Can custom apparel and cut-and-sew be manufactured in China?
Confidence 4/5 Established practice
Apparel is the most familiar category to first-time importers and one of the easiest to get wrong, because the cost is not in the sewing — it is in the fabric, the pattern grading and the sampling rounds. A cut-and-sew factory will happily quote a low unit price against a fabric you have not chosen yet, and the quote will not survive contact with the actual cloth. In practice the answer is almost always yes for a lawful physical product, and the useful question is which process and at what volume. For this category: Roughly 100–300 pieces per style per colourway for cut-and-sew, because pattern grading, cutting and line set-up are per-style costs. Stock blanks with printed branding start far lower, at 50 and sometimes 1. No metal tool. Pattern making and grading is the equivalent cost, typically USD 100–400 per style, plus sample costs of USD 30–150 per sample round.
Sources
- Cut-and-sew MOQ and sampling practice — Industry practice; consistent with supplier-quoted minimums
- Apparel classification by fibre and construction — World Customs Organization HS nomenclature
- Textile labelling requirements — US Federal Trade Commission
What goes wrong with custom apparel and cut-and-sew
- Quoting before the fabric is chosen. Fabric is typically the majority of the cost.
- Skipping a fit sample and going straight to production.
- Not specifying shrinkage or colourfastness standards, then discovering both after the first wash.
- Assuming the fabric weight matches the sample; GSM varies between mills at the same nominal weight.
- Ignoring the destination labelling rules until after the goods are printed.
Related questions people ask
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