The apparel industry has been around for a long time. At that time, a lot of jargon and shorthand terms were developed between manufacturers, designers, and distributors. If you’re starting out, it’s essential to learn some of these terms–they’ll give you an idea of what you need to have before starting your clothing brand, and what you can expect from your partners. Here’s a brief list of 15 essential clothing brand terms you’ll need for your apparel business.

1. Manufacturing & Distribution

The manufacturing and distribution phase of apparel branding can be the most challenging for newcomers. Shirtual’s merchandising services handle the brunt of communication between you and manufacturers, but it’s still important to familiarize yourself with the basic clothing brand terms.

1. Marker Making

When you start out with a roll of fabric, you want to use as much of that material as possible. Marker making is the process of making patterns on a fabric to optimize space. Essentially, you or your manufacturer mark the different segments and pieces you’ll need in your final product onto the fabric. These segments are typically drawn close together so manufacturers can cut out and use as much of the fabric as possible. 

2. Print on Demand

This is a style of apparel management that manufactures products based on customer demand. When you create the designs for the products, a third-party merchandising service or vendor can produce and distribute these products depending on customer orders. 

3. PO (Purchase orders)

Purchase orders are contracts between suppliers and you. This form shows off the items and services you’re purchasing from a third party and where you’re shipping it to. You’ll inevitably fill them out when working with merchandising services or print-on-demand services like Shirtual and Shopify. 

4. Wholesalers vs Distributors vs Direct-to-consumer

The process of distribution can go about three different ways. The more traditional distribution method starts with a wholesaler–establishments that purchase large quantities of products and sell smaller amounts to other retailers around a region. If you do your own manufacturing, partnering with a wholesaler is essential for spreading your goods.

Distributors are similar to wholesalers but have their own branding and business linked to the manufacturer. Unlike wholesalers, they own up the products they distribute and thus have a narrower focus on retail.

If you’re starting out as a clothing brand owner, you’re likely working on a direct-to-consumer basis. This means that you work with a manufacturer or supplier to directly create and ship products to customers. You’ll typically be more focused on branding and marketing while working with merchandising services like Shirtual to handle the distribution process.

5. Made-to-order

While most apparel brands produce clothing in bulk, made-to-order reduces the potential waste and inventory risks by creating products based on customer orders. It doesn’t necessarily equate to working with print-on-demand services, but it can work similarly. 

2. Materials & Design
   1. Blanks vs Cut and Sew

Blanks are completed clothing that is ready to be printed on or decorated. You can usually get them from any supplier or merchandising service. 

Cut and sew are custom-made clothing that need to be cut out and stitched together. While less convenient, this method provides more flexibility in the shape and silhouette of the final product. 

2. Fabric Weight in Grams per Square Meter (GSM)

Fabric weight defines how thick your apparel is. It’s typically measured in grams per square meter (GSM)–the thicker it is, the higher the GSM. Fabric weight above 150 GSM is usually a sign of high durability. 

3. Silhouette

A silhouette describes the shape and style of your clothing. Some clothes will have the same silhouette but different textures, materials, or colors as variation.

4. Seam

The seam is the line where you or your manufacturer sew the different pieces of your clothes together. You should consider this line when cutting out your fabric in the marker-making phase.

5. Trimmings

Trimmings are decorative pieces that are sewn onto your clothes. This can be anything from frills and fringe to buttons and zippers–you’ll want to include them in your tech pack.

3. Tech Pack & Details

A tech pack is a document you send out to your manufacturer to give them a prototypical idea of what your final product will look like. It has multiple pages detailing the design, the materials, and even the packaging details. Here are a few clothing brand terms you’ll come across when making one. 

1. Flat sketch

This is the flattened-out design of your clothes, either sketched out physically or arranged using software. A simplified version of this is usually attached to the first few pages of your tech pack. 

2. CAD (Computer Aided Design)

While physical sketches can sometimes be attached to tech packs, most tech packs will include a computer aided design of the flat sketch. These designs can be made on software like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.

3. Sample

A sample is the prototype of your final product, produced after following the tech pack. The closer the sample is to what you and your customers expect in terms of quality, the better.

To give your manufacturers a better idea of what you want from your first few samples, you can glue or copy sample fabrics to your tech pack. This reduces the amount of guesswork on what blends or weaves you’re interested in.

4. Lab dips

Lab dips are essentially color samples for the manufacturer to check with during production. This usually entails taking the fabric you’re interested in using and dyeing it until you’re satisfied with the resulting shade. Different fabrics can react differently to dyes, so don’t assume a cotton blend will react the same as linen or nylon.

5. Spec sheet

Spec sheets contain a front and back sketch of your product along with all the measurements and instructions required to create the product. This includes everything from size charts, stitching patterns, seams, samples of trims, fabric markers and so on and so forth. 

Those were just a few of the most common clothing brand terms used in the business, but there are plenty more. Allying with a merchandising service like Shirtual can help alleviate some of the learning curves, but if you’re persistent enough, you’ll master the art of the clothing brand industry in no time.