Internal · For discussion
Building the shop.
Two decisions, in order. First how we make the product, then how it reaches people.
All numbers are a base case for one tee at €45, from two supplier calls and desk research.
Two decisions, in order. First how we make the product, then how it reaches people.
All numbers are a base case for one tee at €45, from two supplier calls and desk research.
Two suppliers spoken to, three ways to make it, two ways to ship it. This is where I think we land.
If it is merch, print on demand is the right answer, we spend nothing, and this is a short meeting. If it is something people collect, we accept slower and more expensive, and every choice below should be judged on whether it makes the object worth keeping.
My view: we are a print magazine. What we are best at is making objects people keep. It would be strange to make the one thing people wear the least considered thing we produce.
Events sell, and they sell out. This one fact rules out any route that cannot put stock in our hands, which turns out to be the deciding factor later in this deck.
If those were comparable tees at around €45, it is strong evidence for the pilot in this deck. If they were €20 caps, it is weaker evidence for a 150 unit premium tee run and we should size down. Half an hour of looking back, before we place an order.
One event is one data point. It is still worth more than any conversion rate I could model from 1,700 Instagram followers.
This is the band we are pricing into. It tells us what €45 has to feel like in the hand.
| Publication | Product | Price | What it tells us |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apartamento | T-shirt | €33 | The benchmark. Deeply respected independent, and their tee is under €35. |
| Apartamento | Hat | €30 | Caps sit close to tees, not far below them. |
| The Gentlewoman x Arket | Tee, short sleeve | £35 (~€40) | A limited collaboration with a real fashion brand, still only €40. |
| The Gentlewoman x Arket | Tee, long sleeve | £47 (~€55) | Above €45 needs a reason: longer sleeve, a name, a limit. |
| Monocle | Own-brand tee | $60 (~€55) | Premium positioning, built over 15 years. |
| Monocle | Slub-yarn tee | $115 (~€105) | What a genuinely special fabric can carry. |
€45 is credible but sits at the top of the independent band, above Apartamento and above a Gentlewoman collaboration. It is not a price for a printed blank. It is a price for a heavyweight garment with a proper label, a considered tag and packaging that feels like the magazine. The price is a promise about the object. If we cannot make that object, the honest price is €30 to €35.
Prices as listed on each publication's own shop, August 2026. Currency conversions approximate.
Two supplier calls and one desk study. They differ on how much of the garment is ours, how much we commit upfront, and crucially whether we end up holding stock we can sell at an event.
Cut and sew from fabric. Our pattern, our fabric, our fit. The real thing, and a real commitment: 250 to 300 per style, or 150 with a 30% surcharge.
Start from Stanley/Stella tees and Beechfield caps, customised in Poland. Woven labels, embroidery, screen print. Very small quantities possible.
No stock, no cash, printed and shipped as orders come in. Better than we assumed on quality and branding, but it can never serve an event.
An agent with 35 years and a circle of Greek factories. Design, cutting, dyeing, printing all in Greece, sewing in Bulgaria or North Macedonia. All EU, invoiced from Greece.
250 to 300 per style. 150 possible with roughly 30% surcharge.
Dye minimum 250 per colour. White avoids it, because white is bleached not dyed.
Everything confirmed by 15 September for a November delivery.
Right supplier, wrong moment. Keep him warm for when we can commit to 300 of one style, which is a decision for after the first drop tells us something. Ask him to quote anyway, so we know what we are deferring.
Full call notes in the appendix. No prices yet: two quotes requested, at 150 and at 250 to 300.
He buys Stanley/Stella tees and Beechfield caps, stock held in Belgium, and customises them in Poland. Embroidery, screen print, 3D print, and real sewn-in woven labels.
Genuinely small quantities. His example: five caps each in five colours, one embroidery colour.
Woven labels from 200 to 300, cheap, and he stores the leftovers for the next drop.
Samples shipped from Belgium in about a day. We pay for them.
