Fashion Incubator » Contractors

Fashion Incubator » Contractors http://www.fashion-incubator.com How to start a clothing line or run the one you have, better. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:36:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 How to search for clothing manufacturers http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-search-for-clothing-manufacturers/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-search-for-clothing-manufacturers/#comments Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:48:12 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10776 F-I Facebook page inspired this one on how to search for clothing manufacturers. Said one visitor (in response to my news that domestic apparel production continues to increase for the third quarter in a row and is now at 20%!)

It sure would be nice if there was a list of manufacturers in the USA. It's pretty difficult to figure it out. Have any recommendations for women's wear?

I'll give the redux of my response to her below but back to the cheat sheet I made on how to search for clothing manufacturers:

]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-search-for-clothing-manufacturers/feed/ 11 Advice to sewing contractors pt.3 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/advice-to-sewing-contractors-pt-3/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/advice-to-sewing-contractors-pt-3/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:22:15 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10692 part one, part two), it has a distinctly different flavor. Again, I think it would be beneficial to read it even if you're not a contractor etc. Without further ado, a sewing contractor friend of mine -let's call him Al- writes:

Sometimes I wonder what should I do in the near future. I have a nucleus of 3 good pattern makers, real seamstress (not just machine operators) in my family plus a better than average setup of sewing machines. Should I produce a line? Should I or shouldn’t I? What would you do if you were me?

Two quick thoughts come to mind. First is that this contractor -in spite of having enviable resources- is facing a lot of the same hurdles that DEs do. Second, that because of these hurdles, you have less to fear from a contractor stealing your ideas than you imagine. Follow me: In the book I explain that the whole shooting match is broken into three phases namely design, sales and production. Of these, Al only has the last part (production) in the bag. He has a few advantages in design in that he has the capacity to make patterns and produce samples but the first part is missing. In the sales segment, he's completely bereft.I know you think anybody in this industry is magically connected to all the other segments in this business but sales is the weak link -particularly for production people because we're talking about two entirely different personality profiles. Simplistically stated, sales and production are like oil and water -immiscible.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/advice-to-sewing-contractors-pt-3/feed/ 4 Assume stupidity not malice. And, a PR job opening http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/assume-stupidity-not-malice-and-a-pr-job-opening/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/assume-stupidity-not-malice-and-a-pr-job-opening/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:20:49 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10456 How can we make it easier to do business with us? (and pt.2) many took the position that sewing contractors are bad, evil, arrogant or whatever because they didn't have web pages so potential customers could find them easier. I said it was more than that. Hard as you may find this to believe, the problem is that the businesses you want to find don't know how to do what it takes for you to be able to find them -but they're willing to hire it out. Sounds like a slam dunk, right? Think again. There is a critical lack of PR firms with sufficient grounding in the trade to understand the value of manufacturing products and services, much less know where to find or how to target a client's potential customer base. Lest that sound overly critical of PR firms, it's a near impossible job because this business is highly fragmented. There's no single publication or site where PR firms can place editorial to promote their client's interests. We used to have a variety of niche and regional publishers (Needle Trader, Kogos etc) but most of them are long gone. Others are too limited in distribution (Mannuscript, California Apparel News). Too few people read WWD anymore and besides, it's for retailers not manufacturers. Apparel is an option but it's intended for C-level execs rather than companies like you and even fewer read that now. Maybe a few of you read it but it's too darn few to be cost effective.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/assume-stupidity-not-malice-and-a-pr-job-opening/feed/ 14 Advice to sewing contractors pt.2 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/advice-to-sewing-contractors-pt-2/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/advice-to-sewing-contractors-pt-2/#comments Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:46:21 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10144 part one, I'll address other common questions I've heard from start up sewing contractors. Specifically industry norms and standard practices among colleagues with respect to NDAs, contracts, payment, what you charge for versus what is thrown in with the deal. Again, designers are welcome to disagree but to keep in mind that this advice covers common policies. NDAs -Non-disclosure agreements As I have said many times, it is generally recommended that you don't sign an NDA because they do nothing to protect anyone's ideas and signing one imparts false confidence. Whether your customers can bring pressure to bear for you to sign an NDA depends on your operation, customer profile and scope of services. There are two basic kinds of contractors. The first are full package soup to nuts (part one, part two) and the second parcel out services specifically like cutting and sewing etc. The cut to the chase summary is that signing an NDA is more common in soup to nuts (full package) contractors that target DE clients. Signing an NDA is relatively risk free because their average customer is very short term, only producing for one season or maybe two. It is far less common for established sewing contractors (not full package) to sign an NDA because most are interested in developing a long term relationship. These contractors don't sign because NDAs are pretty useless (see links above) and also, they aren't interested in working with people who are paranoid and have misplaced priorities. Summary: Even though your customers may request it, credibility in the trade is higher for companies that don't sign them versus those that do -and since a contractor is more likely to get work from colleagues, it matters what they think. I wouldn't say this is true in all cases but being willing to sign an NDA creates the impression that a contractor is inclined to take advantage of customers with respect to pricing and what not, making other providers reluctant to refer customers to them.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/advice-to-sewing-contractors-pt-2/feed/ 8 Why sewing contractors don’t want small lots http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/why-sewing-contractors-dont-want-small-lots/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/why-sewing-contractors-dont-want-small-lots/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:29:31 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10095 one_penny

