What a Canadian Brand Should Settle Before Its First Bulk Order
By The Velocity Wear Team
A first production run rarely goes wrong because someone made a garment badly. It goes wrong because an assumption was never written down — the brand meant one navy, the mill meant another, the print position was implied by a mockup nobody measured. Canadian brands have one extra item on that list, and it is a legal one that has to be resolved before labels are made.
The Canadian-specific item: your label
Under the Textile Labelling Act and its regulations, a consumer textile article sold in Canada has to disclose the fibre content in both English and French, and it has to identify the dealer — either by full name and postal address, or by a CA identification number issued by the Competition Bureau.
Neither the US nor the UK requires bilingual fibre content, and neither has a CA number equivalent. So a Canadian brand copying a label design from an American brand it admires will produce a non-compliant label. The wording has to be settled at artwork stage because labels are made during the production run, not afterwards. There is a full guide in the Canadian labelling article.
The rest of the pre-production list
- 1Colour as a Pantone reference rather than a word. Two garments described as black from different batches will not hang together, and the reference number is what ends the discussion before it becomes a return.
- 2The blank specification: weight in GSM, composition, fit, construction. Written down rather than described.
- 3Print placement in centimetres from a fixed point — normally down from the high point of the shoulder. A mockup shows intent; a measurement is an instruction.
- 4Label content, in both official languages, with your dealer identity or CA number decided.
- 5The size split — actual quantities per size, treated as the forecast it is rather than defaulted to an even spread.
Care labelling is optional here
Worth knowing because it runs opposite to the United States. Care labelling in Canada is voluntary — there is a national standard for care symbols, but no legal requirement to apply one, unlike the US where care instructions are federally mandated.
Include care instructions anyway. Most returns that blame quality are actually laundry damage to the decoration, and a garment that tells the customer to wash cold and skip the dryer gets fewer of those. If you include them and you sell in Quebec or bilingually, put them in French too.
The size split is a forecast
An even split across five sizes feels neutral and is almost always wrong. Most brands sell a middle-weighted curve, and its shape depends entirely on who is buying. You have no data on a first order and no amount of deliberation will produce any.
So make being wrong cheap. Our minimum is 20 pieces per design with mixed sizes included, which exists so a first run can be a genuine test rather than a commitment you then have to sell your way out of.
What can wait
- Branded packaging. Worth doing eventually; the money is better in the garment while you are still finding out which garment people want.
- A full size range. Four sizes now, extended later, halves the forecasting problem while you have nothing to forecast from.
- Extra colourways. Colour multiplies inventory risk without multiplying your addressable market.
- A second product category. Tees and hoodies behave differently commercially, and running both first means learning half as much about each.
The commercial details
Confirm the invoicing currency. We invoice in seven, CAD included, which for a Canadian brand means comparing a quote directly against a budget rather than converting and carrying the rate risk yourself.
Confirm the lead time and what it runs from: 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval, before freight. And settle the delivery basis, because whether you or your supplier handles the import into Canada is a decision that should be made in writing rather than discovered at the border.
