SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)

A SKU is the smallest individually stocked and counted unit of product — in apparel, one style in one colorway in one size. The size dimension is what separates a SKU from an option: a line board counts options, and a buy counts SKUs.

That distinction is the reason a board understates its own commitment. One option becomes as many SKUs as the sizes it is offered in, so a colorway added during a line review is not one more card — it is a full size run entering the buy. Footwear makes the multiplier explicit because the unit is pairs across a size run, and often a width run alongside it; most accessories are one-size, so an option and a SKU collapse into roughly the same thing.

On the board this shows up as a gap between what is visible and what is committed. Tile count is what the room debates; the size runs behind those tiles are where the units and the money sit, and no card displays them. The practical fix is to state the size run at the moment a colorway is approved, rather than meeting the multiplier later, when the buy is costed and the decision has already been made.

How the units split across sizes is arithmetic and belongs on the plan, not the board. SKU count is a buying and allocation metric; option count is the range-building metric. Keeping the two distinct stops a breadth decision from being mistaken for a depth decision.