Offbrand Market Full?

I was talking about this with my boyfriend the other day. I'm sure many of us remember In the Starlight and Candy Violet, and numerous other western indie labels. I was part of the design team for Cirque a few years back. It also seems like another one pops up on the comm every week! But, I don't really hear about them after the initial announcement. Most of them seem to fade away within half a year. Do you guys think the market is just full? Or is there something that keeps them from staying around? I've considered getting involved in a similar project again, but I want to know what the community thinks about the success of western indie brands.

Some reasons:

- Start up costs/time are underestimated
- Mass-production problems
- (in the case of Cirque) Inability to communicate with overseas manufacturers
- The community is used to seeing them appear and fall, so they don't pay them much attention
- Past scams

Discuss.

Anyone who's having success in these kinds of things, I'd love to hear about it.