Sourcing Your Materials

This blog devotes itself to a topic that can be utterly depressing, ecstatically exhilarating, and everything else in between. Raising children? Formulating a successful vaccine? No, sourcing your materials! Remember earlier when I talked about the time interval between actually hatching the idea of your product and then coming up with something resembling a workable prototype? Keep that interval in mind when determining what materials you need and where to find them, and learn to let go and find inner peace.

In the beginning, you know approximately what kinds of materials you want to use. You think that it should be pretty easy—after all, you’ve seen the same materials time and time again at Target or True Value or somesuch. Ya, we thought the same thing and soon learned one of our early lessons—you can grow old and die trying to source the materials you want, especially when you need them in very small quantities, and especially if you are trying to find these products in the good old USA.

We utilize recreational fabrics, webbing, etc. in our products—pretty much anything that you can use to make a backpack. and I knew that Seattle Fabrics was the place to get them. So, for the 18 months or so I was playing with prototypes, I was a regular visitor to Seattle Fabrics. I did not think about the future much, when I would need quantities of these materials at a much lower cost for initial domestic production. After all, Seattle Fabrics managed to get them, so it must not be that difficult. Boy, was I ever wrong!

We did eventually find everything we needed initially and in doable quantities. Every time we think up a new product, however, it brings with it some difficulty with sourcing materials. Initially, I found these sources to be the most helpful:

1. Knowledgeable sales people and those who sell handmade products. They often will have the information you want, or have information that will get your closer to your goal. Street fairs and craft fairs are often a good resource for this information..

2. The information our prototype person provided to us. He had been in the sewn product industry for a long time and provided us with our first source of fabrics and contact information that led us to our webbing/buckle distributor. Our second prototype person (RHF Apparel) was also extremely helpful, having previously owned her own commercial shop for many years. I still utilize her as a resource.

3. The Internet. We found this to be of limited value at first, but if you don’t have actual people who can help you, it comes in handy. Plan to spend some time with your computer. You might check out McRae’s Blue Book and ThomasNet for starters. Make sure when you call or email that you encourage the respondent to refer you somewhere else if they can't provide the information you need. These people are on the inside track and a small tidbit from them can rock your world!

4. Friends and family and friends of family and friends of friends. One of them helped us tweak our final design, helps us iron our our current design flaws, helps us source materials, and we can’t say enough good about her. People want to help you, so don’t’ be afraid to broadcast your needs.

5. If there is a specific industry into which you fit, check out industry associations. You might even call them to get some general information about sourcing materials. I find that most people at industry associations are pretty helpful.

6. The Mom Inventors forum. Full of people just like me when I was even more clueless than I am now.

Now that we are up and running, we rely heavily on the following:

1. Our fabric company’s sales rep, our notions company sales rep, our sewing contractor, and our sourcing agent.

2. Forums forums forums! They are loaded with good people wanting to share information. I love this resource. Not only the one or two that I spend time with (check out the Mom Inventors website and join to access the forum), but also the information I retrieve from individual postings when I do google searches (rather like following a trail of breadcrumbs). They are one of the great networking tools of our time. One of my searches recently led me into kite-making forums and then ultimately to what we really needed—a wholesale source for fiberglass rods, something with which the people in number 1 above could not assist us.

The most important thing to remember is that sourcing takes patience and resourcefulness. Think of it as a treasure hunt. I would also advise you to take some time to sit and do nothing, or go for a run, or take a nap, or put a jigsaw puzzle together, or just daydream. You will be amazed at how much information comes your way.

Good luck and have fun!