How to brief an eyewear factory
The quality of your brief decides the quality of your quote. Five things to include, and why each one changes what you get back.
- 01
Send what you have, not what you think is required
A sketch, a Pantone reference, a frame you admire or a full tech pack: any of these is a valid starting point. At CIC every brief gets a reply within 24 hours, and the discovery call fills the gaps a document cannot.
- 02
State your quantities honestly
Minimums exist to make tooling and materials add up, at CIC 300 pieces per SKU and 100 per colourway. Inflating your volumes to look bigger gets you a quote your real order cannot carry. Honest numbers get honest prices.
- 03
Lead with the shelf date
Everything is planned backwards from your launch: first samples in 20 to 45 days, a first production run in around 120 days. Share the date frames must be on shelves, and the whole plan can be built around it.
- 04
Give a target cost, not a guess
A target unit cost is not a negotiation tactic, it is an engineering input. It decides materials, constructions and finishes before anything is drawn, so the first sample already lives in your margin.
- 05
Name your markets
US, EU or Japan changes compliance, lens standards and, with our Thailand facility, where production should run. Say where you sell up front and the plan is right the first time.
- 06
What happens after you press send
Acknowledgement within 24 hours, a 30-minute discovery call, and a concrete sample plan with lead times and costs within three days. From there it is samples, iteration and production.
Ready to put it to use? Send a brief →
Bring Us a Frame.
Send a sketch, a Pantone, or a brief. We reply inside three working days with a sample plan, lead times, and a cost breakdown.