Recently updated on January 2nd, 2024 at 06:10 pm
Are you prepared to profit from importing clothes? Don’t miss our little known secrets to finding the best clothing manufacturers in China that successful big brands will never reveal.
First, let’s delve into common ways to find a China clothes factory. There’s tons of information online regarding how to find China clothes manufacturers, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of ways based on research and our experience.
What are common ways to find China clothes manufacturers?
- Search engine (Google, Baidu, Yandex)
- Online directories and B2B market places (Alibaba, Global Sources, Made in China)
- Facebook groups
- Trade Fairs (Canton Fair, Fashion Week)
- Industry meetups
- Sourcing agents
- Clothes wholesale markets
- Referrals
The extensive range of methods will surely land you to an ocean of China clothes suppliers and there’re chances that you might run into the same garment supplier with your competitors. Then how to distinguish yourself and keep a competitive edge?
Our best-kept secrets to finding reliable China clothes manufacturers based on your capacity target at following two categories of clothing businesses.
- High end fashion with big capital investments
- Small businesses with tight budgets looking for small quantity China clothes factories
Why common ways to find China clothes factories lose competitive edge?
- Losing competitive edge. You might end up producing with the same clothing factory as your competitors. It’s never a good thing to share the same clothing factories with your competitors in the rat race. If you’re a new customer with a relatively small order at the beginning while your competitors are regular customers with years of orders, how many chances are there to get better prices than your competitors? Will your new clothing factory keep all your designs confidential than revealing to please their regular customers? While both of you have urgent orders with tight delivery time, whose orders do you think they’ll prioritize first?
- Big MOQ. China clothes manufacturers making presence via common ways like online directories, trade fairs usually come with a much bigger MOQ.
- High prices. Investing in trade fairs, shops in clothes wholesale markets in Guangzhou or online B2B market places like opening a shop on Alibaba with extra marketing services can cost an arm and a leg which usually goes into the unit price of the apparel.
Now comes to the bread and butter, our top secret to finding reliable China clothes manufacturers with competitive edge is Finding China clothes manufacturers that do not/hardly have any presence in media/marketing.
High end fashion with big capital investments
It might sound ridiculous or misleading at a glance, even to our surprise, with experience accumulated we discovered there’s a shocking number of large China clothing manufacturers focusing on ethical, sustainable clothing manufacturing with several decades of presence in fashion industry. Interesting enough, these big clothing factories usually with a capacity of over 1000 workers manufacturing for iconic international brands, getting lots of incentives from local governments quite shy themselves away from public media. A search on Google or Alibaba would get you nothing, even on Baidu(the largest search engine in China), you might only get some blurred information without contacts.
High end clothing brands usually develop their own fabrics, like Lacoste, you wouldn’t be able to find the fabrics of Lacoste available in the market place. Some brands would create their own fabric with our custom fabric printing service. While some iconic international brands used to import some parts of raw materials from Europe then fabricated in China. For example, few well known brands are importing natural fibers from Europe, then make yarn in a factory in Southern China, and compose into fabrics in another factory in North China, then sew into clothes in another factory. PS: We didn’t reveal the names of these international iconic brands and their factories here as first we didn’t want to expose them to the media as they wouldn’t in few decades of evolvements, besides, we always strive to protect the confidentiality of our customers and connections.
Getting to know the hidden secrets of how these iconic international brands outsource their production to ethical, sustainable clothing manufacturers in China that seldom make any public appearance can be quite challenging, usually would require enriching industrial experience, networking or referrals so as to get in touch with those clothing manufacturers.
Small businesses with tight budgets
Thinking out of the box is like an accelerator for small business with tight budgets on their next clothing collection. The most challenging part for going with China clothing suppliers found via common ways is usually those suppliers come with bigger MOQ and much higher prices. Finding China clothes manufacturers locally is a much preferred option to stay on the edge. Here’re 3 of the little known ways to find China clothes manufacturers locally that the public don’t know.