This is the one. It gives us the two things print on demand cannot, a woven label and stock we can sell in a room, without the 300 unit commitment Theo needs. One label design that works across tee, cap and beanie, ordered once, used for years.
His advice worth repeating: do not ruin ourselves on packaging, and do not do a cheap tote. "It ends up in the bag with the 83 other rubbish totes." Full notes in the appendix.
More capable than its reputation. Several European providers now offer Stanley/Stella blanks, will remove the maker's label and print ours, and white label the whole parcel.
Stanley/Stella Creator, 180 GSM organic, from €11 ex VAT at T-Pop in France.
Custom inside neck label, printed, about €0.92 at Printful.
Our own packaging and inserts, stored at their warehouse, about €23 a month.
Good enough to keep the shop alive between issues, and we should use it for exactly that. But our audience buys in a room, and no amount of margin per unit fixes a channel we cannot serve. It is the tail, not the engine.
Full provider comparison on the next slide.
| Provider | EU production | Tee cost | Blanks | Branding | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T-Pop | France | €11 white, €12.30 colour, ex VAT | Stanley/Stella Creator, 180 GSM, GOTS | White label included | Best fit |
| Printful | Latvia, Spain | €10 to €13 | Wide, incl. Stanley/Stella | Inside label €0.92, outside €2.30, pack-ins €0.46 plus €23/mo | Most branding |
| Gelato | Netherlands, Germany, Poland | Per order | Gildan, Bella+Canvas, Comfort Colors | Inner and outer labels on selected products only | Local, but basic blanks |
| Shirtee | Germany | ~€7.56 | Mid-range | Hangtags, inside and outside labels, stickers, flyers | Strong branding, cheaper blanks |
| Printify | Germany, Czechia, Poland, Latvia | Single digits | Widest range, incl. Stanley/Stella | Limited white label | Cheapest, variable quality |
| SPOD / Spreadshirt | Germany | Competitive | Mid-range | Basic | Fast, unremarkable |
| Inkthreadable | United Kingdom | Not published | Stanley/Stella specialist | Custom, plastic-free packaging | UK means customs now |
Costs converted from USD at approximately 1.08. Verify current pricing before committing, POD list prices move.
| 1 · Theo, from scratch | 2 · Yves, customised blanks | 3 · Print on demand | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the garment is | Ours, cut and sewn to our pattern | Stanley/Stella, customised for us | Stanley/Stella, printed for us |
| Minimum order | 250 to 300 per style | Very low, per colour | One |
| Cash upfront | ~€3,000 at 150 with surcharge | ~€2,500 est, quote pending | None |
| Cost per tee | TBC, est. €16 to €18 | TBC, est. €15 to €19 | €11 to €14 |
| Contribution per tee | ~€17.63 online | ~€19.40 event, €17.63 online | €23.63 online |
| Woven neck label | Yes | Yes | Printed only |
| Embroidery | Yes | Yes | No |
| Caps | No | Beechfield, embroidered | Weak |
| Can we sell it at an event | Yes | Yes | No |
| Size curve risk | Ours | Ours | None |
| Ready for November | Tight | Yes, if we confirm by 15 Sept | Yes |
Print on demand wins on contribution per tee and loses on the only channel we have proof of. That trade is the whole decision. Contribution is after VAT, product, packaging and payment fees, before every fixed cost.
If events are the channel, the logistics question is smaller than it looks. We are not building a fulfilment operation. We are posting the leftovers and the pre orders.
Not close. A warehouse solves a problem we do not have, at a cost we cannot absorb, for the channel that matters least to us. We pack it ourselves until an issue launch routinely sells out online rather than in a room. Then we look again, with actual quotes.
Worth one search before we close it entirely: a few smaller Dutch partners work with early stage brands without a monthly minimum. If one exists at our size, this changes.
