Deciding which purse to sell

[Michael222]

I would like to start selling one of the wallets in the pictures. I want to sell 10-20 units a month. What wallet do you guys think will sell better the beige or the black and would I prefer to sell the beige in another color then it will sell better? And will there be big differences in sales of these 2 wallets?

Edited September 2, 2019 by Michael222

[MarkCdub]

Make 10 of each, put them up for sale and see which one sells the fastest...  You are really asking an impossible question for us to answer, we don't know where you intend to sell them and for how much.  We also don't know your market.  Cost, marketing, target demographic, etc are important.  If you don't market the right product, at the right price, too the right customer, you won't sell many wallets.  For the most part, consumers want things as cheap as possible.  We live in a disposable world, where most people don't care if theor wallet lasts 1 year or 20.  They will use their $20 department store wallet until it wears out in a year or 2, then buy another one.  They will skip over your $30+ wallet that may very well last them the rest of their life just to "save" a few bucks.  You have to find/educate people on why your product is superior and worth the added cost compared to a department store "brand name" wallet.  How much experience do you have with leather work and making wallets specifically?  Good luck, and let us know how your plan works out.

1 more thing, where do you intend to sell this item, store, etsy, personal website, word of mouth?  I only ask because etsy is a common place for craftsman to sell their items and their is a ton of competition in the wallet game.  The prices have a good size range and the quality level varies greatly.  I would recommend checking out the competition and their prices to see if you can be quality and price competitive.  I have seen a "race to the bottom" from hobbyists like myself where they think they are going to sell a ton of them or just make a few of them to practice and put on etsy, then because there is so much competition the prices start dropping until the items are being sold for less than what it took to make them.  So my suggestion to you would be to make a couple of each and see how one sells ove the other, and make them in a few different colors or offer to make them in different colors to see what is most popular with your customers.  They are being handmade by you, so you have the ability to allow for custom orders if the customer is willing to wait a few days extra for his item.

Michael, I just read your other post about making a cellphone wallet case and I am hoping that you take what I say to heart.  This art, and it is an art form is not easy to do well.  As others have said it takes time, many mistakes and those things cost money.  I have made a few things over the last couple of years and it is a struggle on every project to make it as good as I can, learn from my mistakes, and improve my ability to create the project.  I have drawn all my own patterns on graph paper, learned how to create patterns from books, forums, instructionals, and YouTube.  I have made many mistakes in the pattern making process that made my project too small because I did not account for leather thickness, or I forgot to add the width of an item twice, etc.  I do research what others are making, and I do use it for inspiration.  And you are right, the basic shape of a wallet, construction, and assembly are very similar across the industry.  With some items, there is a very long history of them being a certain shape like fixed blade knife sheaths.  There is a best practice and they all come out looking very similar.  I feel like you rubbed alot of people the wrong way, myself included because you are asking for a short cut to profitability.  But more than that, your attitude towards the craft is disrespectful.  This is not an "easy" way to make money, there are many really good leather craftsman with years of experience that struggle to make enough just to keep practicing their trade who would love to sell 10-20 items for $71 every month.  You have some basic tools, very little knowledge of the craft, not alot of basic business understanding, and I think your goals are very unrealistic.  Creating your own patterns are not difficult with basic knowledge of pattern making but becoming proficient does take time and practice.  This forum can be very helpful but you need to show some respect to the craft and be humble about your lack of knowledge when asking people with years of experience and in many cases you are asking craftsman who make their living creating goods from leather, to share their tips, tricks, years of experience with you so you can become a competitor.  And you do all this while telling them their craft is "easy".  Do you have any idea what weight leather you are going to use for your wallets?  What size thread are you going to use?  Are you going to hand sew use a stitching wheel or pricking iron and an awl, a chisel?  How are you going to hold the pieces together while you sew?  There are so many steps to consider, remember, and to implement them well and in the right order and a mistake in 1 step can ruin an otherwise perfect piece.  This is all before you ever sell a piece.  If you want to build a business/brand selling wallets for $70, your items have to be top notch quality.  Perfect edges, perfect stitch lines, perfect fit, etc.  I have seen through my own research, the quality or rather the lack there of, of wallets and cases for sale on etsy.  I would be ashamed to ask someone to pay me for much of the stuff I encounter on there and yet there it is, for sale, marketed as hand made, and the asking price is shocking.

Anyway, I only toom the time to write this because I want you to understand that the people here (some are professionals with decades of experience) are extremely generous with their time and experience.  They give us help freely because they love the craft.  You struck a nerve because you came in here with unreasonable expectations and a severe lack of knowledge, understanding, and respect of leather working and the craftsman themselves.  It is obviously harder than you think, or you would not be here asking how to do everything.