The universe is speaking to me. This is the redux of questions and conversations I've had on this subject over the past several days. No one is to take offense at this posting. I'm laying it out as neutrally as I can. Here's the summary first: DEs confuse profit with costs. You think no one wants your job because the profits are small. I think I can speak for service providers everywhere when I say: in working with a start up, I would be delighted if I broke even on a job. Generating one penny's profit would be icing on the cake. Unfortunately, profit rarely happens. With small lots from start ups, it is more typical that we don't recover the costs of what we put into the job. We end up with less after we're done. It is very frustrating when DEs complain about what they presume is a contractor's greed. They think their job is turned down because a contractor won't get as big of a profit on their small job as they will on a larger one. What a contractor fears is losing more on the small job that he or she can sustain. Profit is not the same thing as cost.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/why-sewing-contractors-dont-want-small-lots/feed/ 10 Advice to sewing contractors pt.1 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/advice-to-sewing-contractors-pt-1/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/advice-to-sewing-contractors-pt-1/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:09:54 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=9991 A Fact Sheet itemizes your assets in terms of

equipment,
plant capacity and facility,
key personnel,
experience and skills
related businesses you've worked with that provide services you don't

Equipment includes everything from CAD system, sewing machines, pressing equipment, cutting tools, tables, plotters, spreaders, digitizers, snap setters excluding hand tools like scissors etc. You need to be very specific with respect to equipment brand names. While some of your customers won't have the first idea what the products are, other customers will and they're looking for providers who have given kinds of equipment. The reason being that some customers own folders or attachments for given machines that they lend to the contractor for their production. This also goes for dies; it is not unusual for customers to own their snap or grommet setting dies so they need to know what kinds of equipment you have.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/advice-to-sewing-contractors-pt-1/feed/ 7 Why you should start your own sewing factory pt.2 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/why-you-should-start-your-own-sewing-factory-pt-2/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/why-you-should-start-your-own-sewing-factory-pt-2/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 23:17:42 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=9702 Psychologists say that one of the most stressful things a person can endure is to be responsible for something over which they have no control. I would say that is the perfect description of using a sewing contractor and it’s the worst part. You think all your problems are solved, but you are just trading one set of problems for another, and this time you are in the passenger seat. Your contractor ships late? Your customers don’t care about your excuses. They want their product. It’s YOUR fault. Your contractor does crappy work? Your customers will hold YOU accountable. And what can you do? The buck stops with you. It has to. You have to accept that you are responsible. I have spent more time growing ulcers and pacing the floor and applying pressure to my sewing contractor, and negotiating that relationship than I have done anything else. Well that, and fixing products that they didn’t quite manage to make correctly. The above is a quote I pulled from series written by an entrepreneur who has started her own sewing factory. She's a single mom with four young children, one of them disabled. The first three entries explain how she went from using contractors to setting up her own in house sewing operation -and why. Part four is a list of things she did that I feel optimized her success. I used to assess a line's viability with the idea that sales were the weak link but not anymore. These days it's production. Being that it's a seller's market on the services side and feeling as I do about developing domestic operations, I've only been working with people who either have their sewing (and are looking to improve it) or who are willing to develop their own sewing operation. The only long term sustainable way to grow a company will be to produce it oneself. The situation is worse when you consider changes in retailing. Retailers are increasingly less willing to commit to long term purchase orders -which you need if using a contractor- they want immediates. Price is only one facet of the sales equation. They'll pay a little more if they can buy smaller lots closer to season with the potential to reorder. You can only serve that up if you're sewing it in your own place. The biggest increase in manufacturing interest I see is coming from retailers. Of course just as many discard the idea once they realize it's not as simple as they thought but that they've thought of it should concern you.