Yves was firm about this: nice tissue, a nice card, a nice sticker. No custom printed boxes, because the dies alone push the minimum to 1,800 pieces. Buy inside the EU, ideally NL, BE or FR.
| Item | Why | Est. per parcel | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kraft mailer or padded envelope | The box itself | €0.50 to €1.20 | Stock kraft, not custom printed. Suprpack does runs from 50. |
| Tissue or kraft wrap | The moment of opening | €0.05 to €0.15 | Plain is fine if the sticker does the work. |
| Branded sticker seal | Where the logo goes | €0.08 to €0.20 | Cheapest branding available. Order a lot, use them everywhere. |
| Postcard, magazine image | Makes it feel like us | €0.15 to €0.40 | Or a back issue, if we have stock sitting there. |
| Page marker or bookmark | Ties merch to reading | €0.10 to €0.20 | Optional, and very on brand. |
| Thermal label printer | Stops us handwriting labels | €120 to €180 | One-off. Labels then cost a few cents. |
| Total per parcel | ~€1.00 to €2.10 | Plus roughly €150 one-off for the printer. |
Yves's advice on approaching suppliers: tell them plainly we are starting out, we want 100 boxes, not 10,000, and ask for a tiered price. Most will quote a first small run and better rates as we grow. And do not let packaging become the thing we overspend on: the garment is what people paid for.
Estimates for planning. All to be confirmed with two or three Dutch or Belgian suppliers before we commit.
EU retail prices include VAT. At 21% Dutch VAT a €45 tee earns us €37.19. Every figure here starts from that.
The customer pays shipping, charged at cost. We absorb the mailer. At an event there is no shipping and no returns, which is why events pay best.
| Print on demand | Yves, at 150 | Theo, at 150 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net after 21% VAT | €37.19 | €37.19 | €37.19 |
| Product cost | − €12.50 | − €17.00 est | − €17.00 est |
| Packaging | included | − €1.50 | − €1.50 |
| Payment fees | − €1.06 | − €1.06 | − €1.06 |
| Contribution, online | €23.63 | €17.63 | €17.63 |
| Contribution, at an event | not possible | €19.40 | €19.40 |
Product costs for Yves and Theo are estimates pending quotes. Contribution is after VAT, product, packaging and payment fees only. It is not profit: samples, the shoot, Shopify, storage, insurance, returns and unsold stock all sit below this line. Tee is the base case; cap economics to be validated separately.
Stanley/Stella tees and Beechfield caps, customised in Poland, with one woven label design that works across everything we ever make. Small quantities, real product, ready for the launch. Confirm by 15 September.
T-Pop or Printful, Stanley/Stella blank, our printed neck label. It keeps something available online between issues at zero risk, and it costs nothing to leave running if the drop is the real business.
Mailers, tissue, stickers, a postcard, a label printer. Around €150 one-off and a couple of euros a parcel. No warehouse until an issue sells out online rather than in a room.
Print on demand has the best unit economics of the three and cannot serve the only channel we have evidence for. Theo makes the best garment and needs twice the commitment we can justify. Yves sits exactly where we are: a real product with a woven label and embroidery, in quantities that match a 50 piece event, from blanks we would have chosen anyway. We can move to Theo when a drop proves we can clear 300.
If the answer to the filter question at the front of this deck is "it is merch", ignore all of this and run print on demand only. That is a legitimate answer and it costs nothing.
Targets are for us to set together. What matters is writing them down now, so we are not interpreting the result to suit whatever happened.
| What we measure | Why it matters | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Sell-through on launch night | Tells us whether events alone can carry a run | To agree |
| Sell-through at 30 days | Separates a real drop from a slow trickle | To agree |
| Percentage sold at full price | If we discount to clear, €45 was the wrong price | To agree |
| Contribution generated | The actual money, after VAT, product and fees | To agree |
| Newsletter signups | The asset that outlives the drop | To agree |
| Size mix sold | Our first real size curve, for the reorder | Record it |
| Units left unsold | Dead stock is the cost that never shows in contribution | To agree |
| Online return rate | Returns are pure loss on a small run | To agree |
| Tee versus cap split | Caps have no size curve. If they sell, they are the easier product. | Record it |
Thirty days after the launch we should be able to say one of three things: reorder as is, reorder with a different size mix or price, or stop and run print on demand only. All three are acceptable. Not being able to tell which one is true would be the real failure.
