How Does Sampling Work?

In order to achieve low cost, low MOQ, and quick turnaround production, CALA combines development and production into one streamlined process.

 

CALA is built to produce products from what we call "design intent". This means that by uploading a few sketches or photos and leaving some comments, our team understands what you intend to design, and can give you close to real time price and timing quotes without the need for a tech pack up front.

 

When you submit a collection of designs in the CALA platform, our team gets to work right away and balances a host of factors like available material supply, manufacturer capacity, and more in order to get you the best pricing and quickest production time available.

 

We don't produce samples before you commit to a bulk production. Instead, we work with you ahead of that commitment to fully understand your design intent, including fabric, materials and design specs. During this process CALA will ask any necessary questions to fill in the gaps (if any) between what you submitted as your design intent, and what we need in order to get you accurate pricing and production. If needed, existing reference samples of fit/materials can be sent between you and the CALA team to make sure everyone is on the same page with your design intent.

 

Once you receive pricing back from our team, you'll have the ability to adjust unit quantities, see how pricing scales, and check out for a collection.

 

As soon as you check out, we pair you with a CALA tech designer, who works with you to translate your design intent into standardized tech packs for our manufacturers to work from.

 

After tech packs are created and approved, we pair your project with a manufacturer in our network based on their capacity, timing, and production capabilities. This modular and flexible approach to manufacturer pairing enables us to turn around products quickly, and with incredible execution.

 

Once your project gets paired with a manufacturer the development process begins, and you will start to receive samples, such as fabric and other material samples. Once those are approved, you'll start to receive prototype samples, all the way through Top of Production samples, which are samples where all elements of the product are correct and indicative of what will be produced in bulk. At every sampling phase you have the ability to approve, proceed with corrections, or request a new sample with corrections. This ensures that your finished goods will represent your design intent.

 

As soon as all of your samples are approved, bulk production immediately begins, and your production is generally finished within 4-6 weeks, depending on complexity.

What if I absolutely need to see finished samples before committing to a bulk checkout?

We designed the streamlined combined development and production process in order to cut down on the inefficiencies of the traditional fashion sampling/production cycle, and empower creators everywhere to bring their visions to life quickly, and with low up front costs. However, we understand that in some cases organizations just absolutely have to see samples of their designs before committing to a bulk production. In these case, you are empowered to check out for 1 or 2 units of your designs in the CALA platform. These units will cost much more than if you were committing to a bulk production, but we allow you to apply the cost of 1 sample unit towards the production of 100 units or more of the same exact style.

Example:

You have a red t-shirt you'd like to produce. You need to see a finished sample of the t-shirt before you can commit to a bulk production of them. In this case, you could submit your collection and check out for 1 unit of the t-shirt. Let's assume the checkout cost for 1 unit of the t-shirt was $400.

 

You love the t-shirt and want to proceed with bulk production. Your bulk production checkout total for 500 red t-shirts is $5000. Since you can apply the cost of 1 unit of your sample towards the bulk production of the same design, you could apply $400 from the t-shirt sample towards the t-shirt bulk production. This would mean your cost is lowered to $4600 for the bulk production of red t-shirts.