Lab Dip

A lab dip is a small fabric swatch the mill dyes to a target color for the brand to approve before bulk dyeing. Approving lab dips on time is a common critical-path milestone — a late approval delays the whole production timeline.

Lab dips (and the related strike-offs for prints) are where color intent becomes producible reality. Each round of rejection adds days, so unmanaged color approvals are a frequent cause of the slips that compress the full-price selling window.

Tracking lab-dip approval against the time & action calendar keeps color from quietly becoming the bottleneck.