Don't rush offshore - why companies need to think carefully about sending manufacturing overseas

In this week’s Economist, there is a special report about off-shoring manufacturing.  This report was right on topic for us at E&P, as many potential partners, advisors, or even interested friends ask why we’re planning to make our jeans in the USA instead of abroad. Won’t it be much more expensive to off-shore?  Shouldn’t we make our jeans in India?

The answer is that it’s unclear that offshoring would be much cheaper in the end.  Many companies, especially those with short innovation cycles like us, may find it worthwhile to produce closer to the end consumers to best meet their needs and changing tests.  The best example of this strategy is Zara (mentioned in this article), which manufactures in Spain to be extraordinarily responsive to trends.  Take a look and let us know what you think!

Our first round of samples are done!

In “How to Make it in America”, the lead character shows up to a party, suddenly wearing a pair of their jeans.  It’s not quite that easy to make a sample - it’s been quite a journey to get to this point.  

  • Picking out the fabric - deciding how much stretch, what colors
  • Designing the threads, stitching
  • Choosing a wash recipe - making sure the jeans keep their dark color while feeling soft enough to be comfortable
  • Picking out our temporary buttons - we’ll need ones with logos soon, but we chose plain copper for now
  • Conducting fittings with professional fit models to figure out how the jeans should fit

Next, we’ll have to make sure we like these samples and so some tweaks to fit and design before the next round.  And the next round.  And the next round…