Underlines welcomes Suzy Haber Wakefield to the Underlines team. Suzy has her own consultancy specialising in design, development and sourcing of lingerie, swim and lounge apparel but she has had an exciting and varied career. We are delighted that she is lending her expertise in a regular advice column ‘Suzy Says’.
Dear Suzy,
How do I know if a vendor is a good fit for my brand? Since I don’t have experience in the category I want to talk to anyone who will teach me but I don’t have any idea if they are credible for my swim collection. Advice needed, please!
— Emma
Especially since Covid, with fewer chances to travel and meet in person at trade shows or at vendor’s offices, this is an even more complex issue. That said, with the will to learn there are still many opportunities to find the right partner for your materials and make for your brand – this might just take a little more work now to do online. Nevertheless, it’s worth it in order to educate yourself on how to get your ideal vendor. By researching online and making many virtual introductions with many vendors you will find success. This can materialise in a number of avenues:
- Utilise social media, specifically LinkedIn or Facebook groups to access peers with who you can network to understand your needs and to practice asking questions. Share as much info about your idea as you are comfortable with in order to get closer to the people who can most likely help you reach your goals.
- Most companies now have a social media presence, and that includes vendors and potential production partners. Try searching hashtags that are relevant to your requirements such as #swimwearproduction #ecoswimwearproduction etc. Appropriate vendors will probably be using hashtags to promote their posts, and you may find relevant contacts.
- Thanks to zoom, it’s much easier to have a fabric meeting with individual vendors. In your case in order to get to them, google “swim resources” and also lookup vendor lists from swim or lingerie trade shows to find potential partners.
- Speaking of shows, trade shows and webinars can be great tools to do the research you need to in order to access options for development and to teach yourself about the category in the process.
Now that you know where to look, think about a list of questions to ask once you have found prospective vendors. For swimwear they need specific machines to sew it correctly and also between them and the raw material vendor you need to understand the testing involved here including but not limited to colorfastness, chlorine resistant fabric, and the ever obvious, how it holds water.
If you are planning on cupped and/or wired styles you also need a vendor who has this machinery in place. Before ever agreeing to work with a vendor, among other things, you need to see the actual products that they have made from their sewing lines. It should be of recent production that is a similar category to yours, and not something proprietary to another customer (just as you would want them to do for you). This will give you a very tangible look at what they do.
Here’s a piece from the current Swimwear Yearbook which you may find interesting.
Hope this helps.
Suzy xoxo
Please keep your questions coming to us (suzysays@underlinesmagazine.com) – we are here to help…..
