Whether providing 20 pieces to an independent boutique or selling hundred plus item line to a major retailer, knowing what to expect when dealing with contractors is essential to having a proficient design business. FABRIC: Lead times on ordering bulk fabrics can work one of two ways. It can either be for immediate delivery (or nearly so, within 2 weeks or so) or for planned (seasonal) delivery.
1. If using a fabric from a vendor’s stock program aka “continuity” purchasing, communicate closely with the vendor so you don’t get caught in an inventory lull. Be sure to tell the appointed sales rep at the mill when you anticipate needing the goods. If the goods are in stock (and they usually are with stock programs), a designer should be able to get goods delivered within a week or two at most.
2. If buying goods for planned or seasonal delivery, be advised that just as manufacturers (designers) design seasonal products, so do mills. If after sampling and market dates close, not enough vendors wanted fabrics prototyped for a given season, those won’t be produced. These are called drops. Again, ongoing communication is key. Typically, those goods will have planned delivery dates usually commencing four to six weeks prior to when manufacturing would have to start to make delivery of finished goods for a given season. If a fabric you’d wanted to use is dropped, you’ll have to move fast to make substitutions or you’ll also have to drop the style and advise your buyers. While buyers don’t like drops, they’re used to it because it happens all the time.
A sample of the design, made of the anticipated fabric, should take about a week. If one is making the pattern or having it made by a service, it depends on in-house scheduling. In other words, just because one can make a pattern in a day or less, doesn’t mean you’ll get it then. If one makes their own pattern, it doesn’t mean the contractor can use it. Typically, there are problems with it; it hasn’t been made according to the specifications of the contractor’s equipment
TRIMMINGS: Designers should have the capacity to do this in house, separate and apart from the question. Tagging guns are inexpensive. Regardless, “tag and bag” is something a contractor will do for a customer for a separate fee.
FINISHINGS: (Garment wash, special applications like fades etc.) You want to either select a contractor who has established relationships with other contractors who provide finishing or, you want to select your finishing contractor to be geographically close to you. The contractor and can arrange delivery to and fro but keep in mind that takes extra time.
QUALITY CONTROL: QC is done in two steps. One, it goes through QC at the factory. They shouldn’t ship anything that doesn’t pass. In most plants, it is done at the tale end of sewing and takes a matter of minutes per garment. Note: Until the contractor is proven to be consistent, you should inspect everything that comes in the door before you ship it to your customers. How long does it take you to inspect a garment? Again, it should only be a matter of minutes. The problem lies administratively. If something fails, you need to process the paperwork and return it to the contractor for repair. That takes considerably longer. Repairs are tedious for anyone. Even if it’s just a little thing, expect repairs to take as long as it took to make the garment in the first place.
SHIPPING: If one is selling to a major retailer, they have complex, multi-hundred page shipping standards with which one must comply or risk chargebacks if not outright product returns. If you have a proven contractor who can provide fulfillment services (recommended that you only select a service that is approved by your customer and as such, is in compliance with their myriad procedures and preferences), processing an order from their warehouse to your customer is likely to be much less time than what it’d take you; a matter of hours at most. Regarding transit time, this depends on the shipping company, the location of your customer and that of the fulfillment house, as well as the priority level of service you’ve selected. Often, your fulfillment house will have vendors they prefer. I recommend sticking with those. I can’t imagine a fulfillment service that wouldn’t have daily pickups from UPS, Fed Ex and the like. Average shipping time coast to coast via UPS ground service is five business days.
Material in this article was derived from The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing by Kathleen Fasanella, and Fashion-Incubator.com, the number one B2B internet site for advice on starting a clothing line. You can contact Kathleen by phone 575-525-1577 or via email Kathleen@fashion-incubator.com .
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