needing advice, asked to do a collaboration but their suggested terms don't sit well with me but I'm not sure what would be considered fair. He has done collaborations before but I haven't.
We are both established long term small businesses 10+ years. I am an artist/illustrator and he is a leatherworker. He visited my studio recently and asked if I would be interested in doing a collaboration with him. He wants to use a number of my drawings and screen print them onto leather bags. He would be making the bags and also doing the screenprinting.
This is what he is proposing. That we work together on a design of the bag, he makes bags for me and he then sells them to me at wholesale pricing. I then sell them on my website and in my store. He would also sell them on his website. We would be selling them with both of our names on the label. He said we need to talk about whether I stock them or how he goes about supplying me and at what point they paid for.
I haven't replied yet but it feels like he is not placing any value on my IP (my artwork) ? It feels less like a collaboration and more like he is acting as a manufacturer that i have approached to make bags for my label. That he is suggesting that he also sells them in his online store without offering me any profit on these sales feels like the unfair bit.
Can anyone tell me how these things usually work and if his suggestion of how he sees it working is unfair as i am reading it to be? I am well known for my illustrations which is why he has approached me.
Posted Nov 5, 2025, 1:58 AM UTC