Choosing the right sports apparel manufacturer means much more than just fulfilling the requirement of manufacturing clothes. Many brands make the wrong choice just by thinking they need only manufacturing and lose their capital and time. Your manufacturing partner can either break or make your sportswear brand. A reliable sportswear manufacturer provides reliable production, quality products, consistent branding, performance fabric sourcing, an efficient production process, fast lead times, and other customer-oriented manufacturing solutions. Whereas, a wrong supplier can cause costly mistakes, ruin the finishing, compromise customization, delay production time, and cause costly mistakes.
This blog will guide you on several factors to consider while choosing the right sportswear manufacturer since it is valuable information for many sportswear brands, sports clubs, teams, athletes, schools, academies, retailers, and clothing businesses.
Steps to Choose the Right Sportswear Manufacturer
Sportswear manufacturers become the extension of your businesses. Every product, such as custom uniforms, kits, t-shirts, jerseys, tracksuits, and customized club sportswear, represents your brand and identity.
Step 1: Identify Your Business Requirements
Before approaching various manufacturing companies, it is very important that you are clear about your requirements, specifications, and USPs, product collections, and basic brand needs. Most importantly, you need to know what kind of clothing manufacturers you are looking for. If you want to launch a sports clothing brand, a custom sportswear manufacturer would be the right choice due to their expertise in sports apparel construction, fabrics, fit, and customization.
Moreover, you need to ask a few questions to yourself before asking for price quotations from different manufacturers.
- What sportswear products do you need?
- What is the intended use of your products?
- What is your targeted audience?
- Do you need custom products?
- What kinds of customizations do you prefer?
- What are the order quantities you want from your manufacturer?
- What are your preferred delivery timelines?
- Do you wish to start a small-scale brand or want products of massive quantity for your customers?
- Do you need OEM or private labeling services?
- What is the estimated and overall budget for manufacturing and customization?
Prepare a checklist before consulting your manufacturer:
- Product requirements
- Clothing specifications
- Customization
- Logo details
- Size charts and measurement details
- Branding requirements
- Fabric preferences (considering sports and performance materials)
- Expected quantity
- Packaging needs
- Delivery timeline
Step 2: Evaluate Manufacturer’s Sportswear Experience in Industry
Industry experience matters a lot when it comes to manufacturing sportswear products for brands, businesses, teams, clubs, and organizations. Also, not every manufacturer specializes in sports clothing. Every supplier has a unique selling proposition. Some craft fashion clothing with sports features, some are experts of performance clothing tailored for athletes training, and many clothing suppliers offer customization services for new and existing sports apparel.
Look for the manufacturers that understand the significance of performance materials, durability, stretchability, moisture control, and the ideal fit of the garments. They know the sportswear-specific manufacturing techniques, such as cuts, trims, stitching, fabrics eligible for printing, and personalization.
Look for the manufacturers who have experience in crafting:
- Basketball apparel
- Baseball apparel
- Golf clothing
- Tennis clothing
- Cycling kits and garments
- Swimming suits
- Ice-hockey apparel
- Compression clothing
- Team uniforms
- And other sports apparel categories
Step 3: Check for Fabric Options
Sports apparel requires performance fabrics, which have a major impact on quality and durability. The right fabrics for sportswear account for product applications, sport, climate conditions, and intensity levels of the activities.
Sports fabrics add to and improve the properties of the sportswear:
- Long-lasting
- Shape retention
- Stretch and recovery
- Breathability
- Moisture management
- Colorfastness
- Lightweight
- Ideal opacity
For your better knowledge, here are some sportswear fabrics:
- Spandex blends
- Polyester blends
- Polyester
- Nylon
- Cotton blends
Step 4: Identity, Evaluate, and Analyze Customization Services
Customization is the key to the uniqueness of apparel for startups, clubs, teams, emerging sportswear brands, and established clothing lines. Custom products help your brand stand out in the garment industry as well as in the sports field. Clothes with your players’ names or numbers placed on them, your brand’s logo, or a trademark print on the garments allow the audience to recognize your business. In short, customization gives you recognition. A good sports clothing manufacturer must understand your design ideas and should be able to incorporate appropriate and suitable customization methods.
