Just Opened Up Shop -- Knot Tied Down -- Would Love Feedback!

[Dandy Doyle]

Hey Dandy Doyle,

Great advice on the base colors, and thanks a bunch for the visual. What types of materials to you prefer in pocket squares? You can PM me if you prefer.

I’m going to PM you in a moment with a code, thanks again.

Ryan

Ryan,

silk is by far the best material for a pocket square.
For me personally and many others - since the quality cannot be fully judged over the internet
the main indicator of quality is material for judgement. Silk is the best material for pocket squares
and even seeing the name of it would probably increase customer sales and allow for better made
pocket squares.

[TartanMan]

Hi TartanMan (love the name, btw),

Thanks for the comments and words of encouragement. Length of ties is something we are looking into. We try to accommodate everyone, but of course being a small shop, we just don’t have the resources right now to do so. Keep following us though as we evolve and expand.

Excellent choices on the bow ties. Both approximately measure:

Height: 2.5” (tied); 2.75” (untied)
Width (i.e. spread): 4.5”

Anyway, hope that helps. I’m sending you a PM with a code in a moment.

Cheers!

Ryan

Hey Ryan,

I completely understand regarding the tie length. Being a new company I realize you can't accommodate everyone at the beginning, but I hope as you grow you'll consider adding a line of shorter ties.

Thanks for the info on the bowties (and the discount code). I actually decided to purchase the Cambridge bowtie, since my collection of bowties is very small, so I'll be sure to add a review and some pics to this thread when it arrives.

Frank

[Knot Tied Down]

Your prices are perfect but your current styles aren't the best but are good.

For me I do like pocket squares but your patterns are a bit too loud.
Going to base colors like White, Cream, Red, Gold is always a good place to start.

If you're wanting more patterned I recommend just going for plain colored white
pocket squares with a colored border like a brown, blue, red border would work
perfect and I would gladly buy some if you had some.
Examples:

Hey Dandy Doyle,

Great advice on the base colors, and thanks a bunch for the visual. What types of materials to you prefer in pocket squares? You can PM me if you prefer.

I’m going to PM you in a moment with a code, thanks again.

Ryan

[Knot Tied Down]

I checked out the site and there were a couple of ties that caught my eye in both the bowties and neckties. The width of the neckties is good for me; most of my ties range from 2.75"-3". However, the 60" length of the neckties is too long for me. I'm short (5'3") and a 60" tie would leave a lot of extra tie to tuck into my pants. I would suggest eventually adding a line of ties at a short length (54"-56"), or even just making your main line ties a couple inches shorter. Even at the low price point, I would not be willing to buy a tie at that length. I would also like to see the width of the bowties, and I'd be interested in buying one. The Cambridge and the Monday Blues caught my eye in particular.

Congrats on starting up your business and good luck.

Hi TartanMan (love the name, btw),

Thanks for the comments and words of encouragement. Length of ties is something we are looking into. We try to accommodate everyone, but of course being a small shop, we just don’t have the resources right now to do so. Keep following us though as we evolve and expand.

Excellent choices on the bow ties. Both approximately measure:

Height: 2.5” (tied); 2.75” (untied)
Width (i.e. spread): 4.5”

Anyway, hope that helps. I’m sending you a PM with a code in a moment.

Cheers!

Ryan

[Dandy Doyle]

Your prices are perfect but your current styles aren't the best but are good.

For me I do like pocket squares but your patterns are a bit too loud.
Going to base colors like White, Cream, Red, Gold is always a good place to start.

If you're wanting more patterned I recommend just going for plain colored white
pocket squares with a colored border like a brown, blue, red border would work
perfect and I would gladly buy some if you had some.
Examples:

[TartanMan]

I checked out the site and there were a couple of ties that caught my eye in both the bowties and neckties. The width of the neckties is good for me; most of my ties range from 2.75"-3". However, the 60" length of the neckties is too long for me. I'm short (5'3") and a 60" tie would leave a lot of extra tie to tuck into my pants. I would suggest eventually adding a line of ties at a short length (54"-56"), or even just making your main line ties a couple inches shorter. Even at the low price point, I would not be willing to buy a tie at that length. I would also like to see the width of the bowties, and I'd be interested in buying one. The Cambridge and the Monday Blues caught my eye in particular.

