Register your cut and sew factory
For factories that cut and sew, home textile makers and trims suppliers. One form, no fee, and the checking levels said plainly.
This form is for factories that cut and sew, for home textile makers and for trims suppliers. It is not the mill form; if you spin, weave or knit and sell yarn or fabric, the other one is the one you want. The brands that come through here are usually small, often on a first or second production run, and they arrive with a written brief rather than a phone call. What we ask about is lines, minimums and compliance, because those three decide which briefs we can put in front of you without wasting your merchandiser's morning.
How a brand reaches you
The buyers are founder run brands in the United States, Europe and the Gulf, and an enquiry arrives with the product, the quantity and the market. Before you are put in front of a brand, the factory is checked: capacity, machinery, certification and export record.
Orders are milestone paid and third party inspected. You are not asked to ship against a bare promise: payment is tied to stated milestones, and when an inspection is arranged it is done by a third party agency, paid by the buyer, with the report going to the buyer. We hold no stock, give no credit and take no escrow; the contract runs between you and the brand.
What a brand's order actually looks like
Smaller than the one you are used to, and that is the honest headline. These are founder run labels in the United States, Europe and the Gulf, and a good number of them are on a first or second production run. The quantity on the brief will often sit at the bottom of your range or under it, split across more colours and sizes than the quantity really justifies. If that is not worth your line time, say so on the form and we will not send it to you. That is a better answer for both of us than a quote nobody follows up.
What comes with the brief is better than the quantity suggests. It arrives written, with the product, the quantity and the market on it, rather than as a phone call asking what you can do. The buying guides on this site set out where a minimum actually comes from and what a dye lot does to a small order, so a brand that has read them arrives past that argument rather than at it. Orders are milestone paid, and when the brand asks for an inspection it is a third party agency that does it, paid by the brand, so you are not shipping against a bare promise. We hold no stock, give no credit and take no escrow: the contract runs between you and the brand.
What the form asks a factory
One form covers every kind of supplier, but it asks you only about the areas you tick, so a factory arriving from this page never sees a spinning or weaving question. These are its questions in a factory's own units, so you can have the answers ready before you start.
- What you make. Jersey tops, hoodies and sweats, woven shirts, trousers and denim and workwear, dresses, childrenswear, home textiles and bed linen, activewear, underwear, socks, jackets, uniforms, towels, and trims and accessories. Tick everything you actually run, not everything you could quote.
- Product detail. The styles and weights you run every week, for example knitted t-shirts 140 to 320 gsm.
- Capacity, and its period. In pieces, and whether that is per day, per month or per year.
- Lines and machinery. Sewing lines and machine count, and anything specialised such as printing or washing.
- Certifications and audits. Only what you hold today and can send a valid certificate for: the social audits a brand asks about, SEDEX or SMETA, BSCI, WRAP and Higg, sit in the same list as the product certificates. A buyer will ask to see them.
- Markets and references. The countries you already ship to, and two or three buyers who have shipped with you and are willing to confirm it. References are contacted only with your permission and never shared with other suppliers.
- A link to documents. Registration, certificates, capacity sheets and audit reports, in a Google Drive or Dropbox folder. Never send passwords or bank details.
- Anything else. The minimum order quantity you can genuinely run, your lead times, and anything a buyer should know before asking.
Lines, machines and what you can actually run
Sewing lines and a machine count first, then the specialised kit: printing, washing, embroidery, anything a brand will ask about by name. The number a buyer is really after is not your total machine count but what one line produces in a day on the product they want, because that is what turns a quantity into a delivery date. So say how many lines you have, how many machines sit on a line, and what the line is set up for, since a line running jersey tops is not a line running quilted outerwear. If you hold machines that are genuinely uncommon in your market, name them: a brand looking for a particular construction will shortlist on that alone. And say what you subcontract. A factory that is straight about sending washing or printing out reads as a factory that knows its own process; one that leaves it out reads as a factory you find out about at the shipment.
Minimums, and how yours are really set
This is the question every brand asks first and the one most factories answer wrong, because the answer given is a single number and the truth is three numbers in sequence. Your sewing line has a minimum, and it is usually the smallest of the three. Before it, the fabric mill has a dye lot, and that lot is what actually decides whether a small order can be made at all. After it, the trims have minimums of their own, and a label, a zip or a woven tape in a brand's own colour often carries a higher one than the fabric. A brand that hears one number cannot tell which of the three it is hitting, so it walks away from an order that was makeable. Give us the three separately, in the units you buy in, and say what you can do with stock fabric or a standing colour. That is the answer that wins a first order.
