Wear Testing for Apparel Development
Wear testing apparel product has become an important part of the apparel development process. It is performed to test and validate any number of aspects of the product in question.
Wear testing can focus on one or more of the following:
Fabric – quality, functionality, wear
Functionality – design, trims, and construction
Fit – comfort, performance
Quality – construction, value
Wear testing results help identify possible areas to improve on the garment(s) prior to production. Results can also be used to substantiate marketing claims and data may also be folded into business plans validating your product.
When?
Wear Testing can be performed at different stages of product development and at differing levels of formality.
Early-stage wear testing may be to assess fabric performance. Later stage testing would be done with product closer to finalization and can assess a greater number of elements.
How?
Informal testing may be performed by the development team or brand owner themselves. Formal wear testing may be performed by specialized services providing in depth reporting and analysis. At Guided Makers, we recommend formally capturing your wear testing feedback. There are some simple tools available to support this process, for example Survey Monkey or Google Forms.
Process
1) Determine the end goals for the testing
2) Establish your budget for testing – samples will need to be purchased
3) Determine testers – ensuring they align with your target demographic and meet end user needs. We recommend 5+. The larger the sample the more valuable the data.
4) Identify sample requirements
5) Build questionnaire that ties back to testing goals. Always request images of garments on wearers.
6) Set parameters to testers and distribute garments
7) Collate feedback and assess
8) Make any updates to the product based on wear testing results
