The mechanics nobody explains upfront: minimum order quantities, sampling costs, landed-cost math, and the realistic 90-day timeline from tech pack to shipped bulk.
When a brand founder asks a factory for a quote and hears "500 units minimum, $8.40 per piece, 10-week lead time," they usually have no frame to evaluate whether that's good, bad, or a sign to walk. This pillar is that frame.
The numbers that drive everything
- MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) — the smallest quantity a factory will run. Low-MOQ factories (50-200 units) exist but charge a per-unit premium. Mid-range (500-1,000) is where most ethical factories operate. Large-scale (3,000+) unlocks mill-level pricing on fabric.
- Per-piece cost — driven by fabric, complexity, quantity, finishing (wash, printing, embroidery), and packaging. Doubling the order typically cuts the per-piece cost by 10-20%, not by half.
- Landed cost — per-piece cost + duties + freight + inspection + broker + any customization. For apparel shipped from India to the US, landed cost is often 1.3-1.5× ex-factory cost.
- Lead time — 6-10 weeks from approved tech pack to shipped bulk is realistic for most ethical factories. Add 3-4 weeks if you're ordering custom fabric.
What a tech pack does
A tech pack is the production blueprint: measurements, construction details, material specifications, stitching, labels, packaging, colors with Pantone numbers. Without one, every quote is a guess and every sample is a negotiation. Brands often skip this and regret it.
Why small orders cost more per piece
Setup costs amortize over quantity. The fabric minimum from a mill might be 500kg; if your order only uses 100kg, you pay for 500 anyway. Cutting setup, pattern making, sampling, and machine setup are largely fixed costs that get divided across whatever volume you run. At 100 units, fixed costs dominate per-piece economics; at 5,000, they're negligible.
Who this pillar is for
Founders pricing their first production run, ops leads comparing factory quotes, and anyone who's been told "your MOQ is too low" and wants to understand why.
Send us your tech pack (or even just a sketch and a quantity) and we'll come back with a detailed quote and timeline.
In this pillar
5 guides to read
Apparel MOQs Explained: Why 100 Units Costs More Per Piece Than 1,000
Minimum order quantities drive more of apparel economics than any other single factor. Here's why MOQs exist, how they're enforced, and how to negotiate them.
When Low-MOQ Is Actually More Expensive: The Amortization Trap
A 100-unit pilot run sounds conservative. Priced against the amortized sampling, setup, and freight costs, it's often twice the per-unit cost of a 1,000-unit run. Here's the math that makes "commit bigger" the wiser frugal move.
Writing a Tech Pack: What It Needs to Contain
A tech pack is the single most leveraged document in apparel sourcing. Here's what has to be in it, what doesn't, and what breaks if you skip it.
Inventory Carrying Cost: The Hidden Tax on Ordering Too Much
Ordering 5,000 units when you can sell 800 saves money per unit and destroys it per quarter. Storage, capital cost, obsolescence, and markdown cascade add up to 25–40% of the value of unsold inventory every year. Here's the counterweight to the "just order more" reflex.
Sampling to Bulk: A Realistic 90-Day Apparel Timeline
From approved tech pack to shipped bulk, here's what 90 days of ethical apparel production actually looks like — week by week — and where it slips.
Ready when you are
Talk to our production team
We work with emerging and established apparel brands on ethical, women-led production in India. If you have a tech pack or even just a concept, we can walk you through what's possible.