Brand overstock
Brands from EU, US, JP, KR etc provide fabric, design, and data, and then manufacturers from countries such as China, India, and Vietnam produce the clothes. The manufacturers produce a portion of the clothes from planned waste materials, which is called the overstock, surplus, or leftover.
From my understanding, overstock refers to a batch of goods produced by the manufacturer that exceeds the agreed quantity in the contract after delivering orders to the brand. The only difference from genuine products is that overstock are extra, not planned. Besides, there is also overstock of local brands.
PS: Fittings (such as labels, buttons etc) is much more rare because uaually they are seperately given to manufacturers. And for first-tier luxury brands, it's impossible to buy overstock because of strict fabric and fitting management.
Reasons for overstock
1. Eliminated: those rejected due to flaws found during the quality control process due to stitching or other craftsmanship issues, or not meeting the brand's requirements for craftsmanship or color.
2. Surplus items: Samples; The factory's efficient control results in less actual waste than the estimated loss rate (3%-5%), leading to extra production.
3. Order cancellation: Order cancellations are due to factory issues or brand-related problems. Factory issues usually involve delays in delivery (processing and transportation), while brand-related issues can include instances where the brand disappears or goes bankrupt after paying a deposit.
Handling of overstock
1. To protect the brand, one situation is to set a time for sale, such as after a certain period from when the product was taken off the market.
2. Handling the tag, main label, and washing label of overstock products, also known as the 'three labels'. Some may leak out before they are officially launched.
How are the 'three labels' handled
Damaging the label: This usually happens with leftover overstock, where a cut is made at the main label.
Removing the label: This generally occurs with general surplus overstock and follow-up orders: retaining the original materials, craftsmanship, etc., while removing the three labels, selling only the clothes without any brand meaning.
Replacing the label: attaching other identification labels to the clothes.
Other non-overstock
There are other types of products being sold:
1. Follow-up orders: Authentic overstock is of original materials, fittings, manufacturer and craftsmanship, all matching the genuine product. Follow-up orders meet some of these conditions, so the quality varies. If the original manufacturer, craftsmanship and materials, with replaced fittings, it is a very good level of follow-up order.
2. Duplicating: Duplicate genuine products. There are two situations:
Buying the genuine product, disassembling it and duplicate materials and fittings, striving for a 1:1 reproduction. Because of cost of duplicating, the price of super dupes is high, even more expensive than overstock;
Another is to process according to the original data (brands always have requirements for cutting pieces, craftsmanship, etc. when placing orders).
3. Removal from the counter: Products that are returned unsold from store shelves, usually only trading companies can obtain them.
