Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. is a professional underwear sourcing & supply-chain management company based in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang knitwear cluster of south-east China. Founded by Will Lin, who has worked in the apparel trade since 2004, the company has been exporting since 2009 and was incorporated in Xiamen in 2013. It runs its own liaison office in Jinjiang and works with a network of BSCI & OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified partner factories to serve retailers and brands across Europe, the US and Australia.
The underwear market is called “the last piece of cake in the clothing industry”. Clearly, the underwear industry is still an area with huge potential that deserves our investment.
You may have had the idea of starting your own underwear brand for a long time. You may have finished designing underwear and have made up your mind to enter the underwear business. But you just don’t know how to turn your ideas and business into reality, how to customize the underwear you design.
Eight steps from a design drawing to a shipped order
- Find the right underwear manufacturer.
- Provide your requirements for an initial quote.
- Make samples according to your requirements.
- Confirm the size and quantity, place the order.
- The underwear manufacturer sourced fabrics and accessories.
- Pre-production samples.
- Start bulk production.
- Quality inspection, arrange shipment.
1. Find the right underwear manufacturer
There are two types of underwear factories. One is specialized in making seamless underwear with simple styles and patterns. The other category is more focused on making handmade underwear and can produce underwear in more styles and patterns. So before you choose a factory, you should define whether your underwear is seamless or delicate.
Seamless underwear factories usually buy yarns of different fibers and use machines to weave them into tubular fabrics, which can be made into various types of seamless underwear through simple manual processing. Because seamless underwear is mostly one-piece and has a simple style, the requirements for tailors are relatively low. Therefore, it is difficult for such factories to meet the requirements for delicate underwear.
Ordinary underwear factories focus on the handmade process. They usually buy back fabrics and trims, which workers cut into underwear by hand. So it requires more experienced tailors. If you need delicate and intricate styles of underwear, this type of factory is a better choice.
2. Provide your requirements for an initial quote.
The next step after the factory is set up is to get a quote. Now you should provide the design drawing of the underwear to the factory, they will quote according to the required fabric, accessories (elastic, thread, bow, wash label, packaging, etc.) and order quantity.
A. Send samples to the factory
If you can provide samples for Chinese underwear manufacturers, it will get more accurate price. Because underwear manufacturers can better understand what fabrics and trims are applied, and the complexity of the process, they can quote you a more accurate and reasonable price. If you find that a piece of underwear is selling well in your competitor’s store, you can design a similar style and have a tailor make a sample before supplying it to the factory.
B. Provide design drawings to factory
If you have your own designer, you can design new styles and the factory will quote you after estimating material and labor costs. After the sample is made, you can get the exact price.
3. Make samples according to your requirements
If the initial quotation looks workable, ask for a sample — but the cost depends on which kind of sample it is. A prototype, meaning one or two pieces or a few pieces pulled from an existing sample set, is normally free: the material cost is negligible and the buyer covers the courier. A salesman sample is a different order of work, with every fabric and trim correct to specification and sampled the way bulk will be run, and that carries a sample fee quoted separately rather than absorbed into the unit price. One size is enough to judge the sewing workmanship.
Before making samples, if some processes are not suitable for bulk production, the factory manager will give you some suggestions for design drawings and make some changes in some details, because some may not be suitable for bulk production. Once the parties have agreed on the final design, the factory will start making samples.
It takes 7-15 days to make a sample, as the factory needs to find the right fabrics and accessories to match your requirements.
4. Confirm the order quantity, color, delivery date,and place the order and pay the deposit
If you are satisfied with the sample and price, congratulations, you have found the right supplier, and you are closer to your goal. But before placing an order, you still need to confirm many details with the supplier.
A. Confirm the quantity and color of each size
The unit price of the same underwear is the same, no matter how many pieces you buy for each size, the unit price depends on the style and color. However, you should specify the color of each style and the quantity of each size, and then write the color and the quantity of each size on the supplier’s purchase contract or invoice.
B. Confirm the fabric and the color of each trim
In order to avoid color difference, you can provide the color sample of the fabric and accessories to the factory for reference for your confirmation. Or you can provide Pantone color number and ask the factory to make color samples according to the color number you require, so that you can choose the color.
C. Confirm the delivery time of the order
The normal production lead time for an order is three months, but the time of sample confirmation should also be considered.
D. Place an order and sign a contract, issue an invoice and pay a deposit
After the order is confirmed, the two parties sign the contract, the supplier will invoice you to pay the deposit, and the supplier can arrange the order of raw materials only after receiving the deposit.
5. The underwear manufacturer sourced fabrics and accessories.
After you pay the deposit and confirm all the details, the factory will start to prepare all the fabrics and accessories. Fabric: The factory needs to purchase the yarn of the fabric first, then weave it into grey fabric, and then dye it. If it needs to be printed or embroidered, it needs to go to the printing factory for printing. Accessories: The factory will customize all kinds of accessories that suit your requirements, because the accessories need to match the color of the fabric, or contrast colors. Usually It takes 30–45 days from sourcing the yarn to the finished cloth to get all the materials ready.
6. Pre-production samples
After the bulk fabrics and accessories arrive in the warehouse, you can ask the factory to do the pre-production samples. The material for the pre-production samples is exactly the same as for bulk production, and the pre-production samples should accurately represent the final product you will receive.
Pre-production samples are for you to determine if the supplier meets all criteria. You can check sewing construction, size, fabric, accessory colors and so on. Pre-production samples must be submitted prior to mass production to give you the opportunity to point out any errors or misunderstandings to the supplier.
For women’s briefs, for example, you may notice that the brand label is sewn in the wrong place. Or the factory may have accidentally used an entirely incorrect color of elastic. The factory should have understood the buyer’s requirements. However, problems are often overlooked. It is very important to check pre-production samples before bulk production.
7. Start bulk production.
If you approve the pre-production samples, the factory will start mass production.
First, they will loosen the fabric before cutting, which prevents shrinkage. Then workers tailor and sew the fabric into underwear in the workshop.
The entire production process runs about 45–60 days for a new style, or 30–40 days on a repeat. It depends on the factory’s order arrangement as the factory receives orders from other customers. It also depends on how sophisticated you expect the underwear to be and how much you order.
Therefore, it usually takes 90 days from the sample of the fabric accessories and the confirmation of the pre-production sample to the purchase of the fabric and the completion of the entire production. In order to prevent the inventory from being replenished in time, it is recommended to purchase a little more each time you place an order, because the entire production cycle of underwear is very long.
8. Quality inspection, arrange shipment
It is very important to check the quality before shipping the goods home. After the mass production is completed, you can ask the supplier to randomly select some samples to send to you or arrange the inspectors to go to the factory for final inspection. If you find that there is no problem with the quality, you can find a freight forwarder to arrange delivery.
Also, if you have a purchasing agent or a third-party quality control agent in China, you can entrust them to help you control the quality. They usually provide services to help you check the quality against AQL inspection standards to ensure the quality of your items.
· Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. — OEM & ODM underwear sourcing partner