到1913年为止，在纽约，共有1600家独立的服装公司。大多都类似于路易斯位于Sheriff街的店铺。

　　"The threshold for getting involved in the business was very low.

　　“服装生意的起点很低。

　　It was basically a business built on the sewing machine, and sewing machines don't cost that much," says Daniel Soyer, a historian who has written widely on the garment industry.

　　这种生意基本上只要有一架缝纫机就可以了，并且缝纫机的费用通常很低。”一名在写作上广泛涉及服装行业的历史学家丹尼尔.索耶说到，

　　"So you didn't need a lot of capital.

　　“因此你不需要很多资金。

　　And at the turn of the twentieth century, it was probably fifty dollars to buy a machine or two.

　　在进入20世纪时，大概花费50美元你就可以买一架或是二架缝纫机。

　　All you had to do to be a contractor was to have a couple sewing machines, some irons, and a couple of workers.

　　如果你想成为一个小合同商，你所要做的就是买一两架缝纫机，一些熨斗并雇用几个工人。

　　The profit margins were very low but you could make some money."

　　尽管利润非常低，但是你还是可以赚到一些钱。”

　　Listen to how Borgenicht describes his decision to expand beyond aprons:

　　来听听路易斯做出拓展业务范围这个决定的原因：

　　"From my study of the market, I knew that only three men were making children's dresses in 1890.

　　在对市场进行一番研究之后，我得知在1890年只有三个人在做童装生意。

　　One was an East Side tailor near me, who made only to order, while the other two turned out an expensive product with which I had no desire at all to compete.

　　一个是与我近邻的东边裁缝。他只接收订单。而另外两个只做高档商品，这恰恰是我所不感兴趣的领域。

　　I wanted to make "popular price" stuff- wash dresses, silks, and woolens.

　　我只想出售一些“价格受欢迎”的商品，比如水洗服装、丝绸和羊毛衫。

　　It was my goal to produce dresses that the great mass of the people could afford, dresses that would, from the business angle, sell equally well to both large and small, city and country stores.

　　我的目标是生产一些大多数人可以消费的商品，或者从商业的角度来说，可以出售一些无论是在大城市或是小城市乃至乡村都可以有很好的销路的商品。

　　With Regina's help, she always had excellent taste and judgement, I made up a line of samples.

　　瑞吉娜非常有品味，同时对服装市场的判断很准确，借助于瑞吉娜的帮助，我制作了一系列的样品，

　　Displaying them to all my "old" customers and friends, I hammered home every point- my dresses would save mothers endless work, the materials and sowing were as good and probably better than anything could be done at home, the price was right for quick disposal.

　　并向我所有的老客户和朋友展示了这些样品。我同他们强调了很多细节，比如说，我的服装可以省却母亲们很多永无休止的针线活，布料的质量和做工都非常优良并且有的甚至还比家里的做工还好，价位也十分具有吸引力。