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Intro to Overseas Sampling
By admins | June 26, 2009
image via tsuacctnt
Despite our love of all things domestic, especially production, we recognize that often in the apparel business, manufacturing is done overseas. Partially thanks to the Walmartification of America, the price-tag that the average consumer believes reasonable can only be achieved by overseas factories. Add this to the lack of incentives and support for domestic manufacturing, plus zoning and costing issues as we’ve seen here in our own Garment Center, and it’s a wonder anything gets made in the US. Many of us in the Garment Center work for companies – from the small family owned businesses to the giant conglomerates – which use overseas factories for their production. Before any garment gets produced a sample, of course, needs to be made. Now some are lucky enough to have in-house sample rooms, but we’d venture to guess that most do not. One of the most difficult aspects in fashion is getting that very first sample made, which is done by creating a techpack. The techpack in and of itself can be a mind melding task, but once sending it to the factory, ensuring that the sample comes in correctly is a whole other burden. For those of you not familiar with the concept of sampling, the basic challenge here is explaining to a factory worker on the other side of the world who speaks an entirely different language, how to precisely execute your vision via email, often in two weeks or less. Now, the bulk of apparel production and sampling is done in mainland China, although Pakistan, India, Mexico, Cambodia and others are common as well. Regardless of where your factory is located, many of the same issues arise. So we thought we’d list a few random “things to know” about overseas sampling for any of you newbies or fahion students. Feel free to add your own observations regarding overseas sampling in the comments section.
- 1. There’s a reason why their called 1st sample, 2nd sample, salesmen sample, fit sample, pre-production sample, production samples. You will never get a correct first sample. It is a trial and error process that will take several attempts.
- 2. Never forget the time change. One mistake or piece of missing information results in a 24 plus hour delay as the factory will have to email you their questions and then wait to receive your answer the next business day. Otherwise, get used to irate 3:00 am phone calls from China at home.
- 3. Support your overseas counterparts, who do not go by their Chinese names, but rather their “American” names, which are often not names at all, but rather random english nouns and adjectives they chose. It’s good for a giggle and as you will see, many of these ladies are sweethearts caught in the same crazy industry as you, even if their names are Lady, Simmer, Salad, and Birdie!
- 4. If you are at a company that insists on manually sending techpacks/artworks/patterns overseas via FedEx, you need to stand up and demand your sample room has limited server access. Even the most basic IT guy should be able to set this up and it saves the company countless dollars in man hours and shipping in doing so. If not, forget the 24 hour delay mentioned above and consider it more likely 72 hours.
- 5. If your company does not own the overseas factory/ sample room, be prepared for your samples to get bumped. When your factory gets a larger order from a more profitable manufacturer, your requests will take the back burner. Often times you will hear excuses like, “your tech-pack had too many mistakes we couldn’t understand it, or we shipped it but customs held it up, or the fabric mill shipped the wrong fabric, etc” You get the idea. It’s all code for “we had a more important order than yours”.
- 6. Keep a record of everything! Yes, everything. Do not delete old emails, just archive them. And insist when any issues or changes arise that your sample room or factory confirms everything on paper. This is a standard industry “cover your ass” technique which is absolutely necessary.
- 7. Visit, try to get actual face time with the people making your creations. A trip to China can help immensely in creating a smooth work flow and building relationships. However, while regular trips are effective if your communication is good and your corporate system is functioning properly there should be no need for overseas travel during every sample cycle.
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Topics: china, production | 6 Comments » 
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June 26th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Oh goodness!! Wish everything was just made in the USA (and for us in Canada too).
June 27th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Wow, I never would have thought I’d read about this on a blog! So true, especially love the random names (I worked with a girl named “Castle” once) and the excuses for delayed shipping happen all the time! I think most people have no clue how samples are made, so thanks for sharing.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
eww let’s not forget opening a box of SMELLY samples from china! sometimes they are so rushed they ship them still damp and smell sooo chemically!
July 8th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Lol @ Sofia. That EXACT thing just happened to me with a shipment of sample yardage from India. It reeks of dye smell!
September 24th, 2009 at 3:54 am
This is very informative & it’s really good.
We have a well equiped CAD room & a sample room. So if there are any orders for sample making pls do not hesitate to contact us on niranjala@stewartslanka.com.
thanks
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:00 pm
This is wonderfull information and really very good for me to go on ,,,,,,,,,,,
thnks
rgds
manmohan
saratexindia@gmail.com