Blog
​
Hello!
As I am sure you have read previously through my website, my name is Hannah Campos. I have just recently graduated from the Apparel, Textiles and Merchandising program offered at Central Washington University as well as minored in Retail management. Post-graduation I will be working as a Global Sourcing intern for an imprinted sportswear company. Through this blog I hope to log and share my experience with you. I will be discussing my everyday tasks, how my degree has been applicable to my position and pictures!
The Big First Week!
June 23, 2018
​
Thus far my only work experience has revolved around customer service as either a barista, server or receptionist. This being my only experience I was very nervous to be in this position and be working in such a professional environment! On my first day I was given a tour of all of the departments as well as introduced to all of their teams and given an overview of what my portion and experience would encompass. As a Global Sourcing intern, I will be working as a team in the product development cycle and more specifically with outerwear. It will be my responsibility to work with the merchandising, technical design and planning departments to achieve product development. Throughout this week, I had the opportunity to update tech packs for resourcing, attend color meetings, analyze color, work with pre-production, prototypes, and top of production samples and learned to fill order. I cannot believe how much I have learned just within the first week! During my time at Central I had the opportunity to work closely with textiles as well as was introduced to the product development cycle but to be able to perform what we have learned has an eye-opening experience! Although it has been a nerve racking but I am very eager for the weeks to follow!
​
Style File probs!
​
​
Creating Style Files!
​
​
Organizing the Fabric Library
​
Week Two!
June 29, 2018
I am loving it! When I had accepted the internship, I was not anticipating I would get to be involved in the team’s everyday processes nearly as much as I am and though I would be somewhat of a glorified secretary. So far, I have gotten the opportunity to do just about everything that the teams assistance do and when I am not capable of doing something they are working on they give me the opportunity to shadow them. In addition, I have been able to attend all the same meetings that they are scheduled for and this has been my favorite part of the position so far! I have been able to attend style roll out meetings, fit intent meeting, business report meetings and trend presentations. Of all the meetings, trend presentations have been my favorite by far. While attending CWU one of our programs required courses was Fashion Trend Analysis where were required/taught to forecast trends and then present them and to be able to see this happen in a professional setting. One of the trend presentations was given by a vendor that had traveled from Hong Kong. This presentation focused on styles that were going to be trending in 2020. In addition to giving a slideshow presentation the vendor also brought fabric and garment samples for us to see. All teams attended this meeting and then were given individual time slots to also meet with this vendor so I was able to attend a second meeting where the vendor then presented a presentation that focused on outerwear trends. With Spring 2020 being our teams next focus I hope to be able to attend more trend presentations for this season!
​
Picking Pantones
​
More of the Fabric Library
​
More of the Fabric Library
​
​
Our comments and vendor comments regarding fabric appearance.
​
Week Three!
July 5, 2018
​
I hope everyone enjoyed their Fourth of July! Week three has been yet another exciting week. This week I was able to spend some time shadowing our Product Integrity(PI), Quality Assurance(QA) and the OGIO Bags Design Teams. During school my favorite field of study was Consumer Textiles where we were able to learn about natural and synthetic fibers and how they perform as fabrics as well as how to test their performance. This course sparked my interest in PI testing. PI is the team that is responsible for assisting on the front end as well as the back end of the product development process. While shadowing PI I had the opportunity to perform some of the test that they regularly perform to determine whether a product meets certain guidelines. During my time spent with PI I was able to perform tests that evaluated a garments tolerance to snagging, a crocking test, a wicking test and evaluate yarns through a microscope. QA differs from PI being that they solve issues with products outside of the product development process. For example, they will evaluate product that have been returned by customers to identify why the garment is defective.
While QA and PI are the two teams that I am most intrigued by spending time with the OGIO Design Team was also very interesting! The reason this team was so interesting to shadow is because the OGIO Bags Design Team is a team of just two. This team consists of a merchandiser and a designer that does all of his own sourcing. After spending a majority of my time with the outerwear sourcing team I am able to recognize what a big responsibility sourcing for just outerwear is with four people on the team. This being said, I cannot imagine how having the responsibility of having to do your own illustration, technical designs, line plans and your own sourcing. I was very impressed by out OGIO bag designer, Austin!
Overall, I was most impacted by my time spent with PI. I think that this will be the type of work that I will pursue after I have completed my internship. What I like about PI is that it gives you the opportunity to work with physical product, analyze fabric construction and how it performs, which is something I have always been interested in.
