Customize A Bag With These 6 Steps!
The fastest way to success is to customize a bag that is designed based upon the wish of a client. Brands like Hermes are known to have used this to get their bags on the wish list of every celebrity. With that on the shopping list of millions of followers.
In six steps we will help you to learn how to customize a bag that your clients will love!
First, to customize a bag you should not be stubborn
Always good to start with a good story, for example how the CEO of a famous brand did customize a bag after a quick encounter on a plane. This bag later became the famous Hermes Birkin handbag.
In 1981 the English Actress and singer Jane Birkin was granted an upgrade when she took her flight to London. She told about what happened to a newspaper “I remember it well. I’d been upgraded by Air France on a flight to London and was sitting next to a man. I’m not quite sure what type of bag I had with me – my husband, Jacques Doillon, had reversed his car over my basket, crushed it on purpose not two days before. Little did he know that on this airplane journey, when everything fell out of whatever bag I had, the man next to me said: ‘You should have one with pockets’. I said: ‘The day Hermès makes one with pockets I will have that’, and he said: ‘But I am Hermès, and I will put pockets in for you’.”
This is a story that inspires many bag designers all over the world, because this is the best example on how to customize a bag that will sell. The small talk in the plane was followed by a first drawing of a bag, on a sick bag! When you realize this bag is now an absolute top bag, you understand you do not need an expensive computer, or design agency to create a winning product! All you need is to engage with your clients, to listen well and if possible, to start a co-creation process.
It should not be your idea to start the design, but the needs and requirements of your ideal client!
Second step, sketch the concepts for the bag
Based upon the first drawing you can start by sketching out a variety of concepts that incorporate the functionality that your client is looking for in a bag. We encourage you to start with pencil and paper rather than jumping right onto the computer. Remember, the concept of the successful Hermes Birkin Bag was done on a sick bag!
Check other bags, make notes of things your client might like and would not like about each. Do not hesitate to share your sketches with your potential clients. The more they recognize their needs in the bag you are going to create, the higher the success rate! Help your clients to understand the sketches. Not everybody can transform a 2D sketch into an awesome handbag!
Step Three, let’s go digital to customize a bag
Once you have the shape, and functionalities clear, it is time to sit in front of your computer. To be sure your bag manufacturers can reproduce the bag exactly like you prefer. And to get a better understanding of the size and volume of every detail of the bag a digital mock-up will help. Now you might have to adjust the raw idea of the sketches, because of design or economic restrictions. Be sure to create a bag that is not only appealing for the eye, but also beneficial for you and the client.
Number 4, Where to source your bag
The main challenge, after finishing the design, functionalities, and size of your bag, is to find the right bag manufacturer. You need to be sure you can produce the bag with your required level of quality. But, even when the bag is produced in close collaboration with your potential client, you might prefer to start producing smaller quantities with the possibility to upscale once your bag is a huge success.
You might experience that large manufactory companies are less equipped to deal with start-ups or small bag brands. Their bag manufacturing process is built for scale and volume and less for tailor made products. In this stage of the process to become a world-wide brand you would like a company that can guide you through the manufacturing process and share input based on their expertise.
Guidance can help you to find the right material for your bag. Like today the next-gen material or RPET fabric is getting more and more popular, you want a producer who understands these materials.
Step 5, how does the customized bag look like?
The drawings and sketches of the bag must have formed a certain idea about how the bag will look like. But it will be only after you received the first prototype when you can experience the bag meets the expectations. Designing a bag is a creative process and sometimes the produced bag based upon the technical specifications might deviate from the initial ideas.
But do not worry, this is the reason manufacturers produce a prototype of the bag first. Check if the fabric gives the desired look and feel. Perhaps you need a thicker fabric?
To get a good understanding of the user experience, test the zippers and pockets.
During the process to fine tune the prototypes, sometimes you need more prototypes before you have the final version, keep an eye on the cost structure of the bag. Every modification is a potential increase of the cost of the bag.
Step six, time to launch
When you have an agreement with the bag manufacturer about the final prototype, the bag will go into production. Now you can fully focus on the marketing and logistics to get the bag to the client. That can be a wholesaler company, marketplace like Amazon or direct to the end user.
Our sales team can give you guidance
When you want to design your own bag, contact our sales team to work together on your customized bag. Our sales team works closely with our designers and they can turn any idea into a success!