Bridge & Burn has been designing Pacific Northwest-inspired wardrobe essentials from its Portland studio since 2009. Founded by Erik Prowell, the brand is known for small-batch manufacturing (fewer than 150 pieces per style), unique fabrics, and timeless silhouettes for men and women. Every piece is designed in-house by a lean team: Erik serves as Creative Director, Liesel Sylwester leads design and product management, and Audrey Saing handles product development, tech packs, and fittings.
Before adopting a PLM, the team managed everything in Excel. It worked, but it had clear limitations. When they moved to Backbone, the platform served them well for a period. Then the pricing started climbing with every renewal, and the value no longer matched what the team was paying.
The situation reached a point where going back to Excel seemed like a reasonable alternative. Rather than regress to spreadsheets, Liesel and the team began evaluating new options. The criteria were specific: they needed a platform that was strong at managing tech packs and holding all of their product information. Anything beyond that was a bonus.
Many PLM platforms they reviewed were specialised toward line planning, product assortment, or Shopify integrations, none of which matched how Bridge & Burn operates. They needed a tool that fit their actual workflow, not one that required them to reshape their process around the software.
The price kept going up every time. It was becoming unaffordable for what it was providing. We were seriously looking at going back to doing things in Excel.
Liesel Sylwester & Audrey Saing
After narrowing the field to Rechain and one other platform, Bridge & Burn chose Rechain for its strength in tech pack management and its ability to hold all product information in one accessible place.
The team expected importing their data from Backbone to take two to three weeks. Instead, Matthias completed the migration in a single weekend. There were minor reformatting adjustments needed, but overall the transition was smooth and dramatically faster than anticipated.
For Liesel, the standout improvement has been how Rechain handles fittings. In the previous system, spec sheets and comments were separate, and toggling between them during a fitting session was clunky. In Rechain, the spec sheet, photos, and sample review all exist as one complete package. During fittings, the team can have the spec sheet up, directly add photos, and move back and forth seamlessly. The ability to do multiple sizes on one measurement sheet has also been a significant quality control improvement.
Both Liesel and Audrey highlighted the responsiveness of Rechain's support team as a defining part of the experience. When a feature gap existed, the Rechain team was open to adjusting the platform to fit Bridge & Burn's workflow rather than forcing the team to adapt.
I've been impressed with the responsiveness of the customer service team. Every time we have an issue or a problem, it's easy to get it addressed.
Liesel Sylwester & Audrey Saing
The switch from Backbone to Rechain gave Bridge & Burn a PLM that matches the way their small team actually works. Fittings are faster and more seamless, with spec sheets, photos, and comments unified in one view. Sample tracking and measurement management are more straightforward, particularly for quality control checks across multiple sizes.
The team is already exploring how to expand their use of the platform. Liesel's long-term goal is to reduce the number of separate tools the team relies on, particularly Airtable, which currently bridges the gap between the design/development department and the rest of the organisation for costing, margin calculations, and marketing tracking.
During fittings, it's nice to use. We can have the spec sheet up, directly add a photo, move back and forth seamlessly. The sample review exists as its own complete package, and that's been great.
Liesel Sylwester & Audrey Saing
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