Sourcing guide
Lead Times: Stock, Recolour and New Development
Three routes to a finished order and why they take very different amounts of time.
Published
In this guide
Lead time is usually quoted as a single figure, and a single figure is almost always wrong. There are three distinct routes to a finished order, and they differ from each other by more than most buyers expect. Knowing which route you are on explains most of the variance.
This guide covers the three routes and the decisions that quietly add time to whichever one you are on.
Section 1 of 4
Stock colour from an existing style
The fastest route: the pattern exists, the fabric exists in the colour you want, and nothing has to be dyed. Production is cutting, sewing, finishing and packing, and the only variable is where your order sits in the line.
The limit is choice. You can have any colour the supplier happens to hold, which is rarely the exact colour the brand wanted. This route is best for a first order, a test run, or a repeat of something that already sold.
Section 2 of 4
An existing style recoloured
The pattern still exists, but the fabric has to be dyed to your colour. This adds a dyeing step and brings the dye-lot minimum with it, so the order cannot be arbitrarily small. It also adds a colour approval step, because the dyed fabric has to be checked against the reference before it is cut.
This is the route most private label orders actually take. The time added is not just the dyeing itself but the round trip of sending a swatch, approving it, and only then releasing the fabric to cutting. A buyer who approves the colour quickly saves more time here than a buyer who pushes on production.
Section 3 of 4
A new style from a design
Pattern, fit rounds and fabric sourcing, in that order, and each one has to finish before the next starts. A new block means a first sample, a fit round, a revised sample, and an approval — and if the fabric is also new, the fabric swatch has to be approved before the first sample can even be cut.
This route is where the largest variation lives, and it is unavoidable. Development time is not waste; it is the work that makes the garment fit. The way to keep it short is to make each decision once and make it completely, rather than revisiting the fabric after the fit is agreed.
Section 4 of 4
What buyers can do to shorten it
Decide the fabric before the style. Send the reference garment with the first message rather than the third. Approve the colour standard the day it arrives rather than the week after. Have the label artwork ready before production, because labels are often the last item to arrive and the first to be waited on. And keep the colour count of a first order small, because every additional colour is another dye bath in sequence.
None of those are production steps, and together they usually account for more of the total elapsed time than the sewing does. Lead time is mostly a measure of how quickly the buyer and the maker finish their conversations, not of how fast the machines run.
In short
Ask which route your order is on before asking for a date. Stock colour, recolour and new development differ by more than any supplier can make up for with effort, and the buyer controls a large share of the elapsed time.
