Case studies: Product developer at Speedo: Wendy

Wendy studied fashion at BTEC National Diploma Level at West Nottinghamshire College for two years and then at HND level at York College for another two years. She is currently employed by Speedo International Limited as a product developer

For my BTEC, work experience consisted of two weeks at 'G Force', a clothing firm which was based in Nottingham, where I assembled and cut waistcoats from various remnants of fabrics which would then be made up by the machinists.

For my HND, another two weeks was spent at Warner's, which was also based in Nottingham. During those two weeks I was taken through the production processes of putting bras together.

After leaving college I joined Speedo as a machinist at their Nottingham-based factory where I made swimwear. As a machinist I would overlock our male swimwear and at busier times would overlock some of our female swimwear.

After three years of machining and with my college qualifications the opportunity arose to do maternity cover in the garment engineering department. This is where I learnt how to cut patterns on our CAD system and get involved in the costing process on the construction side of the garment, which was also done on our CAD system. This would eventually lead to a permanent position within the garment engineering team where I was trained on how to grade swimwear and ended up grading most of the range at our factory.

When our factory closed I ended up doing a secondment in Sri Lanka for Speedo in a role as a garment engineer for four months.

On my return from Sri Lanka I became a garment technologist where my responsibility was gold sealing our swim range with the exception of our elite swimwear which is often seen worn by athletes. This was a more quality-orientated role as the production standard would be set at stage. For this role I would visit our swimwear factories in Asia and gold seal samples at source for our swim garments. When sealing a sample, garments would be measured, stitch densities counted and fibre content checked, also ensuring that the correct fabric type and colours were used and the garment was correct to design and construction.

After three and half years of gold sealing my role now is that of product developer. This role involves developing the product from a drawing which is generated from design to the finished product. To develop a successful product, together we work with the designers and product managers. Within this role we have to raise specs (or tech packs). These are then issued to factories where prototypes are made for fitting. Prototypes are fitted on a model until they are correct for fit, which is the responsibility of the product developer, and correct for design, which is the responsibility of the designer.

Starting my career as a machinist has helped with the knowledge I have gained to become a garment engineer and later in my current role as a product developer as knowing how to put a garment together can be a fundamental asset in both a career as a product developer/garment technologist or even as a designer as I still often use my machining knowledge to mock up samples or to experiment with different finishes.