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/why-you-should-start-your-own-sewing-factory-pt-2/feed/ 11 5 reasons you can’t find a sewing contractor http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/5-reasons-you-cant-find-a-sewing-contractor/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/5-reasons-you-cant-find-a-sewing-contractor/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 23:47:12 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=9376 clothing manufacturer sewing contractor before 2:00 PM. I guess interest is a good sign. A bad sign was that no one was prepared to enter into this kind of relationship (we can tell in thirty seconds or less). Accordingly, I'll reiterate specific advice on the most critical strategy you can use to find a clothing manufacturer sewing contractor. Sprinkled through out this entry are links to critical entries you must also read! Cold calling or emailing me or somebody like me to get the name of manufacturer contractor is never going to work so you may as well give it up. The best way to find a clothing manufacturer sewing contractor is by doing things the right way. It is that simple. It is only when you take short cuts that you run into trouble. Bar none, the best way to find a clothing manufacturer sewing contractor is through a pattern maker. You have to have patterns before you get to a manufacturer contractor so I don't understand why people are always trying to put the cart before the horse. It won't work. Part of the value of a pattern maker is their relationships. In the trade, there is the expectation that pattern makers will refer you to the party downstream from them. If they don't, it can mean a few things but none of them are good (further down). Pattern makers are expected to make referrals because we are in the best position to know who is any good. If there's a problem with our pattern, they are returned for correction. Too many problems with our patterns and a manufacturer contractor won't take our work. Likewise, if something isn't sewn well and there are too many problems with a given party, we have to find someone else. The point that cannot be minimally stated is that a pattern maker vouches for you with another party with whom you have no standing.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/5-reasons-you-cant-find-a-sewing-contractor/feed/ 16 Paying commissions for referrals pt.2 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/paying-commissions-for-referrals-pt-2/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/paying-commissions-for-referrals-pt-2/#comments Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:33:05 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=8132 previous entry was a topic of great debate. Before we can sort through it, it is important to separate commissions generated via recognized sales functions from relationship referrals. For example, any agent is clearly off the table. Of course agents get referral fees or commissions, how else could one presume they are paid? Indirectly, this most clearly indicates that transparency is central to the debate. For his research in The Market for Lemons, George Akerlof won a Nobel Prize in Economics for describing how in the used car market, lemons reduce the price of good used cars because a seller is strongly motivated to sell all cars as good ones to make the most money. As a buyer of a used car, you want to pay as little as possible because the car could be a lemon (there is no transparency). For this reason, high quality used cars are difficult to sell at fair value because there is no way to prove they are worth the money (some dealers now offer warranties on used cars as a strategy to reduce uncertainty). This indirectly explains why you should offer warranties on your sewn products because consumers have no way of knowing whether your stuff is any better than anyone else's in the marketplace. That the bad stuff can push out the good (Gresham's law) is due to the mechanisms of asymmetrical information. Asymmetrical information refers to a power imbalance in a transaction because one party has more or better information (power) than the other. How is that partnering? Returning to the issue of secretive referral fees, the party generating the referral has information the receiver does not because there is no transparency. If the party seeking a referral were to know the first party is accepting fees, the receiver should weigh the risks of being party to the arrangement because there is the likelihood of their buying a lemon. If transparency is the key then there is no problem whatsoever if one party refers another to a preferred partner as long as the first party has disclosed their arrangement prior to making a referral. The second party is then free to take it or leave it. There is nothing wrong with this. However, if the first party does not routinely disclose their financial interests in the matter, they've said more than words ever could that their business arrangements aren't above board. If they truly believe there is nothing wrong with it, then why would they need to keep it a secret? ]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/paying-commissions-for-referrals-pt-2/feed/ 2 Paying commissions for referrals? http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/paying-commissions-for-referrals/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/paying-commissions-for-referrals/#comments Wed, 24 Nov 2010 23:58:58 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=8095 a conversation we're having in the forum. For context, Xochil is a pattern maker who has been asked to pay commissions by another party for work he sends to her. She asks (edited):

I am curious to see how others feel about either accepting or even requesting a commission or "finder's fee" on making referrals to other businesses. For example, a pattern maker who refers their client to a sewing contractor and then gets a kick-back from the sewing contractor for the services rendered for that referral client. Do you do this, why or why not? What about a situation in which a client is referred them to Contractor A (who does pay commissions) even though Contractor B (who doesn't) may be more suited to that type of product? What if the referral were bad; from either the contractor's perspective or the client/designer's perspective? How would you handle this? How would the client feel if they knew you received the commission? I imagine people would not trust your referrals if they knew you got something in exchange.

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