A QR code on the table at the event captures the signups. It costs nothing and it is the one thing here that compounds.
No thresholds, no exemptions, and the same whichever supplier we pick. These apply the moment we sell one tee to one person. Roughly two weeks of setup, and none of it should wait for the production decision.
21% on every sale, shown VAT inclusive before checkout. We already have the KVK and VAT number as a VOF, so this is a Shopify configuration job, not a registration.
BindingOur name, postal address, email, and a batch or model reference that identifies the product. On the product if possible, otherwise the packaging. As an EU established manufacturer we are our own responsible person, so no separate appointment is needed.
BindingEU Textile Regulation 1007/2011. Composition in Dutch for the Dutch market, and in the language of any other market we sell into. Care symbols are not required by this regulation, only expected by customers.
BindingAnyone professionally placing textiles on the Dutch market is a producer. No minimum volume or turnover exemption exists. Register, declare expected kilos by 1 April, report actuals the following 1 April. 2026 rate €0.24 per kilo, about five cents a tee.
BindingThe 14 day right, the model withdrawal form, and since 19 June 2026 a clearly visible online cancellation button available for the whole period, no account required. The button is in addition to the form, not instead of it.
BindingIdentity, address, total price including all charges, delivery, complaints handling, and the two year legal conformity guarantee. That guarantee applies automatically under consumer sales law: nothing has to be printed on the garment.
BindingPrivacy policy, cookie consent, and processor agreements with Shopify and any print or fulfilment partner. We are already collecting emails, so this is not new, but the shop widens it.
BindingConditional: OSS registration only once EU sales outside the Netherlands pass €10,000 a year. Customs and import rules do not apply at all, since Greece, Poland and every recommended print partner are inside the EU. Packaging EPR is exempt under 50,000 kg a year.
Not legally required: product liability insurance, trade mark registration, care symbols, converting to a BV.
Read the note belowOne important distinction: insurance is not a legal obligation, but liability is. Under the Product Liability Directive we are strictly liable for a defective product whether or not we are insured, and as a VOF that liability reaches the partners personally. Insurance is protection, not compliance. Similarly, contributor rights are not a filing we make: if an artist's work goes on a garment without merchandise rights in the contract, we are simply infringing.
Merch or object. Then choose from stanleystella.com and beechfield.com so Yves can price it. He needs product references, designs, vectorised artwork, colours, sizes and quantities per size.
Yves for the November drop, Theo at 150 and at 250 to 300 so we know what we are deferring. Then this table stops saying TBC.
Yves can ship Stanley/Stella samples from Belgium in about a day. Put them next to a premium print on demand tee on the same table and decide with our hands.
This is the hard deadline for a beginning of November delivery. Artwork, label design, colours, sizes, quantities. Latest 30 September, and that is already uncomfortable.
Mailers, tissue, stickers, postcards, label printer. Small quantities, tiered pricing, nothing custom moulded.
UPV Textiel registration, the label content brief for Yves, insurance, and the shop's legal pages. None of it depends on which supplier we pick, so none of it should wait. Detail on the previous slide.
The website is the next workstream, not this one. Outline on the following slide.
Not a full scope, an outline so we know what we are committing to when we get there. Shopify at roughly €32 a month, which also handles VAT, OSS reporting and the legal bits.
Open before the launch. Catches everyone who cannot come, and shows us the size mix before we commit the reorder.
EssentialWhen a size sells out, leave it up with a button instead of taking it down. Captures the people with the strongest intent.
EssentialIssue plus tee as one product. A second item costs almost nothing more to ship and puts the magazine in the hands of people who came for the merch.
High valueProper photography, fabric weight stated, a real size guide with measurements. At this price people need to know what they are getting.
Needs the shootCancellation button, already law since 19 June. Returns policy, terms, privacy, cookie consent, VAT inclusive prices. Plus iDEAL at checkout, which is not optional in the Netherlands.
