Why You Should Always Measure Your Prototype Before Production
A common mistake new brands make that could ruin your production.
Let’s talk about a common mistake new brands make that could ruin your production.
What’s the mistake?
Not updating measuring your prototypes when you review them.
Why is this a problem?
What if you get your prototype in, and it fits great? Why can’t you just approve itand move into production?
Because you need to check it first.
You need to compare it to what you asked for in your tech pack and make sure it matches, including taking measurements.
Oh, your factory already measured it? They sent along a piece of paper with the measurements they got when they measured it themselves?
You can throw the factory’s measurement sheet away.
That might sound extreme, but here’s why:
The measurement sheet the factory sends you is often optimistic.
You can’t just take their word for how your prototype measured.
As an example, let’s say your quarter zip tech pack calls for a 27" sleeve. Your prototype arrives, and the sleeve is clearly about 2" too long.
The factory’s measurement sheet (which for some reason you haven’t thrown away) says the sleeve measures 27".
If you trust their sheet, you might think, “Okay, 27" is too long. I need to change my tech pack to 25".”
But what if the prototype actually measures 29"?
Your original measurement of 27" was right. The factory made the prototype 2" too long.
By trusting their measurement instead of checking it yourself, you just changed a correct tech pack measurement to an incorrect one.
And now your next sample - or even your production run - could come in with 25" sleeves.
Ok but what about the original example. What if your proto comes in perfect and the sheet from your factory says it measured correctly?
You still need to measure your sample yourself.
Why?
Because what if your measurements were wrong?
What if you asked for a 25" sleeve, and the factory knew that was too short, so they updated it on their end to 27", but they didn't tell you.
Once again, your next sample - or in this case your production run - could come in with 25" sleeves.
This sort of thing happens!
That’s why you need to measure every prototype yourself and compare it to your tech pack before making any changes.