Manufacturer Reviews

Below is a list of reviews of various manufacturers to help you decide on whether you would like to work with a specific manufacturer.

If you would like to contribute to this list, please e-mail your review, along with the business name and location (city is fine), and let us know whether you would like to have your name associated with the review or not.

Factory/ Agency/Business Name Business Location Review of Experience - positive or negative Date Name of Member (Optional)
AnabelleNYC -Manufactuer New York (Brooklyn area) Worse exprience ever! Anabelle NYC, does not ever meet deadlines, She lies a lot. Tell you one thing and its another. Good at sewing and pricing. Thats it. If you want your line to launch on time DO NOT GO TO HER. You would be better off going to a manufactuer who has morality and understand start up money does not grow on trees. I am in the processs of taking away and adding to my collection. Due to ANABELLE NYC , lost about 6000.00 dollars because the season I wanted to launch for has came and went. My Lesson is to do research
Rainbow Leather New York (College Point) http://www.rainbowleather.com/ Rainbow Leather does full-color printing, foil stamping, cutting, perforating, and embossing of leather. I have so far only used them for full color printing, but I can highly recommend them for this. I talked to and tested out many other leather printers before I chose Rainbow. They are responsive, fast, and reasonably priced. They answered all of my emails within 24 hours, and they turned around my orders within the quoted time frame (2 weeks). The one issue I had was that I had leather hides delivered to them and signed for by their front desk, but they weren't aware they'd received them. So, if you send them hides from an outside source, be sure to get the tracking code and follow up with Rainbow as soon as you know your package has been delivered. When I followed up they were all over it. They'd found my package by the next morning, and all was right back on track. They're also great about sending free samples of their work so you can see it for yourself before you commit. A+ 8/1/18 Laura Shape
Funari Fashion Consulting New York (Brooklyn ) http://www.funarifashionconsulting.com Janelle Funari and her business partner Danny Levine run this company. They are expensive and have no system for communication whatsoever. Sometimes texting and sometimes calling and rarely emailing the messages are confusing and unitelligible. They SHARE an email address so you don't even know who is writing to you! A design meeting is $975.00 and their retainers are $2500.00 and they go through them quickly. After asking many questions I was told, "perhaps you shouldn't be in fashion." I was reminded daily about "how they have launched over 50 successful brands" and that "they could do this shit in their sleep". Hubris does not make for good business. I had to get really mean and legally agressive to get them to WORK FOR ME. I ultimately had to fire them. My lawyer (who said they are notorious for being unprofessional and money grubbers) has had to intervene to get my second retainer back...or what's left of it. There are many other choices for product development in NYC, do not use them. Feel free to reach out to me if you want more detail. 1/14/19 David Mucci
Thread Tech, Inc Boston, MA After designing my first full line of clothes I was excited to work locally with a new manufacturing company that advertised that they could take designers from idea to production, completing all the necessary steps along the way under one roof. Initially I was impressed with the attention to detail that the owner, Donielle Martorano McKeever, displayed while showing me the work done on some other pieces. I value quality workmanship so was thankful to find someone who did as well. I picked up two completed styles in early July and found that none of the sewn pieces looked like I expected. The simplest example being that striped pants didn't have the strips lined up at the seam and patterned skirts did not have the pattern centered. Two aspects that should be basic quality requirements. I brought everything back the next day to show Donielle and was told they would take a look and make sure to correct everything. She asked me to email details of everything that was wrong with pieces which I did. One week later I was sent an email stating "she had discussed the matter with her attorney and he would take it from here." I was dumbfounded. 3 months later and the situation is still not resolved. Thread Tech has all of my patterns, samples, designs, fabric, etc., and money. I have done a lot of research into this company, its founder and backers. What I've learned is that Thread Tech is at least the fourth manufacturing business Donielle has started and two have been taken bankrupt along with designers property. Their pricing structure while advertised to save a designer money and time, is actually way over standards and a la carte. For example, Tech packs are $300 and not complete or detailed so useless. 10/8/19
The D.N.A. Group San Francisco, CA The short version is that they are unreliable, unprofessional and are not accountable. Worked with them for two years. During that time I received poorly made samples with many errors. The patterns were full errors as well and some were completely missing pieces or had the wrong pieces. I tried to get the patterns fixed by a third party but there are so many errors that I have to get them completely redone at this point. Now, I have nothing and I am in the process of having my pattern completely remade. Below are details if you have time to read through. 1. Sample Making Process: a. Overall poorly made samples were produced. b. No Quality Control. Samples were clearly rushed to be made for the fitting and no one reviewed them before the fitting. c. Errors - Didn’t offer to fix their errors for free i. Backwards collars on two samples ii. Buckled lining iii. One side of the jacket longer by 2” iv. Bad samples overall which made it hard for me to determine if the fit was right and/or if I can move forward with finalizing my samples. 2. Suppose to be experts that you can rely on: a. Didn’t even mention that I should have interfacing in my jackets until I asked about it later on. b. They feed on your lack of knowledge. c. Since you already paid them, they didn’t have your best interest and I just felt like the root cause of the sample issues never really got addressed. 