The Short End of a Long Stick - Q&A

This is the conclusion of a multi-part post in which I’m pulling the curtain back to share a raw, behind-the-scenes look at one of the many ways in which small brands have to deal with the impossible. Since this is a Q&A, you might want to catch up on Part One and Part Two, in case you missed them.

Why didn’t the factory/AP catch the zipper issue before it went out to customers?

We trusted our factory’s inspection and found out afterwards that on sizes 1 and 2, the pocket (non-locking) zipper is the same length as the fly (locking) zipper. They ran out of the fly zippers and used pocket zippers instead without letting us know, resulting in a number of shorts with fly openings that… didn’t stay closed. 😬 It’s an epic mistake that absolutely will not happen again.

How can you ensure this doesn’t happen again?

While there are no 100% guarantees, here’s what we’re doing to prevent the exact same thing from happening again:

1. We’re going to be more explicit in our tech packs (aka written instructions for our factories) about the importance of each zipper type and their exact locations.
2. We’re reviewing our designs to see if there’s a way to make it impossible for a zipper swap to happen again.
3. We're refining our focus to work with factories that prioritize clear, consistent communication throughout our partnerships.

Can you get the new sliders, fix the shorts, and then put them aside to sell for next summer?

While it would incur more costs in time (waiting for new sliders plus the time to fix the shorts) and money (paying for said sliders and paying for storage), this is the most sensible option. Now that I’ve had a couple of weeks to cool down from the initial shock of losing the sliders, I’ve decided to do just that. I even ordered new sliders yesterday! We pride ourselves on creating styles that go beyond fashion trends, so selling products across multiple single seasons is very much in line with our values. The only reason not to do this would be for cash-flow reasons, which we’ll get to in another series soon.

Were you able to raise a dispute with the factory for installing the wrong sliders on your shorts? Big companies often demand a partial refund (aka chargeback) for product that was not manufactured following the approved quality requirements in the tech pack, if the mistake was the factory's fault. I'm wondering how small brands can leverage their tech packs that way as well.

We informed our factory about the mishap as soon as we learned about the issue, and are still working on getting some financial compensation for the error. It turns out that fixing the damaged product is almost as expensive as getting the product made in the first place, so it’s painful for everyone involved. From a tech pack perspective, we’ve learned a hard lesson: even when you think you’ve made every possible indication about expectations, there will always be misinterpretations. As such, tech packs must be living documents that are updated as misunderstandings arise, even if it seems over-the-top to mention something like the pocket zippers are non-locking, and MAY NOT be used as a substitute for the fly zipper.

What happened to all the prototypes?

We still have them! Stay tuned - we’ll be putting them up online as part of a sample sale soon 😉

Thank you so much for reaching out with questions! I’m really enjoying hearing from you all, especially when there’s a question I can really sink my teeth into. In fact, next week’s post is straight from a community member question - please continue to reach out with ideas!