Edited September 2, 2019 by MarkCdub

[Michael222]

  Thanks for your long response. I understood but what wallet do you offer me to start the black or beige? I ask it because I initially want to do only one wallet and see how it is sold. thought of doing the beige in black because it is a more sold color. Does anyone here know if a beige wallet is a wallet for a man or woman? I did not say that all leather work is easy but only to make wallets. And you are wrong when you say I have very little knowledge. I saw a Hundreds of leatherwork videos. I used to do computer modeling and also thought it was hard but I would just keep in mind that is not that difficult and with training, I managed. I plan to use a sewing machine rather than handmade. All of these wallets have a detailed tutorial so I don't think it would be very hard to sew them, and anyway I plan to buy cheap leather and sew the wallet with it, and only then sew the wallet with the Expensive leather.

[robs456]

2 hours ago, Michael222 said:

I don't think it would be very hard to sew them

Great. Get the cheap leather, make a prototype, post it here. Then you can get better advice on how to proceed I would think.

Also, I've seen lots of UFC. Conor, I'll F 'im right up...

[mikesc]

I've watched a lot of musicians over the years, live and recorded on video, especially guitarists and sax players..I don't think it would be very hard to play like that..Meet the next Hendrix and Coltrane..I'm gonna be rich and famous..a legend in my own bathrobe..Should I become a professional Guitar player first ? or  a professional Saxophone player ? I want to be the one that makes the most money. Btw..Yeah I know they were both black. :)

Edited September 3, 2019 by mikesc

[Sheilajeanne]

To put my 2 cent's worth in here, what a person looks for in a wallet is very individual. However, to generalize, I've noticed men often don't bother with a change purse, they keep their change loose in their pockets. Women are more likely to want a change purse. 

Men generally want smaller, slimmer wallets, as they carry them in there pants pockets. Women carry their wallets in their purses, so their wallets can be larger. They sometimes go for a clutch style wallet that has a large change purse, and space for cards and cheque book.

Some people want a wallet that can hold a lot of plastic cards. I have a friend (female) whose wallet is bursting at the seams. I couldn't even BEGIN to tell  you how many cards she has stuffed into that wallet!! There's a middle section to the wallet that is JUST for cards - never seen a wallet quite like it in my life!

Women like colourful wallets. One of my friends has a wallet with a beach scene painted on it. Another has a wallet that's pink. Men prefer basic black or brown.

So, there's my thoughts. And as for what others have said above, please pay attention. They speak the truth. This is NOT an easy hobby to master, and you will never stop learning!

Oh, and unfortunately the way we learn is from our mistakes... 

  

Edited September 3, 2019 by Sheilajeanne

[Rockoboy]

6 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

the way we learn is from our mistakes

So ... from the number of mistakes I have made, I must be a master in my own mind by now!!

[Sheilajeanne]

49 minutes ago, Rockoboy said:

So ... from the number of mistakes I have made, I must be a master in my own mind by now!!

  The problem is we keep finding brand new misteaks to make....

[Tinkerton]

14 hours ago, Michael222 said:

 I did not say that all leather work is easy but only to make wallets. And you are wrong when you say I have very little knowledge. I saw a Hundreds of leatherwork videos. I used to do computer modeling and also thought it was hard but I would just keep in mind that is not that difficult and with training, I managed. I plan to use a sewing machine rather than handmade. All of these wallets have a detailed tutorial so I don't think it would be very hard to sew them, and anyway I plan to buy cheap leather and sew the wallet with it, and only then sew the wallet with the Expensive leather.

There is a huge difference in watching a lot of videos, and doing. It's not just the theoretical knowledge that's necessary, it's training your hands and co ordination for the task. That you can only get through physical practice. Sewing machines are their own beast, and whether you're sewing fabric or leather, there can be a pretty steep learning curve there as well; the difference with with fabric is you can always pick apart a bad seam and re-do it, with leather, you get one shot.

My suggestion is pick the simpler of the two, then make it. Then make it again. Then make it again. Then make it again. By the 15th one or so, you may have something that comes remotely close to the one in the picture.

 

That's my two cents

Tinkerton

[RockyAussie]

Black.....the mistakes are easier to hide and while you are learning that will be common. It may pay to show a picture of the patterns here as from what I have seen before none of the patterns sold are worth having if you are thinking of building a competitive business. Just a tip ....a clicker press is more important than a sewing machine when you want to start making money from this. Second cutting of parts made is almost never shown I've noticed here and in the videos and in the patterns sold. Even a key tag this can be true - https://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/videos/wild-harry/43913/

Note: normally these would be edged with an edging machine and I had no intention to do this as a tutorial when they interviewed me. Hope this helps some.