Congrats on starting up your business and good luck.

[Knot Tied Down]

Hey krad54 (sorry I missed you yesterday), evanparker, GWL3, Ttysonmcneely and Alex.C (thanks for info on the iPad mini),

Thanks for your comments. I’m hearing you guys loud and clear. More variety in sizes, colors and patterns and more objective information. I’m PMing each of you with discount codes for your time and thoughts. Thank you also for your words of encouragement.

Cheers!

Ryan

[Alex.C]

Agreeing with most others here, website looks good, and seems user friendly, both on my iPad mini and my laptop. Selection is decent, but I'm far from a cotton tie guy. Will definitely pick up a couple of your pocket squares though. Looking forward to seeing your silk tie selections.

Good luck on your endeavor!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Ttysonmcneely]

I agree with most of what has already been said.

Website layout is great, easy to navigate and clean.

I love the 2.75" width, that is my ideal size.

The designs/colors, I'm not really a fan of. I don't think I'd buy any of the ties currently offered, they are a bit too out there for me. I know you are looking for "fun" ties, but some of the designs such as red contrast medallion, I find quite garish and ugly. I would wear light blue contrast tartan and red tartan, but probably not something I would buy. Seersucker ties don't really do it for me, I'm struggling to think of an occasion where I could wear them. Wedding or maybe a derby party, but I feel like there would be better options for ties.

I'm not a big fan of the pocket squares, I don't like the paisley and silk patterned ones. Pink polka dot is not my cup of tea, but it looks pretty good and I could see that looking good with the right outfit.

I'm not a big bowtie guy, but your "fun" designs seem to look better on the bowties.

I'm not sure if I'm your target demographic, I'm a 34 yr old man. I find a lot of the product a little too out there for me. If you sold something like a silk sky blue chambray tie for a reasonable price, I'd definitely give it a shot, but I'm not sure if a tie like that would be too conservative for you or not. I have nothing against bold colors, etc, but the designs aren't really doing it for me.

[GWL3]

First off, congratulations and good luck to you. Like most here, it would be nice to see a wider selection of ties especially solids (red, navy, black, ect.) 60in. length for ties seems a bit long to me. I always thought most ties were either 57in. or 58in. and the extra long were 60in. Would also like so see more solid color pocket squares or white with a trim.

Having a larger selection of tie bars in both 1.5" and 2" I feel will be beneficial.

The midnight blue and red tartan tie looks very appealing, especially with fall approaching. i also like the fact that the website is easy to navigate.

[evanparker]

You don't have any information on how thick the blade of the tie is, or how your bartacks are finished, or how the margin and tipping are handled. you should definitely have pictures of each tie's rear side, the tags and keeper styles. ties are right up front and personal with everyone i meet, so i don't want to have some poor tie with bright pink tipping and a piece of ribbon for a keeper all showing everyone how cheap I am.

All the bowties are missing information about their width, and the profile of the ends. You also need should have a picture of them flat, both sides. You need information on what variety of adjuster your ties have, and how it works on the bowties.

i feel like it's not responsible to leave off what country the ties were manufactured in.

You should have a page about how the ties are constructed. You need to tell about what kind of inner lining your ties use, and how they drape.

In the internet clothing business these days the burden is on you to provide all of the information people want to see about an object. Quite simply, since they can't see the object, you need to tell them about it. Besides that, since people see so many other places that they already know where they can buy ties and other do-dads all day, the burden is on you to have detailed information on your website. Why would I try a place when I know 10 places i have accounts with already? right I wouldn't.

You having a terse or incomplete description will lose you lots of business.

[Knot Tied Down]

The site is well laid out and easy to navigate.

The 2 inch lapel pins seem WAY too large for most people (the 1.5 inch are better, but still pushing it for me).

The tie-bars look like novelty items; I can't see anyone wearing them seriously or in a work environment.

As a non-everyday tie wearer, who prefers slimmer ties, I like the width, but don't have much use for or need of cotton ties; you mention Monday-Friday ties, and these all strike me as Friday or casual wedding ties, not something I'd wear for normal work day or more formal events. The knots in the photos look sloppy. How a tie knots up is one of its selling points, and these knots don't sell the tie.

