Manufacturing Considerations

While working through our feasibility plan Adrianto and I have spent some time working on estimating the manufacturing costs for our raincoat.  This has been a bit challenging because the final design of our raincoat is still several iterations away however we have uncovered some interesting insights so far. 

First has been how manufacturing costs can vary so widely depending on what county you are buying from.  When I say this I don’t mean manufacturing costs vary depending on whether your manufacturer resides in the United States versus China, that much is obvious.  Rather I am referring to the location where you are originating as the buyer.  For example we first started our search for a raincoat manufacturer simply by typing in ‘rain suites’ into the suppliers search on Alibaba.com.  Immediately this brought back several manufacturers from all over the world.  The cheapest manufacturers were usually from China and quoting $5-$10 per rain suite.  This immediately was alarming to us because we are shooting for a $20 price point for our rain suites in Indonesia and already sending $5-$10 to the manufacturer doesn’t leave much room for an attractive margin.  Feeling a bit defeated we then decided to search for ‘jas hujan’ (Indonesian for rain coat) in the suppliers search on Alibaba and immediately we saw results again from manufacturers in China but now quoting $1-$2 per rain suite!  As interesting as it is that the price for buying the same product from China changes depending on whether you are buying from the United States or Indonesia, the good news is that the $1-$2 price range gives us something we can work with.  Sourcing directly from a supplier in Indonesia is not yet something we have fully considered however it would be our goal to partner with a local manufacturer in an effort to champion local support for our brand and save money on import tax.

Next, protecting the intellectual property for a new raincoat design has been something we have been considering.  Amber posted a very helpful article How to Defend Your Design Against Knockoffs that mentioned a couple of things I found encouraging.  One, being the first to market is a great way to protect your design.  This is exactly what we aim to be in the space for motorcyclist raincoats.  By attaching a strong brand identify to our raincoat design we will solidify our product in the minds of consumers as the first (and hopefully the best) in the space for motorcyclist raincoats.  Second the article mentions “if you have a really authentic look and feel, your brand will protect itself.”  Good design is always hard to replicate and this is something we are going to shoot for although I think it can be quite challenging. 

Last I find myself asking, realistically would anyone actually want to knockoff a raincoat for motorcyclist?  Compared to the other megabrands that one could knockoff, I’m thinking of everything from technology (Microsoft) to fashion (Louis Vuitton), which represent a much bigger market why would anyone go after a small time social venture making raincoats.  However at the end of the day even if the threat of imitators is low I think it still makes sense to plan for the worst case scenario.