How to Choose a Clothing Manufacturer

Finding the Best Clothing Manufacturer: 10 Tips for Fashion Entrepreneurs

If you’re starting a fashion line, there’s one thing that can make or break your entrepreneurship journey and that’s: How to pick a clothing manufacturer. This decision is vital to the long term success of your fashion company, because even if you have the best designs, and a perfect market fit, in the end if your garments aren’t produced on time, and made with quality craftsmanship, your dream of having your own collection could easily flop. 

After 20 years in the industry, we’ve seen it all at TEG, and we love seeing independent designers succeed, which is why we’ve gathered the top 10 tips for how to pick a clothing manufacturer that will help make your vision a reality.  

Why Does my Choice of Clothing Manufacturer Matter?

The first tip is approaching how to pick a clothing manufacturer seriously, because we cannot stress enough how important this choice is. Choosing the right clothing manufacturer can be the difference between an endless string of headaches or it going smoothly.

When you choose the wrong manufacturer, it feels like mishap after mishap and you’re normally left with a final product that isn’t what you were expecting and we don’t mean that in a good way.

Whereas if you pick the right manufacturer, the production process is smooth, with potential mishaps being called out way before they happen by the professionals along the production lines. You’ll be working with people who aren’t just trained to mindlessly sew, but rather to critically think about what they are making and add feedback when it could improve the quality of the end product. 

Assess Your Brand Needs and Product Requirements

When we boil it down, picking the right clothing manufacturer comes down to what your brand needs. For example, if you need a low MOQ (minimum order quantity) because you’re making a small capsule collection, then you’ll need to find a production company that offers low/no MOQs, like The Evans Group (TEG) does. 

On the other hand it could be that you have the vision for the design but you need help with making this design a reality, from sketching to creating the tech packet, and even material sourcing– in this case you’ll need to partner with a full-service production company, which TEG specializes in.  

Whatever your fashion line’s unique needs are, this will create the guardrails for how to pick a clothing manufacturer that will be right for you. 

Evaluate Expertise and Specialization of Potential Manufacturers

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, your manufacturer has the ability to make or break your clothing line, with something this important on the line believe us when we day, you don’t want to work with an amateur. That’s why evaluating their expertise and what they specialize in is an important step within picking the best clothing manufacturer for your brand. 

There’s certain things you can look for within this, namely, how long have they been in the industry? If they’ve just opened up shop a couple years ago chances are they’re still ironing out the kinks. As previously mentioned, we’ve been in this business for over two decades, so we know what year one and two looked like, and we’ll just say it’s a lot smoother at year 20. 

The other thing to evaluate is the specialization. Is this manufacturer working with big brands with high quantity runs? Or do they specialize in producing for small independent designers who have a different set of needs than the big fashion houses? This is important because picking a production company that’s specializations align with your needs just simply makes everything run a lot easier. 

Compare Domestic vs. Overseas Manufacturing Options

Something that always comes up when figuring out how to pick a clothing manufacturer, is if you want one that’s domestic or overseas. There are pro’s and con’s to both sides of things, and it’s important to weigh these out when deciding who to work with. 

Domestic manufacturing gives you more control, less communication barriers since there’s no time zone differences or things getting lost in translations, and you can be certain that the manufacturer’s employees aren’t being taken advantage of because they’re protected by labor laws. The only downside is that the prices tend to be a little higher, but on the other hand you’ll have less shipping costs as you’ll be able to use ground transport rather than intercontinental shipping. 

Overseas manufacturing gives you more options of manufacturers to work with, since it opens you up to the entire world to work with. Prices tend to be less expensive, but you’ll have less control over quality or knowing who is actually making your garments. 

Request Samples to Evaluate Clothing Quality

When you have the manufactures that you would potentially want to work with short listed, it’s time to start requesting samples of their work. This will help you get a true understanding if their output quality is up to the standards that you are looking for, this way there’s no surprises. 

When requesting samples, make sure to get a range of different styles to see their full scope of skills. Just be sure that some of the samples are similar to what you’ll be developing with them. 

Consider Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs) and Flexibility

One of the first ways to determine if a production partnership is going to work or not is by seeing their flexibility and MOQs. If they have a high MOQ, and you’re just testing the waters and want to produce a smaller run, then you’ll know not to choose that particular clothing manufacturer. But, you will also want to make sure that even if the MOQ fits within your plan, the manufacturer offers flexibility. Will they be able to grow with you as you scale? Can you add another color range mid-production? Try to gauge their level of flexibility before starting to work together. 

Analyze Cost Structure and Pricing Models

While this might seem like a no-brainer, you’d be surprised how many people skip this important step. Make sure to analyze the cost structure of the clothing manufacturer to understand if it’ll make sense with your business plan. The cost of production needs to fit within your pricing plan, otherwise you’re not going to make any money. At the end of the day, while fashion is a passionate business, it’s still a business. If you’re not making any revenue because your margins are low, there’s no money for the next collection.

