I finally heard back: X-Kilts goes commercial (NOT)

[Alan H]

My church is quite involved in Human rights in Central America. We are officially a sister church to a church in a small community in Nicaragua. There are about a dozen medium-sized industries in this community, one of which is a co-operative sewing factory. About a year ago a group of people from church went down there to visit and came back with the news that the sewing co-op was in trouble. The Co-op was owned by the sewing staff and the management, like all co-ops are. They paid the workers/owners about half-again more, daily than the nearby non co-op sewing factories, and that means about nine dollars a day.. But they were hurting for work, subsisting, literally on sewing underwear and simple garments for the Jesuit Fathers in Central America.

About 9 months ago I had this whacko idea that I could have the factory sew up X-Kilts, import them into the USA, sell them and use the proceeds to fund some Human Rights activities. I dreamed up some catchy names, etc. etc. It all seemed pretty outrageous, but when I found out that several church members were going to go down there for Thanksgiving, I banged out an X-kilt in some inespensive khaki material and gave it to one of the church members and asked them to give it to the sewing co-op and pitch me an estimate on price for making 1,000 of them.

I got the answer back this week. 1,000 X kilts, in one fabric (probably khaki) if I supplied the fabric, would cost me about $7,500, with a margin of error running up to about $10,000. I could have them make the kilts in 4 sizes S, M, L, XL.

I'm condensing the information here, OK? But the labor cost for making an X-Kilt with button closures (not velcro) would be something around $7.50 - $10.00 per kilt. Import duty would likely double that cost.... So $20 a kilt as a very rough estimate, knowing that import duties are a wildly unpredictable thing.

This was if I supplied the fabric. If *they* supply the fabric it's more, like $10 - $12.50 a kilt, and including import duties, make that $25 a kilt.

Point of Entry would probably be Los Angeles, so I have to get them shipped up from LA....another $2 per kilt. Then I have to handle them here...sort them out store them, etc. Call that another five bucks a kilt. So now we're up to $32 per kilt.

I don't know diddly about these things, but I figure if I throw in five more bucks a kilt that will cover stuff like credit card company charges and junk like that. $37...let's be excessive and call it $40. So total cost to get a marketable kilt in my hands, sewn in Nicaragua, and the basic mechanism to sell the flippin' thing is something on the order of $40

So if I want to make a 100% profit, not too far off in the retail world I need to charge $80, plus shipping for an X-Kilt.

Now....can I sell X-Kilts for $80? I'd say yes. Yes, I could sell a whole lot of X-Kilts at $80 a pop, and I'd make $40,000 doing it, for 1,000 kilts. If Utilikilts can sell kilts that are more complex (no pockets on these X-Kilts) for $120 and up, I think I can sell these for $80. if not exactly that, it'd be something roughly in that ballpark. I might be off a fair bit here because I know absolutely nothing about any of this, but I bet I'm not off by a factor of, say 2.

But I'm not going to do it. You want to know why?

Because if I did that I wouldn't be a kiltmaker. I'd be an import-export merchandiser, and I could give a rip about being an import-export merchandiser. Also, I had NO idea, not a CLUE how much work it is to set all this stuff up. It's a full-time flippin' job to do this. I'd have to quit my regular job to pull it off. All this to donate some money (quite a bit of money) to Social Justice Non-Profits. I'm all for Social Justice, but quit my job to do this? Forget it.

So in summary.....it ain't worth it. AND....until Wal Mart orders not 1,000 kilts, but 100,000 kilts, they're still not going to cost a whole lot less than what I just outlined up above. This was eye-opening. In China, the labor is about half of what it is in Nicaragua.

NOTE: I created the X-Kilt for the people of X-Marks, so that *YOU* could make your own kilt, learn how to do it, and appreciate and understand what the professionals turn out. Nearly 80 X-Kilts have been made, and that brings me a great deal of joy..

Turning a profit on the X-Kilt was never, ever part of the plan.

[mddock58]

Interesting idea of another way others may earn a living off of all of us!

Great Story Alan

[Alan H]

There are errors in this post which I am desperately trying to correct but the board refuses to process my efforts at editing the post!!!

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OK, corrections made...

[possingk]

Alan,
I wish it would have been more cost effective for you, what you did with the x-kilt brought a whole new world to the people of this board. But on top of that the fact that you went through all the calculations and thought to help this co-op makes you not only a kiltmaker and designer but a great humanitarian. It is this type of community that I keep coming back to this forum. Even if I don't respond as much as I used to.

I love this community.

[Bugbear]

I don't know about kilt making, but I hope for you and the people you speak of lots of help.

Also, on the editing thing, I usually have to log back in all the time when I try to post. It is so.... Good luck.

[Alan H]

BTW, how long would it take this co-op to churn out 1,000 X-Kilts?

Answer, about 2 - 2.5 weeks. They have 25 machines going about 10 hours a day, with separate cutting and serging stations. They estimate they could do about 60-70 kilts a day, so that's two and a half kilts a day per station, or four hours per kilt? Why so long I asked?

The answer?

Sewing down the pleats, inside and outside. There's a lot of stitching in an X-kilt.

Were they seriously interested in doing this job?

The answer: No. They'd do it, but only because they're desperate and almost out of business. 1,000 kilts is not nearly enough work and ramping up the patterns for the different sizes and so on is not worth it for two-three weeks of work. If I wanted 10,000 kilts then they would be *very* interested.

*******

Just thought you X-Markers would be interested in a little insight into the world of international kilt-making. I was quite amazed.

[SteveB]

Alan,
Does this little inquiry into mass production help you to understand how much it takes to keep an international economy going? The challenge after the start up is to keep it going. Otherwise the effort does not yield a long term solution to the problem in the co-op. Far better is to come up with a culturally responsible business plan that you can teach them so that they can feed their families in the long term. There is an old saying: "Give a man a fish and he eats one meal, teach a man to fish and he can feed his family" well into the future.
The economy of scale, would make it more viable for the co-op if it could be a continuing production of one or two items over a long term with short orders on the side. Consistent fish for the table.
Oh, Thank you for your efforts on both the X-kilt ( I will have to look up that thread) and the desire for social justice. My own church is working on an education program in Salvador, with a goal of self sufficiency in ten years.
Question: RUUU? --- Steve

[Mike1]

So if I want to make a 100% profit, not too far off in the retail world I need to charge $80, plus shipping for an X-Kilt.

Your terminology is a bit flawed, here.

If you have a Cost of Goods Sold, a 100% profit cannot exist. The only way you can ever achieve 100% profit is to sell something you have nothing invested in. If the kilt cost you $40 and you sold it for $1,000, even that would only be a 96% profit margin.

Your example would be a 100% mark-up, which would earn a 50% profit margin.

I know for years that most of the clothing industry could get away with those kinds of mark-ups, but I would guess things have changed considerably. I know in my own line of work, we could regularly see a 35% profit margin, but that was 20+ years ago. Today, we're struggling to keep that number close to 20%. And those involved in retail sales management will recognize that a 20% margin gets pretty skinny at the end of the month. We've gone from questioning if we might be able to make an extra point or two on a sale, to wondering if we can survive by cutting back another point or two.

[GMan]

I like your thinking.