3. Not accountable for your timeline at all. a. Slow process and doesn’t respect your deadlines. b. They will tell you a date that something will be completed by but they don’t give you any updates but miss your deadline. 4. Not professional. a. Won’t pick up your phone calls or return your emails for several days. b. People will go on vacation but you have no idea because you don’t receive an OOO reply letting you know they will be out or they don’t give you heads up about it. c. Moving across the country without notifying their clients. d. Logo, label, or hang tag development - I didn't receive any service on these items and paid others to complete. 5. Patterns included many issues: a. They didn’t give me the specs at the time of the fittings so you weren’t really able to keep track of things that needed to be updated. b. I was told that I would get my final graded patterns on July 5th but didn’t get until August 2nd. I was told that they needed the extra time for quality control review of the patterns. c. I could clearly see there was no quality control review of the patterns. Just on one style alone I found the following errors. i. Collar from the pattern was completely different from the sample. I had to have it remade to match the sample by another pattern maker. ii. No back facing included in the pattern. iii. No lapel facing patterns included. iv. Several pattern piece indicating to cut “1”when the sample clearly showed that there “2”. v. Missing patterns for the lining. vi. There are so many errors that it is better for me to have them completely redone by someon else. 6. Material and sample fabric: a. All my materials and samples were shipped to the east coast without my knowledge. We were coming to the end of my contract and I could have picked up my samples and fabrics avoided incurring shipping fees. b. DNA Group lost 5 yards of lining that I have been tracking on my end since they were purchased in March 2019. Even though I know that it was not used in any samples they insisted that it was. Furthermore, I was told by them that they are not a storage facility and are not responsible for lost items. 11/11/2019 Lori Reposa
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  • Factory/ Agency/Business Name MadeRight
  • Business Location San Mateo, CA
  • Review of Experience - positive or negative super sweet guys but I did not love their work. Their guy that did tech packs was not good (I had to pay another person to fix their tech pack which they charged me $500 if I remember correctly). They only do production abroad and have minimums of I think 100 pieces per style and color. At the time I was working with them they did not provide a service for having samples sewn so you had to go and get your samples done somewhere else and then bring it to them. Finally things just kind of took a long time. For example, each tech pack revision seemed to take forever... it was frustrating
  • Date
  • Name of Member (Optional)
  • Factory/ Agency/Business Name Melko, NY
  • Business Location New York City
  • Review of Experience - positive or negative I worked with Cindy Mak on a jacket and skirt design. I was very new to it then. She graded them, I wasn't so happy with the grading job, I mean, it was accurate, but I didn't like the grade rules and didn't know enough to check/insist on certain things. The sewing was beautiful...really nice. She seems very competent. Her minimums can be low (25, I actually only had enough fabric for one that was 13, and she did it). Tiny place, if you want your work on view by anyone who visits, that happens there (I didn't love that, but that's the industry sometimes). A couple things weren't right, I had her hem scarves, and those were very late and done with the wrong threads...but the tailored (more difficult by far) pieces were beautifully done.
  • Date
  • Name of Member (Optional) Annina King
  • Factory/ Agency/Business Name National Apparel
  • Business Location San Francisco
  • Review of Experience - positive or negative They are well known here. They can do almost anything. knits / Wovens. I had them sew three knit dresses for prototypes. I think becauseI am new they didn't give my product much care. They sewed even though they knew their machines were needing repair caising the bindings and seams to be wobbly. Each dress was about $100 - $140. They don't give price breaks until you hit 500 units. They will do smaller units. I haven't asked them to give me production proces yet. They are fast. Going back to them to get production quotes for 100 units. Will report back here,
  • Date
  • Name of Member (Optional) Tahra Makinson-Sanders
  • Factory/ Agency/Business Name National Apparel
  • Business Location San Francisco
  • Review of Experience - positive or negative Have been working towards production with Johnny and team for almost 9 months. Overall they are relatively responsive and nice. But here's my experience:starts with the owner Johnny quoting me a price for production a few months ago based on fully sewn samples and tech packs. I had it in writing via email Then, after I've had all my fabric and materials shipped to his factory, and as I'm gearing up to start production, he changes his mind and demands an increase in the price/unit by almost 25%. Says this new price will ensure his team does a really "good job." Offers no other explanation. I barter a bit, we agree on a new (but still more than the original) price. I have him make me 6 samples (cost $900). His team didn't follow my tech pack (stitching is wrong in several places). He doesn't apologize and tells me its my fault for not pointing out all the details on the tech pack (we had an hour meeting going over everything prior). Despite pointing out the issues, he nonetheless requires full payment for the samples, which I begrudgingly hand over. Now, ready to discuss the contract and the TOP samples, he says he will charge me sampling costs for the TOP samples. I push back gently stating that its my understanding that its an industry standard to provide TOP samples for QC (I confirmed this with several other production facilities that thats true). And so he writes back, "we're not the right shop for you. come pick up your things."
