Pajamas Wholesale

Pajamas sit in an awkward middle zone in wholesale sourcing. The category looks simple — a top and a bottom in soft fabric — but the gifting-market buyers who drive most pajama wholesale volume have very specific requirements around set coordination, sizing consistency across a run, and packaging that justifies a $45–65 retail price point. Most mass-market pajama suppliers are not set up for that.

The root issue is that gifting pajamas and basics-channel pajamas are genuinely different manufacturing programs. A basics supplier producing 10,000 units of a single colorway can afford loose dye lot tolerance — the occasional top-and-bottom shade discrepancy gets absorbed across a large run. A gifting brand ordering 200 units of a holiday set does not have that buffer. Every set in that order has to match. That requires a different QC protocol, and it requires a supplier who treats set coordination as a production constraint, not an afterthought.

Approximately 60% of our current pajama wholesale volume goes to gifting brands, subscription box companies, and Amazon sellers targeting the holiday-gifting segment. The remainder splits between boutique retail buyers and corporate gifting programs. The gifting segment’s requirements — coordinated sets, gift box packaging, size consistency — are baked into our standard pajama production workflow, not treated as custom accommodations.

Our clients source pajamas through us because we handle both woven and knit pajama constructions in-house, carry the fabric stock for the most common specs, and have a QC checkpoint specifically for set color coordination. None of that is exceptional; it is what a well-run pajama supplier does. The gap is that most mass-market suppliers don’t, and buyers find that out after the first production run.

Need your own design instead of an existing style? This page covers ready-to-order styles from our standing pajama range. If you need your own fit block, fabric spec or trims developed from scratch, that is a manufacturing project — see our custom pajama manufacturer page.

If you are working with a low MOQ clothing manufacturer for the first time, pajamas are a reasonable first category: the construction complexity is moderate, the fabric choices are established, and the gifting-channel demand is predictable enough to plan reorder cycles around.

All styles below are available from 100 pieces per color per style. Woven and knit constructions run on different production lines and have different lead times — woven styles (button-down sets, printed poplin) typically run 30–40 days; knit styles (jersey, bamboo) run 25–35 days.

The most requested wholesale style for gifting brands. A notch-collar top with a full button placket paired with straight or tapered ankle pants. Construction detail matters here in ways buyers don’t always anticipate: the collar stiffness, button shank height, and placket fusing specification all affect how the set photographs and how it holds up after five washes. We produce these in cotton poplin and flannel; both are woven constructions, which means they photograph flat and crisp — important for gifting retail imagery.

Options: notch collar, revere collar, piping on collar and cuffs (adds 3–5 days to production). Pants: straight leg with elastic waist, elastic-and-drawstring, or full-woven-waistband. Breast pocket: yes/no. Side seam pockets on pants: standard on most orders.

A V-neck or crew-neck top with coordinated full-length pants or shorts in cotton jersey or bamboo jersey. The most comfortable handle in the category. Knit constructions are more forgiving on sizing — the fabric stretches with the body — which makes them the most returned-for-reorder style among our boutique retail clients. Note that knit pajamas photograph differently than woven: they drape rather than lay flat, which suits lifestyle photography but is less suited to flat-lay catalog imagery.

A top-and-shorts set, popular for spring/summer gifting programs and warm-climate year-round stock. Available in both woven (printed cotton poplin) and knit (cotton jersey). Woven shorts sets photograph well for gifting; knit shorts sets are better for the comfort-first retail buyer. The shorts can be produced with an inseam from 2.5 to 5 inches depending on your target market.

A growing gifting segment, particularly for holiday programs. A matching family set spans adult women’s, adult men’s, kids’, toddler, and infant sizing in the same print or colorway. The production constraint is dye lot coordination across multiple fabric cuts and, in some cases, across different fabric weights (an infant bodysuit is typically in a softer cotton jersey even when the adult set is in woven poplin). MOQ for family programs is 200 sets per colorway — see the FAQ below for the size ratio breakdown logic.

Standalone sleep shorts, sleep tanks, and short-sleeve sleep tops that function as both sleepwear and loungewear. This category overlaps with our sweatshirts wholesale range in the lightweight-lounge segment. For buyers building a sleep and lounge assortment, these styles can often be produced on the same order run as pajama sets, provided fabrics are compatible. Construction is typically knit, with an elastic waistband on shorts and a relaxed silhouette on tops.

Buyers sourcing pajamas alongside coordinated robes, lounge pants, or sleep tops may find our loungewear wholesale range relevant. That page covers overlapping fabric specs and construction options for a full sleep-and-lounge assortment.

Fabric choice drives handle, photography, care requirements, and unit cost more than any other variable in a pajama program. The table below covers our four standard wholesale fabrics. Custom specs — different GSM, organic certification, custom stripe weaves — are available with a minimum fabric commitment that we confirm at the quoting stage. For dedicated bamboo sleepwear programs, see our bamboo pajama manufacturer page.

