LAUNCHING
A PRODUCT.

Major retailers plan seasons far in advance and their buying appointments are the fixed points. Everything else — samples, linesheets, pricing, production capacity — has to be finished before the appointment, not before the season.

A price, a delivery date they believe, a minimum they can afford and a reason their customer will pick it up. A pitch that spends its time on the story and leaves the case pack undefined generates a week of email instead of an order.

A line launched in three colors across two doors can be evaluated. The same line in twelve colors across sixty doors cannot — and the inventory risk is carried by whoever guessed wrong, which at launch is you.

Sell-through is the only number that predicts a reorder and the retailer holds it. Agreeing to receive it, in the terms, before the first shipment is worth more than any amount of chasing afterwards.