Check for Compliance with Ethical Standards and Labor Practices

It’s absolutely essential that you make sure each and every manufacturing partner you’re thinking about working with is in compliance with ethical standards and labor practices. Not only are customers more interested than ever about where their clothing is being made, it’s simply just the right thing to do. 

Here at TEG, we’re big believers in a fashion industry that’s sustainable not only for the planet but also for the people, no one should be suffering to make your collection a reality. 

Finding Reliable Suppliers

Utilize Trade Shows to Discover Reliable Suppliers

If we could only give a one word answer to the question, “How do I pick a clothing manufacturer,” it would be “trade shows.” Ok, well, that’s two words, but you get the gist. Trade Shows are great because you’ll have multiple suppliers all in one place, making your job a lot easier. Plus, since they are taking the time and paying to be at a trade show there comes a level of trust and reliability.

Leverage Online Directories and Resources for Research

If you can’t make it to a trade show, you can use online directories and resources to find reputable clothing manufacturers. These directories are usually in the form of online databases listing manufacturers with their websites and contact information. It’s a great place to start your research to see who’s out there and could be interesting to work with. Be mindful that manufacturers often need to pay to be on these lists, so look at multiple directories to get a good scope of the market. 

Network with Other Fashion Entrepreneurs for Recommendations

One of the best ways to find a clothing manufacturer you can trust is through recommendations from other industry professionals. They’ll have been through the whole process of how to find a clothing manufacturer before, so you can stand on their shoulders and learn from their mistakes. 

To find good recommendations you’ll need to widen your network of fashion industry professionals. This can be done by going to industry events and trade shows are starting to get your name out there. If you’re not in an area where there’s physical events, look for online events you can join remotely and connect with people on LinkedIn.

Conduct Thorough Background Checks on Manufacturers

Before you sign any contracts, be sure that you’ve done your due diligence and conducted thorough background checks on the clothing manufacturer that you want to work with. While getting recommendations from your connection is great, and making sure they tick off all the boxes you need is an important step, just be sure that you have a full picture of who you’re thinking about working with before you get started. Don’t be afraid to do some digging and ask the hard questions. If they’re doing any sort of sub-contracting, make sure you know who they are working with on this level as well, so there’s no loopholes.  

Bonus Tips for A Smooth Partnership with Your Clothing Manufacturer

Establish Clear Communication Practices from the Start

When you start to communicate with a potential manufacturing partner, you’ll want to start out with clear communication from the get-go. Oftentimes how you start a partnership will set the tone for how it continues into the future, so make sure that you’re setting a high bar for the standard of communication that you’re expecting. 

This isn’t just for once you’ve actually signed the contract and are working together officially, but you should start while you’re still probing and deciding if you want to work with this particular manufacturer. The manufacturer will most likely match your communication style, so it’s truly up to you to set the tone for how you want the communications to flow. 

Develop a Timeline for Production and Delivery

Making sure everyone is onboard with a timeline from the start is essential. Once you’ve chosen your clothing manufacturer, the production team will be able to give you rough estimates of how long things should take so that you can build a realistic schedule to stick to. 

Timelines are key for keeping everything on track. There’s many steps to the fashion production process, which means if you’re not keeping a tight ship on the timeline, there’s a lot of potential delays. From the start make sure that you create a timeline with your manufacturing partner for production and delivery. 

Be sure to include all aspects of the production process, from design all the way to delivery with their due dates, this way if any delays do occur you know how long you can expect the rest of the production to take and it doesn’t domino into a bigger delay across the board. 

Prioritize Quality Control Measures Throughout Production

A mistake many first timer designers make is not prioritizing quality control measures throughout the production process and just waiting till the end. This is a disaster waiting to happen because errors in quality can happen anywhere throughout the manufacturing process and the earlier you catch it the better. 

Make sure each and every step of the production process has a quality assessment in place to make sure that your garments are being constructed properly, this way you don’t receive a final product that’s nowhere near the standard you’re looking for and have to start over wasting a lot of time and money. 

Maintain a Focus on Building Long-Term Relationships

The last tip is an important one: focus on building long term relationships. You don’t want to have to go through this process every time you’re creating a new collection, so be sure to have a long-term mindset from the start. This doesn’t just mean creating a good working relationship with them, but also making sure they can have the capacity to grow with your brand. Maybe at the start you need low MOQs, but as you grow you need a production house that can handle larger assortments. The last thing you’ll want as your brand grows is to have to find a new production partner, it’s a lot easier to make sure they can cover all the bases of a growing brand from the start.

Choosing the right manufacturer is key to your brand’s success. TEG offers expert guidance and high-quality production tailored. Contact us today to start your journey with a trusted partner!