To get clothes manufactured, you give a factory five inputs: a tech pack, a reference sample, a fabric spec, a target price and a quantity. Then you run one sequence: quote, proto sample, fit sample, pre-production sample, deposit, bulk, inspection, balance, shipping. That is the whole mechanism. Many first-order problems start the same way, with a missing input and a hope that the factory will guess right.
It is not a forgiving market to guess in. Over 70% of US fashion companies surveyed in 2025 said higher tariffs had increased their sourcing costs and squeezed profit margins (2025 USFIA Fashion Industry Benchmarking Study, via Dr. Sheng Lu). When margins are that tight, a rework round comes straight out of your own pocket. And a rework round you caused with a vague brief is the most expensive kind.
Key Takeaways
- A factory quotes off a spec, not a vision. Tech pack, reference sample, fabric spec, target price, quantity. Five inputs. Send four and you'll get a slow, padded, hedged number back.
- An import quote is meaningless without its Incoterm. The ICC's Incoterms 2020 rules define 11 terms, and FOB, CFR and CIF apply only to sea and inland waterway transport. FOB is not landed cost.
- Sampling runs in three stages, proto, fit, then pre-production (PP). The PP sample is the contract. Nothing goes into bulk until it's signed.
- Quality is not automatic. Name an AQL level under ISO 2859-1 in the purchase order and inspect before you pay the balance.
- A deposit, then the balance before shipping, is the usual structure (30/70 is often quoted). Tie the balance to a passed inspection, not to a calendar date.
- Made in the USA is the short road. With OneAim a first US order typically runs 8 to 12 weeks from brief to delivery, from 100 units per style, and ground shipping reaches the lower 48 in 1 to 5 days.
Try it free: Estimate what your garment costs to make in the USA in about 60 seconds with our garment cost calculator. No signup.
This guide assumes you already have a design. If you're earlier than that, start with our guide to making clothes to sell, which covers the whole idea-to-launch arc. What follows is narrower and more mechanical: what you hand a factory, and what happens after you do.
What does a factory actually need from you?
Five things, and a factory cannot price your garment without them:
- Tech pack. Flat sketches, a measurement chart, construction and stitching notes.
- Reference sample. Any existing garment that carries the fit, hand-feel or finish you are aiming at.
- Fabric spec. Composition, weight in GSM, knit or weave structure, finish.
- Target price per unit, so the factory knows which construction to cost.
- Quantity, broken out by size and colourway, not just a headline total.
Miss one and you do not get silence. You get something worse: a hedged quote. The factory prices in its own uncertainty, and assumes the most expensive reading of your vague fabric note. Then it hands you a number well above what the job deserves. You then conclude the factory is expensive and go shopping elsewhere. What you find is not a cheaper factory. It is a factory that guessed lower.
The tech pack is the input that is easiest to under-build. If you don't have one, our tech pack service draws a factory-ready one for $79 per style before you email anyone. Colourway splits matter too: 500 units in one colour and 500 across five colours are two different jobs with two different fabric minimums.
How do you request a quote that actually gets answered?
Lead with the facts a costing team needs, in the first six lines: product, fabric, quantity per colourway, target price, target delivery month, and whether a tech pack is attached. Then say who you are in one sentence. That's the whole email. Many brands write the reverse, three paragraphs of brand story and a vague ask, and it lands in the maybe pile.
The supplier base is genuinely fragmented: US fashion companies sourced apparel from 46 countries in 2025, and about 60% of companies with 1,000+ employees sourced from ten or more (USFIA 2025). Factories are not short of enquiries. They're short of enquiries they can cost quickly.
Ask for the quote in a fixed shape, or you'll get five quotes you can't compare. Request six things: unit price at your quantity, the Incoterm it's quoted on, MOQ per style and per colour, sampling cost and lead time, bulk lead time after PP approval, and payment terms. If a supplier won't give you those six, that's information too.
