Private-Label Sportswear Manufacturing: A Guide for New Brands

In a private-label arrangement, a manufacturer produces garments for your brand and they are sold under your name. The factory's name does not appear as the brand, and the product is developed or adapted for you instead of being taken from a range that any buyer can order. Around that core idea sit several other terms that describe how much of the work the factory does.

Trims are the smaller components of a garment, such as zippers, elastic, drawcords and labels. The CMT, OEM and ODM rows follow a World Bank working paper on the global apparel industry, which treats them as steps a factory climbs as it takes on more of the work. Its last step, OBM (original brand manufacturing), is a factory selling under its own brand.

We manufacture private-label sportswear to a brand's specification in Sialkot, Pakistan. Our private-label page describes that arrangement, and the trade page is written for dealers adding their own line.

A tech pack, short for technical package, is the set of documents that tells a factory exactly what to make. It replaces assumptions with instructions, and it is what a quote, a sample and later an inspection are measured against. Guidance for apparel exporters from CBI, a Dutch government agency, describes the tech pack as part of the order contract itself, next to the quantity and the value.

A complete tech pack usually contains seven things.

• Flat sketches. Line drawings of the garment laid flat, front and back, with every seam, panel and detail shown in proportion. They are also called flats or technical drawings.
• Measurement spec sheet. A table of points of measure, the named places where a garment is measured, such as chest width or sleeve length. Each one carries a tolerance.
• Bill of materials (BOM). Every material in the garment: the main fabric with its fiber content and weight, linings, ribbing, thread, zippers, elastic, drawcords, labels and packaging.
• Colorways. Each color combination the style comes in, tied to a physical color standard so that nobody matches a color from a screen.
• Artwork placement. Logos, numbers and graphics with their size, their position measured from a seam or edge, their colors and how they are applied, plus the artwork files.
• Labels and packaging. Brand label, size label, care and content label, hangtags, folding method, bags and carton markings.
• Construction notes. Stitch and seam types, seam allowances, reinforcement at stress points and any finishing steps.

You do not have to draw all of this yourself. Brand owners commonly hire a freelance technical designer, or build the tech pack with a factory's pattern room from a reference garment and a clear brief. Whoever writes it, keep it as one dated document and update it whenever a sample round changes something, so the current version is never in doubt.

Development is the work between an idea and a garment a factory can repeat. The usual order is below. Small programs sometimes merge steps, and the names differ from one factory to another.

1. Brief. What the product is, who wears it, for which sport, and in which sizes and colors. A reference garment helps.
2. Tech pack. The brief turned into drawings, measurements and a materials list.
3. Fabric and trim sourcing. The factory proposes fabrics and trims that meet the specification. You approve swatches, and small fabric samples dyed to your color standard, often called lab dips.
4. Pattern. A patternmaker drafts the flat shape of every panel in one size, the base size.
5. Prototype sample. The first sewn garment, made to prove the design and the construction.
6. Fit sample. A base-size sample tried on a person or a fit form, a body-shaped mannequin, and measured against the spec sheet.
7. Pre-production sample. A sample in the real fabric, trims, colors, artwork and labels, made the way bulk will be made.
8. Bulk production. Fabric is cut in quantity, decorated, sewn and finished.
9. Quality control. Checks during and after sewing, against the approved sample and the specification.
10. Packing. Folding, bagging, labeling and cartons, as the tech pack instructs.

What each sample is for

Printed, embroidered or woven artwork is usually approved separately on a small test piece, often called a strike-off, before it goes onto a sample. Expect more than one round at the fit stage: each round that changes the pattern needs a new sample and an updated tech pack. How many rounds a quote includes, and what further rounds cost, depends on the manufacturer and the contract.

The pre-production sample matters most, because approving it is the instruction to cut bulk fabric. Check it against the tech pack line by line, measure it, wash it and wear it. Keep one approved sample yourself and have the factory keep an identical one, so both sides refer to the same garment later. When you order from us, you approve samples and artwork before bulk production begins. How it works sets out the stages.

A pattern is first perfected in the base size, often a Medium. Grading is the step that turns that one pattern into the full size range. The Fashion Institute of Technology's library guide to technical design describes it as taking the sample pattern and making the range of sized patterns that production needs.

Grading is not enlarging the pattern on a photocopier. A person one size larger tends to be noticeably wider but only slightly taller, so each measurement changes by its own amount from size to size. That amount is called a grade rule. Chest width might grow by one step per size while sleeve length grows by a much smaller one. Grade rules are a decision about who your customer is, which is one reason a Large from one brand differs from a Large from another.

Two practical points follow. First, the spec sheet should list every point of measure for every size, not only the base size, each with its tolerance. Second, graded patterns should be tested. A size set, or at least the smallest and largest sizes, shows whether the ends of the range still fit and whether the artwork still sits correctly: a logo sized for a Medium can look lost on a 3XL and crowded on an XS. Publish your own size chart from the final graded spec, because letter sizes are labels, not standard measurements.

A private-label brand takes on more than a logo. In the United States, federal labeling rules enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) apply to businesses that manufacture, import, sell, distribute or advertise covered textile products, and the FTC's guidance says importers are responsible for the proper labeling of imported products. If you bring garments in under your brand, treat the labels as your job even when the factory sews them in.

Fiber content, origin and identity

Under the Textile Act and its rules, most clothing must carry three disclosures. They may appear on one label or on separate labels.

