Selling Your Holsters Wholesale

[SooperJake]

I was curious if any of you sell your holsters wholesale? If so, how has that worked out so far?

Thanks,

Jake

Edited August 26, 2012 by SooperJake

[chiefjason]

I have a local gun shop that has bought a few and has a couple on consignment. And I am going to look into a couple more in the area. So far it's not worked at all aside from the first 4 the LGS bought. I hope that changes. All of these are leather/kydex hybrids too. They just are not moving around here much.

[Mike516]

Personally, and this is just my opinion, I don't sell anything I make wholesale.

I am a dealer myself, mainly antiques, so I completely understand other dealers' and shops positions on needing to profit from what they buy. Rule of thumb as a dealer, you need to buy at half price to turn a profit, especially selling online with all the fees.

I try and price my leather work at a reasonable retail price, and if I sold it wholesale it wouldn't be worth the time or materials to make it. Selling on consignment is almost as bad. If you inflate your price so you make a profit after paying the consignment fee, you may be overcharging and you won't sell anything.

That said, I don't make holsters, so maybe I'm completely wrong about this. There's also people that figure if they make enough to cover materials they're happy. So maybe I'm totally off base on this.

[steelhawk]

I looked into it and decided I couldn't afford to do it.

[TwinOaks]

This is quite the coincidence as the LGS just asked for 6 of my hybrid holsters, as well as an assortment of all leather holsters. For me, it's too early to say if it's good or bad from a sales POV, but the owner and I are friends so I am making them for him. I cut his price to about 60% of my retail...and I'm still making money it. That allows the owner of the store to have the merchandise and still sell it for a profit...he raised the retail price by a little bit, and we'll see if they move at his price. If they do, it means I was underpricing the goods. Perhaps the most important aspect of the deal is EXPOSURE. Yes, I have a little sign that says "Custom Leather Available", but that has led to very few sales. Since the items I built for wholesale are in the store, I've had two additional orders for models that aren't there.

In my view, it's pretty effective for a few reasons: First, as a hobby maker of the product (meaning this is not my full time job, and I don't have a store front) it's good because I get paid immediately. It's really nothing more than a bulk discount when you think about it. Second, it allows me to streamline production methods. All of my hybrid models have the same size and shape piece of leather, so I get all of it cut out, hardware added, glued, and stitched at the same time. Doing it this way really is more efficient, when compared to one off models. Third, instead of just a sign, there is merchandise available for potential customers to look at, touch, and try. One of the orders that I've gotten is going to be a "highest level of concealment" holster and since the fellow had specific requests, I had specific prices....I took my base price and started adding 'features' until I saw a reaction and the final price is settling on $100.....for a holster that won't be all that much different from what I'm already making......but it's custom. That order wouldn't have happened if the customer hadn't been able to try on one of the other ones. So there is a definite advantage to having something real in the customer's hands. Even if it isn't EXACTLY what they want, they get a feel for the quality and the hook is set. Then you reel them in on the custom jobs, make a little extra, and BOTH sides are happy with the deal. There's all kinds of reasons I could list, but the final one for this post will be this: I enjoy working with leather, but it's an expensive hobby. To pay for that hobby, I need to sell some products. If I sell them one at a time, it's "okay". Selling 6 at a time is better because I IMMEDIATELY have my percentage of six sales instead of having 100% of fewer sales, kind of spread out.

I still take the custom orders, and those have priority. I'm not out anything, I'm just making a little less off of each one....and I'm making it all at once.

On the other side of that coin, if I did have a shop of my own, NO selling wholesale isn't worth it. A physical space has costs that must be addressed (the 'overhead'), and selling wholesale to others is effectively competing against yourself. The downside to selling to someone else is that once the merchandise is theirs, you no longer have any pricing control. Example: You make and sell holster model X for a retail price of $75 at a profit of $40/holster. If I offer to buy from you at $55 (still letting you make a little), then sell it at $65, I'll have YOUR product at a better price and steal your customers.

Consignments.....nope, I don't do those. I don't have enough spare leather to just build something and see if it sells.

[katsass]

From the grump: Simple answer -- NO. My customers come to me for custom work, and pay for custom work. Even if I had five customers wanting a holster for a Colt 1911 Govt. model, all at the same time, I'll draw a separate pattern for each -- and discard the pattern after the single use. Some may be similar, however none will be an identical holster. There's something to be said for an example or two of your work, but to sell wholesale isn't in the cards when doing custom, hand-made items. JMHO Mike

[dickf]

I don't do it, but only because I'm a small-timer and don't have the time to commit to large production runs.

There are, however, top tier custom makers that do, and they wouldn't if it wasn't profitable. Del Fatti, Ralston, Sparks, and Bulman to name a few.

Creating a new pattern for each customer? I suppose if each customer has a special need that warrants a modified pattern, but otherwise I find this to be silly. Instead of spending time creating a new pattern to be different from the last, it would be more efficient to develop a better pattern altogether. Throwing the patterns away also seems hasty and prohibits building upon each one.

[KAYAK45]

Now for my view.

It's OK to sell retail AND wholesale, Just NOT IN THE SAME MARKET OR UNDER THE SAME NAME. For several years I owned and operated a multi-million dollar company that sold retail in most markets, and yet sold wholesale in others.

We packaged for our wholesale customers with their names, not ours. We "protected their territory" by not taking retail in that area, no matter what.

Of course this was a national distribution network, but it is done all the time.

What do you think GENERIC food is? Processed in the same plant, same ingredients, same everything, and sold wholesale under another label.

BUT, you do take less for the generic product, so the other guy can make money. Yes the quality MIGHT be lessor, but your name is no longer on it. It is a generally accepted way to TEMPORARILY utilize your productive capacity without cutting the value of your name or product to your current retail clients.

IF..that's what you want to do..it CAN be done. With careful..business planning.

Otherwise, DON'T DO IT. and NOT IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD. Just an idea to think over.

Kevin

[renegadelizard]

I agree with mike on this to a point...im not John Bianchi, im not galco..i dont have shiny catalogs full of holsters...i do custom work...one offs for the most part...i do however keep my patterns and have recently had a few holsters that were a big hit..six orders in one day for one style...im currently filling those orders and i dont mind so much as i seem to get good results processing batches....but i wont sell wholesale...had a local gun shop ask me and i just couldnt see where i could package the value to the customer, profit for the shop owner, cost of materials, and cost of my labor into a wholesale scheme...my hats off to those of you that can do this...