How do you read a quote? FOB, CIF and landed cost
A price without an Incoterm is not a price. The ICC's Incoterms 2020 rules set out who pays for freight, insurance and customs clearance, and who carries the risk. There are 11 terms. Seven work for any transport mode, and four, including FOB, CFR and CIF, are restricted to sea and inland waterway transport. So "$8.40" means nothing. "$8.40 FOB" at a named port means something specific. This matters when you import; a quote from a US factory for delivery in the US is simpler, with no ocean freight, customs or import duty on the finished garment. Our guide to Incoterms for apparel brands goes term by term.
Here is the trap. FOB means the factory delivers the goods on board the vessel, and you carry everything after that: ocean freight, insurance, port charges, duty, clearance fees, inland delivery. The number you can actually price a product from is landed cost, not FOB. Ever wondered why a brand's margin evaporates between the quote and the first invoice? This is usually where.
| Term | Factory pays to | You pay for | Insurance |
|---|---|---|---|
| EXW | Nothing, goods at the factory door | Export clearance, all freight, duty, delivery | You arrange |
| FOB | Loading on board the vessel at origin port | Sea freight, insurance, duty, destination charges, delivery | You arrange |
| CFR | Freight to the named destination port | Insurance, duty, destination charges, delivery | You arrange |
| CIF | Freight and minimum insurance to destination port | Duty, destination charges, inland delivery | Factory arranges minimum cover |
| DDP | Everything to your door, duty included | Effectively nothing further | Seller's problem |
Source: International Chamber of Commerce, Incoterms 2020. FOB, CFR and CIF apply only to sea and inland waterway transport. This table is a plain-English summary, not a substitute for the ICC rules text.
Citation capsule: In apparel sourcing, a factory quote is only interpretable alongside its Incoterm. Under Incoterms 2020 (ICC), an FOB price covers the goods delivered on board the vessel at the origin port; the buyer then bears sea freight, insurance, import duty, destination port charges and inland delivery. Landed cost, not FOB, is the figure a brand should price its retail margin from.
What is and is not included in a factory price?
Usually included: fabric, trims, cutting, sewing, finishing, basic pressing and a poly bag. Usually excluded, and this is where budgets break: sampling, fabric development or custom dyeing, lab tests, custom packaging, and freight. Some factories also quote before wastage allowances, so a small overcut can appear on the final invoice.
Ask one question and you'll surface most of it: "what is not in this price?" A good factory answers with a list. A poor one says "everything is included," which is how a per-unit packaging charge reaches your first invoice. Below a factory's comfortable minimum, expect a small-order surcharge too. Our US group places runs from 100 units per style.
How does the sampling sequence work?
Three samples, in order, each answering a different question. The proto answers "did you understand the design?" It's often made in whatever fabric is to hand. The fit sample answers "does it fit across the size run?" You comment, revise and repeat, usually once or twice. The pre-production (PP) sample answers "is this exactly what bulk will be?" Correct fabric, trims, labels and wash.
The PP sample is the one that matters. It becomes the reference the production line, and later the inspector, checks bulk against. It is the contract in cloth form. Nothing enters bulk cutting until you've signed it, and signed means a physical sealed sample, photographed, with a dated approval email.
Comment on samples in a table, not in prose. Point of measure, spec, sample as received, revision requested. "The sleeve feels a bit long" is not actionable. "Sleeve length from CB: spec 62cm, sample 64.5cm, revise to spec" takes one line and one round. Our sample rounds playbook goes deeper.
How long does it take from tech pack to delivered goods?
It depends on where the factory is and how ready your inputs are. With OneAim, a first US order typically runs 8 to 12 weeks from brief to delivery, as set out on our contact page. Fabric is the longest wait: stock fabric from a US mill keeps you at the short end. An imported order adds ocean or air freight and customs clearance on top of production.
A stage that often slips is the gap between the fit sample and the PP sample. That's where fabric approvals, trim deliveries and lab dips all have to land together.
| Stage (first US order with OneAim) | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Brief reviewed, our team replies | Within 24 hours |
| Factory confirmed in Los Angeles, New York or the Carolinas | Within 7 days |
| Tech pack, if you need one ($79 per style) | 3 to 5 working days |
| Sample and fit, to a signed-off sample | 2 to 4 weeks |
| Bulk production: fabric ordered, cut, sewn, labelled, checked, packed | 4 to 6 weeks |
| Ground shipping to the lower 48 | 1 to 5 days |
Source: OneAim Apparel, how a first US order usually runs (contact page) and services page, 2026. Typical times, not guarantees; fabric availability sets most of the range.
