Define what the buyer already owns
List the assets available at the start: last, upper pattern, sole drawings, bill of materials, colour standards, test requirements and tooling. Mark each as approved, provisional or missing. If a brand supplies a complete build specification, the supplier's task may focus on feasibility, sampling and production control. If inputs are missing, development work must be scoped separately.
A reference shoe is not a technical package. Describe which visible or functional features should be interpreted and which should be original. Include intended wearer, application, size range, market and target price band. These constraints let both parties discuss a plausible route before assigning a formal OEM or ODM label.
Assign the design and approval work
Write down who proposes the last, outsole geometry, materials and construction; who pays for iterations; and who signs each gate. A development partner may coordinate several component suppliers, yet the brand still needs clear approval points. Without them, a sample can change direction while everyone believes it is following the original brief.
Separate concept approval from production approval. A visual sample may establish shape and colour, while a confirmation sample should match the intended materials and construction. Commercial terms should specify what happens when the brief changes after tooling starts. This is project management, not a judgment about which sourcing model is superior.
Make the quotation comparable
Ask whether the quote covers design work, moulds, samples, lab tests, materials, full shoes, packaging and export preparation. State the assumed volume and size breakdown. A unit price for repeat production should not be compared with a quote that includes unrecovered tooling and development work.
Request a timeline with decision dependencies rather than one unexplained delivery number. A colour change, a last revision or an external test can move the schedule. Identify which items must be approved before the supplier can commit to the next step, and keep assumptions visible in the quotation.
Protect a clean handover
Before production, put the approved sample, drawings, material identities, tooling rights, quality plan and packaging standard in one controlled record. Specify access to customer-specific tooling and who can authorize reuse. Ensure that finished-shoe and component responsibilities are named rather than buried inside a broad 'full-package' promise.
For a first discussion, a two-page brief is enough: what exists, what must be developed, what the buyer will approve and what remains unknown. That document allows an OEM or ODM route to be chosen for the real work required, not as a marketing label.
Put the thinking to work.
Turn your application and priorities into a project brief.