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.
If you were the DC manager, you might say: “Whoa, snap!” And you might chuckle at the sight – except you would know these 2,600 unisex rain jackets retail for $61 each. And you would know that facing a problematic shipment valued at $158,000 is no laughing matter.
Clearly, the overseas factory didn’t follow the specs and applied the wrong snaps. The problem had to be fixed – in a snap! This rain jacket was an autumn promotional item, and the clock was ticking.
This online retailer reached out to the Darn It! Apparel Repair Team.
Hardware is an important part of a garment – hardware makes a garment function! As experts in apparel part/trim replacement, we have a long history of inspecting and replacing hardware, often due to non-functioning parts. Typical issues involve:
- Snaps don’t fit together properly and won’t hold fast.
- Buttons (or holes) are the wrong sizes, or stitching doesn’t securely hold the buttons in place.
- Zippers won’t slide easily and get stuck, or there’s no stopper at the bottom and the zipper pops off.
In this particular case, the hardware operated just fine. However, the aesthetics were awful – and this would impact sales. Here’s what we did to fix the issue:
- Carefully removed the 2,600 jackets from their individual packages.
- Removed all snaps on the jackets by hand.
- Used a hand press to add the correct color snaps, supplied by the apparel retailer.
- Tested all snaps to ensure they functioned properly.
- Carefully repackaged every jacket, ensuring the customer would never know there was an issue.
We shipped 2,600 repaired rain jackets to the retailer.
The Darn It! Apparel Repair team carefully repaired every pine-green rain jacket with matching pine-green snaps. Now, this online retailer can be confident that every jacket is fully ready for sale. And customers will enjoy their aesthetically pleasing rain jacket.