At your price point, I'm a solid target, I don't normally spend money on ties because I wear them so infrequently, but that doesn't mean I want all my ties to be "fun." I like the patterns on the bow ties much more than the regular ties, but I'm not s big bow tie guy.

How are the ties constructed? I assume the worst without being told when they're $12 each.

The pocket squares are all a bit busy for me; I agree with the idea of color edged white squares being something to look at.

Not a personal fan of the English Laundry socks, but I did see them at Nordstrom Rack recently for more money than you're charging.

Shipping rates seem fair.

Hi BillN,

Glad to hear that the site is easy to navigate. I came up with tons of renditions before I decided on the present one. As for lapel pins, we only have one 2 inch lapel pin, the rest are 1.5 inch. Of course everyone has their own preference, but I personally think a 1.5" - 2" lapel pin is subtly noticeable, but not so minute that you can't notice it without being up close (again my personal opinion, not trying to sell ya...ha). As for our tie variety, as I said above, we'll be getting more business appropriate ties this week. I'll drop you a line to let you know when we get them, thanks again and PM will be sent.

Ryan

[Knot Tied Down]

I think you have some nice looking ties. The background is a little annoying, especially in close proximity to the merchandise pictures though.

Is the seersucker tie just a striped tie, or is there some actual pucker to the fabric? You might want a close up shot in any case.

I know this is not going to be popular with the Dappered audience, but I think you should raise your prices. With such a low price, I'm very skeptical about quality. Unfortunately, there is nothing on your site that addresses the quality of your ties. That's a huge red flag to me. If you do good work, then why not talk about it? Where are they made? What kind of lining do you use? How are they folded? There's no way I would buy any of your ties until I see lots of positive reviews. The fact that I have to pay for return shipping makes me even more skeptical.

I don't want to discourage you, but you might consider offering more information about your products to assure people that your ties won't fall apart after one or two wears. When a business doesn't volunteer information, then I assume the worst. For example, shoes that are made from "leather" are almost always corrected grain. If you use full grain leather, then you should say so. Some well established businesses can get away with not saying this because that information is easy to find elsewhere. Low cost doesn't equal value. Value is exceptional quality for the price level. I just need some assurance that you put as much effort into constructing your ties as you do in selecting them.

Hi Alex1,

Thanks for the review. Price is important to us because we want to keep it at a point that makes it affordable to our target audience. But a lower price does not necessarily mean worse quality than what you're used to. Of course these aren't seven fold of the heaviest silk weight. But in our case, because our overhead is low(er), we're passing savings on to our customers. Aside from that, I completely agree with the more objective info comment, and that will be forthcoming. Anyway, sending you a PM in a moment, thanks again for you comments!

[Knot Tied Down]

I completely agree with those that immediately thought "The Tie Bar", as the ties also remind me of those. It seems that you are competing on price. With respect to the idea of offering a smaller selection to make shopping quicker, in the Tie Bar's defense, in 2 clicks you can display all of their solid blue ties. Two more clicks and you have the width of your choice and the material.

All in all, it's good to have more competition in the market place. However, for me personally, I've moved away from both ties that are less than 3" wide, as well as ties that are on the lower-end. I also have little use for cotton ties. Good luck to your business and I wish you all the best.

Hi Spex,

Thanks for the comments. Yes, size is one of our research points right now. We want to carry different sizes in the future, but 2.75" is kind of our starting off point. I'm sending you a PM with a code now, thanks again!

[Knot Tied Down]

Will you be bringing in regular white pocket squares, preferably with colored edges? I wouldn't mind picking up white pocket squares with the following colored edges: burgundy, grey, forest green, black (I already have a navy one, but you should offer that as well).

Also navy ties with polka dots in a variety of colors (light blue, white, grey, pink, etc) would be something I'd also be interested in.

For tie bars, matte tie bars and a tie bar in silver. Like the previous poster, they're a bit too bright for my tastes. Almost clownish.

Hi devastitis,

Pocket squares are one area that we need to increase our inventory. Our focus has been ties to get an understanding of our clients' preferences, but thanks for letting us know your tastes, we'll keep it in mind for the future. PM with a code will be sent in a moment, thanks!