Yarns under the microscope-We were able to identify mold in one sample and UFO's in another.
Week Four!
July 11, 2018
I am continuing to learn new things every day! Something that I have picked up on is that SanMar does not have the traditional busy seasons that most retailers do, for example, around the holidays. Instead, here in the headquarters, we are busier during certain stages of development. The last two weeks have been very busy with fabric handoffs, CFT meetings where we have discussed the expectations for the products that are being developed for upcoming seasons. We then relay our expectation to our vendors though fabric samples, illustrations etc. We have spent a lot of time getting these things out to vendors the last couple weeks and are now waiting for the vendors to get back to us with samples. Waiting for the vendors to get back to us has created somewhat of a “slower,” week in the office.
Since things are relatively slow this week I have continued to work on tasks such as updating the rolling change log, filling out decoration testing forms, comparing TOP’s to samples, building more tech packs and sitting in on meetings. At SanMar we have a rolling change log that all teams have access so that we are able to log changes being made with current styles. For example, this week I was entering rolling changes into this log regarding a change in format of a care label on one of our existing styles. When filling out decoration testing forms we are preparing fabric samples to be sent off for heat transfer and embroidery testing to endure that our customer will be able to perform these things without the garment being altered. Comparing samples to TOP’s requires me to inspect the garment from top to bottom making sure that every trim and detail replicate the TOP to maintain product consistency. As for building tech packs, I am feeling much more comfortable and getting faster!
Week Five!
July, 17, 2018
​
This week has started with a few new projects and a presentation from the head of our marketing team. The presentation from marketing made us aware the different sectors of the team and what each sectors duties are. These sectors are Analytics, Project Management, Trade Show, Web Marketing, Creative and Communication. It was also explained to us how SanMar’s marketing has evolved over the years and how as a company we have evolved from push marketing to pull marketing. This means that we are now focused on inspiring our customers to buy our product through more creative advertisements instead of pushing exposure of advertisement by sending adds customers through various medias. This week I have also been introduced to SanMar’s Industrial Laundry program. Our Industrial Laundry program monitors how some of our garments hold up to industrial laundering cycles. This program requires us to test our styles by washing them up to 50 time and keeping a sample from the major washes, such as wash number 50, 30, 25, 15 etc. and a standard. Because of this program, we have had to store theses samples as the standards/examples of how our products hold up to industrial laundering. A project that I have completed this week has been to go through these samples and reorganize them as well as file them with their correct paper work.
Week Five!
July, 17, 2018
​
This week has started with a few new projects and a presentation from the head of our marketing team. The presentation from marketing made us aware the different sectors of the team and what each sectors duties are. These sectors are Analytics, Project Management, Trade Show, Web Marketing, Creative and Communication. It was also explained to us how SanMar’s marketing has evolved over the years and how as a company we have evolved from push marketing to pull marketing. This means that we are now focused on inspiring our customers to buy our product through more creative advertisements instead of pushing exposure of advertisement by sending adds customers through various medias. This week I have also been introduced to SanMar’s Industrial Laundry program. Our Industrial Laundry program monitors how some of our garments hold up to industrial laundering cycles. This program requires us to test our styles by washing them up to 50 time and keeping a sample from the major washes, such as wash number 50, 30, 25, 15 etc. and a standard. Because of this program, we have had to store theses samples as the standards/examples of how our products hold up to industrial laundering. A project that I have completed this week has been to go through these samples and reorganize them as well as file them with their correct paper work.
Week Six!
July 23, 2018
This week I was able to shadow both our Illustration and Technical Design teams. What I really like about product development is getting to see how each team’s contribution comes together to create a final product. In the Apparel, Textiles and Merchandising program we were able to study apparel manufacturing where we were taught the basic points of measure and how to measure these points on a garment. While shadowing Tech Design we were taught SanMar’s points of measure and given the opportunity to measure a few garments as well as compare our measurements to measurements the vendor had sent. If a measurement was out of tolerance we would then mark it and make comments to the vendor on changes that needed to be made.
While shadowing the Technical Design we were informed of the process of creating a styles technical flat. SanMar’s product development cycle is different than most companies in that the merchandisers dual as the designers. This means that the illustrators and technical designers are the ones responsible for conveying our merchandisers vision to the rest of the product development teams though illustrations, patterns, etc. During my time with illustration we went through the process of sketching a merchandisers vision and then turning this vision into a tech flat. The tech flats that are created are used from the very beginning of the product development cycle all the way through a garments entire life spam. It is used in tech packs that will be sent to vendors, season roll outs, advertisements etc. Something else that Illustration does is all the artwork for is our brand and care labels. Next week I will have the opportunity to shadow our Merchandising team. I am excited to see how their role after hearing how many of our teams are reliant on their decisions/designs.
