Supplier QC
Stage 1 · Overseas
Before a unit ever leaves the supplier, our sourcing agent inspects it against the piece’s spec sheet. This is the reject-early stage — the cheapest place to catch an obvious failure.
What we look for at this stage depends on the category:
- Sneakers: box condition, upper stitching alignment, factory glue on the sole edges, embossing depth, insole print quality, Boost density (for Boost soles), overall symmetry.
- Apparel: tag print (font, spacing, texture), fabric weight, seam construction, applique adhesion, wash tag correctness.
- Bags & small leather: hardware weight and finish, stitching density (SPI), edge paint continuity, lining pattern, serial or heat-stamp presence and legibility.
- Watches & jewelry: dial print, hand alignment, chapter-ring registration, movement type verification for watches; hallmark verification, stone certification card presence and matching serials for jewelry.
Anything that fails here gets returned to the supplier before we pay to ship it. Cheapest possible reject cycle.
Intake QC
Stage 2 · US warehouse
Once inventory lands in the US, we open the box and re-inspect every unit under proper lighting. This is where transit damage, mislabeled batches, and things the supplier missed get caught.
Intake QC records for every unit include:
- Front, back, sides, sole/underside where relevant, plus close-ups of the specific batch tells the piece is known for.
- The actual unit’s photos — not a stock shot, not a supplier catalog image. What you see on the listing is what you get.
- Batch identification where the piece has multiple known batches (e.g. AJ4 GX vs LJR, Sp5der V1 vs V2 hoodie).
- For jewelry: GRA certification card in hand, serial photographed with the piece, and the card ships with the item.
- Any minor imperfection is called out in the listing’s provenance note. If it’s significant, the unit doesn’t make it to the shop.
A unit that fails intake QC gets one of two outcomes: return to supplier under warranty for replacement, or if the batch is confirmed bad, we pause the whole request and keep searching.
Pre-ship verification
Stage 3 · At packing
Right before your unit gets sealed in the mailer, we do one more check — this time verifying the physical unit against your specific order.
- SKU match: the exact unit you picked is the exact unit in the box.
- Size / colorway: your ordered variant matches the physical variant, including subtle things like left/right on shoes or the correct stone size on jewelry.
- Accessories present: box, dust bag, papers, spare laces, whatever the listing said comes with the piece.
- Packaging integrity: no scuffs from warehouse handling, no dented corners on the shoe box.
- Real-time packaging photos captured for the order’s digital delivery record.
The order’s digital delivery record is a per-order fingerprint that we generate at payment verification. It ties the physical unit to your specific payment, and it’s what a future case (mismatch, damage claim, lost package) references — not a screenshot, not a claim, a canonical record.
Failed QC means we don’t offer it to you at a discount. The rule is simple: if a piece failed our review, we don’t sell it to a buyer just because a buyer might accept lower quality. The failed unit either goes back to the supplier or, if unsalvageable, gets destroyed. We’d rather delay your order than degrade what “PlugSheet-shipped” means over time.
What happens if you receive something that should have failed QC
Nobody’s process is perfect. If a unit slipped through and got to you with a real issue — wrong batch, transit damage we didn’t catch, material mismatch from the listing — that’s a case, not a debate. See Policies for the material-mismatch and wrong-item flows.
Take a photo of the issue in reasonable light, ping us, and we’ll run the return-before-refund flow or a direct replacement. Photos speed things up; they’re not a gate.