What dictates a product cost within manufacturing?

‍You know how that saying goes- “Buy Cheap, Pay Twice” - that couldn’t be more true for custom clothing manufacturers. For some bizarre reason, prospective clients seem to forget that anything good comes at a price and that in this industry, it’s the brand who makes the healthy margins on the garments. Therefore, anything that costs more, will warrant a higher RRP and the end-consumer will be happy to pay that provided the quality of the product is sufficient and it provides value for money. The

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The Pitfalls

‍Let's go back to 2016, we weren’t custom clothing manufacturers, but instead were Founders of a new and exciting sportswear brand and on the search for someone to make our products. To no surprise, searching “clothing manufacturers UK” into Google didn’t yield many viable results, other than a few standout agencies, who now no-longer operate in this sector. We reached out and were quoted x amount for a product per unit and when directly comparing that to a custom clothing manufacturer in Pakistan we were immediately of the notion that this is a no brainer- one is 25% more than the other…. We have to save money, let’s go for the cheaper option.

“Sheer laziness in the product development stages and you could see corners had been cut”

Do I really need to tell you this was one of the worst mistakes we ever made in our business careers? Sure, we saved 25% off the top of each product but the quality of the garments were terrible. Sheer laziness in the product development stages and you could see corners had been cut for no good reason- stained garments sent out, half stitched seams, inconsistency in colour-ways and prints, misplacement of printing logos…the list goes on and on.

This left us with a stockpile of garments that were literally unusable. We thought we’d been smart by cutting corners and choosing the cheaper custom clothing manufacturers, when in fact, all we ended up doing was causing ourselves more stress and headache, delaying our launch date and being out of pocket for the very small amount of money we had to launch. What made matters worse? It was merely impossible for us to recoup our investment… we had no way of chasing the supplier for damaged goods, nor did we have any legal support to assist. We were screwed.

So, believe us when we say we know what it’s like to be extremely motivated, excited and looking forward to launching only to be let down by someone else’s laziness and lack of experience and when launching White2Label Manufacturing, we made sure that our main focus was to instil confidence in our supply chain, so that clients know that we will supply high quality products and they don’t have to worry.

Managing your costs as a start-up

One thing we realised when working with custom clothing manufacturers was that when saving money at face value, there’s often many other costs that, as someone new into the industry, come as quite the surprise- shipping, import duties and taxes, trims and garment finishing options just to name a few. That’s why, when building White2Label Manufacturing as one of the leading UK clothing manufacturers, we were adamant that we would build a transparent pricing structure; i.e. your unit cost will include everything from raw fabrics, to branding, bagging and shipping/ import duties and taxes. That way, the end client knows exactly what they’re paying when approaching custom clothing manufacturers, without any costs popping up!

Our advice is pretty simple- don’t chase the cheap option. We’re now in an industry that is cutthroat and it’s only those who innovate and provide real value for money who will thrive. Simply slapping a logo on a Gildan tee will not suffice anymore.

So, what do you do?

I'd advise doing your research properly. On the company, and check out reviews and definitely sample! As a company, we'd never advise not going through sampling, in fact, we'd rather send you samples to check even if you're reluctant because the last thing we want is you to be left with stock you're not happy with because we didn't confirm minor details within the sampling phase.

Essentially, what I'm saying is you don't have to work with us, but if you do decide to find your own manufacturer then vet them properly- take your time and don't rush the sampling phase.

Lastly, if you want the easiest option then just hit the contact us tab on our website!