A sample is needed before mass production, a sample is sent to the designer from the manufacturer. This helps you evaluate and develop the feel, quality, size and overall appearance of the product from your manufacturer. so that it can be made perfectly to your liking. Sample is defined on google as “a small part or quantity intended to show what the whole is like”. Samples aren't anything new, you've probably have had many samples and never notice, For example if you ever shopped at costco, they always have workers on the side giving out free samples of the food they sell at the store, these food samples lead to possible customers who will now buy the product based on of what they just tried and if they like the product enough to purchase it. Samples help solidify your decision. maybe they just never saw it on the shelfs, or maybe they were looking at it but weren't sure if it was worth purchasing. Samples allows you to test the market to see if your past existing customers and see if new possible buyers like the product you are about to release. It also allows you to see if you liked all the details and sizing you put for that sample, to make adjustments and fix the mistakes or the details you didn't like that you thought you would, and they allow you to see if you want to work with that manufacturer for this project and in the future, you want to see if they followed all the instructions you put on the techpack, which lets you know if you should continue working with that manufacture
A prototype is defined as “an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process”. For example, I made a prototype for the idea my mom had called “Easy Button'' . Instead of having buttons, there's velcro going down keeping the garment closed just like a button. We also wanted to have buttons on top appearing like it's actually buttoned down. This idea stems from my grandpa who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, but loved wearing button downs. Unfortunately my grandpa had constant trouble undoing and doing the buttons himself, and on top of that hated asking other people to do it (which makes perfect sense, he just wanted to feel independent) Easy button makes it easy, so all he has to do is attach the velcro to the other side. To get a prototype made we went to joanns where they sold velcro that attaches to fabric, and we bought different types of flannels to see which material we liked the best. Once we got home we asked my mom which flannel she loved the best, we laid down the flannel, and attached the velcro to each side of the openings, and it worked. The next part was finding the perfect measurements, colorways, buttons, labeling, ect. Then I took it to Adobe Illustrator and made a mock-up and made sure that it had all the details my mom wanted, and then I sent it to a manufacturer to get a sample produced, so I can make sure I have all the details finalized before ordering in bulk.