What is apparel product development?

Want to launch an apparel brand but don’t understand the process? This blog was created by Amanda Rango of ARD Fashion Consulting, a designer with over 22 years of experience who helps closely held brands launch and scale their fashion businesses. You’ll be provided with essential information of apparel product development and where to start. 

This guide will address your questions related to fashion product development including:

• What is apparel product development?

• Who is involved in the process?

• How long does product development take?

• What are the steps of the product development lifecycle?

What is apparel product development?

Product development in the fashion industry is the complete process to create an apparel product from idea to production ready prototype. A designer or product developer must have a clear understanding of

What is the product development lifecycle?

The product development lifecycle outlines the steps it takes for a fashion design idea to become a final product. It is a lengthy journey but can be boiled down to four key phases. 

Step One: Research and Design

This is the initial concept stage of your product. Pending skillset, experience, and the number of styles you are intending to design, you can expect to spend a minimum of 2-4 weeks on this step. You will need to look at the market and identify key trends and colors you’d like to incorporate into your apparel designs. You will identify your direct and aspirational competitors at this stage.

As you do competitive research, identify the strengths of those competitors and areas of opportunity where you can win in the market. It is essential that you make a product that adds additional value in the eyes of your customer.

You will also align on key silhouettes and fabric inspiration. This is where you will generate technical sketches to take your idea to the next step. A technical sketch puts a visual to the concept. 

This will solidify your choice counts, which is how many styles you will produce within your collection. With your choice count, you’ll be able to start understanding your sourcing strategy, MOQ, etc. (MOQ = minimum order quantity)

Step Two: Tech Packs and Sourcing Strategy

You can expect to spend a minimum of 4-6 weeks at this step. (Pending skillset, experience, and the number of styles)

At this point, you’ll want to align on a size range based on the needs of your brand and consumer. Stay laser focused on your target client here to ensure you’re providing the appropriate size range. It’s always nice to provide extended sizes to your client, however, this adds costs from an inventory perspective which is not always feasible for entrepreneurs.

You can purchase original samples from an aspirational brand to give your designer an initial fit direction. You or your designer will build industry standard tech packs which is a critical step before you take your ideas to a manufacturer. This ARD Blog post should answer all of your questions as it relates to tech packs.

You can then take the leap to source your manufacturer. This will be based on your fabric choice and minimum order quantity (MOQ). You can request fabric swatches from multiple factories and use those to nominate your final manufacturer for product development.

Once you select your manufacturer, you will release your tech pack documents. This is what the manufacturer will use to provide you with an initial garment cost and expected apparel product development timeline for your project. You are now ready for the official product development stage. 

Step Three: Product Development & Fit/Submit Management

This part of apparel product development is very detail oriented. You can expect to spend at least 10-15 weeks at this step of the product development lifecycle. (1-3 weeks to set up initial tech packs, then between 6-12 weeks to move through the entire fit process) Just when you think you’ve thought of it all, there’s probably a detail missing that you wouldn’t expect!

I bet you didn’t realize how much information is needed for a garment label and hang tag! Take a look at the shirt you’re wearing or a garment near you. Everything from fabric content, country of origin, to wash/care instructions are legally required. 

 At this point, you will start to receive design samples from your manufacturer. You will use these samples to evaluate the fit and construction of the garment. You or your designer will provide the manufacturer with feedback and await an edited sample. 

Depending on the technicality of the garment and the skill of the factory, it can take many rounds of fit revisions to get the perfect sample. Ideally, you’d want no more than 2-3 rounds of revisions as any more can greatly delay your product development lifecycle, and ultimately the intended delivery date of your product. 

If you approve your fit sample, you can then build full graded measurements to adapt the scale and proportion of those measurements to the rest of your size range. (Insider Tip : when deciding on your sample size, try to choose a size in the middle of your size range. For example, if you offer women’s size XS, S, M, L, XL…I would suggest requesting your sample in size M. This makes grading proportionately up and down, much more accurate.)

You will also receive color lab dips and strike offs from your manufacturer for approval. The purpose of these is to evaluate how your fabric accepts color and if its execution meets expectations. You similarly need strike offs to evaluate the scale and execution of prints and graphics. If any of your designs require yarn dye (example : plaid shirts are typically yarn dye) then you’ll receive what are often called knit downs, for color and execution review. This blog post is a great reference to learn more about strike offs. 

All of these approvals is what is referred to as submit management and is crucial for effective communication and execution of your products or collection between the designer and factory. Once all your boxes are checked, it’s time for bulk production!

Step Four: Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Your product is now ready to be ordered! You can finalize costing with your manufacturer and place your first purchase order. Your purchase order will outline exactly how many units you are buying of each style, by color, by size. 

You’ll manage the transfer and payment to the manufacturer for production to begin. You should allocate at least 8 weeks for production which can vary given the size of your order and the factory’s current capacity. 

Your products will then be sent from the factory via boat or air. Boat will be your more cost-effective option, but will take anywhere from 8-10 weeks from the day the goods leave the factory. Air is more expensive, but will take only 1-2 weeks from the day the goods leave the factory and arrive at your warehouse. 

You or your production partner will be responsible for working with a forwarder to ship the goods and manage import details. It’s always a good idea to buffer your timeline in case of unexpected delays at ports. 

If this responsibility of managing sourcing and production feels overwhelming on your own and you want to hire an expert in sourcing services, vendor management and a guru when it comes to shipping your goods, I would highly recommend Deva Fashion Consulting. I’ve worked with Meghna for the past 3 years on many joint work clients and she’s top notch in the industry for any size business. 

If all goes well, you’ve completed the apparel product development lifecycle and are now ready to market and sell your product!

Resources for Fashion Apparel Design

I know all this can sound scary if it is your first time diving into the world of fashion apparel product development. I hope this guide provided you with an idea of what to expect as you begin your journey!

If you’d like assistance designing and producing your fashion apparel collection, ARD Fashion Consulting is a full-service design and production firm that helps clients launch their brands from concept to creation. We work in all of the areas of men’s, women’s and children’s apparel with decades of industry experience at the corporate level.

Check out our website at ard-consulting.com to schedule a discovery call or read more informative blog posts like this one!