Knitted Bag Programme Kickoff Checklist: Six Questions and Twelve Items Before Day One

Question One: What Has to Be True Before a Knit Programme Can Start?

A knit programme can start when three things exist: a silhouette with dimensions, a yarn direction with a count, and a compliance target — not when a mood board, a cost target and a launch date exist, though those are what usually arrive first.

The reason is mechanical. A knitting programme is written against numbers: gauge, stitch structure, yarn count, finished GSM, body dimensions, handle drop. A mood board contains none of those and a launch date contradicts none of them, so neither moves the file forward. What does move it is a scale drawing with five dimensions on it, a stated yarn count such as 600D or 300D recycled polyester, and a named compliance target such as REACH, Prop 65, CPSIA, GRS or OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100. Those three convert into programming decisions inside a day.

Buyers sometimes read this as a demand for completeness and delay the kickoff until everything is perfect. That is the wrong reading. A programme can start with provisional values in every field, as long as the fields are there and someone has said which values are provisional. A GSM of 340 g/m² marked as a target is workable; no GSM at all means the programme starts with a guess and pays for it at the fit assessment.

Question Two: Which Numbers Does the Kickoff Brief Need?

Five numbers make a knit brief workable — gauge, yarn count, finished GSM, body dimensions and handle drop — and a sixth, quantity per colourway, turns it into a quotation.

Gauge sets everything downstream. E7 gives about 2.8 needles per centimetre and a chunky, open hand; E12 gives about 4.7 and is the common choice for a branded tote; E14 gives about 5.5 and the finest surface. Yarn count sets weight and abrasion: 600D for a structured tote, 300D for a lighter shopper, 150D for a pouch or a liner. Finished GSM is what price and hand both follow, and it must be a number rather than a description, because 'medium weight' produces three different bodies from three different programmers. Body dimensions and handle drop are the two that most often drive a correction round, so they deserve tolerances at kickoff: plus or minus 3 mm on dimensions and plus or minus 2 mm on handle drop.

Gauge

E7 at about 2.8, E12 at about 4.7, E14 at about 5.5 needles per centimetre

Yarn count

600D structured, 300D mid-weight, 150D pouch or lining

Finished GSM

A number, typically 280 to 420 g/m² for a tote

Body dimensions

Width, height, depth, to ±3 mm

Handle drop

A number in centimetres, to ±2 mm

Quantity

Per style and per colourway, at MOQ 100 pcs

Compliance target

REACH, Prop 65, CPSIA, GRS or OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100

Question Three: Who Has to Be in the Room, and Who Decides?

Three roles have to be named at kickoff — one person who decides the design, one who owns the numbers, and one who signs off compliance — because a knit programme asks for decisions at fixed points and an unnamed owner turns a day-one answer into a week-two silence.

The roles are not job titles and they are often held by one person in a small buying team; what matters is that they are named. The design decision owner answers the fit assessment, which is a day-three event inside a 7-working-day sampling window and cannot be deferred without consuming the window. The numbers owner holds GSM, dimensions and tolerance, and is the person a programmer asks when the drawing is ambiguous. The compliance owner states the target market and the standard, which has to happen before yarn is booked at day 10, because a yarn that fails the target for that market has to be replaced rather than re-tested.

Question Four: What Happens in the First Seven Days?

The first seven working days are sampling, and they run in a fixed order: programming and first knit, heat setting, fit assessment, structural correction, trim and lining, then measurement and packing — with the buyer needed on three of the six days.

Programming and the first knit take about a day and a half and produce the first physical piece. Heat setting takes half a day and is what makes any measurement meaningful, since an unset body keeps relaxing. The fit assessment is day three and is the buyer's first decision point. Structural correction is day four, and two correction rounds sit inside the window. Trim and lining take two days and are the largest single block, because a zip, a lining, hardware and a label are discrete placements each needing a jig and a check. Measurement, photography and packing take the last day and produce the record that bulk will be compared against.

• Days 1 to 2: programming, first knit, heat setting and conditioning.
• Day 3: fit assessment — the first point at which the buyer says yes or no.
• Day 4: structural correction, round one of two inside the quoted window.
• Days 5 to 6: trim, lining, hardware and label placement.
• Day 7: measurement at twelve points, GSM check, photography and packing.
• After approval: bulk runs 30 days, released against AQL 2.5 under ISO 2859-1.

Question Five: What Goes Wrong in Week One, and How Is It Caught?

Five things go wrong in week one of a knit programme: a GSM that was never a number, an artwork that cannot survive the knitted size, a handle drop that was never dimensioned, a compliance target raised after yarn is booked, and a sample approved before conditioning.

