After more than a decade in this industry, I finally see B&C updating its basic T-shirt model, the Exact 150 (men's and women's version).
Now, this may not seem important to many, but the truth is that it makes a huge difference to us and brings us a lot of (good!) headaches.
First of all, B&C is one of my favourite promotional textile brands. I'm very critical of the direction they're taking (particularly the fiasco that was the launch of the new hooded and hoodless sweatshirts), but I worked almost exclusively with the brand for a few years, before there were better-cut options like Mukua and TH Clothes.
What was wrong with the cut of the B&C t-shirts?
Well, in a nutshell, the B&C t-shirts looked like bags of cockroaches. It's an ugly thing to say, but it's the term I used to use with clients when I showed them the options we had. None of them disagreed with me. NONE!
It was that square T-shirt where I had to - literally - wear a child's size to get a decent length and even then two of me could fit inside. They had that promotional T-shirt cut that nobody has worn since the 80s.
What's amazing to me is how they've taken so long and resisted changing (of course, we have to bear in mind that they're a Belgian brand and their market is Central Europe, where hot dogs and beer give people a more... full-bodied... effect).
In Portugal, B&C has lost a lot of market share
I can tell you - and I'm not missing much - that in 2011 we sold 95% B&C t-shirts and in 2017 we sold 2% B&C t-shirts (purely because there were colours that other brands didn't have). We completely discouraged it because we knew that we wouldn't be able to be in the market we wanted to be in if we continued to use them.
First with the entry of Mukua onto the scene (the owners of Mukua had exclusive distribution of B&C until a few years ago) and then also with TH Clothes, the options on the market have increased, with competition from T-shirts of equal or better quality, with better cuts and lower prices. But that's of little interest to B&C. After all, we are 11 million Portuguese in a universe of hundreds of millions of t-shirts that they sell every year. We are statistically insignificant.
And this new cut? What's new?
Well, the truth is that this is the most complicated question I could ask myself. I abandoned B&C in favour of an exceptional cut and very good grammage at Mukua. The problem is that since Mukua was launched, the quality of the basic T-shirts has fallen sharply year after year. As an example, in the last 3 years (2016, 2017 and now in 2018) Mukua has launched 3 different versions of the same t-shirt (MK160, MK166 and MK022). YES, it launched and withdrew the same t-shirt from the market twice in two years. It had other upper and lower range models that lasted little more than 6 months on the market until they "retired" them. Will the third time be the charm? That's for another article.
At Maudlin, we abandoned B&C in favour of a brand that we were also forced to abandon (due to the instability of the cut and quality).
We then bet on TH Clothes from 2014, having solidified the partnership in 2016 (due to the problems with Mukua), with whom we have an incredible relationship and can only recommend. It's the t-shirt we advise and sell to the vast majority of our customers, including clothing brands. It has a great cut, prints extremely well and is smooth.
The new B&C T-shirt comes with a bittersweet feeling.
That's because of all the T-shirts we sell, it's one of the ones with the best feel and finish. The weight (thickness and softness to the touch) is equally impressive.
The new cut, from the experience we've already had with T-shirts, is FINALLY adapted to the 21st century, is considered "retail ready" and is very comfortable to wear.
The differences are obvious. Let's look at the sleeve and the width. You can clearly see that it's a T-shirt that can be sold, not just for cleaning the car or sleeping in.
Your problem and what we will now have to overcome is all the negative publicity that has been given to the brand (including by us) to all customers.
It's a job that will take years to complete and even we don't yet know exactly what our sales representative will be when it comes to these t-shirts.
The truth is one. B&C is BACK! being a player in basic promotional textiles and making our lives more complicated by giving our customers yet another option to choose from.