Compliance and audits
SEDEX or SMETA, BSCI, WRAP and Higg sit in the same list as the product certificates, because for a brand selling into the United States or Europe they are not a nice extra, they are the gate. Tick only what you hold today and can send a current report for, and give the audit date, because the date is the first thing a compliance team looks at and an old report reads as no report. If an audit raised findings that are now closed, say so and say when they closed: a closed finding with a date is a factory that fixes things, and a silence is a factory hoping nobody asks. If you hold nothing yet, tick nothing and say that rather than ticking something adjacent. A brand that needs an audit will not accept a near miss, and a brand that does not need one will not mind that you have none, but neither will forgive a tick that turns out to be empty.
The optional detail, and why it is worth the ten minutes
Those questions above are the whole registration. Under them the form carries two panels that open more detail, both optional, and both there for one reason: when the list runs to hundreds of factories, a brand filters it, and a factory that answered only in general terms is not in the result.
- Garment detail, by product. Not tops and bottoms but the actual products: formal shirts, casual shirts, overshirts and suede shirts, blouses, t-shirts, polos, sweatshirts and hoodies, flat knitwear, vests. Bottoms the same way: denim jeans, chinos, cargo and workwear trousers, woven shorts, jeggings and treggings, leggings, joggers, skirts. Then jackets, padded and quilted outerwear, rainwear, tailoring, dresses and womenswear, childrenswear, activewear, underwear and nightwear, swimwear, socks, uniforms, home textiles, towels, and bags and accessories. Woven and knitted are listed apart wherever the split changes which factory can make it, because a brand asks for one or the other.
- Brand approvals and nominations. The single most useful line you can give us. A factory already approved by Inditex, H&M, Primark, Levi's, Next, Marks and Spencer, PVH, Decathlon or any of the others on the list has passed that brand's own audit, and a buyer sourcing for them can shortlist you in one step. Tick only an approval that will stand up, because we check it before repeating it.
What happens after you send it
A person reads it, not an automated system, and you get a reply within one working day. That first reply is a document request rather than an order: your registration, the audit reports and certificates you ticked, a capacity sheet showing lines and machines, and the names of the buyers you offered as references. References are contacted only with your permission, so nothing goes to them until you say go.
What comes back decides your level, and nothing else does. A registration and a working contact make you Listed. Documents that match what you claimed about capacity, machinery and product range make you Checked. Audits and certifications validated at the body that issued them, an export record confirmed and buyers who have shipped with you willing to say so make you Verified.
After that you hear from us when a brief matches what you make, not on a schedule. The factories that hear most often are the ones that ticked only the products they genuinely run and then filled in the optional detail, because a brand filters this list rather than reading it, and a brand approval already on your file puts you in a result in one step.
Inspection, and who pays for it
The buyer pays, and the report goes to the buyer. That is worth saying plainly, because inspection is the point where a factory expects a cost to land on it and here it does not. An inspection is arranged when a brand asks for one, on one named shipment. A third party agency does the checking, the brand pays the agency, and the report is sent to the brand.
What it asks of you is access and a date: goods at a stage where they can be looked at, the agency let in, and a date you can actually hold. Nothing about it is a judgement on your other orders, because it attaches to that shipment and only that shipment. It is also the highest of the four checking levels, and the one level you cannot reach by sending documents. It happens on a real order or not at all.
How far the checking goes
Registering is not the same as being listed as verified: how far the checking goes decides which of four levels you sit at, from Listed to Inspected, and we will not describe you as verified until we have seen the evidence. All four are written out in full, with what moves you from one to the next, on the four checking levels, which is the one place on this site they are defined.
What registering costs
Nothing. There is no listing fee, no subscription and no charge for being introduced to a brand. We take a success fee from the supplier only when a shipment actually happens, so our interest and yours point the same way: at orders that ship, not at a long list of names.
A person reads every registration, not an automated system. Expect a reply within one working day.
Common questions
Are the orders small?
Often, yes. A good part of what comes through this desk is a brand's first or second production run. If small runs are not work you want, this is the right moment to know it rather than after three emails.
How should I give my minimum order?
As three numbers, not one. Put the minimum your line can genuinely run in the form, then the fabric mill's dye lot and the trims, in the units you buy in. The binding one is usually the dye lot rather than your sewing line, and saying which of the three is stopping you helps a buyer far more than a flat refusal.
Which audits do you ask about?
The ones you already hold, and when they were last done. We do not ask you to buy a new certificate to be on the list. What moves you up a level is evidence of what you already have.
What does registering cost?
Nothing. There is no fee to register, no listing to subscribe to and no annual charge. We are paid a success fee by the supplier, and only when a shipment actually happens.