing, I started doing something super random… reading the bad reviews. Not the 5-star ones, the angry 1-stars and the tired 3-stars. And honestly? That’s where all the good info is. People don’t hold back. I kept seeing stuff like “print washed off after 3 washes” and I’m thinking dude… why not just use embroidery? Then half the reviews are “runs small” or “sizing is weird,” so clearly having actual true-to-size shirts and a real size chart is already an improvement. And the shipping complaints… wow. Apparently half the internet is waiting 3 weeks for a hoodie. Just having a faster POD provider would beat a ton of brands.
Since my brain is chaotic, I made a simple Google Sheet to track what I was finding. Brand name, niche, best sellers, prices, what people love, what people hate, links to their TikTok/IG. Nothing fancy. But after adding a few brands, patterns started popping out. Some brands look cool but their quality sucks. Some have hype but bad customer service. Some don’t do inclusive sizing at all. It made everything feel less mystery and more like “okay, there are obvious problems to fix.”
And then I started noticing little gaps in the market. Like, gymwear exists everywhere, but barely anyone does pastel colors for women who don’t want neon or black. Streetwear is everywhere too, but most of it is cheap prints, almost nobody is doing clean embroidery or heavyweight premium hoodies. And a lot of clothing is loud and bold, but introverted, quiet designs are getting popular. It’s like there are opportunities… just not if I do the same basic stuff everyone else is doing.
Still haven’t designed anything. Still learning. But the more I dig, the more it feels like I’m building something on purpose instead of just “dropping shirts and hoping for the best.”