[JazzBass]

13 hours ago, mikesc said:

I've watched a lot of musicians over the years, live and recorded on video, especially guitarists and sax players..I don't think it would be very hard to play like that..Meet the next Hendrix and Coltrane..I'm gonna be rich and famous..a legend in my own bathrobe..Should I become a professional Guitar player first ? or  a professional Saxophone player ? I want to be the one that makes the most money. Btw..Yeah I know they were both black.

@mikesc - A belly laugh for your brilliance, and a tip my hat to a man who understands the difference between true sarcasm and infantile "snark".

I have occasionally had folks who came up to me and said, "You make it look so easy!".
to which I respond, " It IS easy - you just didn't get to see the 40 years of blisters that made it easy".

To be "hip" enough to choose the dichotomy of Hendrix and Coltrane, then your "btw...", reminds me of the old Dean Martin Roasts, where revering the genius of of men could be done while taking all the power out of stereotypes by laughter. Ah...the good ol' days! Meanwhile, you of course made a great analogy to the leather business.

You sir, are a steely-eyed missile man.

 

[Michael222]

On 9/3/2019 at 1:34 PM, robs456 said:

Great. Get the cheap leather, make a prototype, post it here. Then you can get better advice on how to proceed I would think.

Also, I've seen lots of UFC. Conor, I'll F 'im right up...

Okay, I'll do it.

[Michael222]

On 9/3/2019 at 4:32 PM, Sheilajeanne said:

To put my 2 cent's worth in here, what a person looks for in a wallet is very individual. However, to generalize, I've noticed men often don't bother with a change purse, they keep their change loose in their pockets. Women are more likely to want a change purse. 

Men generally want smaller, slimmer wallets, as they carry them in there pants pockets. Women carry their wallets in their purses, so their wallets can be larger. They sometimes go for a clutch style wallet that has a large change purse, and space for cards and cheque book.

Some people want a wallet that can hold a lot of plastic cards. I have a friend (female) whose wallet is bursting at the seams. I couldn't even BEGIN to tell  you how many cards she has stuffed into that wallet!! There's a middle section to the wallet that is JUST for cards - never seen a wallet quite like it in my life!

Women like colourful wallets. One of my friends has a wallet with a beach scene painted on it. Another has a wallet that's pink. Men prefer basic black or brown.

So, there's my thoughts. And as for what others have said above, please pay attention. They speak the truth. This is NOT an easy hobby to master, and you will never stop learning!

Oh, and unfortunately the way we learn is from our mistakes... 

  

Thanks. I got your advice,I decided at the end to go for the black wallet because it has a lot of room for plastic cards and also because I saw many wallets like this without a pocket for change ... Agree with you that it is not an easy hobby and that is why I start from a wallet that will be easy to sew.

Edited September 5, 2019 by Michael222

[chrisash]

Hi Brian

That trimming cut is a eye opener I myself would never have though of doing it on a clicker, the attention to detail on all your designs and work is what really stands out from the crowd

Edited September 5, 2019 by chrisash

[Michael222]

On 9/4/2019 at 1:55 AM, Tinkerton said:

 Sewing machines are their own beast, and whether you're sewing fabric or leather, there can be a pretty steep learning curve there as well; the difference with with fabric is you can always pick apart a bad seam and re-do it, with leather, you get one shot.

 

Even though you only have one chance, you sew it slowly and carefully and succeed.

[RockyAussie]

2 hours ago, chrisash said:

Hi Brian

That trimming cut is a eye opener I myself would never have though of doing it on a clicker, the attention to detail on all your designs and work is what really stands out from the crowd

All of the card pockets that get put together in our wallets get a second cut before the edge strip goes on them and that gets them exactly straight and is done on average less than 30 seconds per section. Same with edged business card holders as shown below, most things get cut out 2.5mm oversize then attached together after skiving and gluing then second cut which then requires very little sanding before edging is applied. This process is done on about 90% of the products we make including belts except there the second cut is through a combining/cutting machine. This is the reason I believe that a clicker press is one of the most essential pieces of equipment that someone looking at getting into competitive manufacturing can have. I could not imagine how much time and wasted effort would be spent trying to make that key tag all perfectly line up and be made ready to edge. We get orders for them in the hundreds with whatever logo they want and the timing is not much more than you see in that video. This is the sort of thing that made me think there would have been a little more interest in seeing how these products get made but unfortunately the costs to produce them would cost way more than I could hope to get back.. Gotta find some other way of doing it I guess.

[chrisash]

I notice from your card holders shown above that it appears you overlap the wallet sections rather than most peoples edge to edge t card style, must say i think your method does look a bit sharper