Week Seven!
July 29, 2018
This week I had the opportunity to attend presentations by our Production Planning and Allocation, Credit Department and Inside Sales teams. My experience here at SanMar continues to be very well rounded. The company does an amazing job a t getting us interns exposure to all areas of the business.
​
Our Planning and Allocation team is responsible for, demand planning, production planning, allocation and order fulfillment. This means they are working to forecast market trends, the quantities of what color, size and style need to be produces by our vendors, where these styles need to be kept post production and ensure that they are able to fulfill future orders. This teams goal is to be able to provide our customers with product from what is available in inventory 99% of the time. In order to meet this goal, they must keep a close eye on inventory, be very strategic with their projection and take into account lead times and important market dates. The Credit Department and Inside Sales Teams at SanMar are somewhat similar to one another being that they are working with the customer to maintain/make sales. The Credit department works with our customers to ensure they are making their payment and working to build new accounts. When building new accounts SanMar works to identify whether the consumer and Samar are the best match for each other based on the comparison of SanMar’s and the consumers totally retail strategy. Our inside sales team relates to this being that they are also working to consult our customers. Inside sales works with our customers to make sales as well as address any problems our customers may have/assistance they may need.
​
Something that all of these team have in common is their efforts to directly serve the customer. During each of their presentations the teams spoke of about the importance of supporting one another in efforts to support the business and the customer. This once again speaks to SanMar’s culture.
Week Eight!
August 4, 2018
I have finally had the opportunity to meet with merchandising! I had been very excited to meet with merchandising considering what a big roll they play in our product development cycle. As I have discussed before a merchandisers role at SanMar differs from a traditional merchandisers. Our merchandisers at SanMar also dual as our designers. Our product development cycle starts with our merchandisers vison and is then collaboratively achieved by our product development teams. It was explained to us that our merchandisers go through a four step process to achieve product development. The first step is creating a concept, this means researching market trends and needs to create a starting point for their vision of product they would like to see included in an upcoming season. The second step is creation, where they begin to reach out to product development/sourcing for their assistance on turning their vision into a physical product. After a product has been developed the third step of adoption follows. If a product has been adopted this means they are able to now produce mass quantities of the newly developed style and move on to the forth step of going to market with the product. I was very interested in learning about SanMar’s merchandisers roles because we had learned though the ATM program they merchandisers work more closely with buyers to ensure that quantities of product are in the right place at the right time.
Something else I have also gotten to recently experience was SanMar’s annual summer party! This year’s party was held at CentryLink Field. The celebration was to celebrate the employees as well as raise awareness for a charity we are currently working to build support for. This charity was founded by Russell Wilson and is Called Friend of the Children. This charity helps to partner at risk youth with mentors to act as a positive influence in their lives. At the event we were made very aware of the charity through a speech given by Owner and President of the company, Jeremy Lott. In addition, Ciara Wilson also spoke on behalf of the cause. It was a very fun event to attend!
My Internship Experience Recap
August 10, 2018
I have had an incredible internship experience! As a Global Sourcing Intern my primary focus was working to contribute to the global souring team to achieve product development collaboratively with the other teams. This gave me the opportunity to work closely with many different teams. I was able to work closely with the Merchandising, Illustration, Technical Design, Compliance, Color, Product Integrity, QA and QC teams. In addition to being able to work closely with these teams I was also given the opportunity to spend time shadowing each team. I feel so lucky to have gotten to intern for such a great company that was concerned with providing me with a well-rounded experience. I have learned so much and do not think that an internship in a traditional retail setting would have been as beneficial to my education. This internship introduced me to so many new concepts, possibilities and opportunities that will now help me to take the next step toward finding a career.
Had I not been a part of the ATM program prior to my internship, I do not think I would have been as successful as I was. I think the classes that helped me the most throughout my experience were: Introduction to the Fashion Industry, Apparel Manufacturing, Consumer Textiles and Spread Sheet Applications. I would highly recommend the program to anyone interested in studying fashion. The program provides a very well rounded curriculum that touches on all areas of the industry. In addition, I found the material that we had covered in the ATM program to be very applicable to my internship position and am even more eager to apply this experience to a more permanent positon.
