Picking a Clothing Supplier: Clothing Brands
By The Velocity Wear Team
Compare suppliers on five things rather than on price: how the minimum is counted, when the production clock starts, what a sample costs and whether it is credited, which private label work is available in-house, and what happens on a repeat run. A quote that answers all five is comparable with another that does; a per-piece figure on its own is not.
What separates two quotes that look identical?
Usually what is missing from one of them. Decoration positions, setup, private label, sample fee, delivery and currency all move the landed cost, and a quote that omits three of them looks cheaper until the invoice. Ask for the figure landed at your door in the currency you pay in; invoicing runs in seven currencies here, so there is no reason to compare across a conversion you did not choose.
Then check the assumptions behind the per-piece number. A price quoted at 250 units is not the price you pay at 50, and a discount of up to 35% as quantity rises means the gap between tiers is real. Our published starting points are on the wholesale range, with brand-specific detail on the clothing brands page.
Which questions expose a reseller?
Ask about the blank. What weight is it, what is the composition, how does it behave after five washes. A supplier who handles the garment can answer without checking; one who is forwarding your order elsewhere will come back tomorrow. Then ask which decoration methods are done in-house, since screen printing, DTF, embroidery, 3D puff and sublimation are not all the same machine or the same skill.
Ask what happens when something is wrong, too. A supplier with real control over production can describe the check that would catch a colour drift or a print misplacement before it ships. One who cannot will describe a refund policy instead. A longer list is in questions worth asking a manufacturer.
How should a brand test a supplier before a big order?
With a sample and then a single design. The £150 sample, credited against bulk, is a small price for finding out how a supplier communicates under a deadline as much as for the garment itself. Watch how the questions come back: a supplier who queries an ambiguity in your artwork is a supplier who will catch the next one.
Then run one design of 50 pieces before committing a whole range. The first order teaches you the things no quote covers, including how accurately the size curve was followed and how the boxes are packed. Colour consistency across that first run is worth checking against the reference you set, as discussed in choosing brand colors for an apparel label.
What should be agreed in writing first?
The approved artwork, the colour reference, the quantity per design, the size split, the decoration method and positions, the private label specification and the delivery destination. Those seven lines are the order. Anything discussed on a call and not written down is the thing that will be remembered differently when the boxes arrive.
Get the reorder terms stated at the same time. Knowing that a repeat run is 50 pieces per design on the same basis, matched to the original batch, is what lets a brand plan a second drop before the first has landed. A supplier unwilling to describe that in advance is telling you something useful.
Agree how changes are handled before you need one. A drop where the colour moves after approval, or a size curve that has to shift because a pre-order ran hot, is a normal event rather than a disaster, and the question is simply what it costs and how many days it adds. Suppliers who can answer that calmly in advance are the ones who handle it calmly in practice.
Finally, treat the relationship as something to build rather than to re-tender every season. The value of a supplier who has your artwork, your colour reference, your label specification and a record of your last three runs is real, and it shows up as speed on every order after the first.
