When Raw Material Prices Move, and What a Buyer Can Do
By The Velocity Wear Team
Fabric is the largest single input in most garments, so anything that moves fibre prices eventually moves what you pay. The lag between the two is long enough that buyers routinely misread it — the price rise lands months after the news that caused it, by which point the connection is invisible.
What moves fibre prices
- **Weather and harvest.** Cotton is an agricultural crop and a poor harvest in a major growing region moves the global price.
- **Energy.** Polyester derives from petrochemical feedstock, so oil and gas prices feed through. Energy also drives spinning, knitting and especially dyeing, which are heat-intensive.
- **Trade measures,** which can restrict supply from particular origins and redirect demand elsewhere.
- **Freight capacity,** which affects the cost of moving fibre and fabric before anyone makes a garment.
Why your price does not move immediately
There are several steps between fibre and a quote: fibre is spun into yarn, yarn is knitted into fabric, fabric is dyed, fabric is cut and sewn. Each holds inventory bought at an earlier price.
So a manufacturer quoting today is quoting on fabric bought weeks or months ago. When fibre prices rise, quotes hold for a while and then move — and when fibre prices fall, quotes stay high for a while for exactly the same reason. This lag is not opportunism; it is inventory.
What a small buyer can actually do
- 1**Fix prices for a defined period** where a supplier will agree it. Certainty is often worth more than the last few percent.
- 2**Order to a schedule rather than reacting.** Regular ordering averages your input cost across price movements instead of concentrating it at a single point.
- 3**Be flexible on fabric where the product allows.** A slightly different weight or blend can be materially cheaper when one fibre spikes, and on many garments the difference is not noticeable.
- 4**Do not stockpile on a price view.** Buying a year of stock because prices might rise is a commodity bet funded by working capital, and it goes wrong in both directions.
Where the volume tiers fit
Volume pricing is a genuine lever — our tiers run from base at 20–49 pieces to up to 40% off at 1,000+. The temptation when costs rise is to jump a tier to offset the increase.
That works only if the extra units sell within a reasonable period. Otherwise you have converted a price increase into a stock problem, which is worse: the price increase costs you margin on units you sell, while unsold stock costs you the whole unit.
The question to ask your supplier
How long a quote holds, and what triggers a change. A supplier who will state that clearly is one you can plan around. Vague answers mean you are carrying a cost risk you have not priced.