  • Date 2/26/17
  • Name of Member (Optional) olga lemberg
  • Factory/ Agency/Business Name Source Easy
  • Business Location San Francisco
  • Review of Experience - positive or negative After a ton of terminations on the product development team, delegating tasks to the wrong people, and just plain chaos, not only did they simply just not complete the work I paid them to do (source fabrics/trims, complete tech pack, sew me up a sample, etc.) but they managed to LOSE 4 of my sewn samples (4 shirts, 4 pants) I provided as references to them as well as patterns and fabric swatches. Turns out my package was stolen in plain daylight from their offices because it was not adequately supervised (and other clients' packages were also stolen; they think it might be somebody who works for them!). After a huge ordeal and on the verge of threatening legal action, they finally agreed to refund me the development costs and the costs of my lost samples. But I lost a very valuable TWO months in the meantime. I learned that when I provide anything of value to a contractor, I should always indicate the value of that property upon transfer, document what I am leaving with them, and have the recipient sign a NDA.
  • Date 4/26/2016
  • Name of Member (Optional) olga lemberg
  • Factory/ Agency/Business Name Source Easy
  • Business Location San Francisco
  • Review of Experience - positive or negative They fired their entire SF product development team, switched account managers to NY, nobody knew what the heck was going on.
  • Date 4/26/2016
  • Name of Member (Optional)
  • Factory/ Agency/Business Name Spooltown
  • Business Location Portland, OR
  • Review of Experience - positive or negative Spent almost a year working with the ladies at Spooltown -- while friendly and responsive, I was not happy with the quality of work (at one point, they used a seatbelt, an actual seatbelt as a strap on a sample) and the slow response time. They also tried to push me to make design choices I did not specify in my original sketches, and kept reminding me how "lucky" I was to work with them. Would not recommend.
  • Date
  • Name of Member (Optional)
  • Factory/ Agency/Business Name Spooltown
  • Business Location Portland, OR
  • Review of Experience - positive or negative They are constantly busy and booked for months in advance. I tried for over a year to work with them.
  • Date
  • Name of Member (Optional)
  • Factory/ Agency/Business Name The Apparel Sourcing Agency
  • Business Location
  • Review of Experience - positive or negative I also have a designer friend who is being held hostage by The Apparel Sourcing Agency. I never want to bad mouth people but enough is enough!! These people know that they can take advantage of emerging brands because they bank on us not knowing what we don't know.
  • Date 4/26/2016
  • Name of Member (Optional)
  • Factory/ Agency/Business Name The D.N.A. Group
  • Business Location San Francisco
  • Review of Experience - positive or negative I worked with Dan and Alex for over a year to develop my first collection of eco-luxe loungewear. This was my 3rd attempt at trying to find a production facility that would work with me to develop 11 pieces with customizable options and no minimums. The line is demi-couture. Having said that, I realize that most facilities would not even take on my project. Ideally, I was trying to find a local team that I could work with on a per piece basis but was unable to find any one in the Sarasota, Florida area or near where I live. Dan is the operations manager, while Alex is the lead designer. I found out later that they have 3 businesses - including a lingerie line and Alex's own line, in addition to the production facility. I mention this because I believe this is the major issue contributing to my complaints against them - numerous false promises, missed deadlines, and production errors - even when all changes were submitted in writing by myself continually. My complaints were always received with a very polite and immediate response with no resolution, apology, or accountability on their end - there was always another excuse - essentially, blaming me. In the end, I stopped all communication because I was continually lied to and promised the "moon" especially during new phases when they needed more $$ (they require 100% upfront and so you have no recourse for missed deadlines) - It took over 1 year to recieve all of my items - some pieces were never 'right'. These guys are very nice and I think that's why I stayed with them so long - but I feel like their priority is their own lines (including Alex's recent appearance on project runway) and that the production clients like myself are bascially financing their interests rather than being a priority. Ultimately, I "charged-back" a payment due to a missed deadline and severed the relationship. I will never work with a factory again that is so far from me geographically, there is simply no way to oversee production. Lesson learned. Hopefully this will help someone else!
  • Date 10/24/16
  • Name of Member (Optional) Karen Roth
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