Sample Room - Fashion Sample Tracking From Factory Request to Press Loan
Sample Management Platform for a Milan Womenswear Brand
Designed and built a clickable sample management app for a Milan womenswear and accessories brand: sample requests to partner factories in Portugal and Turkey, the location of every physical sample from its last RFID or QR scan, and press, stylist and influencer loans with agreements, reminders and disclosure flags.
Most of our work is under NDA. Per agreement, we can share the work but not the company details - all names and identifying information shown here have been changed.
Impact
Dashboard, sample request board and table, request detail, sample inventory with its quick view panel, and loans with the loan panel. Each of the 22 demo requests opens its own detail page.
Studio, showroom, photographer, press loan, influencer loan, factory, in transit and archive, across 248 tagged FW27 and SS27 samples. Each piece shows its last scan, reader, holder and due-back date.
Loans turn amber on the due date and red 7 days later. Requests turn amber within 3 days of the due date and red once past it, with days late counted on screen.
2 main collections and 2 capsules, 22 sample requests, 6 factories in Portugal and Turkey, 33 sample records, 15 loans, 12 press contacts and 10 staff users.
The Problem
Ginepro's product team tracked sample requests in a shared spreadsheet per season, kept tech packs on a file share and sent fit comments to factories as long emails with photos. Nobody could say which fit round a style was on or whether the factory had made the last change. Samples then moved between studio, showroom, shoots and press loans on handwritten sign-out sheets, around 5% could not be found at sample sale time, and editors kept pieces for weeks without anyone chasing them.
Our Solution
Sample Room follows every sample from the factory request to fit, showroom, press loan and back. Product developers send requests with a locked tech pack version and the change requests it includes, factories post updates against them, coordinators see where every tagged piece is from its last scan, and the press office runs loans with signed agreements, reminders and influencer disclosure flags.
The Challenge: Thousands of Pieces, Many Hands
A brand with 2 main collections and 4 capsules a year samples each style several times, in several sizes and colourways, at factories in two countries. Every piece then travels between rooms, shoots and borrowers, and each move has its own rules.
Fit Rounds Lost in Email
A style goes through a proto, fit samples, a size set, then salesman and photo samples. With comments sent as emails, the team could not tell which round a style was on, which tech pack the factory worked from or whether a change was made.
Two Customs Regimes
Samples from Portugal move inside the EU single market without formalities. Turkey is in a customs union with the EU, so clothing generally moves with an A.TR certificate but still needs a declaration at each border, and temporary samples can travel on an ATA carnet that must come back before it expires.
Pieces That Disappear
Samples moved between the studio, showroom, photographers and press on paper sign-out sheets. Around 5% each season could not be found at sample sale time, and nobody could see who held a piece or when it was due back.
Loans Under Privacy and Disclosure Rules
Press, stylist and influencer contacts are personal data under the GDPR and the Italian Privacy Code. Influencer posts showing loaned or gifted products generally need disclosure under AGCM, AGCOM and IAP Digital Chart guidance, and the press office could not prove which loans led to credits.
Our Approach: From Sampling Rules to a Clickable App
Spec and Rules Research
Mapped 11 roles, from designer and fit technician to factory users and press contacts, 43 screens across the staff app, factory portal and phone-friendly press room, and the data model for styles, tech pack versions, sample requests, physical samples, append-only movements, reservations, fit sessions, change requests, shipments, ATA carnets, contacts, loans and incidents. Wrote down the rules the design follows: sample stages, GDPR and the Italian Privacy Code, EU-Turkey customs and A.TR certificates, ATA carnets, influencer disclosure and loan agreements.
Clickable Demo on a Production UI Kit
Built 5 key screens on a production dashboard kit: the dashboard with season progress, samples by location and a needs-attention list, sample requests as a board and a table with bulk actions, the request detail with the factory update timeline and shipment tracking, the sample inventory with chain of custody, and loans with reminders, extensions and check-in. A season switcher, search, scan panel and Italian or English toggle sit in the shell. All actions run on local state.
What a Production Build Adds
Integration with PLM (such as Centric or Backbone), DHL, UPS or FedEx with AfterShip tracking, UHF RFID readers from Zebra or Impinj, label printers, Yousign or DocuSign for loan agreements, Postmark or SendGrid, Launchmetrics or Meltwater coverage, Cloudinary and an ERP such as TeamSystem or SAP Business One. Staff auth by role, an audit log of every approval, check-out, write-off and sale, and the remaining screens: fit sessions, customs and carnets, incidents, season end, the press pages, reports, the factory portal and the press room.
Why It Works: Every Piece Has an Owner
Location From the Last Scan
Inventory counts samples by location and lists each piece with its last RFID or QR scan, reader, holder and due-back date. The quick view shows the chain of custody, any ATA carnet and the next reservation.
Changes Travel With the Request
A sample request carries the tech pack version locked at send time and the change requests it includes, line by line, and the factory's updates with photos sit on the same page as messages, shipment and cost.
Lateness Shows Before It Hurts
Due dates turn amber and red on the board, and the dashboard lists what needs action now: overdue loans, requests with no factory update, parcels in customs, expiring carnets and samples not scanned for 21 days.
Loans With Rules Built In
Each loan shows its signed agreement, replacement value, reminders and influencer disclosure note. Extending a loan or changing a due date needs a reason, pieces on loan cannot be moved before check-in, and overlapping reservations are refused.
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Enterprise Software Engineering - Human + AI
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Global Headquarters
21 Merchant Road, 3rd Floor, Singapore 058267
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North America Office
548 Market Street, PMB 12345, San Francisco, CA 94104
Client operations and business development
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402 Shivalik Shilp II, SG Highway, Ahmedabad 380015
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Enterprise Software Engineering - Human + AI
Contact Us
Locations
Global Headquarters
21 Merchant Road, 3rd Floor, Singapore 058267
Main corporate office and leadership operations
North America Office
548 Market Street, PMB 12345, San Francisco, CA 94104
Client operations and business development
India Office
402 Shivalik Shilp II, SG Highway, Ahmedabad 380015
Engineering and delivery center
© 2026 - Copyright. All Rights reserved Oceanlab