Brands & Suppliers

The brand and supplier directory. Every product is tied to a brand; every brand is tied to a supplier (or sometimes multiple). This page is where they’re set up.

How brands and suppliers fit together

• A brand is what shows on the storefront (Lardini, Drake’s).
• A supplier is who bills you. A brand is linked to its supplier.
• Some brands bill you directly — in that case the brand is its own biller, with no separate supplier record needed.
• A brand can also have an agent (a sales rep or showroom) and named contacts, each with an office or cell number, for orders and acks.

For day-to-day use you’ll just work with Brands and Suppliers.

Adding a brand

1. Settings → Brands & Suppliers → Brands tab

2. Click New Brand

3. Fill in:

   • Name (the brand name as shown on the storefront)
   • Brand code (2–4 char prefix used in SKUs, e.g. “LRD” for Lardini — must be unique across the store)
   • Country of origin (optional, but enables auto-fill in Enrich)
   • Default markup (% used to compute retail from cost — typically 2.4x for most menswear)
   • Brand voice override (optional — overrides the global brand voice for descriptions of this brand only)

4. Click Create

Brand codes

The brand code is a 2–4 char prefix that goes into every SKU for the brand. Pick well — changing it later requires re-stamping every SKU.

Good codes: short, distinctive, capitalized.

• ✅ LRD (Lardini)
• ✅ DRK (Drake’s)
• ✅ KIT (Kiton)
• ❌ LARD (too long — eats SKU space)
• ❌ L (too short — collisions)
• ❌ 1 (numeric — confusing)

If the code you want collides with an existing brand, the system suggests an alternative.

Adding a supplier

1. Settings → Brands & Suppliers → Suppliers tab
2. Click New Supplier
3. Fill in:
   • Name (the legal/billing name)
   • Contact email (where supplier ack links and POs go)
   • Default currency (EUR / USD / GBP / etc.)
   • Default delivery lead time (weeks)
   • Brands they rep (multi-select)
4. Click Create

Linking a brand to its supplier and contacts

1. Open the brand.
2. Set its supplier (who bills you). If the brand bills you directly, mark it as its own biller instead of picking a separate supplier.
3. Add contacts — the people you email for orders and acks. Each contact can have an office or cell number and a role, and you can flag who gets CC’d on outbound orders.
4. Optionally set an agent (the sales rep or showroom that reps the brand).

Custom-order recipes

If a brand does custom orders (made-to-measure and special orders), it can have a recipe that teaches ThreadCloud how to read that brand’s confirmations — its field labels, option names, and defaults. The Owner sets this up per brand; the team doesn’t usually touch it.

Once a brand has a recipe, its confirmations parse cleanly in the Custom orders flow.

Editing existing brands & suppliers

Open the brand or supplier → make changes → save. Most fields can be changed freely. Exceptions:

• Brand code — changing this requires re-stamping every SKU of every product from that brand. Email hello@threadcloud.io before changing — this is a sensitive operation.
• Default currency on supplier — only affects future orders. Existing orders keep their original currency.

Archiving

If you stop carrying a brand:

1. Open the brand
2. Click Archive
3. Confirms — the brand stops appearing in dropdowns but existing products stay searchable
4. To resurrect later: click Unarchive

Common mistakes

Next steps

• Build Order — order from a configured brand
• Custom orders — create a custom order against a brand recipe