- Ads around fabric markets
- Referrals from the fabric shops where you buy fabrics from
- Local clothing industrial parks
Here’s a detailed walk-through of the 3 little known secrets.
# Ads around fabric markets
Ads from China clothes manufacturers looking for customers are quite prevalent around the fabric markets. Sometimes you can also see some representatives from the factories putting on some outdoor advertising show with a desk and some chairs on the side of the side, a large board usually with title Looking for t-shirts customers, introduction of the clothing factory, etc. Besides, there’re some brick and mortar agent shops full of ads where you can get in touch with hundreds of clothing factories for free. Usually these factories are not available in any online market place. They’re in various scales, often paired with smaller MOQ and better prices.
# Referrals from the fabric shops where you buy fabrics from
Feel at a loss in the ads? Another more efficient way is just ask for referrals from the fabric shops if they know any clothing factories specializing in the fabrics you bought. 90% of chances the shops are happy to give recommendations of the factories who are their regular customers.
# Local clothing industrial parks
Many clothing industrial parks scatter around different districts in Guangzhou, with each specializes in different type of clothes.
A few blocks near my home lays a clothing industrial park where you can find a vast array of Guangzhou clothes factories with small minimum order quantity, including uncle Li’s. After 20 years working for a China clothes factory, he ventured out with his wife and set up a clothes manufacturing plant in Guangzhou.
Different from China wholesale clothes suppliers you might find on international alibaba and trade fairs with super high MOQ of about 500-1000 pieces per design, the MOQ of most China clothes factories in our neighborhood is about 100-150 pieces per design.
As to smaller MOQ, you might fear that it would be paired with higher price. A rule of thumb, when you order more, sure you will get more discounts. However, it depends on the suppliers, on whom you are working with. When you order smaller quantity, normally the price would be a bit higher than bigger MOQ. However, on the basis that the price is reasonable and fair enough.
Many of the bosses of the clothes factories here in my neighborhood, as far as I know, they are honest, hardworking, traditional Chinese originally from other provinces that are not so developed, setting up their China clothes factories from scratches after working in other China garment factories for many years. Amicable, reliable, they are typical diligent Chinese you would feel very pleasant to work with.
The difference of China T-shirt manufacturers in my neighborhood and those suppliers on international alibaba, trade fair：
* The price and minimum order quantity of China clothes factories in my neighborhood is for Chinese.
* The price and minimum order quantity of China clothes suppliers in international alibaba and trade fairs is for foreigners.
However, the greatest disadvantage of ordering from Guangzhou cloth factories in my neighborhood is they can’t speak English at all and lack of understanding of international business. And the factory area is located a bit out of town.
The greatest advantage of ordering from Guangzhou clothes factories in my neighborhood is much smaller MOQ and better price, and you can also choose your own fabrics and accessories from wholesale fabric suppliers inside the industrial park for your private label fashion line.
Pros and cons of ordering from these Chinese clothing manufacturers in Guangzhou
Pros:
*Small MOQ
*China Factory Price
Cons:
*Lacking of quality control
*Frequent delays in delivery time
*Language barrier
Take uncle Li’s factory as example, they can make clothes with small MOQ but in the meanwhile they have several big customers ordering like 200,000 pieces per month for simple clothes like T-shirt. Everyone in the factory likes this kind of simple orders even with very tiny profit margin as money comes fast and it’s very easy job. They used to delay the production of other orders requiring more delicate work to arrange the big orders first, typical practice by Chinese suppliers.
They have the expertise and experience to make much higher quality clothes but usually they make lots of careless mistakes coz being impatient and lack of understand.
To solve the problems, my Italian partner and fashion designer Carlo has trained the workers with higher standards and we follow every process closely. If you are looking for quality China clothes manufacturer with understanding of western standards, we’re your ultimate choice. Contact us to know more or visit our office when you are in Guangzhou.