How do deposits and payment terms work?
A common structure is a deposit on order confirmation and the balance before the goods ship; 30% deposit and 70% balance is often quoted, but terms vary by factory, so agree them in writing. The deposit buys fabric and books the line, which is why factories rarely start bulk without it. The balance is the only real pressure you hold, so spend it carefully.
Tie the balance payment to a passed pre-shipment inspection, not to a date on a calendar. That single clause changes the conversation. If bulk comes out wrong, an unpaid balance gives the factory a strong reason to fix it. A paid balance means you're negotiating for goodwill. New factories will sometimes ask for higher deposits or full payment upfront. On a first order with an unvetted supplier, that's a genuine reason to walk away. Sampling is often paid separately and upfront, sometimes with the cost credited back against bulk if the order proceeds.
Pay by bank transfer to a company account in the same name as the entity on the proforma invoice. If a factory asks you to pay a personal account or a third-party company in a different country, stop and ask why.
What happens during bulk production and inspection?
Bulk starts with fabric arriving and being inspected, then cutting, sewing lines, finishing, pressing, folding and packing. Your job is small but not zero: stay reachable for the questions that arrive mid-run, and book the inspection before you need it.
Quality is not something the factory hands you for free. QIMA inspection data reported by NBC News in 2025 put the failure rate, the share of textile and apparel products with too many defects for market, at 21.2% for India, 16.6% for Cambodia and 14.2% for Indonesia. These are figures reported by a news outlet rather than a public dataset, so treat them as directional. The lesson applies wherever you produce: check before you pay. With a US factory you can also see your bulk run yourself, a drive or a domestic flight away.
The standard tool is AQL sampling under ISO 2859-1, the international standard for lot-by-lot acceptance inspection by attributes. AQL 2.5 is a level commonly specified for apparel. It defines how many pieces an inspector pulls from the lot and how many defects the lot can carry before it's rejected. Specify the AQL level in your purchase order, book a third-party pre-shipment inspection once production is finished and mostly packed, and hold the balance until it passes.
Citation capsule: Pre-shipment garment inspection is normally conducted using AQL sampling under ISO 2859-1, the international standard for lot-by-lot acceptance inspection by attributes, with AQL 2.5 a level commonly specified for apparel. The standard sets how many units are drawn from a lot and the maximum defects permitted before the lot is rejected. Brands should name the AQL level in the purchase order.
How do the finished goods actually reach you?
It depends on where the factory is. From a US factory, finished goods travel by truck or parcel: our services page puts it at 1 to 5 days anywhere in the lower 48, with no customs and no import tariffs on the finished garments. An imported order travels by sea, which takes weeks and is cheap per unit, or by air, which is faster and costs much more. Air exists to rescue a launch date, so choose it consciously rather than by default because sampling ran late.
If you import, you'll need a freight forwarder and, in most countries, a licensed customs clearance firm. You'll also need an importer of record (usually you) and duty paid on arrival. A factory can quote CIF or DDP to skip some of this, but you're then paying its freight margin instead of your own negotiated rate. On a first small import, DDP can be worth the premium: it removes a category of problem you don't yet know how to solve.
Weighing where to produce? Where to manufacture clothing covers the country trade-offs behind that 46-country spread, made in USA vs offshore compares the two paths, and if you import, read how to source from overseas clothing manufacturers safely before you wire a deposit across borders.
Frequently Asked Questions About Getting Clothes Manufactured
What do I need before contacting a clothing manufacturer?
Five things: a tech pack with flat sketches and a measurement chart, a reference sample garment, a fabric spec (composition, GSM, structure, finish), a target unit price, and quantities split by size and colourway. Without them a factory prices its own uncertainty, which means a padded quote or a slow one.
What does FOB mean in a clothing quote?
FOB means the factory delivers your goods on board the vessel at the origin port; you carry sea freight, insurance, duty, destination charges and inland delivery from there. Under Incoterms 2020 (ICC), FOB is one of 11 rules and one of the 4 restricted to sea and inland waterway transport. An FOB price is never your landed cost.
