How Kidswear Brands Stay Ahead of Safety and Sizing with PLM

Success in kidswear goes hand-in-hand with safety, accuracy, speed and compliance. Whether a brand is focused on children’s sleepwear or seasonal collections with 1,000+ SKUs, teams need centralized, actionable data to keep products safe and ways of working moving forward.

With Centric PLM, sourcing, compliance, design and merchandising teams have access to accurate data in real-time. Secure portals ensure suppliers are also connected in real-time, so global teams don’t have to wait for their counterparts in other time zones to share critical information. Less time is wasted searching for product updates, buried in spreadsheets and long email chains.

That’s why modern kidswear brands are shifting to digital product development platforms that act as an actionable source of truth. With the right tools, product updates flow across teams. Everyone from technical designers to supply chain managers work from the same version of data. No more miscommunication. No more wasted time.

Some brands take it a step further.
Tools like Centric Market Intelligence™ enable teams to access live market data to analyze trends in kidswear, as well as preferences and competitor assortments to pinpoint collection gaps and maximize margins. Others use Centric Fashion AI Inspiration™ to accelerate early-stage design and ideation with smart visual prompts, empowering design teams to refine products based on their brand’s style differentiators and customer preferences.

When it comes to kidswear, nothing is more critical than safety. From flammability standards to drawstring regulations, compliance rules shape every garment. Navigating requirements like Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) , OEKO-TEX® and REACH is no small task especially when data lives across multiple files, inboxes or disconnected systems. 

The risks are real. A missed certificate or untracked update leads to recalls, penalties or worse damage to brand trust. 

That’s why more leading brands are moving away from manual methods in favor of digital compliance workflows.  

With the right product lifecycle management (PLM) platform, teams: 

• Centralize safety test reports, supplier certifications and regulatory docs 
• Automate alerts for compliance deadlines 
• Use built-in templates aligned with regional standards 
• Maintain full traceability with digital audit trails 

“Centric gave us the transparency we needed to manage PFAS phase-outs and kidswear safety requirements. Before, we were using Excel and shared drives, now we trace every material down to its compliance status.”

— Sandy Flint, Senior Materials Manager, Stio

If there’s one constant in kidswear, it’s change, especially when it comes to fit. 

Children don’t grow on a schedule, which means brands are constantly adapting to shifting size needs. But when sizing misses the mark, the impact is immediate. Return rates climb. Parents lose trust. And what should’ve been a quick purchase turns into a customer service headache. 

By moving sizing workflows into PLM, brands gain: 

• Custom size charts and reusable Points of Measure (POMs) 
• Automated grading rules linked to Bill of Materials (BOMs) and tech packs 
• Region-specific sizing built into development workflows 

Vendors are the lifeline of any kidswear collection, but if collaboration breaks down, development stalls. 

Whether it’s a sample request lost in an inbox or a spec update that doesn’t reach the factory in time, miscommunication with suppliers leads to delays, rework and cost overruns. In an industry where seasonal timing is everything, that kind of friction is unsustainable. 

Leading kidswear brands are ditching email threads and standalone documents for vendor collaboration tools built into PLM. 

With Centric PLM’s vendor portal, manufacturers: 

• Directly receive photos and wholesale sample requests 
• View real-time updates on style changes and requirements 
• Upload certifications and test results for instant team access 

Eliminate back-and-forth emails, shorten development timelines and save teams up to 30 minutes per user per day.

Without proper oversight, it’s easy to miss a late style addition or overlook a material change. For teams juggling hundreds or even thousands of SKUs, manual tracking simply doesn’t scale. 

With PLM, SKU-level visibility becomes second nature. Teams sort, filter and track product data instantly, whether they’re prepping for an audit, checking compliance or aligning assortment plans across regions. 

Missed orders? Avoided.  

Late-stage surprises? Prevented.  

Product managers and merchandisers focus on strategy, not searching for details buried in spreadsheets. PLM turns data into decisions and brands receive the clarity they need to stay sharp, even at scale. 

Kidswear brands are under pressure to lead the way in sustainability as well as safety. Parents want to know where cotton is sourced, how garments are made and what brands are doing to reduce waste and emissions. 

Teams in Centric PLM track full material traceability from fiber to finish: 

• Track vendor certifications and material origins 
• Plan collections with recycled or organic materials 
• Minimize overproduction with data-driven assortment planning 

Combined with tools like Centric Market Intelligence™ and Centric Fashion AI Inspiration™, teams spot emerging trends early and create collections that are on-trend and environmentally responsible while meeting safety regulations. 

“Managing the growing number of certifications was a major reason we adopted Centric PLM. The solution enables us to ensure safety and monitor our sustainability progress from materials to packaging, while keeping up to date with all required industry standards.”  

– Nadine Priester, Director Apparel and Development, TROLLKIDS 

With Centric PLM, companies like Carter’s, Abercrombie Kids, Gap Kids, Old Navy, RuffleButts and Trollkids have transformed how they bring products to market. They’ve replaced manual workflows with smart systems. They’ve reduced sample waste, eliminated compliance blind spots and unlocked new levels of cross-team collaboration. 

 The result? 

• Shorter development cycles 
• Fewer product recalls and missed launches 
• Higher margins from better planning and reduced rework 
• Stronger brand trust from transparency and safety assurance 

Launching a kidswear collection takes more than design inspiration and tight deadlines. It takes coordination, visibility and the ability to adapt in real time. 

Centric PLM brings control to every part of the process from raw materials to retail-ready styles. Whether managing compliance documents, collaborating with vendors, refining sizing accuracy or tracking sustainability progress, Centric PLM enables kidswear brands the tools to move faster without cutting corners. 

The future of kidswear is smarter, safer and more sustainable.—and it’s already underway. 

Ready to see the impact?