When starting a clothing business, you need to find out whether you need to cooperate with wholesale suppliers or cut & sew suppliers.
What is wholesale clothing?
Wholesale clothing is ready-made products, the common wholesale clothing are t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts and pants. They are all in-stock items. So if you order from supplier today, they can ship out to you in 1-3 days.
Normally wholesale suppliers offer limited extra services, such as custom printing or embroidery in certain areas. Customized neck label and tags are available.
What is cut & sew clothing?
The cut & sew clothing is made according to your tech pack. You can decide which fabric and color to use, customized shape/ fit, your own printing and embroidery anywhere, private label and tags, and packing bags.
Cut & sew clothing includes 2 aspects: sample production and mass production.
First of all, you need to take some times to make a tech pack that includes any details of your designs and then send it to supplier for making sample. If you are not happy with the sample, you can get another sample.
Once you get the right sample. The cut & sew manufacturer will start mass production until getting approval from you. And you can order it again and again.
List of differences between wholesale and cut & sew:
| Wholesale | Cut & Sew |
| 1. ready-made base clothing | 1. fully-customized clothing |
| 2. can not change fabric/ shape/ fit/ color | 2. can be made as per your request |
| 3. only wait if it is out of stock | 3. reorder if needed |
| 4. stock sample can be delivered in 1-2 days | 4. need 7-10 days for customized samples |
| 5. quality is low to the average level | 5. high quality with an in-house QC team |
| 6. can add labels and hang tags | 6. can add labels and hang tags and packing bag |
| 7. can only add your logo or graphic in certain areas | 7. can add almost anywhere |
| 8. competitors can copy your same design easily | 8. you can make completely unique clothing that any others don’t have |
| 9. low MOQ, low inventory risk | 9. MOQ 100pcs per color and per design, mix 4 sizes |
| 10. low cost even for small orders | 10. high cost for small orders |
| 11. brand premium: low | 11. brand premium: high |
| 12. fast production time: 2-3 days if no extra printing; 7-10 days with your label, graphic | 12. Longer production time: 3-4 weeks for producing your own designs |
| 13. To order from wholesale suppliers, you need: – pick up from stock items – have logo/ graphic designs (if needed) – have label/ tag design (if needed) | 13. To order from ct & sew suppliers, you need: (choose 1 of them) – sketch of your design – tech pack – physical sample for the supplier to copy the same |
Which production style is better for you?
For start-up clothing brands and if you don’t have enough budget (budget lower than US$1000)I recommend choosing the wholesale suppliers first to keep costs down and inventory risk lower.
For growing-up brands who want to extend the clothing line and have enough investment, cut & sew is your best option to create some differentiation from competitors.
Want to do cut & sew but don’t know how to start?
Contact us today, you’ll be able to gain a further understanding of what happens in a complete production process of your own clothing line and a full breakdown of what you’ll get!