Founders asking "how long does production take?" usually get a one-line answer that hides a dozen sub-stages. Here's a realistic week-by-week breakdown of a 90-day apparel production cycle, what happens at each stage, and where timelines commonly slip.
This is the standard timeline for a new style in a familiar fabric at 500-1,000 units in an ethical Indian factory. Bigger orders, custom fabrics, or first-time-factory relationships extend it.
Weeks 1-2: Tech pack review and quote
The factory reviews your tech pack, flags gaps, and returns a quote with:
- Per-piece cost at your quantity
- Quantity breaks (e.g. 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 unit pricing)
- Lead time estimate
- Sample cost (usually $40-80 per style per size)
- Payment terms (typical: 30% deposit on PO, 70% balance before shipment)
Common delay: back-and-forth on specifications the tech pack didn't cover. A complete tech pack cuts this from two weeks to a few days.
Weeks 3-4: Fabric sourcing and lab dips
Factory sources fabric (from existing stock, a partner mill, or a custom mill order). If you're matching a specific Pantone, the dye house runs lab dips — small fabric swatches dyed to your target color — and sends them for approval.
Typically 2-3 lab dip rounds before bulk dyeing starts. Approve each round in 24-48 hours if possible; every day delaying approval pushes bulk dyeing back a day.
Common delay: lab dips that don't match within 2 rounds, triggering a re-dye. Custom fabrics that need mill orders add 2-4 weeks.
Weeks 5-6: Proto sample
First physical sample in the real fabric, made by a senior stitch operator, usually in one base size (often Medium). Expect deviations from the tech pack — some intentional (the factory's interpretation of ambiguous callouts), some not.
You review, mark up corrections (measurements, construction details, colorway, trim), and send feedback.
Common delay: multiple sample iterations. Budget for 2-3 sample rounds before approval. Each round is 1-2 weeks round-trip (stitch + ship + review + feedback).
Weeks 7-8: Fit sample and size set
Once the proto is approved, the factory produces a fit sample (refined from the proto) and a size set (one sample in each size across the range) to validate grading.
You try on the size set, confirm the fit curve, and approve for bulk. This is your last chance to catch grading problems.
Common delay: fit doesn't carry from base to extremes (XS and XXL), requiring regrade.
Weeks 9-10: Pre-production sample (PPS)
A single sample made using the bulk fabric, the bulk trims, and the bulk process — as close to the actual production run as possible. Approval of the PPS is the gate to bulk production.
Common delay: bulk fabric arrives off-shade or off-hand from the lab dip, triggering re-dye.
Weeks 11-12: Cutting and bulk stitching begins
Fabric is cut using a production marker (the layout that minimizes waste). Cut panels are bundled by size and sent to stitching lines. Lines typically run 8-12 stations per style, with quality-control checkpoints at hem, seam, and label attachment.
Common delay: none if sampling went well; lots if it didn't.
Weeks 13-14: Bulk stitching continues, finishing, pressing, tagging
Stitching continues for the bulk order (500 units typically takes 4-6 production days at standard line speeds). Finishing — hang tag attachment, labeling, inspection, pressing — runs in parallel once the first units come off the stitch line.
Week 15: Quality inspection and packing
Inspection at AQL 2.5 level (or stricter if specified) — a statistical sampling method where the inspector checks a random sample of units and accepts or rejects the lot based on defect count. Acceptable defects at AQL 2.5: very few.
Approved units are poly-bagged, boxed into master cartons, and prepared for freight.
Week 16-17: Shipping
- Air freight: 3-5 days in transit, plus 2-3 days customs clearance at destination
- Sea freight: 20-40 days depending on origin/destination
Common delay: customs holds for documentation issues, particularly for fiber-content declarations and country-of-origin paperwork.
The realistic bottom line
- Fastest: 8-10 weeks (familiar factory, stock fabric, simple style, no customization)
- Typical: 12-16 weeks
- Slow: 18-24 weeks (custom fabric, complex construction, first-time factory relationship)
Where timelines actually slip
- Late tech pack or late specification clarifications — ~60% of slippage
- Lab dip and sample approval delays on the brand side — ~20%
- Fabric or trim shortages at the supplier — ~10%
- Factory capacity conflicts (e.g. they took a bigger order and you got deprioritized) — ~10%
The pattern is clear: most delay is avoidable with a clean tech pack and fast approvals. Factories are not the bottleneck; the information exchange is.
Frequently asked questions about apparel production timelines
How much do samples cost?
Typically $40-100 per sample per size, depending on complexity. A fully-developed proto with real fabric and trims is at the higher end; a muslin mock-up in a placeholder fabric is at the lower end. Most factories credit 50-100% of sampling cost toward bulk once you commit, so sampling is effectively amortized if you proceed.
How many sample rounds are normal?
2-3 rounds is standard: proto, revised proto, fit sample. A fourth pre-production sample (PPS) in actual bulk fabric/trims is normal before cutting. More than that signals either an underspecified tech pack or a factory-fit mismatch — worth pausing to understand why.
Can we skip the PPS if the fit sample is perfect?
You can, but don't. The PPS is the first garment made with actual bulk fabric (often from a different dye lot than the sample), actual bulk trims, and the actual production sewing line — not the senior sampling operator. Skipping it is how color-shift and construction-drift surprises show up in your 2,000-unit shipment.
What adds weeks to a timeline?
In order of frequency: custom-milled fabric (+2-4 weeks), extra sample rounds from tech-pack ambiguity (+1-2 weeks each), lab dip re-dyes when the first round doesn't match (+1-2 weeks), factory capacity conflicts with larger buyers (+1-3 weeks), and peak-season backlogs around Western Q4 (+2-4 weeks). All are largely predictable with a clean tech pack and early planning.
Can I do air freight to catch a missed deadline?
Yes but it's expensive. India→US air freight runs ~$4-6/kg; sea freight is ~$0.50-1.50/kg. For a 500-unit apparel order (≈150kg), air is ~$750 vs sea's ~$150. For premium or time-sensitive collections it's worth it; for basics it erodes margin fast.
Related reading
- Writing a Tech Pack: What It Needs to Contain — the one upstream fix that cuts weeks out of this timeline.
- Apparel MOQs Explained — why quantity changes the shape of the whole sampling-to-bulk cycle.
- How to Vet an Overseas Clothing Manufacturer — vet against the timeline above; slow communication is a red flag worth walking on.
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