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Jessica, you need to send prototypes of your clothes to a factory in China to reproduce and quote. You can go to alibaba.com, globalsources.com and made-in-china.com to search for clothing manufacturers in China. You will find hundreds. Look through their product pictures for the factories that are producing items similar to yours. Look for the suppliers that are "certified" or have "gold stars" or whatever the different sites use to differentiate the "best" suppliers from the rest of the pack. Note that using these web sites is risky and there's no guarantee that what you see is what you get. Your other, better option for finding a supplier is to invest in a trip to China to attend a textiles/clothing trade show where you can meet suppliers face to face and show them your prototypes. Globalsources.com has good information on shows taking place in China. Doing this via the internet and emails is not recommended, but you can try and you might even succeed. First email images of your prototypes along with detailed descriptions of the materials to several suppliers and ask them what their MOQs would be (minimum order quantities). After you have two or three suppliers you think are capable, enthusiastic, cooperative and interested in working with you, you can send them your prototypes and have them quote and reproduce them to demonstrate their capability. Note that the most challenging aspect of this will be getting the supplier to match your material. They will use whatever materials are readily available over there. Like you suggested, after you send them your prototypes you can ask them to send you swatches of materials they can procure easily. In many cases the only way they can match your materials exactly is by having them custom-made, which will be costly because the minimums are usually something like 1000 yards. If all goes well and you find yourself with a supplier that is willing and able to do the job, then comes the hard part: how are you going to sell your clothes in sufficient quantities to keep the supplier interested in supporting you? In my opinion, if you have the sales and distribution, then getting the product made in China is the easy part. You should not be thinking about how to make your clothes in China unless you are already selling thousands of pieces of your clothes per month. You should find a way to get your clothes made in the U.S. first, even if you are just breaking even. You need to first develop a customer base and get some demand going, THEN you can start worrying about reducing your costs by moving production to China. Good luck, Hank

by Hank S

2 years ago

Asker's Rating: 

research, start with alibaba.com never hurts to ask for quotes and detailed specs. pay the member fee too, it is really worth it for full access.

by kaffegeek- 2 years ago

hey,i read your question and give you 3 advice first,you could find out some useful website for bussiness between china - usa,like :www.spendinchina.com second,do your job as well and get ISO9000:2000 Standard last,find a import&export company talk with them about clothes good luck!

by Li ZZIA- 2 years ago

1.You can ask vendors to produce according to your drawing, pictures or you can choose suppliers' model directly if you like it. both are ok. 2. Small qty is not a problem but will surely affect your cost, however you need to find a right / strategic vendor for future cooperation, Key point is find a reliable,quality supplier, some rules must be followed: 1.Be careful to internet, All information from Alibaba, Made-in-china,globalsource...should be filtered by yourself. and the so called star suppliers just paid more money than others. 2.On-site audit or investigation is a must even if you are a local Chinese, you don't know how some rubbish suppliers have a very beatiful and attractive website, i had this experience just last week. 3. Quota is a issue for clothing, vendor will solve it, so don't care it so much. Please contact me if you need any support ! Good luck! Medlar Professional Sourcing Manager www.chinasourcingagent.com.cn

by medlarzhang- 2 years ago

I am an american who owns a Chinese legal import / export corporation located in suzhou. China is an extremely complex and difficult business environment. Researching on the Internet and journying from the USA to the factory is not enough and I can personally assure that significant problems will arise. Especially if you are unfamilar with Chinese business culture. If you are really serious about manufacturing your clothing line in China; you will need "loyal boots" on the ground. Contact me and we can discuss your concept and goals in further detail to see if this is a worthwhile undertaking.

by james d- 2 years ago

That will be a problem that if you will begin with a small lot. I met some of clients in Guangzhou, that they also do clothing trading and open the branches here, they also have the same requirement as yours at the beginning. But their advantages are that they can negotiate with the suppliers themselves in China and bring the definite medium or large lot order in the next step. If you want to start this plan, you shall find a right partner supplier here (the main cloth manufacture center is Guangdong nearby Hongkong). After both of you can trust each other, you can start your plan from the small lot. For more details, my contact: mar06.assistant@yahoo.com.cn

by mar06.assistant- 2 years ago