Quick answer. OEM women’s underwear normally runs on a minimum of 2,000 pieces per style and colour, with trials from around 1,000. Under OEM the buyer brings the pattern, the grade and the specification, but in this category the development cost scales with the number of silhouettes rather than with the order volume — which is the figure that decides whether an OEM women’s programme is viable.
1. What OEM buys in this category
- Your pattern and block. The only route where the fit is yours rather than the supplier’s.
- Your size grade. The band definition and the grading, confirmed per market.
- Your construction specification. Seam type, stitch density at the stress points, waistband and leg-opening construction.
- Your gusset and lining. Specified as its own line rather than inherited from the body fabric.
- Your fabric specification. Fibre, blend ratio and weight in g/m².
What OEM does not buy is scale at a lower price. The unit price converges with private label at the same specification; the difference is the development cost and the fit ownership.
2. Why the development cost scales with silhouettes
This is the commercial fact that separates a women’s OEM programme from a men’s.
- Each silhouette is a separate pattern. A bikini and a boyshort are not one block in two configurations; they are two blocks.
- Each block carries a grading cost. The grade follows the block, so the two scale together.
- Each silhouette carries its own sampling rounds. A new women’s fit commonly needs two rounds, and the second is where the fit settles.
- The consequence. Development cost grows roughly with the silhouette count, not with the quantity — so a six-silhouette programme can cost more to develop than it earns on a first order.
3. The specification decisions
- Silhouette and coverage. Rise, leg opening and back coverage, measured per style. Coverage changes fabric consumption per piece.
- Fabric and weight. Fibre, blend ratio and weight in g/m², with a small elastane percentage for shape retention.
- Gusset and lining. Its own fibre and construction; the item that accounts for most comfort complaints.
- Leg-opening and waistband construction. Both are stress points, and both are cost lines rather than descriptions.
- Size grade. Block per market, checked at the ends of the run, with extended sizes usually needing a re-graded set.
4. Size, grading and the second block
- Confirm the band per market. EU, US and UK runs are cut to different blocks, and women’s blocks vary more between markets than men’s do.
- Expect a re-grade for extended sizes. Adding sizes to an existing block produces a garment that measures correctly and sits wrong.
- Check the ends. The middle of a band is usually the developed size; the ends are where a block shows and where returns concentrate.
- Budget the grading separately. It is a one-time cost that scales with silhouettes, exactly as the pattern does.
5. MOQ, lead time and the testing window
- Minimum. Around 2,000 pieces per style and colour, with trials from about 1,000.
- Multiplier axes. Silhouette × colour — and each silhouette carries its own minimum, so the arithmetic bites earlier in this category than in men’s.
- Sampling. 12–18 days per round for full OEM development, and two rounds are common for a new women’s fit.
- Bulk production. 45–60 days after pre-production sample approval, 30–40 days on a repeat.
- Testing window. Sits on top of production rather than inside it, so it belongs in the schedule from the brief.
6. Common errors
- Budgeting OEM on unit price only. The development cost is the variable that decides viability in this category.
- Assuming one block serves several silhouettes. A bikini and a boyshort cut from the same block rarely both fit.
- Inheriting the gusset from the body fabric. It is usually a different fibre and it is where the complaints sit.
- Extending a band without re-grading. The garment measures correctly and sits wrong at the ends.
- Booking fabric before the fit sample is approved. It converts a schedule problem into a rework problem.
- Opening with too many silhouettes. Depth in two or three tests a market better than six at shallow depth, and it costs less to develop.
7. How to compare two quotations
- Same silhouette list. Compare silhouette by silhouette, since each has its own pattern and minimum.
- Development cost itemised. Pattern, grading and sampling rounds shown separately from the run price.
- Gusset and lining on their own line. Fibre and construction stated.
- Fabric and weight itemised. The same fibre at a different weight is a different garment.
- Minimum basis, trade term and validity. Per style and colour, FOB and the port, plus how long the figure stands.
· Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. — OEM & ODM underwear sourcing partner
| Supplier | Unitex Underwear (Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd.) — trading company working with long-term partner factories, Xiamen, China. |
|---|---|
| What OEM buys | Pattern · block · size grade · construction and fabric specification |
| Fit ownership | The only route where the fit is yours |
| What it does not buy | Scale at a lower price — the unit price converges with private label |
| Cost driver | Development cost scales with the silhouette count |
| Per silhouette | Separate pattern · separate grading · separate sampling rounds |
| Typical rounds | Two for a new women's fit; the second is where it settles |
| Gusset and lining | Its own fibre and construction, on its own line |
| Grade per market | EU, US and UK blocks differ, and women's blocks vary more than men's |
| Extended sizes | A re-graded set rather than more sizes on the same block |
| Minimum | ~2,000 pcs per style and colour · trials from ~1,000 |
| Multiplier axes | Silhouette × colour |
| Sampling | 12–18 days per round for full OEM development |
| Bulk production | 45–60 days after pre-production sample approval |
| Testing window | Sits on top of production — schedule it from the brief |
Buyer checklist
- Count the silhouettes before anything else, since development cost scales with them.
- Ask for the development cost separately from the run price.
- Confirm the gusset lining fibre and construction as its own line.
- Confirm the fabric as fibre, blend ratio and weight in g/m².
- Confirm the size block per market and check both ends of the run.
- Ask whether extended sizes need a re-graded set.
- Check the leg-opening and waistband construction at the stress points.
- Confirm the fit sample before any fabric is booked.
- Put the testing window in the schedule rather than treating it as production time.
- Compare quotations silhouette by silhouette.
Unitex Underwear (Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd.)
Unitex Underwear (Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd.) — OEM/ODM underwear sourcing and supply-chain partner in Xiamen, China; in the trade since 2009, incorporated in 2013. Based in the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang knitwear cluster, Fujian Province, south-east China.