@Michael J.
Okay a couple of things here to help you out with.
First my background. I was an independent sales rep / Territory sales manager for several of the top brands in the surf skate snowboard arena, IE Burton, Spy, DC, Nixon etc. for 15 years.
Yes, you do want to get a dealer account with major brands that you want to sell. Most of the time you are going to need a physical retail location for any of the major brands to open you. Brands want to control their images and their pricing in stores and online (even though technically it is against the law for them to but if you go against them and price things at off price, your account will just be closed).
There are two avenues to purchasing goods. You will be asked to prebook your orders - Plan out and commit to a buy of goods 4 to 9 months down the road. Or What you really want though is to buy their CLOSE OUT product. This product is 10% to 70% off of the wholesale price thus gives you a potential to really earn your margins. IE the $20 Tee cost $10 @ wholesale becomes a $6 tee at 40% off. Thus making $14 on that $6 investment if sold at full price.
Now the fun begins when the companies say no to website only sales. Then you have to find out who is buying this product in bulk and reselling it to retailers such as yourself. Look online for clothing, women's clothing, shoes, men's clothing exporters and the cast of characters will begin to appear. Reach out to them and ask what they have available. You might be very surprised. One of my dealers use to take at least one shipping container of shoes a month. PM me if you have any other questions.
Cheers,
Darin
And by the way, I was in your city at the beginning of this summer, traveling through and it definitely caught my wife and mine eye. It looked like some fun things are going on there!
