Material Sourcing

07/03/24 • 22 min

Heather Zager discusses the second topic in her four-part series called Concept to Customer in this episode. In the first episode she introduced us to design concepting and today she talks about material sourcing. She explains the foundation of fabrics and how they are made, differentiating between natural and man-made fibers as well as how fibers are turned into yarn. Everything from roll size to fabric weight is addressed in this episode to aid in swatch searching.

Natural fibers are either cellulose-based, which comes from a plant, or protein-based, which comes from an animal. Man-made fibers are constructed by humans and they are comprised of two types: manufactured and synthetic. Heather breaks these categories down with examples of which fibers comprise the fabrics we’re used to. She details how they are turned from fibers into yarn, either non-woven, woven, or knit. Each type creates different attributes in the resulting fabric that work best for different types of apparel.

Understanding fabric packaging is the next important piece of material sourcing, so Heather explores rolls, fabric width, fabric length, and weight. Understanding how fabric is measured, what the grain line is, and how it’s weighted will allow for easier swatch selection according to what type of garment will ultimately be made. Heather’s four-part series on the basics of design imparts a foundational understanding of exactly what is required for product development in manufacturing.

About Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services Founder and Owner

Heather Zager found her calling when she signed up for a beginning pattern making course and realized she had a passion for technical design. She subsequently enrolled in the Apparel Design and Development program at Seattle Central College and graduated two years later with her Associate of Applied Science Degree.

After graduation, she began working with Meta assisting in developing and designing augmented and virtual reality wearable tech gear. In 2020, MADE Apparel Services was born with the idea of helping makers, inventors and designers bring their own sewn product ideas to manufacture. Since then, she has worked with various businesses such as Santa’s Tailor, Feathered Friends, Wolfpack Gear and Classic Accessories, helping them achieve their goals in design, development, pattern making, sewn construction and manufacture.

Today, Heather continues to grow her knowledge and share her experiences with others to bring their visions to reality.

Resources discussed in this episode:

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Contact Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services:

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Transcript

Heather Zager: Hello everyone, and welcome to today's podcast. My name is Heather Zager. I am the host of this podcast series and founder of Made Apparel Services. Hi Heather here from Made Apparel Services. Welcome back to my channel. In this episode, which is the second part of a four-part series called Concept to Customer, I am going to talk about sourcing materials for your project. But before you start, just a quick background on why I created this series. Over the last couple of years, when working with my clients, I noticed a consistency in their misunderstanding of four issues or areas of product development in manufacture. Those were Design Concepting, Material Sourcing, Size and Fit, and Types of Manufacturers. This information was creating a lot of confusion and in some cases blocking their progress. But once I explain things in more simplified terms and as smaller steps in relation to a bigger picture, things got much clearer and a lot simpler. So if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed and don't know where to start, I think this series will help you gain some perspective.

Heather Zager: If you are a new designer, sourcing materials can feel overwhelming. However, I've found it's because new designers tend to think a little bit too far into the futu...

About Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services Founder and Owner

Today, Heather continues to grow her knowledge and share her experiences with others to bring their visions to reality.

Resources discussed in this episode:

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Contact Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services:

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Transcript

Heather Zager: If you are a new designer, sourcing materials can feel overwhelming. However, I've found it's because new designers tend to think a little bit too far into the futu...

Previous Episode

Building Your First E-Commerce Website with Blockbeta

Host Heather Zager welcomes Robbin Block, the Creative Marketing Strategist at Blockbeta Marketing, to the show to explain the ins and outs of building an e-commerce website. Robbin has an MBA from Boston University and a BA in Economics from the State University of New York at Albany, and through her more than 30 years in the industry, she knows exactly what is needed to start marketing and selling your product effectively.

Heather asks Robbin some of the basic questions she gets asked by her clients so Robbin can weigh in from an experienced professional point of view. The first question everyone asks is which website platform is best for selling products. Robbin answers that question with examples and information on options for differing experience levels. There’s a solution for every question.

Heather and Robbin dig into the topics everyone who sells online needs to know. The difference between a full website and a squeeze page, what a landing page is and why it’s important, the advantages and disadvantages with platforms like Etsy and Amazon, and all about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and keywords. Robbin Block offers what is essentially a crash course in E-Commerce 101 in this interview. It’s a vital discussion for everyone who wants an online sales platform and needs marketing advice to drive those sales.

About Robbin Block:

Robbin Block is the Creative Marketing Strategist at Blockbeta Marketing. She has an MBA from Boston University and a BA in Economics from the State University of New York at Albany, which enables her to deliver marketing solutions focused on an entire business, not just a particular marketing tactic.