Woven fabrics (poplin, flannel) and knit fabrics (jersey, bamboo jersey) are cut and sewn differently and have different shrinkage behavior. We pre-wash (sanforize) all knit fabric before cutting to account for first-wash shrinkage — a step that some lower-cost suppliers skip and that buyers discover on the first wash at home. That treatment holds residual shrinkage to 3% or less on a standard cold-wash, tumble-dry-low cycle; untreated cotton and cotton-blend knits typically shrink 3-5% after the first home wash, which is where the customer return usually starts. Pre-washing adds roughly one day to the fabric prep stage but eliminates the customer return and replacement cost downstream.

For children’s pajamas in the US market, fabric safety compliance is a separate consideration from handle and GSM. CPSC flammability requirements and OEKO-TEX certification are covered in the FAQ section below.

For gifting-channel buyers, packaging is not a nice-to-have — it is a core part of what justifies the retail price. A pajama set in a plain polybag cannot sell for $55 at a boutique, regardless of fabric quality. The same set in a rigid gift box with coordinating ribbon and a custom insert card can. The question is whether the packaging economics make sense at your order volume. Here is the actual cost and MOQ structure.

The 200-unit box MOQ is not arbitrary. Rigid box production requires a die-cut tooling plate and a minimum print run to make the per-unit cost rational. Below 200 units, the tooling cost per box exceeds what the packaging adds to the retail price. At 200 units, the setup cost amortizes to under $1 per box — at which point the economics work. We tell buyers this upfront rather than taking a 100-unit gift box order and absorbing the tooling loss silently.

Custom Labels and Print

Custom woven neck labels, hem labels, hangtags, and care labels are standard on all orders above 200 pieces per colorway. Print options — screen print, all-over print (AOP) on poplin, embroidery — are available depending on style and fabric. AOP is the most common customization request on button-down woven sets; it requires a minimum fabric print run of 200 meters, which maps to approximately 160–200 finished sets depending on size distribution.

Buyers building a full private label sleepwear line — not just reordering a wholesale style — may want to review our custom pajama manufacturing service and loungewear manufacturing capabilities.

Woven styles (button-down sets, poplin shorts sets, flannel sets) and knit styles (jersey sets, bamboo sets) have different unit costs and different lead times. The table below is indicative — actual quotes depend on style complexity, fabric spec, and order quantity. These are FOB Shanghai or Ningbo prices before packaging.

Indicative starting prices — final quotation depends on fabric specification, print/embroidery method, order quantity and sample confirmation.

Woven pajamas (button-down sets, poplin shorts sets) cost more per unit than knit equivalents for two concrete reasons: woven fabric is more expensive per meter than jersey at equivalent quality, and woven construction involves more sewing operations — placket stitching, button attachment, collar fusing — than a pullover knit top. The price difference at comparable GSM runs $2–$5 per finished set depending on construction complexity. Neither is inherently better value; they serve different buyer needs.

Lead times above are from confirmed sample approval and production deposit. Family matching sets (multiple size ranges) add 5–10 days to standard lead times due to pattern work across size ranges. Custom AOP print on woven fabric adds 7–10 days for the fabric print run. These are not buffer estimates — they are based on actual production scheduling.

Five steps from first contact to finished goods. The color consistency step (Step 3) is where most supplier problems originate; it gets the most detail below. Before you commit to any supplier, it is worth running through our 15-point checklist for vetting a sleepwear factory — the questions that surface these problems before a deposit moves.

Submit your style requirements — construction type (woven/knit), fabric preference, size range, colorways, packaging spec, and target quantity. We respond with a preliminary quote within one business day. If your spec is outside our standard range (unusual fabric GSM, non-standard sizing, complex print), we flag that in the first response rather than after proto sampling.

Once pricing is agreed, we produce one proto sample per style at a flat sample fee. Sample turnaround is 7–10 days. The sample is cut and sewn in-house — same equipment, same operators as bulk production. You evaluate fit, fabric hand, construction, and color before committing to bulk.

This is the step most suppliers treat as administrative and we treat as production-critical. For matching pajama sets — any set where a top and bottom must read as the same color — we do the following before a meter of fabric is cut for bulk: (1) all fabric for the set is sourced from a single dye lot, confirmed with a dye lot certificate from the mill; (2) lab dips are produced in the approved colorway and matched against the approved standard under D65 illuminant; (3) for sets combining different fabric constructions (e.g., a woven poplin top with a knit jersey short), we produce a physical pairing sample under retail lighting conditions, because woven and knit fabrics absorb dye differently and a nominally identical dye recipe will often look slightly different across construction types.

You sign off on the dye lot confirmation before we proceed to bulk cutting. If the dye lot match falls outside tolerance, we re-dye before cutting — not after. Re-dyeing after cutting adds 5–7 days and generates fabric waste; catching it at the dye lot stage costs half a day of QC time.

Production runs 25–40 days depending on style and volume. In-line QC checks happen at three points: after cutting (measurement verification), mid-production (seam quality, label placement), and post-finishing (final set pairing, packaging check). We don’t treat end-of-line inspection as the only checkpoint.

We ship FOB Shanghai or Ningbo or CIF to any major port. Full export documentation is provided: commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, and any compliance documentation your market requires (e.g., CPSC General Certificate of Conformity for US children’s apparel). We don’t act as your customs broker, but we supply everything your broker needs for clearance.

Names are withheld at the clients’ request. Everything below is from real production runs.

Most factories make you email three times to learn their MOQ. Here is everything, up front.