How to Start a Streetwear Brand: The Cost Nobody Publishes for Overseas Production

100 pieces per colorway per design is the standard garment MOQ, with sizes mixed freely. Custom woven labels have a separate 200-piece-per-colorway minimum.

Overseas OEM FOB pricing runs $3.20–4.33 per heavy hoodie at small-batch volumes (100 pcs/colorway), dropping to $1.73–2.33 at 500+ pieces. Domestic US cut-and-sew typically runs $18–50 per unit for the same category.

400–500 GSM for a heavy hoodie in French terry or brushed fleece; 220–280 GSM for a boxy or heavy tee in combed cotton.

7–10 workdays for a proto sample, then 25–40 days for bulk production after sample approval. Reorders with an existing approved sample run 10–15 days.

Print-on-demand or a small domestic run (50–150 units) suits early validation with minimal upfront cost. Overseas OEM production becomes worth the longer lead time once you’re ordering enough per colorway that the 5–15x lower per-unit cost outweighs the extra 2–3 weeks of shipping.

Ask for their business licence, certificate numbers you can verify independently in the issuers’ public databases, and proof the proto sample is sewn on their own line rather than subcontracted. Confirm whether MOQ is counted per style or per colorway, what AQL standard they inspect against, and what payment terms or escrow options they offer.

Ask the factory to document your approved sample as a written production standard before bulk starts — GSM, color reference, construction notes, and acceptable tolerance in writing, not just a physical sample sitting on a shelf that someone eyeballs against the bulk later. We log this for every approved sample before cutting bulk fabric; if the finished bulk falls outside that documented tolerance, it’s remade at our cost, not shipped and argued about afterward.

Sampling runs 7 to 10 workdays on our own line in Suzhou. The sample fee is quoted per style and itemized separately on your quote, so it never hides inside the unit price. Fabric swatch cards are free if you want to feel the 400–500 GSM French terry or the 220–280 GSM combed cotton before committing. Decoration samples (screen print, embroidery, DTF) are priced as their own line because each method carries a different setup. Once you approve a sample it is logged as the written production standard: weight in GSM, colour reference, construction notes and tolerances. If the bulk run drifts outside that, it is remade at our cost. Book a wash test before approval, because pre-shrunk fabric still carries a ≤3% tolerance and that number only means something after you have washed it.

Production runs on a 30/70 split. Thirty percent starts fabric cutting and sewing; seventy percent is due before the goods leave the factory, after inspection. If you would rather keep the deposit protected, we also work with Alibaba Trade Assurance escrow, where funds release once the goods exist and pass final inspection. Bulk pricing is confirmed only after you sign off the sample and pay the deposit. Samples are paid separately and up front. The quote itemizes unit price, sample fee and packaging as separate lines, so you can see exactly what changes when you move from 100 to 500 pieces per colorway.

Pricing is FOB Shanghai or Ningbo, whichever suits your forwarder better. FOB covers the goods loaded at the China port. Ocean or air freight, import duties, and any decoration done after production are separate line items, so the number on our quote is not your landed cost. Put your delivery city and expected volume in the inquiry if you want the freight line quoted next to production, and the comparison against a domestic quote covers the same scope. Air freight is the right call when the drop date is fixed; ocean freight adds 2 to 3 weeks and suits planned launches.

Final inspection runs to AQL 2.5, and the batch does not ship if it fails. Checks happen at three points: measurements after cutting, seam and print checks mid-production, then the final AQL 2.5 pass before packing. A failed batch is reworked or remade in-house rather than shipped with a note. The pass standard is agreed before bulk starts, which matters more than the AQL number itself: measurement tolerances and GSM have to be written down or the inspection has nothing objective to check against. Your approved sample becomes that reference, logged with fabric weight, colour and construction. Ask for the tolerance numbers in writing with the quote, and settle the inspection arrangements before the 70% balance comes due.

We sign an NDA before you send a tech pack, flat sketches or a reference sample. The agreement carries a no-resale clause: your pattern is not produced for another buyer and is not added to our catalogue or portfolio. Your graded pattern and tech pack stay on file as your property and are used only for your reorders, which is also why a reorder can run in 10 to 15 days without a second sampling round. Send your own NDA with the first email if you have one, or ask for ours. The review takes a day, and it happens before the tech pack, not after the first sample.

A complete tech pack gets you an accurate quote on the first pass. It needs graded measurements per size, a fabric weight target in GSM, a wash and shrinkage tolerance, and construction notes such as raglan versus set-in sleeve or ribbed versus bound cuffs. Missing pieces do not block the quote: we reply within one business day and flag what falls outside standard range in that first reply, before sampling rather than after. If you only have a reference garment, send it with flat measurements and say which parts you want changed. The failure mode to avoid is quoting from a photo. A 320 GSM fleece and a 480 GSM fleece photograph identically, and the difference appears when a customer wears it in cold weather.

We are a cut-and-sew factory in Suzhou, Jiangsu, not a trading company. Sampling and bulk both run on our own lines, and you can test that directly: a proto sample sewn in-house in 7 to 10 workdays is hard for a trader to fake, because outsourcing sampling means the sample comes from a factory you never vetted. Ask for the business licence and the certificate numbers, then check them in the issuers’ databases. Ours are OEKO-TEX Standard 100 SH025 206558 and GRS 4.0 TE-00110085, with BSCI and ISO 9001 at factory level. Each takes about two minutes to verify, and a certificate that cannot be found in the issuer’s database is the clearest sign you are talking to a middleman.

Sizes mix freely inside the 100-piece minimum; colours do not. Each colorway needs its own 100-piece run because every colour gets its own dye bath, so 100 tees split across four colours does not meet the minimum. Four colorways means 400 pieces. Custom woven labels carry a separate 200-piece-per-colorway minimum, which catches buyers who plan a 100-piece drop with branded neck labels. Plan the colour count against the budget before committing to a four-colorway launch, since colourway count multiplies the deposit, the dye schedule and the shipping weight at the same time. One colour at 100 pieces, then add colorways once the first one sells, keeps the first drop inside a test budget.