All five are catchable at kickoff and all five are expensive by day four. A missing GSM means the first knit is either too heavy or too light and one correction round disappears. An artwork that needs 13 mm of cap height at E12 and has been drawn for 6 mm does not knit legibly and needs a compact variant that nobody requested. A handle drop described rather than measured produces a body that fits the drawing and not the shoulder. A compliance target raised at day 12 means yarn is already booked. A sample approved on the knitting day rather than after 24 hours of conditioning measures correctly on the day and moves overnight.

Question Six: When Is a Programme Genuinely Started?

A programme is genuinely started when the knitting file has been written and a first piece has been knitted from it — before that it is a conversation, and after that it has a calendar, a revision number and a physical reference.

That distinction matters because it is where the 7-working-day sampling promise attaches. A buyer who counts the programme as started when the brief is sent will expect a sample seven days later and receive one nine or ten days later, because the brief-to-first-knit interval is not zero. A buyer who counts from the first knit gets exactly what was promised. The clean way to handle it is to state both dates at kickoff: the date the file is written and the date the first piece is expected, with the sampling window running from the second.

What the First Purchase Order Should Carry

A first purchase order on a knit programme should carry six references beyond quantity and price: the programme revision number, the yarn lot reference, the approved sample date, the tolerance set, the Incoterm and the inspection standard — because a purchase order without those six describes a bag rather than a specification.

The revision number is the one that prevents the most damage. A purchase order that names a style but not a revision will be filled with whatever revision is current on the day, which may be the corrected body or may be the one that was superseded after the trim change. The yarn lot reference does the same job for shade, the approved sample date ties the order to a physical piece, and the tolerance set says in writing what plus or minus 3 mm and plus or minus 5% mean for this order. The Incoterm fixes where risk transfers, FOB Xiamen being the standard with CIF and DDP available, and the inspection standard fixes how the shipment is released.

• Programme revision number, not the style name alone.
• Yarn lot reference, so shade continuity is traceable to a lot rather than to a colour name.
• Approved sample date, tying the order to a physical, measured reference piece.
• Tolerance set: ±3 mm dimensions, ±2 mm handle drop, ±5% GSM, Delta E 1.0 shade.
• Incoterm: FOB Xiamen standard, CIF or DDP on request.
• Inspection standard: AQL 2.5 under an ISO 2859-1 sampling plan.

The Twelve-Item Kickoff Checklist

Twelve items, in the order they are needed: silhouette, gauge, yarn, GSM, dimensions, handle drop, trim list, artwork, colourway split, compliance target, quantity and delivery week — and the last two are the ones most often left to the end of an email.

1. Silhouette: a scale drawing with dimensions, or a physical reference on the physical-first route.
2. Gauge: E7, E12 or E14, or a stated hand and drape if the buyer is unsure.
3. Yarn count and fibre: 600D, 300D or 150D, recycled polyester, nylon or a blend.
4. Finished GSM: a number, not a description, with the tolerance agreed at ±5%.
5. Body dimensions: width, height and depth, to ±3 mm.
6. Handle drop and aperture: dimensioned, to ±2 mm on the drop.
7. Trim list: zip gauge and length, hardware finish, lining, label position.
8. Artwork: vector file, knitted size, colour count, Pantone TCX references, placement.
9. Colourway split: quantity per colourway, remembering MOQ is 100 pcs per style and colourway.
10. Compliance target: REACH, Prop 65, CPSIA, GRS or OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100, named before yarn is booked.
11. Quantity: total and per delivery, so capacity can be pencilled.
12. Delivery week: so a bed slot is reserved rather than hoped for.

What Kickoff Freezes and What It Deliberately Leaves Open

Kickoff should freeze gauge, yarn direction and compliance target, and deliberately leave GSM, dimensions and artwork open until the first knit — because the first three are expensive to change later and the second three are exactly what the first knit exists to settle.

That split is the whole point of a kickoff meeting. Freezing what is expensive to change and leaving open what is inexpensive to change is what keeps a 7-working-day sampling window intact and a 30-day bulk run on its calendar. For the capacity question behind item twelve, see knitted bag capacity booking.

Frequently Asked Questions

People Also Ask

A Kickoff Is a Decision About What to Freeze

Most kickoff meetings try to settle everything and end up settling nothing, because the items worth freezing and the items worth leaving open are not the same list. Gauge, yarn direction and compliance are expensive to change later; GSM, handle drop and placement are inexpensive to change later and are precisely what sampling exists to decide.

Run the twelve-item list at the start, name the three owners, and the first knit arrives on the day it was promised. For the cost structure behind those decisions, see knitted bag development cost guide. For the programme framework, see custom knit bags.