Underwear Supplier for Paris Buyers: OEM Sourcing from China

Paris is the one European buying centre on our list with a direct flight from Xiamen, which makes a factory visit genuinely easy to combine with a sourcing trip. It is also the market where extended producer responsibility goes furthest in Europe, so the compliance conversation starts earlier than the price conversation. Unitex Underwear (Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd.) is a China-based underwear supplier working through long-term BSCI-audited partner factories in the Fujian knitwear corridor — men’s, women’s and kids’ knitted underwear, MOQ 2,000 pcs per style and colour, FOB Xiamen.

What a Paris Brief Contains That Other Markets Do Not

Paris concentrates fashion wholesale, retail head offices, licensing businesses and a very large online-native sector. Two things differentiate the brief from a German or Dutch one. First, the French market applies extended producer responsibility to textiles: since February 2023, sorting information and the Triman marking have been mandatory for textiles sold in France, alongside registration with an approved eco-organisation. A French buyer will therefore ask about packaging and end-of-life marking as part of the product specification, not as an afterthought.

Second, French-language labelling is required, and the label obligations are checked at retail. As in other EU markets the fibre declaration comes from Regulation 1007/2011, but the practical effect is that your artwork pack needs a France-specific variant with the French fibre names, the Triman marking and the sorting information. We build that variant into the sampling stage, because adding a marking to a finished label is a production change rather than a sticker.

Direct Flights to Paris and the Le Havre Sea Route

Xiamen Airlines operates a direct Xiamen–Paris Charles de Gaulle service with a flight time of about twelve hours fifty minutes. It is the most convenient air link from Fujian to continental Europe, and it means a Paris buyer can see the sample room, the fabric wall and the production line in a single trip without a connection. For cargo, the same route keeps air freight to two to four days airport to airport.

Ocean freight enters France primarily at Le Havre, and secondarily at Fos-sur-Mer and Dunkirk depending on the routing. From Xiamen, northern European services run roughly 28 to 40 days port to port, with Le Havre typically toward the faster end from central and south China on a direct main-line call. Adding export clearance, French import clearance and inland delivery to the Paris region, a realistic door-to-door plan is 40 to 50 days.

French importers often clear through Antwerp or Rotterdam instead, because the northern range offers more frequent sailings, and then move the container into France by road. That is a completely normal structure, and the documentation does not change — EU goods clear once and move freely. What changes is the inland cost and the transit, so compare it rather than assuming Le Havre is cheaper.

French Labelling, Duty and VAT

The fibre declaration follows Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011: generic fibre names, percentages by weight in descending order of weight, on a durable and legible label, with the information in French for goods sold to French consumers. The AGEC law adds the sorting information and the Triman marking next to it as a mandatory element for textiles placed on the French market, and requires the producer to be registered with an approved eco-organisation for the textile stream. If you are the importer placing the goods on the French market, that registration is yours, not your supplier’s.

On cost: apparel duty from China is in the region of twelve percent under the common external tariff and French VAT is twenty percent on the duty-paid value, recoverable by a registered importer. A French EORI number is required. Since December 2024, Regulation (EU) 2023/988 requires an EU-established responsible economic operator and a technical file, and REACH Annex XVII restricts azo dyes that release listed aromatic amines, plus formaldehyde and certain heavy metals, in skin-contact articles. Underwear sits squarely in that category.

What We Do, and What We Do Not Do

Unitex is a sourcing and supply-chain management company, not a factory. We develop styles, source fabric and trims, place orders with long-term BSCI-audited partner factories in the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang corridor, and run production follow-up, AQL 2.5 inspection and export documentation. Our compliance evidence is amfori BSCI audits at the partner sites and OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certification for the materials on your order, with certificate numbers shared at quotation so your team can verify them.

We do not hold stock in France, do not act as your French importer of record, and do not manage your AGEC eco-organisation registration — that belongs to the entity placing the goods on the French market. What we can do is make sure the label carries the markings your registration requires, at production rather than after arrival.

Sourcing Specifications at a Glance

Company	Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. (厦门甲冠麒贸易有限公司) — sourcing and supply-chain management company, incorporated 2013; in the underwear trade since 2009
Location	Xiamen, Fujian Province, China — Jimei District, Xinglinwan Business Operation Center
Production base	Long-term partner factories across the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang knitwear corridor; our own liaison office inside the Jinjiang factory district since 2013
Categories	Men’s / women’s / kids’ knitted underwear, plus size to 5XL, thermal and baselayers, pajamas and sleepwear, sport bras
MOQ	2,000 pcs per style and colour (trial orders from 1,000 pcs on selected styles)
Sampling	7–10 days for counter samples; 12–18 days for fully custom development
Bulk lead	45–60 days after pre-production sample approval
Compliance	BSCI-audited partner factories; OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 certified materials; certificate numbers for the production sites on your order shared at quotation
QC	AQL 2.5 inline and final inspection on every order; shrinkage and spirality tested before bulk cutting; third-party inspection (SGS, Intertek, TÜV) welcome
Port & terms	Xiamen Port — FOB Xiamen standard (EXW Xiamen for Russia/CIS); CIF, CNF or DDP on request
Payment	30% T/T deposit, 70% against copy of B/L; L/C at sight for larger programmes

How to Start a Programme from Paris

1. Send your design brief, spec sheet or reference sample — we review and respond within 48 hours
2. Receive fabric swatches, waistband options and a quotation within 3–5 business days
3. Approve counter samples (7–10 days) or full custom development samples (12–18 days)
4. Pre-production sample locks the measurement chart, then bulk runs 45–60 days with AQL 2.5 inline and final inspection
5. Shipment from Xiamen Port on your chosen term, with export documentation handled by our team

Contact us for a free quotation →

Prefer a third-party reference before you write? Our company profile and product showroom are public on Made-in-China.com, and our export shipping records are independently listed on Panjiva. Contact: [email protected] · WhatsApp +86 186 5081 3853.

Other Markets We Cover

This guide is one of a series written for buyers in different markets. The others cover London · Barcelona · Rome · Frankfurt · Amsterdam · Stockholm · Athens · Moscow · St Petersburg · New York · Santiago de Chile · Lima · Mexico City · Sydney · Melbourne · Italy · the Netherlands · the Nordics · Mexico · the UAE · Canada — each page sets out what that market’s import rules, duty and shipping routes mean for an underwear programme sourced from China.

If you are still weighing up whether to buy through a sourcing company at all, start with the China underwear supplier hub, which sets out how a sourcing company differs from a single factory and what that changes for your programme. Buyers already based in China — Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Hong Kong, Ningbo, Yiwu or Xiamen — are covered by a separate set of city guides linked from the hub.

Disponible en français: Fournisseur de sous-vêtements à Paris.

Published: 2026-10-04 · Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. — OEM & ODM underwear sourcing partner

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.