It can be a very daunting task. It can be very labor intensive. It can also take up lots and lots of space. These issues seem to be many that come about when you are in the Off-Price arena.
Blog
Soaked from the Suez Canal
As a service provider to many apparel retailers and wholesalers, we did not know how or if the Suez Canal disaster would affect us and in what way.
Labor And Space Headaches?
As we all are attempting to get back to normal, many of our customers are finding it exceedingly difficult to get their entire staff back into their respective warehouses. Of course, there are many reasons why people may not be coming back so fast. They may still be uncomfortable with the work environment during Covid. They may be home collecting unemployment.
Out Damn Spot!!
We know that everyone gets upset when we are sitting at the dinner table and a drop of mustard lands on our shirt or when someone bumps into you while you are holding a glass of red wine and it get all over your sleeve. What do you do first? Find a stain spray or stain stick and hope that the stain comes out? Exactly! Then throw it in the wash and pray!
That Waistband Is Twisted…Sister!!
Have you ever put on a pair of your favorite sweatpants and notice immediately that something just doesn’t feel right around your waist? Does it ever feel all clumped up in a few spots? You look and feel around and realize that the waistband is twisted inside the layers of fabric. You slide, twist and move the elastic inside the waistband, and after 10 minutes have made it worse.
WOW – I Didn’t Know That Darn It! Did That!!
Over the last 24 years in business, Darn It! has been asked to perform many different tasks to satisfy an array of retailers, wholesalers, jobbers and importers. Some of these tasks are simple and some are very labor intensive. When our customer thinks of Darn It, they may think that we strictly handle quality control issues related to apparel inspections and apparel repair. But did you know that Darn It! also services many shoe retailers, accessory manufacturers and hardgoods retailers?
No Cream, Just Steam for these Wrinkles!
Being on a large cargo ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean must be a scary place. You cannot see any land for days and it is going to take you a full month to reach your destination. Now, picture yourself AS A men’s casual suit travelling for a month with 2,000 other men’s neatly pressed suits inside of a 40-foot container. That is scary.
Returns processing: Does it feel like “Mission Impossible”?
You need a trained team to quickly get first-quality goods back on shelves at full price.
Apparel sorting at supersonic speeds!
Racing the clock to re-sort 9,000 pants in just 3 days! Speed and accuracy. Here at Darn It, we sometimes talk about our apparel sorting projects as if we’re in a car race, hurtling down the track at supersonic speeds. The metaphor isn’t far from the truth. In this business, there’s always a fast-approaching “finish line” – our customer’s deadline.
Our People, Our Pictures, These Crazy Times…
We all spend our days moving at 1,000 miles per hour putting out fires, meeting with customers, talking on the phone, talking to our team, our second family, our work family. We get knocks on our doors. We get interrupted 12 times. We eat at our desks. Before you know it, the workday (in the office) is over and you think back “what did I actually get done today?”
Helping reverse logistics run like clockwork
The supply chain must run like clockwork to get units on shelves. Once the items are on the shelves and start selling, that’s great! But wait … returns are rolling in … customer complaints are skyrocketing. What happened?!
Don’t scratch your coffee table!
There’s an old saying: “Expect the unexpected.” When you sell general merchandise, all types of issues can crop up. You find yourself saying, “Who would have thought…?”
Oh my! Is your lining showing?
Last year’s jacket style had a problem: The lining showed in the back. After numerous customer complaints and returns, the remaining 300 units in stock were pulled. Unfortunately, when our customer received the Spring 2020 line at their Distribution Center, they discovered the lining issue had not been resolved!
NFL jackets are not ready for game day!
When it comes to sales and marketing, branding is everything and the company logo is a critical component. That’s why our client – a national sporting goods company – was immensely disappointed to discover that the manufacturer had left their company logo off thousands of units.
Ozone treatment turns nightmare into sweet dreams!
It’s the DC manager’s worst nightmare: Upon opening 6,400 units of pajama sets – in dry cartons – the DC team is shocked to find damp apparel that’s emitting a strong musty odor.
Have you seen STRANGER quality THINGS?
Over the last 24 years, Darn It has seen its share of strange apparel inspection and repair requests, but have you ever seen any items come in like this?
Darn It! is good for the SOLE
Last November, a customer of a large shoe retailer purchased a new pair of shoes for a holiday party she was attending. She spent $158 for the shoes that looked perfect with her new cocktail dress.
Relief for the overwhelmed DC Manager
Solving the DC Manager’s classic “good news/bad news” dilemma…
These NFL jerseys need speed & agility!
With preseason starting in a week, NFL jerseys needed FAST apparel inspection & repair.
We have a “bias” for finishing!
With apparel finishing, “good enough” is never good enough. Let’s ensure your units are retail ready.
Found a wrench in the works?
You think of everything, and yet…
You strategize and plan. Check the details, big and small. Suddenly a wrench is thrown into the works, and everything grinds to a halt. For one of our customers, this “wrench in the works” was a full-size delivery truck!
Simple label swap reaps $1.1 million
Thanks to apparel relabeling, DC manager’s “light-bulb moment” pays off!
Hole-y Truck, Batman! What Now?”
“Ker-Splash!”
With the next fashion season right around the corner, 18,000 units of specialized apparel arrived at a major retailer’s warehouse with a terrible musty odor. It turns out the shipping container had holes in the roof. Hole-y Truck!
Baseball tees need a triple play to save the day.
A new winning season is nearly here! Excitement mounts to a feverish
pitch. Faithful fans are ready to buy their club’s baseball performance
t-shirts. Retailers know this is RIGHT TIME to sell sports team merchandise. To
meet demand, a large retailer ordered 34,000 baseball performance t-shirts,
which retail at $30 each.
But wait – the “umpire” (AKA,
Quality Control Manager) announces an error.
Darn It’s Warehouse + Refurbishment Department support retailer’s custom orders
When buying men’s pants, you can choose an inseam of 30”, 32”, 34” and so forth. But what if you want a 33” inseam? And what if you want belt loops? Thanks to Darn It’s Apparel Repair Department, our customer – a men’s pant retailer/wholesaler – DOES offer this highly customized service.
Customs Delay Becomes Darn It’s Problem…
“Customs” is practically a 4-letter word in the apparel industry. When Customs holds up your shipment, it can be your worst nightmare. Nagging questions keep you awake at night: Will your shipment arrive in time for the sales promotion? Will the delay impact revenue targets?
Overcoming impossible odds to pick/pack 55,000 coats
In the apparel industry, some items are small and easy to manage. Wallets and wristlets come to mind. Other items – such as bulky winter coats – require significant square footage. Plus, the sheer bulk makes it challenging to process the goods and pack shipments. Thankfully, at Darn It! Distribution, we have plenty of space in our Apparel Warehouse and highly trained employees who provide value-added services.
“!Dios mio! We need tri-lingual labels!”
An online retailer planned to sell 7,000 baseball caps, at $35 each, to residents in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. To comply with international laws, all information on the labels must be in three languages: English, French, and Spanish.
Apparel Inspection and Re-Labeling – If it doesn’t fit, don’t quit!
In the world of apparel, back-to-school shopping isn’t just about kids. Mom will often outfit herself while outfitting her young students. This is a brief, critical selling season that no apparel retailer can afford to miss.
Whoa, snap!
Imagine being the distribution center manager and finding this: Boxes of Navy rain jackets sporting bright-yellow snaps instead of matching Navy snaps. With such an outlandish color scheme, this jacket would NEVER fly off the shelves. In fact, the only place the jacket would sell like hot cakes would be the University of Michigan. Unfortunately, this retailer was based in Seattle.