Sending an image to REST API

Hi, I'm currently working on a form which sends some data to a backend. Frontend is implemented using Nuxt3, Rest API on the Backend is implemented using Laravel 9.

Firstly I had an issue where the data object would get properly send to the backend but the image property was always empty. I changed it up by sending a FormData object to the backend in the following manner:

const submitHandler = async () => {
    const formData = new FormData();
    for (const prop in productData.value) formData.append(prop, productData.value[prop]);

    const submitResponse = await useFetch(`${config.API_BASE_URL}/products`, {
        method: 'POST',
        body: formData,
        headers: {
            Authorization: `Bearer ${userData.token}`,
            'Content-Type': 'multipart/form-data',
        },
        initialCache: false,
        async onResponseError({ response }) {
            errorStatus.value = response.status;
        },
    });
};		

Now the issue is I'm getting a 302 response code for some reason, and after debugging it seems like it's down to the validate function I'm calling on the request:

public function store(Request $request)
{
    $request->validate([
        "title" => "required|string",
        "initial_price" => "required|integer",
        "description" => "string",
        "sleeve_condition" => "exists:conditions,id",
        "media_condition" => "exists:conditions,id",
        "sku" => "string",
        "rating" => "integer",
        "product_type_id" => "exists:product_types,id",
        "author" => "string",
        "genre_id" => "exists:genres,id",
        "edition" => "string",
        "discount_id" => "sometimes|nullable|exists:discounts",
        "image" => "required|mimes:image/png,image/jpg,image/jpeg,image/webp|max:10000"
    ]);

    $path = $request->file('image')->store('images', 'public');
    return Product::create([$request->all(), "filename" => basename($path), "url" => Storage::disk('public')->url($path)]);
}

Could anyone help me out with this issue? I'm still not 100% sure if it's down to the frontend or backend, I would love to provide more information if needed but I'm not sure what more to attach