Depending on the product, customization options should include:
- All-over sublimation
- Heat transfer printing
- DTG (direct to garment) printing
- DTF (direct to film) printing
- Embroidery
- Fabric washing
- Fabric dyeing
- Custom labels and tags
- Custom packaging and branding
Step 5: Sample Manufacturing
Sampling or prototyping is the basic service that a manufacturer should offer. Sampling refers to the prototypes created before the bulk to analyze the garments before manufacturing the bulk. Ask your manufacturers if they offer sample production. It is a necessary step in manufacturing that allows you to suggest significant changes in the garments. If you like the samples, you can proceed with the bulk manufacturing; if not, then the manufacturer should recreate the samples for you to check again.
Now, the important question is time a supplier should take to develop samples. Some manufacturing companies offer a reasonable turnaround time for samples, which can be 10 to 15 business days for 5 to 10 pieces. However, sampling may require more time, depending on the fabric availability, quantity, customization, and design complexity.
Here are a few things you can check in your samples:
- Product details, according to your specifications
- Fabric quality
- Cut-and-sew perfection
- Accurate size and fit
- Stitching
- Color combinations
- Your logo placement
- Printing details
- Seams
- Finishing
If your manufacturer sends a sample check thoroughly, wear it, test it on mannequins, or ask your customers to try.
Step 6: Minimum Order Quantity
Minimum order quantity (MOQ) plays a vital role for teams, organizations, and emerging or scalable clothing brands. Not every business affords a large amount of investment. Some brands start with a small quantity as an experiment to see if their brand grows as per their expectations. Therefore, check if your manufacturer offers MOQ. Also ensure there is no restriction to bulk quantity production. Because, if you like the products and your brand runs smoothly, you would want to place an order of a larger quantity.
MOQ depends on product type, design complexity, production methods, fabrics, and customizations like colors and printing. A reasonable MOQ can be between 30 and 60 pieces of garments. Manufacturers usually have different MOQs for samples and bulk.
Ask your manufacturer before placing an order:
- What is your MOQ?
- Is your MOQ consistent for repeat and bulk orders?
- Can MOQ include different sizes and colors of products?
- Can different customizations like player names or numbers vary?
- Can we alter the designs of different products?
Step 7: Check and Compare Turnaround Time
Turnaround time is significant while placing an order for custom sports apparel. This is the time that a manufacturer takes to create the products. Time may vary according to production solutions like printing, complex customization, design making, pattern development, fabric sourcing, and more. Compare the lead times of different manufacturers to figure out which supplier can cater to your needs within your desired timeline.
Custom orders typically follow a linear manufacturing order:
- Design stage
- Sample development stage
- Simple approval by customer stage
- Bulk manufacturing stage
- Quality check stage
- Packaging stage
- Delivery stage
Your manufacturer can guide you about the time each stage takes, which can give you an idea about the overall turnaround time. Or, you can ask your manufacturer to commit to a specific timeline and deliver the products within that period.
Step 8: Quality Control
Quality control is one of the basic yet significant steps in choosing the right sportswear manufacturer. A professional manufacturer always checks the quality of garments throughout different stages of manufacturing. Quality control allows inspection that results in alterations in the garments.
The quality control process usually involves:
- Size accuracy
- Fabric check
- Cut and sew inspection
- Print inspection
- Stitching inspection
- Overall garment inspection
- Tags and labels inspection
- Packaging inspection
Step 9: Communication Transparency and Customer Support
Transparent communication builds trust between manufacturers and customers. The right manufacturers always stay true to their words. This differentiates a reliable manufacturer from an average and inexperienced supplier.
Choose your manufacturing partner that:
- Updates you frequently
- Responds timely
- Provides logical explanations
- Gives clear timelines
- Resolve problems
Step 10: Price Comparisons for Better Quotations
Price comparisons and market surveys are your right. If you find a manufacturer quoting an unreasonable price, take second opinions. Or, you can ask the relevant supplier to provide reasoning for higher prices since fabrics or labor are expensive, depending on the region or economic fluctuations.
Mistakes to Avoid While Choosing a Manufacturer
- Compromise on quality
- Requesting bulk without samples
- Approving samples without QA
- Not discussing the prices
- Not discussing the timelines
- Proceeding without clarifying MOQ
- Lacking communication
- Staying in touch with the manufacturer after placing an order
Conclusion
Choosing the right sportswear manufacturer requires identifying your own needs before making a decision. Select suppliers by comparing prices, their industry experiences, fabric sourcing, customization services, manufacturing solutions, printing efficiency, sample production, bulk manufacturing, low MOQ, quality control, custom packaging, delivery, and transparent communications. Avoid mistakes mentioned above to ensure a professional relationship with your manufacturer for the betterment of your business.