DUE TO THE HIGH NUMBERS OF EMAILS WE GET EVERY DAY, WE WILL NOT ANSWER TO GENERIC QUESTIONS SUCH AS I AM LOOKING FOR CLOTHES, I AM LOOKING FOR T-SHIRT MY BUDGET IS 0.5 DOLLARS PER PIECE, ETC.
Hi Sally,
Thank you for the information above, it is veyr helpful!
Can you let me know where this is and if you have any contacts for manufacturers for ladies’ dresses with low MOQ? You can drop me a message at my email if you prefer. THanks in advance! 🙂
Hi dear Sally ,
I would like to know more about the clothing manufacturer with small quantities. thank you very much
Hey there. I need the contact too. Please send it to me. Thanks a lot.
i want to make jeans for men , i want to make moq 150 to 200 pcs per style, can you help me finding good factory who can do my moq , and have good experience.
Hi Sally,
first of all thank you for the information.
My name is Johnathan, I’m the manager of online project in fashion company.
We are looking after an agent and I think that you can matche to our needs.
Next week I will be in Guangzhou.
Please contact me on email
Thank you very much
Hi Johnathan, welcome to Guangzhou 🙂
Hi im also looking for a manufactory there can you also help me ?
please send me an email on: biba@bibarolling.com
thank you very much
Hi thank you for contact. Sure with great pleasure. May I know what kind of clothes you are looking for?
You are doing a great job sally. Thanks for the information. i will email you on direction but can i buy some factory remain or factory reject.
Hi Ope, thank you. Sure you can buy some stocks from the factories.
Hi dear Sally. My name is Ulugbek and I’m interested to visit this place. I,ve been in guanzhou 2 month ago but I visisited the centre around guanzhou railway station and women clothes were expensive. Can you email me at janibay99@gmail.com please?
Dear Ulugbek, thanks for your messages. Which markets are you targeted at?
Hi sally thanks for the informative article, please I will be in Guangzhou next month please kindly email addresses of factories with small MOQs men suits, ladies suit and children wears, thanks
Hi Franca, thanks a lot for your message. As to men’s suits, ladies suits and children wears, usually the factories are different and they are scattered around. You have to source based on your requirements, such as design, fabric style, age…etc. For adult clothes, it is suggested checking factories around zhongda fabric markets and the ones near luo chong wei. As to children’s wear, the neighboring city Foshan is a much preferred option. Or you can start from the wholesale markets. Good luck.
hello, very interesting please could you give me your WeChat id? my wehat id is onitianaa . please add me
Pls respond
am visiting Guangzou next week. i deal in children clothing ages infant to 18years. pls email me urgently the location of factories with small MOQs especially wedding flower girl dress factories. Thanks
Hi Betty,for children clothes it is in other place. It’s suggested checking out kids clothes factories in Foshan or markets on zhong shan ba road.
Dear Sally,
Can you pm me the location of these local factories. I am interested to visit as I’ll be visiting end of october.
Thanks & Regards,
Dear Swan, it is around 罗冲围校园路.
Hi please mail me details on bobbyhora@hotmail.com as I will visiting in November
Thanks
Hi Bobby, pls kindly check your email, thanks.
Hello Sally thank you for this information . I am coming to guangzhou to visit the Zhongda fabric market . please can you give me the name of some factories I may visit with a low moq . I would like ladies dresses .
Hi Molly, welcome to Guangzhou. People in the factories introduced in this post can’t speak English at all, but maybe you can take a stroll down the clothes factories(罗冲围校园路) around there and see how it goes.
hi sally,
I’m william. Me and my partnerwill be doing online business selling women’s dress for both work and leisure. I will be going over to guangzhou tonight and would like to visit some factories there who can supply clothing to me on a regular basis. Can you recommend someof the best manufacture to me?
Thank you.
Hi,
I am doing online business selling women’s dress for both work and leisure. I will be in Guangzhou next Wednesday and would like to visit some factories there who can supply clothing to me on a regular basis. Can you recommend some suppliers to me?
Thank you.
Hi Trisa, welcome to Guangzhou. Sure, with pleasure.
