Andre Chin’s not your typical sewist.
But this laid-back Asian Millennial from Toronto is the creator of Glory Allan, a sewing education YouTube channel with 280k+ subscribers.
Andre started sewing in 2016, after staying at his grandma’s house with no Internet for an entire summer.
But boredom turned into curiosity when grandma busted out a clunky sewing machine, and the rest is history.
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In 2020 he started the channel that combined his two passions of stitching – fabrics and videos. More than 300 videos later, Andre’s a pro at turning content into revenue.
What Makes Him Stand Out
As sewing becomes a trendy hobby for young people, there’s no shortage of video content in this niche. So how did Andre stand out as a creator?
🧑 Refreshing persona: Being a young, male, person of color, Andre’s face gives people intrigue because he doesn’t look like a stereotypical sewist.
🍳 Beginner-friendly tutorials: His tutorials are more slow-paced and detailed than most out there, which are helpful for beginners to learn.
🧢 Street style: His sewing patterns are modern and street-style, like boxy T-shirts, bucket hat and baggy cargo pants. Streetwear lovers tend to gravitate toward his content – over 60% of his subscribers are Gen Z and Millennial men.
📈 Societal trend: With the rising awareness of sustainable fashion, and the desire for self expression through DIY-ing, or tailoring clothes to fit their styles, more folks are seeking out channels like Andre’s.
Source: USA Today
How He Makes Money
Andre monetizes his YouTube channel 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 — by selling 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.
Brand sponsorships and YouTube ads are his secondary revenue streams, totaling $50k+ per year. Those run on autopilot, as his priority is making more content and dropping new products.
“I really want to build a business with a product that’s viable on its own, so my focus right now is on the product side, and I think it’ll always be in the long term,” Andre said.
Four Tips for Creators
Here are four pieces of advice Andre would give any content creator today:
1. Don’t sleep on SEO
As short video platforms become the new search engines, being SEO-focused is the best way to meet people who come to YouTube with learning intent.
YouTube creators should master the art of creating the “pitch,” which includes the thumbnail, title, and the overall concept of the video.
Andre occasionally posts trendy content to get a viewership boost or exposure to new audiences, but evergreen, SEO-driven content is his bread and butter.
2. Organize And Outsource
For creators who also manage the business end of things, there’s a boatload of info to keep track of on both sides.
Being organized from the get go will help you scale down the road. Use whatever tool, system or method that works for you.
For content, Andre suggests batch filming 4-5 videos at once to build a buffer. On the business side, consider outsourcing or delegating operational tasks to free up time and mental space to create.
“Once you see that the business operation is consuming 20% or 30% of your time, and it’s becoming a bottleneck to you creating more content, which is what your audience wants, then it’s a good idea to start asking for help,” Andre said.
3. Take Care of Your Image
Despite it being more than half of Gen Z’s dream career, the creator lifestyle is not all roses.
It’s a long game that can feel incredibly isolating – you’re your own manager, you gotta network with peers, find opportunities, create content, and oversee your business.
Most importantly, you gotta show up on camera, and if you don’t look good, your audience can tell.
So always take care of yourself, mentally and physically, which will shine through on your videos.
“People want to see people who are doing well. That’ll also make you more presentable, and give you the confidence and energy to create videos consistently,” Andre said.
4. Go All In… But Only When You’re Ready
Even when his channel started taking off, Andre still spent 80% of his time doing freelance work in marketing, graphic design and content creation.
It took him three years to gradually tilt that ratio and make the switch to full-time YouTuber.
“At one point you realize that you just can’t grow the channel anymore unless you dedicate that extra 10% to it,” Andre said.
According to him, deciding whether to go all in should be a balance of:
- How much success you’re seeing (making enough sales to sustain yourself)
- How much potential there is (whether your channel is growing steadily)
- Your personal tolerance for financial risk (be ready for uncertainty)
Start Now, Because Why Not?
It might take you a while to see returns like Andre’s, but with the prevalence of social shopping today, if you’ve got an itch, there’s no better time to start than now.
“Any aspiring content creator or entrepreneur should take advantage of these social and e-commerce platforms we have today, and the amount of digital exposure you can get,” Andre said. “It all boils down to creating value or connection with your viewers and customers.”
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