Defect prevention is cheaper than defect correction. This guide walks through the top 20 garment defects I've seen across hundreds of audits — from broken stitches and open seams to shading, skewing, and spot stains — and maps each one to the root cause and the check point in the process where you should catch it.

The article includes a simple defects tracking template you can use to start reducing your rejection rate within a single week.

Key takeaways

• Start from the problem you are trying to solve, not the tool you want to use.
• Measure the baseline first — most improvement ideas fail without one.
• Close the loop: review, write down what you learned, and share it.

Thanks for reading

If you found this article useful, you'll probably enjoy the rest of the writing in this category — a mix of practical field notes and framework-agnostic engineering ideas.