Hi Sally. I’m in guangzhou now. Please send me email how we can see regarding the clothes manufacturing
hi i m coming Guangzhou on 25 august want to visit factories with small moq..pls. let me know where i can visit
Hi Mala, there are many cloth factories at 罗冲围校园路.
Hi Sally, can you contact me bu email? I have few questions for you.
Hi Gena, pls kindly check your email, thx.
Hi Sally I need help with factories in Guangzhou for ladieswear can you help? I am here at the moment vicky@perfectionclothingltd.com
Hi Vicky, thanks for contact. Sure with great pleasure.
Hi sally m a wholesaler of infant n children cloths I been surfing fuli guangda litang n near by markets would u refer me where is the cheapest n fine cloths I can find socially in infants cloths n accessories like shoes socks booties I will b in Guangzhou on 11th of this month for 5 days
U can connect on we chat also +919422928118
Hie, very helpful article would love to know more on these factories. I specialise in selling Ladies shoes, handbags and clothes in Africa. Would love to know what is available and the prices for these. Please email me on kudankomo2006@yahoo.com would love to hear from you.
Kind regards
Kuda
Hi Kuda, pls kindly check your email, thanks.
Hi Sally, I will be in Quangzhou in Oct-November. I need to ask you a few questions could you please email me.
Hi Brodie, pls kindly refer to your email, thanks.
Hi,
Am a women’s fashion designer and would like to manufacturer my designs in China. Planning to be in Guangzhou in September. Can you please share address of the factories that take small MOQ.
Thanks.
Hi Valerie, thanks for contact and welcome to Guangzhou. The clothes markets are at luo chong wei. 罗冲围校园路
hey sally i will be visiting by 30th of this month can you please mail me at jordina.clo@gmail.com i would like to know more about your neighbourhood clothing factories and would like to visit them.
looking forward to hear from you
thanks and regards
jordi
Hi Jordina, thanks for contacting us and welcome to Guangzhou. Pls kindly check your email.
thanks for the info sally however i couldn’t find your email:(
Hi Anil, thanks for youe comment and wrlcome to guangzhou.It’s always a great pleasure to help you with sourcing.
Hi Charlie, thanks for your interest and welcome to Guangzhou. It’s a great pleasure to assist with sourcing underwear.
Sally I plan to visit Guangzhou in August to explore Ladies underwear and Lingerie. Interested in your service as a translator.
Hello, next week i am going to Guangzhou to start a business of clothes, machinery parts..etc. can you help me how to start it ?
Hi Sally, I noiced you said they do not speak english at all,Can you help as an agent? in discussing with the manufacturers ?since its near to where you live. please let me know . regards
Sure, with great pleasure:)
Hi Sally,
would like to know more about the small moq clothes factories and how you can assist. hope to hear from you soon.
hi sally please email me. i have been manufacturing but need an agent.
Hi Gold, pls kindly check your email. Thanks.
hi sally
i didnt received any of ur mails.kindly mail me again on pchhabra25@gmail.com
Hi sally
first of all thanks for the much needed information.
i am planning to visit china in few months .
can u plz suggest me the best time to visit china
and i want to start a new business of garments in india . how these markets can help me out
Thanks once again
regards
Piyush
Hi Piyush, thanks for your message. Pls kindly check your email.
Hi Sally,
Thanks for this amazing post. was in guangzhou 2 weeks ago buying female trendy clothes for my clothes shop. I ordered some designs from a particular market I went to and have been wandering where the factories were. please can you give me more information about these factories and specific location as I plan to come back in a month.
Hi thanks for your message and welcome back Guangzhou again. It is around luochongwei 罗冲围校园路
Hi Sally, please can you help me with the address of the factories with small MOQ you have mentioned here.
Many thanks,
Dipal
Hi, I have been manufacturing in GZ for over 10 years and may
be looking for a new factory as mine is closing down.
Do you act as an agent?
Where is this area in GZ?
