I’ve got a little soft-goods passion project I’m working on…let’s call it a backpack.
I’ve found a good freelance designer whom I enjoy working with for the tech pack and once that’s ready i’ll be submitting it to manufacturers for sampling. I’ll be looking into both domestic (USA) and overseas manufacturing and comparing the price/quality/batch size, etc.
From what I understand, manufacturing companies tend to operate on very thin margins so there’s not a ton of wiggle room on manufacture price. Likewise, most overseas manufacturing companies operate on MOQs of a thousand units.
My questions:
- How do I position discussions with a manufacturer? Look up the company and find a sales rep on linkedin? Reach out directly? What’s the recognized practice for setting up a point of contact?
- What can I expect to negotiate on with a particular manufacturer? Do they ever budge on MOQ? Colorway? Actual production price?
- Is it acceptable to identify multiple manufacturers and request a sample from each, then go with the one who makes the best sample?
- Do many manufacturers have “sample” pricing? I had heard of one company that actually was offering up to 5 sample iterations for a reasonable, fixed price (like $1500). Is that a common thing in manufacturing?
What love some help on navigating this part of the process. I’ve been itching to build a custom-product ecommerce site for ages, but I can’t seem to get a product to sell!
Thanks!
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