The National Register of Independent Sales Reps: Apparel & Accessories

How Reps Get Listed

The listing rule is the directory's foundation: no one pays to be in it. The publishers personally contact every company to be included, which keeps the book a register of working representatives rather than a collection of advertisements. A rep must also be willing to accept new lines if they are appropriate to the rep's following with retailers. That single condition explains the book's usefulness to manufacturers: every profile in it belongs to a rep who is, in principle, open to the right line. It also explains the matching discipline the profiles support — a line that does not fit the rep's accounts or price range is not appropriate, however good it is, and the profile fields let a manufacturer judge fit before making contact.

What Each Profile Gives

The sourcebook includes the following information, if it is available: names of officers in the sales rep company; company address; telephone and fax numbers; email address; territory used by the sales rep; showroom and sales rep location; origination of manufacture; number of lines carried; type of market — men's, women's, children's; coverage on the road, in a showroom and at trade shows; price range; and more information. Territory and coverage are the fields a manufacturer reads first: a rep's value is the ground the rep covers and the way the rep covers it, whether traveling the road, working from a showroom, showing at trade shows, or a combination of all three.

Accounts, Labels and Price Ranges

Each of the 1,100 independent sales reps carries a complete profile. It tells the accounts served — buying offices, clothing stores, department stores, discount stores, mass merchandisers, specialty stores and boutiques; the territories covered by the rep; whether the rep does trade shows, has a showroom or travels on the road; the labels carried presently by the rep; what types of markets and sizes the rep carries; how many people are in the rep's organization; the types of garments presently carried by the rep; and the price range carried — lower, moderate, better or designer — plus other detailed profile information. Those fields together let a manufacturer answer the only question that matters before an approach: does this rep sell my kind of garment, at my price range, to my kind of store, in the territory I need covered? A yes on all four, from the profile alone, makes the approach worth making.

Formats and Use

The up-to-date and easy-to-use directory is available on hard copy directory, computer disk and PDF. Manufacturers building a national rep network usually work it by territory and market, printing or extracting the profiles state by state; a single line entering one region works the same fields in the other direction, starting from its home territory and its price range. Reps themselves use the book to understand their competitive neighborhood: who else covers their territory, what labels those reps carry, and where a line they want is already represented. Learn more about The National Register and the fashion industry directories it provides through the publisher link in the navigation on this page.

Checking Directory Data

Apparel Search does not maintain or own the directories described on this page; the information is provided so viewers can research and purchase fashion industry guides and directories more easily. Reliance on directory data should only be undertaken after an independent review of its accuracy, completeness, efficacy and timeliness. Rep arrangements change as lines move between showrooms, so a profile should be confirmed with the rep's office before samples are shipped.

Photos