About
Clothing for people who ask what ran.
fm.design builds software that shows its work: every answer traceable to the function that produced it. These shirts carry the same idea. The lines are the questions we ask at work; the receipt is the answer.
Standing on shoulders
What we learned from.
- RADICAL TRANSPARENCYEverlane published the cost of every garment. It stopped at the factory gate: the story is about the category, not the shirt in your hand. We attach it to the garment.
- PRINT NEAR THE BUYERGelato and Prodigi route print-on-demand to local partners. The routing is right; the buyer never sees who made it, and terms are the network's. We keep the route open to the buyer.
- OBJECTS, NOT MERCHTeenage Engineering sells things with the discipline of the product. One ink, one blank, drawn at print size.
- PROVENANCEDigital product passports (the EU's ESPR) make a garment's record a requirement. A receipt per garment, keyed to the hash of its artwork, is our first step toward one.
Price
A 30 % margin, not cost plus 30 %.
The price is the larger of a brand floor and the full landed cost divided by 0.70.
Landed cost is every variable cost of one shirt at the node that makes it: blank, print, packaging, delivery, payment processing, the node's fee and an allowance for reprints. Cost plus 30 % is a 23 % margin. We never use it.
- IF LANDED IS14.00
- COST + 30 %18.20: a 23.1 % margin. Wrong.
- LANDED / 0.7020.00: a 30.0 % margin. Right.
- TODAYNo node has quoted, so no shirt has a price. The numbers above are arithmetic, not a price.
Nodes
Who makes them.
A node is a qualified printer with an approved blank, approved methods and a checked print. The storefront does not care whose software runs the job; every node sits behind the same interface.
- CONTRACT NODEA local printer contracted directly. 50 % paid when it accepts the job, 50 % when the order is confirmed received. First candidate: a printer in Barbados. Nothing agreed; no price received.
- NETWORKPrint-on-demand networks, as fallback where no contract node serves. Their own billing; the 50/50 terms do not apply. None connected.
Order states
Fourteen states, each with a source.
- ORDEREDthe customer
- ROUTEDfm.design
- NODE_ACCEPTEDthe node
- DEPOSIT_DUEfm.design
- DEPOSIT_PAIDfm.design
- ARTWORK_ACCEPTEDthe node
- IN_PRODUCTIONthe node
- QC_PASSEDthe node
- DISPATCHEDthe node · tracking
- DELIVEREDthe carrier
- RECEIVEDa traceable source
- BALANCE_DUEfm.design
- BALANCE_PAIDfm.design
- COMPLETEfm.design