Minimum order quantity, and how it is really set
Why the minimum you are quoted is usually the fabric mill's dye lot and not the sewing line, which of the three minimums you are hitting, and what each way around it costs.
When a factory tells you its minimum, it sounds like one number set by the sewing line. It rarely is. For a small brand the number that decides whether an order can run is usually the fabric mill’s dye lot: cloth is dyed in batches, and below a certain size the mill will not set a machine for it. Then come the sewing line, which is normally the smallest of the three, and the trims, which are the ones that surprise people. This page explains which of them you are actually hitting, and what each way around it costs.
The short answer
There is no single minimum, and no honest average to print. The number on a quote is counted per style and per colour, not per order, so three styles in two colours each is six production runs, and each run has to reach the minimum on its own. The number that decides it is usually the fabric mill’s, not the factory’s. Find out which minimum you are hitting, and you know which way out of it to try.
There is not one minimum. There are three, and a floor
Three minimums in sequence, each set by a different business, and a commercial floor that the factory can put on top of all three.
1. The fabric mill’s dye lot
Cloth is dyed in a batch, and below a certain size the mill will not set the machine for it. That lot, not the sewing line, is usually what decides whether a small order can be made at all. It cannot be got round by dyeing two small batches instead, because shade drifts between lots: cut one garment from two lots and a sleeve ends up a different colour from the body.
2. The sewing line
A line has to be set up for a style, and a set-up is worth doing for a run rather than for a handful. This is normally the smallest of the three, which is why a factory that says its own minimum is low can still quote you a high one: it is passing on the mill’s.
3. The trims
The ones that surprise people. A woven label, a zip or a tape in your own colour is made to order by its own supplier, and it often carries a higher minimum than the cloth it is going on.
And the factory’s own floor
On top of the three, a factory may set a floor below which it does not take an order at all, because every order carries the same paperwork, sampling and follow-up whatever its size. That number is commercial rather than technical, which makes it the one most open to a conversation.
Why the number you were quoted is the number you were quoted
Each of the three costs something fixed before the first piece is made. The mill dyes a batch, the factory sets up a line, the trim maker sets up its own machine. Below a certain quantity that fixed cost is spread over too few pieces to be worth the machine time, so the minimum you are quoted is really the quantity at which the fixed cost stops being the supplier’s problem.
That is also why the minimum moves with the cloth rather than with the factory. A factory quoting two different fabrics is quoting two different mills’ batches, and the same factory can honestly give you two different numbers in one reply.
Seven ways a small brand gets the number down
None of them is an argument with the number. Each one changes what the minimum is measuring, and each has a cost, written beside it.
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Choose a cloth the mill already holds
Stock fabric has already been woven and dyed, so there is no dye lot to fill. You are buying metres off a roll that exists.
What it costs you. The choice is whatever is on the shelf, and a stock cloth can sell out before your repeat order.
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Choose a colour the mill is already dyeing
If your shade is one the mill runs for other customers, your metres can go into a batch that is being dyed anyway, and the dye lot stops being yours to fill.
What it costs you. A standard shade rather than your own, and a date set by the mill’s batch rather than by your launch.
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Use one cloth across several styles
The sewing line counts per style, but the fabric mill counts metres of one cloth in one colour. A shirt and a dress cut from the same cloth in the same colour add up towards a single dye lot.
What it costs you. A tighter range, because the styles share a fabric and a colour.
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Choose a solid, piece dyed cloth over a yarn dyed one
A stripe or a check woven from dyed yarn needs its own yarn dyed and its own cloth woven before anything is cut. Dyeing a cloth that is already woven is a smaller commitment.
What it costs you. The stripe or the check goes, or becomes a print, and a print carries a minimum of its own.
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Launch in fewer colours
Because the minimum is counted per colour, four colours of one style is four runs to fill and two colours is two. The same total quantity in fewer colours is far more likely to reach every minimum.
What it costs you. Less choice at launch. The other colours can come with the second order, once the first has sold.
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Use standard trims, and keep one thing custom
A zip, a tape or a button in a standard colour comes from stock. A woven label, a zip or a tape in your own colour often carries a higher minimum than the cloth it goes on, so keep the custom work to the piece that carries the brand.
What it costs you. Less of the garment is exclusively yours.
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Ask what a smaller run would cost
Some factories will run below their stated number and charge for the set-up the smaller run does not cover. Ask for that charge as its own line in the quote, so you can see what the minimum was actually worth to them.
What it costs you. A higher price per piece on the first order, chosen knowingly rather than found on the invoice.
What to ask a factory, in the order to ask it
Each answer decides whether the next question is worth asking.
- Is the minimum per style, per colour, or per size?
- Whose minimum is it: yours, the fabric mill’s, or a trim supplier’s?
- If it is the fabric, is there a stock cloth or a running colour that would bring it down?
- If it is a trim, which trim, and what is the minimum on the standard version of it?
- Can the sizes inside one colour be split however I choose?
- Would you run below it, and what would the extra charge be, written as its own line?
- Does the minimum change on a repeat order of the same style?
Write the answers down beside the quote. A minimum you understand is one you can plan a launch around. A minimum you do not is a number you will meet again on the second order.
When a low minimum is a warning sign
A low minimum is not a bad sign on its own: a factory with stock cloth can honestly quote a small run. It is worth a second look when the number arrives before anyone has asked which fabric you want. A minimum is mostly the fabric’s, so a factory that quotes one without the cloth has either not costed the order yet or is not the one that will sew it.
Ask where the fabric will come from and where the garments will be sewn, and get both answers in writing. The seven questions to ask before paying an agent cover the rest. And if the fabric line of the quote is the part you cannot read, fabric consumption per garment explains how it is worked out.
Common questions
What does MOQ mean?
Minimum order quantity: the smallest run a factory will make of one style in one colour. It is counted per style and per colour rather than per order, and in practice it is usually set by the fabric mill's minimum dye lot rather than by the sewing line.
Does VeriMills have a minimum order?
No, because we do not make anything. The minimum on an order is the factory's and the fabric mill's, it moves with the cloth and the construction, and it is written into the first quote you receive. If your quantity cannot run properly, you are told so in the first reply.
Is the minimum per style or per colour?
Both. It is counted per style and per colour, not per order, so three styles in two colours each is six runs, and each run has to reach the minimum on its own.
Can a small brand get the minimum down?
Often, by changing what the minimum is measuring rather than arguing with the number: a fabric the mill already holds, a colour it is already dyeing, one cloth across several styles, fewer colours, or standard trims. Each has a cost, and the page sets them out.