Starting a fashion brand can be equal parts exciting and intimidating. From the brand creation and promotion to the actual fashion production, it can be hard for first timers to figure out where to start. Listed below are five key steps for successful fashion production and fashion product development.
Develop Quality Tech Packs
In order to mass produce fashion, it’s important that the factory knows what to produce and how to produce the product. Tech packs are a factory’s guide for fashion production and should include several things in order to ensure a quality product. These include product sketches, specs, graded specs, a bill of materials and reference images. Without these, the factory won’t be able to create the product properly, causing massive delays in production.
Shop Around for a Factory Partner
In terms of fashion product development, there’s no such thing as a perfect factory partner. It’s important to investigate multiple factories to get an idea of how much the product will cost to make, how long it may take to create the product and whether the factory in question will be a good fit for the brand. Most factories should be able to give you an estimate after reviewing tech packs.
Understand Total Unit Cost
This is the most important step in order to make a profit. The total unit cost takes into account several things: fabrics, trims, production, shipping materials like boxes and tissue paper and the actual shipment of all the materials and products. It will be important to keep track of all of these expenses and to find quality materials that won’t be overly expensive. With the total cost down, dividing this number by the number of units produced will give the total unit cost. With this, retail prices can be set and validated.
Request and Review All Elements for Approval
While it may seem tedious, this is a crucial step in ensuring the best quality for the best product. Some of the things that can be requested from a factory to review include fabric quality, strike offs, trims and samples from development, fit, pre-production and top of production. If any of these don’t meet standards, they can be sent back and redone.
Stay Organized
Even if the first four steps are followed to the exact letter, it won’t work unless there is some sort of organization. Having a timeline will help with planning of other portions of product development and knowing a factory’s typical turnaround time can help when requesting for updates. There are multiple players in fashion product development, so it’s important to keep track of everyone and everything.
By keeping these five steps in mind, the task of creating a fashion brand from the ground up may seem a little less intimidating. Remember to stay organized, keep an organized mind and go for the best quality materials in order to create the best quality products for the brand.