t2t2

Gabor Cselle

Gabor Cselle
Gabor Cselle
@gabor
New addition: bought this thermal printer for my wife @ericakochi’s order fulfillment. It’s cheap and cheerful and a whole lot faster than cutting and taping shipping labels.
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Gabor Cselle
Gabor Cselle
@gabor
New in Google Docs app: “Create with voice” (in the plus button in bottom right on iOS, in top bar on Android)

Give it a try. Team did a great job on this.
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Gabor Cselle
Gabor Cselle
@gabor
Our Spruce Goose office is sooo nice

Except I can’t find any of the meeting rooms. Slowly learning.
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Gabor Cselle
Gabor Cselle
@gabor
Erica also started making me some button-down shirts from interesting fabrics to "put an end to all the J Crew shirts" in my wardrobe.
Gabor Cselle
In 2022 I attended LA Tech Week and was wearing her shirts. I got a ton of compliments and people asked where I got them
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Gabor Cselle
She pivoted to making custom shirts from small-batch fabrics.
Erica then spent a year trying to sell men custom shirts and learned one thing:
Men will not be measured. They all want to lose 10 pounds first.
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Gabor Cselle
Late last year, the plan switched to standard sizing, S, M, L, XL.
Next question was: Where can she get interesting fabrics?
Gabor Cselle
Erica is half Japanese and some of the best cotton in the world is woven there. Japan is also having a cultural moment so it was definitely worth running this down. She flew to Tokyo and spent the trip meeting fabric suppliers.
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Gabor Cselle
Fabrics secured, she made a mini collection this spring with just ~65 shirts total in 5 designs total, artisanally made (thanks Jim!)
She sold out most of it (thank you Meta ads!).
Gabor Cselle
She flew back to Japan, this time to find someone to actually make the shirts.
She found a factory in rural Japan:
You swap your shoes for slippers at the door.
She watched them check stitching with a magnifying glass.
That was the one.
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Gabor Cselle
Then came the unglamorous months.
Tech packs, which are basically a spec sheet for a manufacturer. Securing fabric. Hangtags and care tags. Customs brokers. Packaging.
Gabor Cselle
Then the email arrives: her shirts have landed at SFO, she has 24 hours to collect them.
Asked Gemini if our family SUV would be large enough for the 25 boxes. Gemini said no.
Erica rented a transit van from Budget and drove to the SFO customs area (a strange place).
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Gabor Cselle
Last week she shot the collection at Hyperblack Studios in LA. This week the photos came back. The shipping packaging materials are here. All systems go.
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Gabor Cselle
The mini test collection was 5 shirts. This one is 12. 600 shirts total.
Indigo checks, seigaiha waves, Mt Fuji, lotus pods, and an unreasonable number of cats.
All Japanese cotton, made in Japan, S through XL.
Gabor Cselle
If this collection sells anywhere as well as the test one, @ericakochi breaks even, and we have a real business.
Q4 is the biggest quarter in menswear because of holiday gifting.
Fingers crossed.