During her more than 30 years in the trade, she’s developed a unique perspective, having worked with almost every niche business imaginable, from cannabis to mobile tech, and creative makers and designers. This helps her get right to the point when guiding clients through the increasingly complicated online marketing space, from developing high-converting websites through concepting media strategies

An experienced speaker, she’s also the author of “Social Persuasion: Making Sense of Social Media for Small Business” and various marketing ebooks. A background in economics and an MBA are the foundation for her big-picture approach that gets her clients results.

Robbin excels at explaining marketing in a way that makes total sense, so business owners can make better decisions about how to spend their marketing resources.

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Contact Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services:

Contact Robbin Block |Blockbeta Marketing:

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Transcript

Heather Zager: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to today's podcast. My name is Heather Zager. I am the host of this podcast series and founder of Made Apparel Services. In today's episode, we're going to be talking with a marketing and website expert. She has worked a lot with new designers selling product, so she has a lot of good answers for some common questions about building your first website and how to drive traffic to it, how to engage your social media and establish a strategy around that. Also, she'll talk a little bit about some of that background stuff, like SEO and keywords and analytics and how to read those. So stay tuned. We hope you enjoy the show and let's get started.

Heather Zager: [00:00:41] Welcome everybody. We are here with Robbin Block with Blockbeta Marketing. And she's going to talk to us a little bit today about websites for emerging designers who are just launching new product and trying to get the word out there and gain a following. And we have a few questions lined up for her. But first, Robbin, welcome and tell us a little bit about what it is that you do.

Robbin Block: [00:01:03] Well, I've been in marketing for quite a long time and I focus on providing creative marketing strategy. Everything from helping companies figure out what their strategy should be overall from a business perspective, then working with them to develop websites that are high converting and then ampl...

Next Episode

Fabric Supplying with Jay Arbetman of The Sourcing District

Host Heather Zager welcomes Jay Arbetman, owner of The Sourcing District, a fabric and textile products sales agency, to the show to talk in-depth about fabric supply. Jay was, as he says, born into the industry. He started working in the family business - coat manufacturing in the Chicago area - at age 14 and has been in the fabric business ever since. Jay shares a wealth of experience and knowledge about fabric with Heather.

Fabric sourcing is a key component in the manufacturing process and Jay is a sales agent for wholesale fabric companies like KenDor Textiles, Sextet Fabrics, and Oriole Textile, among others. He explains the benefits of working with a sales agent like him as he breaks down the differences between being an importer, converter, or US-based mill and how fabrics are purchased and sold. It can be a bewildering step to tackle for first-time designers but Jay and Heather’s conversation demystifies a lot of the process.

Heather and Jay talk about what jobbers are, the benefits and limitations of deadstock fabric, why product development must start with fabric, and the limitations in retail store purchasing. Jay’s many years in the business have given him a wealth of contacts and industry knowledge that he is happy to share with first-time designers and beginners. This episode is the first step in breaking down a key component of manufacturing and a must-listen for understanding fabric supply.

Resources discussed in this episode:

About Jay Arbetman:

Jay is the owner of The Sourcing District, a sales agency that sells fabric, textile products, and garment production necessities to companies in industries like apparel, hospitality, event planning, and uniforms.

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Contact Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services:

Contact Jay Arbetman | The Sourcing District:

Website: TheSourcingDistrict.com
Website: InterfacingAndMuslin.com
Phone: (708) 386 8586
Text: (708) 351 7278
Email: [email protected]

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Transcript

Heather Zager: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to today's podcast. My name is Heather Zager. I am the host of this podcast series and founder of Made Apparel Services. Our guest today is Jay Arbetman of The Sourcing District. He represents some of today's best suppliers such as KenDor, Sextet, Oriole Mills and Blue Desert Co, and even Made In USA Mills. He can also give us guidance on labels, hang tags and other findings such as elastics, interfacing and the list goes on. And he can add to that more here in a minute. But Jay, let's start off by having you tell us a little bit about who you are, how long you've been doing this, and how you got to where you are today.

Jay Arbetman: [00:00:39] Well, I was born into the business. That's the best way to put it. My dad and my uncles were coat manufacturers, actually, my grandfather was and they manufactured coats in Chicago and then in the western suburbs of Chicago and then in the western suburbs of Chicago and overseas. And the business was active from 1902 when my grandfather started it, until 1999, when my brother and I, who were the survivors of the business, put the key in the door. So I had a long career. I started working for them full-time in 1971, and so I had close to 30 years in the apparel manufacturing end of the business and actually worked for them as a teenager and, you know, picking orders on Saturdays or, you know, whatever I could do. And so I've been doing this for a long time. In the early 2000s, about 2003, a friend of mine in New York who was in the zipper and button business called me up and asked me to reach out to a local dress manufacturer who I knew, and I did, and I wrote an order, and a couple of weeks later, I got a check in the mail and I thought, wow, this is something I should explore.

Jay Arbetman: [00:02:02] And so over the years, I develo...