How many samples do I need before production?
Three stages, minimum. A proto sample to confirm the design was understood, one or two fit samples to correct measurements across the size run, and a pre-production (PP) sample in the final fabric, trims and labels. The PP sample is what bulk gets checked against, so seal it, photograph it, and approve it by dated email before cutting starts.
What are normal payment terms with a clothing factory?
A deposit on order confirmation and the balance before shipping is the common structure; 30% and 70% is often quoted, but agree the terms in writing. Sampling is often paid separately upfront and is sometimes credited against bulk. Tie the balance to a passed pre-shipment inspection rather than a calendar date: an unpaid balance is the only real pressure you hold if the goods come out wrong.
How long does it take to manufacture clothing?
With OneAim, a first US order typically runs 8 to 12 weeks from brief to delivery: sample and fit 2 to 4 weeks, bulk production 4 to 6 weeks, then 1 to 5 days of ground shipping in the lower 48. Fabric is the longest wait. An imported order adds ocean or air freight and customs clearance.
Should I inspect the goods before paying the balance?
Yes. QIMA inspection data reported by NBC News in 2025 put the share of textile and apparel products with too many defects for market at 21.2% for India and 16.6% for Cambodia. Book a third-party pre-shipment inspection once production is finished and mostly packed, name an AQL level under ISO 2859-1 (AQL 2.5 is common for apparel) in your purchase order, and release the balance only on a pass.
What's the difference between a proto sample and a PP sample?
A proto sample tests the design and is often sewn in whatever fabric is to hand, so don't judge fabric from it. A PP sample uses the exact bulk fabric, trims, labels and wash, on the equipment bulk will run on. Proto answers "is this the right garment?" PP answers "is this exactly what I'm buying?"
What is the minimum order to get clothes made in the USA with OneAim?
From 100 units per style and colorway in every product family, denim, activewear and socks included (socks from 100 pairs). Send a free brief with your product, quantity per style and target price; our team replies within 24 hours.
We're a group of 80+ documented clothing manufacturers in the United States. We do not place production overseas. Tell us your product, volume, and timeline. Our team replies within 24 hours, then we place your production with the factory in our group built for it, from 100 units per style. You produce directly with the factory. Flat fees, no markups, no pitch.
Get in contact Download the directory ($49)Need a tech pack? Get a factory-ready single-style tech pack for $79. See what's included.
Sources used in this article
- 2025 USFIA Fashion Industry Benchmarking Study, summarised by Dr. Sheng Lu (FASH455), 2025. Source of: over 70% of surveyed US fashion companies saying higher tariffs increased sourcing costs and squeezed profit margins; apparel sourced from 46 countries in 2025 (48 in 2024, 44 in 2023); about 60% of firms with 1,000+ employees sourcing from 10 or more countries. Primary PDF: USFIA.
- NBC News, reporting QIMA factory inspection data, 2025. Source of: failure rates (share of textile and apparel products with too many defects for market) of 21.2% for India, 16.6% for Cambodia and 14.2% for Indonesia. Read on the page 31 October 2026; the article gives no year or method for these country rates, so they are treated as directional.
- International Chamber of Commerce, Incoterms 2020, 2020. Source of: 11 Incoterms rules, 7 for any transport mode and 4 (including FOB, CFR and CIF) restricted to sea and inland waterway transport. Cited as a standard, not a statistic.
- ISO 2859-1, Sampling procedures for inspection by attributes, current edition. Source of: the AQL sampling framework used for lot-by-lot acceptance inspection of finished garments, with AQL 2.5 a level commonly specified for apparel. Cited as a standard, not a statistic.
- OneAim Apparel, how a first US order usually runs and services, 2026. Source of: 8 to 12 weeks from brief to delivery, the stage times in the timeline table, from 100 units per style, and 1 to 5 days ground shipping in the lower 48. The sampling and payment guidance elsewhere is practitioner guidance, not a published statistic.
No company is profiled or recommended in this article, and no factory paid to appear. Every statistic above appears in this source list. Timeline figures are the typical times OneAim publishes for a first US order, not an industry dataset. Reviewed and updated 31 October 2026 by Will Godax.