Day oneAt checkout with consent, on the notify me button, and via a QR code at the event. This is what makes the second drop easier than the first.
Day onePrint on demand connects to Shopify with a free app, so the always on products need no extra build. Only the drop needs pre order functionality.
Small enough that being wrong is survivable. Specific enough that we learn something either way. Print on demand keeps the shop alive in between, and we pack it from home until that stops being possible.
Client list includes Paléo, Montreux Jazz and Caprices. Makes caps, socks, cycling jerseys, bum bags, beach towels, keyrings, football shirts. Techniques: embroidery, screen print, 3D relief print, rubber patches.
| What he said | What it means for us | |
|---|---|---|
| Route A, blanks | Buys Stanley/Stella and Beechfield direct, stock in Belgium, customised in Poland or Portugal, usually Poland. | Our route Premium blanks, EU customisation, no customs. |
| Minimums, Route A | Genuinely small. His example: 5 caps each in 5 colours, one embroidery colour. | Matches a 50 piece event. This is what makes the pilot possible. |
| Route B, own production | Portugal, 200 to 300 per colour. 300 black can carry 3 different designs. Sizes not an issue once patterns exist. | The Theo equivalent. Same commitment, same reason to defer. |
| Woven labels | Minimum 200 to 300, "not expensive", leftovers kept for next time. Doubled, slipped into the opened collar, restitched. | Make one label that works on tee, cap, beanie and tote. Order once, use for years. |
| Label alternative | 3D relief screen print that reads like a label. | Cheaper option if the woven minimum is awkward. |
| Pricing shape | "Exponential." Fewer pieces means much higher unit cost: digitising, embroidery time, label application all get spread thin. | We need the quote before committing to quantities, not after. |
| Samples | He orders on his account and ships to us. We pay. Stock in Belgium, roughly one day by courier. | Fast. We can have Stanley/Stella in hand this week. |
| Timeline | Email with designs this week, everything confirmed 15 September, delivery beginning November. "With products like these we are on time, no problem." | Beginning of November, not mid, so we have buffer before the launch. |
| Packaging | Does not supply it. Source locally in NL, BE or FR. His Portugal supplier needs 1,800 minimum because of the cutting dies. | Ours to solve. See the packaging slide. |
| Product advice | Do not do a cheap tote: "it ends up in the bag with the 83 other rubbish totes." Suggested hand fans at €4 to €5 as a high impact cheap item. | Start with tee and cap. Fans are a nice event giveaway idea for later. |
An email with product references picked from stanleystella.com and beechfield.com, the designs, vectorised artwork, the label design if our designer can do it, plus colours, sizes and quantities per size. Then he prices it precisely. His words: take the time, get the quantities and sizes right, do not rush it.
Still needed: actual prices, and confirmation of the woven label minimum and cost.
Not a factory: an agent with a circle of Greek factories. Cut and sew from fabric, not printing on ready made blanks. Ten years working with Stiglet in the Netherlands, which is how we found him.
| What he said | What it means for us | |
|---|---|---|
| Production | Design, cutting, dyeing, printing, embroidery all in Greece. Sewing only in Bulgaria, North Macedonia or Albania. Invoiced from Greece. | 0% duty All EU. No customs, no origin paperwork. |
| Minimum order | 250 to 300 per style, across all sizes. Smaller runs possible with roughly 30% surcharge. | Too much for a first drop. This is the reason to defer him. |
| Dye minimum | 250 pieces per colour. Two colours 500, three 750. Sizes irrelevant. | White for drop one avoids it: white is bleached, not dyed. |
| Labels and tags | All possible. Minimum roughly 1,000 to 2,000. Shablon €150, about €250 with extras. | Higher label minimum than Yves, who quoted 200 to 300. |
| Branded polybag | Minimum 5,000. | Out of reach. Plain recycled bag plus our own sticker. |
| Caps | Does not do them. "Caps are China, they are cheap, we are expensive." | Yves solves caps in the same conversation as tees. |
| Fulfilment | No. Ships the whole batch to us. | Same as Yves. We pack either way. |
| Lead time | Confirmed by 15 September for beginning of November. Dye house opened 1 September. | Same deadline as Yves, tighter process. |
| Reorder | Three to four weeks. | Fast enough to restock between events. |
| Shipping | We pay. Courier by air for small runs, truck at 10 boxes plus. Daily trucks to Holland. He said FOB. | FOB is a sea term, so we need the actual handover point confirmed. |
Keep him. Everything about the production is right, the volume is not. When a drop proves we can clear 300 of one style, he is the obvious next call, and the quote we requested tells us what that step would cost.
