How is money being wasted by not having style numbers? Do you just mean that it is a waste of people’s time trying to play matchy matchy, and therefor it’s costing them financially?

Not so much that it’s a waste of people’s time (and it is) but that it creates situations rife with error and misinterpretation. It’s just silly because those problems are largely preventable. As Alison mentioned, we’ve discussed this quite a bit on the forum, in more specific detail as it affects people’s needs for their lines.

Kathleen – i do mean the actual line sheets used to pre-sell the line, though the ones I have are 2 years old. I haven’t been exposed to tons of line sheets in my day, but I was able to collect a few from different types of designers (apparel, jewelry, bags). RM’s was the only handbag line sheet I could find at the time and my plan was to use it as a template of some sort. The lack of style numbers confused me. THANK GOD FOR THIS WEBSITE. that is all i have to say. She probably has style numbers now that she has expanded into the world of apparel. I have never heard of a clothing company not having them.

How is money being wasted by not having style numbers? Do you just mean that it is a waste of people’s time trying to play matchy matchy, and therefor it’s costing them financially?

I don’t even know what to say about Burlington besides – shocking.

I have glanced at line sheets for popular brands (like Rebecca Minkoff) and found that there are NO style numbers, just bag names. Is it customary to use names instead of style numbers in regards to handbags? That doesn’t seem right.

You mean actual line sheets they use to pre-sell the line? Or the spread you find on the website? Either way, I wish I could say it surprised me. I never cease to be amazed that companies that seem to be highly successful from all outward appearances, do this sort of thing. What it tells me is they’re losing money. Or maybe not losing money, just wasting it needlessly. I wrote about it in my book in section called “the big dirty secret”.

I suppose I should stop being so shocked. In the news this morning, Burlington Coat Factory is on the hook for three more recalls. Just how many have they had in the last 12 months? 10? 15? More? I don’t know but I do know there is a serious problem with buyer training at BCF if they’re still buying products with features that were banned 14 years ago. Talk about a lack of institutional knowledge…

To distinguish between your clutches you would use 13101, 13102, 13103, 13104 and so on.

We’ve done a lot of discussion of style numbers on the forum. Come join us!

I have glanced at line sheets for popular brands (like Rebecca Minkoff) and found that there are NO style numbers, just bag names. Is it customary to use names instead of style numbers in regards to handbags? That doesn’t seem right.

If I have 4 styles of bags, each in 3 different color ways, how would i set up my style numbers?

Let’s say i have 1 tote, 1 satchel and 2 clutches. Each bag comes in black, white and brown (hypothetical). I would like the numbers to be as universal as possible to make it easier for everyone who has to use/read/understand them.

Would i do something like this?
10000 series – bags
20000 series – reserved for future use, perhaps women’s wear
30000 series – reserved for future use

and my existing style numbers would become;
11100 = totes
12100 = satchels
13100 = clutches
so on and so forth . . . ??

And if i am on the right track how would i distinguish between my two different clutches?

is this one of the exceptions where names and letters can be thrown into the style number?

Not necessarily. SKUs (stock keeping units) are for proper inventory tracking and warehousing, allowing orders to be easily fulfilled. It’s usually not a good way to track production issues as they should be used to track inventory variances. For example, style numbers almost never denote size and color, while skus definitely should.

If a company must differentiate between seasons or fabrics, they should probably add appendages to the style# whereby: 12345-01-FABRIC, where the numbers could be used to designate seasons (i.e. resort, spring, summer, etc. or alternatively using letters). this way, the appendages can use the letters that are easier for buyers to remember, yet drop thier use when working with the contractors.

A SKU should never be that messy, nor include that type of information becuase it’s not really relevant to pulling and order and inventory tracking. Rather the SKU should have an inventory number along with a vairant for sizing and color (or whatever else differentiates one item from the next), so that each item is uniquely identifiable. Ideally skus would be entirely numeric, however, most do use letters for color and size:

1234BLKLG

But see how much better it would be to use

123413

The reason you would not use season in a sku is that you’d have unique identifiers for items that aren’t actually unique. Say you produce a white dress in the fall and spring. If you put the season in the SKU, when it’s the exact same item, you are actually creating a potential inventory and warehousing problem of having duplicate inventory in stock for the same item. You may have (example) 20 leftover from spring and because you used a new sku for fall, you have added to this excess inventory and your shipping department may not (and your outsourced fulfillment usually will not) pull FIFO (first in first out) because you use a different sku for those items. Thus, you’re not shipping oldest inventory first (which is how it should be done).

So, you ship all of fall, but still have 20 from spring leftover. A buyer asks, hey can I get a reorder, but your inventory system shows 0 inventory. Yes, someone can put 2 and 2 together and realize that the different sku, the different inventory number, that you used for spring is the same thing, but don’t count on it. Just set the system up correctly from the beginning and save accounting, sales, and warehousing/shipping problems.

Ideally numbers (instead of color abbreviations) should be used to represent color, with the color written in text in a descriptor. The reason is that designers often prefer to use sexy names for colors that don’t represent how people actually expect them to look. A perfect example I have is a vendor whose magenta is actually quite purple. Or lipstick is pink.

Thus the label on your item would have 123456 (or whatever)
and beneath it would read (example) long sleeve tee black LG
Just to verify

Another thing is your skus should always be the same length. The reason you have that standard is that there are times where things get cut off in printing and if your skus are different lengths, people usually don’t pick up on the error.

Proper product tracking and identification is key to accuracy in shipping. Without fail, the companies that we buy from who do not have good SKUs, nor labeling of products, send us the wrong stuff. Part of it is because they rely too heavily on visual identification (which is not as easily correctible or manageable) and part of it is just because poor inventory identification and product identification is usually just a clear sign of poor product management. RAs are expensive and time consuming.

*a serif font has a little horizontal bar at the bottom and sometimes the top of most letters – the most common example is Times Roman. A san-serif font like Arial does not. Serif fonts are easier to read.

For example, this past season we offered a selection of pieces from our collection in silk jersey which is a beautiful fabric, but has a certain look, commands a certain price, a certain cleaning process and can be quite delicate in wear. Not everyone likes the sheen, or the fact that it highlights every curve. As a more daywear-friendly and washable alternative, we offered the same pieces in a matte viscose jersey. The patterns are identical except for the style numbers: MD 12130 SLK for the silk version, and MD12130 VISC for the viscose version.

This particular method seems to work well and is easily understood by those within the company and fairly transparent for others who work with us such as manufacturers and sales agents.