Jenny
Hi Jenny, thanks for your message. What kind of clothes do you want to make? It is near Luo chong wei.
Dear Hendra, sure you can find kids wear factories around Guangzhou or in the neighboring city Foshan. What kind of children’s clothes are you looking for?
Dear sally,
thank you for the good information .
I wonder if you know where i could find wholesale kids/childern factories. Around guangzhou or in guangzhou.
would be really grateful if you could tell me
thank you dear.
Dear Sultan,it’s in xiaoyuan road,luochongwei 罗冲围校园路.
Hi Sally,
I’m also coming soon to Guangzhou and we als want to produce woman clothes. Can you help us to find some good factories how can make small quantity’s like 200 pieces each model?
Hope you can help us!
Hi Merel, welcome to Guangzhou. We can help you source the right factory.
Dear Sally,
Please send me the address, I’m in Guangzhou now for a few days and want to check that place you wrote about.
thanks
Dear Azzam, thanks for your messages. Sure it is a great pleasure to help you find the right factories. By the way, what kind of clothes do you want to make?
Dear sally hope all is ok
i was need those factories can you help me in
Dear Ali, you can try xiao yuan lu, luo chong wei, 罗冲围校园路. Hope it can help.
Dear Stephanie, thanks for contact and welcome to Guangzhou. Please kindly check your email for more information. Thanks.
Hey Sal, sorry for the dropping in on an old post but just wondering if you can also assist on directions or Factories that do low moq as im just starting on my clothing label and want to test at the market, I arrive in GZ Nov 10 and will have an interpreter, any help would be much appreciated!! And again apologies for dropping in like Tony Hawk 🙂
Kind Regards
Ron mak
Hi Ron, thanks for your messages. You’re always welcomed to drop in like Tony Hawk 🙂 He’s a genius.
By the way, what kind of clothes do you want to make? For Australia markets?
hi sally next mount i go to gaungzhou i give address factory clothes. i want clothes DRESS woman, shirt and suit man and clothes children.and i want to buy fabrice. and factory Sublimetion print fabrice.Thank you.
Dear Sally
I will be in Guangzhou in May 2016, i would like to know where about the clothing factories are as i would like to visit them. please provide me with more information via email.
your response will be apreciated
Dear Sally,
Kindly tell me where to find these factories with low MOQ. I am also interested in belts and hats.
Thanks.
Ali
i would like to know more specific about this including the address. As i am leaving tomorrow could you please reply me as soon as possible? thanks
Dear Sally
Next week I will come to guangzhou,
Can you help me to find out gatment accessories factories with small MOQ, I want to buy elastic belts , brooches , metal costume accessories etc. Please reply asap to ***@qq.com
Thanks a lot
M.Irfan
Hi, i will be visiting guangzhou next week and would like to visit some of these factories. May i know where are these factories with low minimum moq located at?
Hi there,
Would you kindly share where is this clothing industrial park with clothes factories who accept small MOQ (Looking at around 30-50 pieces per design).
Appreciate if you can share the exact address of this place and any recommendations for good reputable factories that i can visit?
Many thanks,
Maggie
Hey Sally, this is also exactly what I’m looking for too any help/direction would be much appreciated!
Thanks Ron, it’s a great pleasure. May I know what kind of clothes you are looking for?
Yes
Need your help
Hi there, thanks for contact. What can we do for you?
Looking for clothes factories moq 30 pcs per design within 6 sizes.
Am not able to speak Chinese.
Hi My name is Mr. Ali, i want sale 100% cotton yarn in Guangzhou, i am will visit Guangzhou 1st week of Nov. can you advise me how to start or any contact detail?
Hi there, I’m not sure about Indian yarn. Don’t want to mislead with false information. Good luck.
l am a Namibian female would like you to make for me a big quantity of blouses and pants for nurses please at least 30 per style. My whatsapp number is +264816669133
Hi Petrina, thanks for message. Do you have any plans visiting China to make your clothes or just source online? Added you on what’s app. Best regards.