Quote requested at 150 and at 250 to 300, with the small order surcharge broken out separately.
Cadence still to confirm. This assumes the issue launches plus two to four other moments in the year. Estimates, not forecasts.
| Issue launches only | Launches + 2 events | Launches + 4 events | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Selling moments | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Sold at events | ~100 units | ~200 units | ~300 units |
| Sold online | ~20 units | ~60 units | ~150 units |
| Total units a year | ~120 | ~260 | ~450 |
| Revenue incl. VAT | ~€5,400 | ~€11,700 | ~€20,250 |
| Contribution | ~€2,300 | ~€5,000 | ~€8,600 |
| Still to come out of that | Samples, the shoot, Shopify at ~€384 a year, storage, insurance, returns and any unsold stock | ||
| Production needed | 150 units, once | 150 units, reorder once | 150 units, reorder twice |
| Newsletter needed | Not really | A few hundred | 1,000 plus |
The difference between the first column and the third is not the supplier and it is not the product. It is how many moments we create in a year, and whether we have a list to tell about them. In the first column, after a shoot, this is roughly a break even brand exercise.
Contribution recalculated at the Yves estimate of €19.40 at events and €17.63 online. Online units assume a warm list.
Most of the legal burden is ours, but these six sit on his side of the line and are cheap to get wrong.
| What to ask | Why it matters | |
|---|---|---|
| The label swap | If our woven label replaces the Stanley/Stella one, where do the fibre composition and size end up? | Composition is legally required. It usually moves to a side seam label. If it is simply removed, the garment is non compliant. |
| Label language | Can the composition label read in Dutch, and English alongside it? | Dutch is required for our market. English covers the rest of the EU in practice, though strictly each market wants its own language. |
| GOTS chain of custody | Is your Polish customiser itself GOTS certified? | Critical. Stanley/Stella blanks are GOTS certified, but if the printer or embroiderer is not, the finished garment cannot be sold or labelled as GOTS. We could still say "made with organic cotton", but not use the logo. |
| GPSR details | Can the woven label or a hang tag carry our name, address, email and a batch reference, or do we add that ourselves? | It has to be somewhere on the product or packaging. Cheaper to put it on a tag we are already printing. |
| Which entity invoices us | You are Swiss, but the goods move Belgium to Poland to Amsterdam. Which company invoices us, from which country, and do you have an EU VAT number? | The goods never leave the EU, so there is no customs. But a Swiss entity invoicing a Dutch entity for EU goods needs checking, or we get a VAT surprise at the first invoice. |
| Care symbols | Will the garment carry standard wash and care symbols? | Not legally required, but customers expect them at €45 and their absence reads as cheap. |
The GOTS question. Stanley/Stella is a big part of why we would choose these blanks, and the certification does not survive an uncertified printer. If Yves's Poland partner is certified, we can put the logo on the tag and mean it. If not, we adjust the wording now rather than after 150 tees are printed.
None of this changes the recommendation. It changes what goes on the label and what we can honestly claim in the product copy.
The revised EU Product Liability Directive applies to products placed on the market after 9 December 2026, with Member States required to have national rules in place by then. It widens who can be held liable to include importers, own brand sellers, fulfilment providers and platforms. Our first run lands right around that date.
What I would do: not let this hold up the pilot. Run the first drop as a VOF with product liability insurance in place, and look at the BV again once we know whether merch works. Worth 30 minutes with an accountant. This is not legal or tax advice.
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