Somewhere between TikTok finance content and DTC case study roundups, a number got lodged in the heads of emerging apparel founders: 70% gross margin.
The problem with that number is where it lives.
Seventy percent is a mature brand metric, earned after years of customer trust, retail presence, and repeat purchasing behaviour.
Applying it to a first collection is like measuring a seedling against a canopy tree and declaring it a failure.
TikTok Said 70%. Your First Customer Doesn’t Care
A new brand has no audience, no proof of quality, and no track record. Its job at that stage is to get the product into people’s hands and begin building the kind of trust that turns a one-time buyer into a repeat one.
Price resistance is the enemy of that process.
“Don’t try to have an 80% margin out the gate,” says Benjamin Massing, whose manufacturing operation at The Massing Group has worked across the full range of brand stages. “Take a 25% margin. Get in with the customer, gain their trust, let them feel the goods, let them understand there’s quality there, and now you have someone paying attention to you.”
Repeat customers spend 67% more in their third year than they did in their first six months with an online apparel brand. The margin lost on an accessible entry price gets recovered, with interest, once the relationship is established.
Closet Space Is the Real Currency
A garment that earns a permanent place in someone’s rotation is worth far more than the transaction that put it there.
It gets worn, seen, and remarked on. It becomes part of how that person presents themselves, which means it’s doing brand work every time it leaves the house. You want real estate in people’s closets and drawers, and you want the kind of quality behind the product that earns that placement.
Benjamin Massing says, “Make price less of a resistance.” The goal, he adds, is simple. “You want real estate in people’s closets.”
Community is the Product
True loyalty, the deep, trust-based connection brands aspire to, fell to 29% in 2025, a 5% drop from 2024.
In an environment where switching costs are effectively zero and the alternatives are infinite, a good product alone retains nobody. What retains people is a sense of belonging to something.
That’s not abstract. It means being present for your customer base, being willing to explain what the goods are and why they’re made the way they are, and building a brand voice that gives customers something to identify with beyond the item itself.
“Be available to educate your customer on what your product is,” Benjamin Massing says. “Brands today need a voice.”
A clothing line can have excellent construction and still be invisible. What makes a brand legible to a customer, worth following, worth paying attention to over time, is a coherent point of view that runs through everything from the product to the way it’s communicated.
Margin Follows Trust
Benjamin Massing’s advice is to come in at an accessible price point, earn the relationship, and then let the pricing evolve as the brand’s reputation does.
Founders who invert this sequence, pricing for a loyal customer before they have one, tend to find that the margin they’re protecting is protecting nothing.
60% of consumers switched from a brand they were loyal to because of cost considerations in 2025, per SAP Emarsys data.
If existing brand relationships are that price-sensitive, the idea that a new brand can charge premium prices before establishing trust deserves real scrutiny.
The margin trap is exactly that: a trap. It presents itself as financial discipline. In practice, it’s a way of optimising for a customer relationship that doesn’t yet exist.
Price for access first. Build the relationship. Then the numbers take care of themselves.
