Happy Trends Tuesday!

My first encounter with a sewing machine — an ancient Butterfly with a table and a foot pedal — was during a summer at grandma's house. 

Funny enough, Andre Chin also picked up sewing while summerin' with his gran. 

Now, I didn't actually learn to sew, but Andre is already a sewist-creator-entrepreneur with 280k+ YouTube subscribers. 

To unpack his success, and understand why sewing is so in fashion, I'm dedicating this email to the art of the threads. 🧵

In today's email…

• Opportunities to cash in on the billion-dollar sewing boom
• Money truths and business tips from a sewing YouTube creator making $300k a year
• What we’re surfin’, from the tattoo business to the alleged death of SEO

Let's dive in!

🛒 WHY PEOPLE BUY

Get a grip on why people click, subscribe, and purchase. Read the 2024 Consumer Trends Report for all the juicy facts, stats, and summaries. 

🚀 WHERE TO BUILD NEXT

Sewing machines? More like cash printing machines

Thanks to my husband’s newfound passion in sewing, we’re now the proud owners of a Singer heavy duty sewing machine… 

… and contributors to its $600k monthly sales on Amazon. 

We’re not alone – “arts, crafts and sewing” sales went up 27% from 2023 to 2024, the highest growth of all major Amazon product categories. 

Source: Subreddit Stats

The pandemic might have something to do with it, but as DIY fashion and thrifting becomes the norm for young consumers, sewing is getting serious traction:  

• Search volume for “sewing machine” hits 301k/mo. globally, per Ahrefs
• #sewingtiktok has 615k+ posts and views in the hundred millions
• The sewing subreddit has 1.4m+ subscribers

Heck, even Taylor Swift sews, and you know how everything she touches turns into cold, hard cash. 

Sewing (Tailor’s Version). Source: YouTube

Here are some opportunities to get in on this trend: 

E-commerce

Make a buck by selling sewing components, from machines to threads to patterns. 

The global sewing machine market reached $6.8B in 2023. Even the sewing threads market reached $2.2B this year. 

Consider selling portable mini machines to beginners. This model does $180k/month on Amazon, per Jungle Scout. Partner with suppliers from China or Vietnam to lower costs. 

Or, source and curate uniquely colored threads, and market them like an eyeshadow or nail color palette. Give’em trendy, sexy names like Kylie Jenner would, and hire sewing influencers to promote them on social media. 

Imagine these, but sewing threads. Source: Pinterest 

You can also go digital and make sewing pattern PDFs, like this bestselling bundle on Etsy with 250+ looks. The shop sells patterns with an average price of $5 – with 128k+ sales, the owner has raked in at least $643k in revenue.

Educational content

Mixed reality headsets can now teach you how to play the piano. It’s not hard to imagine folks learning how to sew on these devices, too. 

You can develop an app for Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest 3 that focuses on sewing education, like how to thread a machine, or how to sew specific fabrics.

If there’s an app that guides me through each part of the machine via augmented reality, it can take my money (or whatever’s left after I get a headset). 

Prefer to stay in 2D and make video tutorials? Try to find a sub-niche as the sewing 101 space is getting crowded. Make your name by teaching people how to sew:

• Costumes from movies and TV shows
• Clothing from specific time periods, like Victorian or Renaissance
• Trendy pieces in styles like streetwear, girlcore, or Harajuku fashion

Keep reading to see other creative business opportunities on sewing that brands are well-positioned to tap into.

🪡 OPERATOR WISDOM

This sewing YouTube creator makes $300k a year — here's how

Remember Andre Chin, the sewist/creator/entrepreneur I just told you about? 

I was so intrigued by his content that I caught up with him for a chat.

This laid-back Asian Millennial from Toronto isn't your typical sewist, but his channel, Glory Allan, amassed 280k+ followers, over 60% of which are Gen Z and Millennial men. 

Source: YouTube

Andre started sewing in 2016 after staying at his grandma’s house with no Internet for an entire summer.

In 2020, with some sewing experience under his belt, he combined his two passions of stitching – fabrics and videos, and created the channel.

With beginner-friendly tutorials, a well defined niche, and his unique persona, Andre's now a pro at turning content into revenue. 💰

How he makes money 

Andre monetizes his video content in three ways:

• Shopify store sales
• Brand sponsorships (he’s worked with big brands like Adobe and Shopify)
• YouTube Adsense

He makes $250k+ a year from his Shopify store, the majority of his income. He sells physical products like sewing kits, tools and branded merch, as well as digital goods like sewing patterns bundles. 

He and two other teammates buy all the fabric, cut them, and assemble them into bundles with sewing patterns, threads, and all the other elements needed. 

His most popular product is the bucket hat DIY kit – the video tutorial for which got just under 1m views.

The videos are not only a funnel for people to discover his e-commerce business, but also a crucial pairing for his DIY kits. 

Source: gloryallan.com

Brand sponsorships and YouTube ads are his secondary revenue streams, totaling $50k+ per year. But his priority is making more content, dropping new products, and building a viable long-term business.

Andre has four pieces of advice for any aspiring content creator who wants to own an e-commerce business:

1. Don't sleep on SEO

2. Organize and outsource

3. Take care of your image

4. Go all in, but only when you're ready

Keep reading to get the details of his battle-tested tips!

🗂️ OPEN TABS

🤡 Clown math: Money lessons and career tips from a circus performer

🤔 From X: How to improve your chance of getting that first million...or $10m

🖊️ Inked: How this CEO uses tattoos to win over customers

🪦 RIP, SEO?: Here are 5 ideas to keep your biz alive as search heads into the future