• Fiber content. The generic name of each fiber with its percentage by weight, largest first, in the form "90% polyester, 10% spandex". A fiber under 5 percent is generally shown as "other fiber" instead of by name. One exception covers a fiber with a definite functional significance, which is worth reading in the FTC guidance if you sell stretch garments.
• Country of origin. An imported garment must name the country where it was processed or manufactured, so a garment sewn in Pakistan says so. On a garment with a neck, the origin label goes on the inside center of the neck. "Made in U.S.A." is reserved for products made in the United States of U.S. materials.
• Identity. The name of the manufacturer, the importer or another business that handles the product, or that business's Registered Identification Number (RN), a number the FTC issues. The name must be the one the company does business under; a brand name or trademark alone does not qualify. RNs are optional and are not issued to businesses outside the United States, so a factory abroad cannot supply one for you.

The disclosures must be in English, and the labels must stay attached until the garment reaches the consumer. Origin also has to be stated when you sell online or by catalog: the product description must say whether the item is imported, made in the U.S.A., or both. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has its own origin-marking requirements, separate from the FTC's, and importers must meet both.

Care labels

The FTC's Care Labeling Rule is a separate requirement. It covers manufacturers and importers of clothing, including anyone who directs or controls the manufacturing or importing, a description that can fit a brand ordering garments to its own specification. The garment needs a permanent label, legible for its useful life, that gives regular care instructions: washing or dry cleaning and, where relevant, bleaching, drying and ironing, with warnings against procedures that would damage it.

You also need a reasonable basis for those instructions, meaning reliable evidence such as testing or experience with the materials, and it has to cover the whole garment, prints and trims included. Ask the manufacturer what its care wording is based on. Care symbols from one specific ASTM standard may replace words in the United States. The similar symbols used in many other countries belong to a different system, so one label does not automatically serve every market.

Other markets have their own rules

The European Union regulates fiber labeling through Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011. It requires a durable, legible label of fiber composition that uses only the fiber names listed in the regulation, with percentages by weight in descending order, in the official language or languages of the member state where the product is sold. It also treats a distributor that sells under its own name or trademark as the manufacturer for labeling purposes. Fiber names differ between markets as well: the EU list uses "elastane" for the fiber that U.S. labels commonly call spandex. Other countries set their own requirements, so check each market before you ship to it.

Quality control is only as good as its reference. That reference is the approved pre-production sample together with the tech pack: measurements within tolerance, the right materials, colors that match the approved standards, artwork in the right place, correct labels and the packing you specified. A complaint that amounts to "this is not what I imagined" has little standing if the garment matches what you approved.

Checks generally happen at three points.

• Materials on arrival. Fabric and trims are compared with the approved swatches and the bill of materials before anything is cut.
• During production. Early pieces are checked on the sewing line, so a wrong setting is caught after a few garments, not after all of them.
• Final inspection. Finished, packed goods are measured and examined before they leave the factory.

AQL as a sampling concept

Checking every garment in a large order is slow, so a final inspection usually examines a random sample drawn from the lot, meaning one production batch. AQL stands for acceptance quality limit. ISO, which publishes the international standard for this kind of sampling (ISO 2859-1), describes it as the highest average share of defective items regarded as acceptable. The standard uses that figure to set how many pieces are inspected and how many defects are allowed before the lot fails.

Three things are worth understanding. An AQL is a threshold for accepting or rejecting a lot, not a target and not a promise that a shipment is free of defects; sampling can pass an occasional poor lot. The result depends on what counts as a defect, so buyers commonly sort defects by seriousness and write the definitions down. And the level is a commercial choice between you and the manufacturer, because a stricter limit means more lots fail and are reworked. This guide does not recommend a level.

Agree the inspection method, the defect list and what happens to a failed lot in writing before production. CBI's exporter guidance likewise advises agreeing an approval protocol that covers fabrics, trims, samples and finished garments, and notes that an independent inspection company can be hired to check quality and packing.

A private-label program produces things besides garments: the tech pack, the patterns and their graded sizes, the artwork files, print screens or embroidery files, and custom labels and trims. It is easy to assume that paying for development makes all of it yours. Do not assume. Practice varies, and some factories treat a pattern they drafted as their own working tool unless the agreement says otherwise.

U.S. copyright law shows why. The U.S. Copyright Office explains that the author of a work is ordinarily the person who created it. A commissioned work counts as a "work made for hire", owned by the party that ordered it, only if it falls within a short list of categories and both parties have signed a written agreement saying so. A logo or print that you paid a freelancer or a factory artist to draw is therefore not automatically yours. Ownership has to be dealt with in a signed agreement, and the law differs from country to country.

Settle these points in writing before development starts.

• Who owns the tech pack, the patterns, the graded patterns and the artwork files, and whether you receive copies.
• Whether the factory may make the same style, or use your pattern, artwork or fabric design, for anyone else.
• Confidentiality: whether your designs may be shown to other customers or used in the factory's marketing.
• What happens to patterns, screens, leftover labels and branded trims if you move production.
• That the logos and artwork you supply are yours to use. If a design you send infringes someone else's rights, expect to carry that responsibility.

Trademarks are a separate matter: protecting a brand name and logo is the brand owner's task, and it is generally handled country by country. All of this is general information, not legal advice. Have an attorney review the agreement for anything you plan to build a business on.

Questions to ask before you commit

• Which parts of the work do you do in-house: pattern, sampling, cutting, decoration, sewing, packing?
• Who writes and maintains the tech pack, and will I receive the current version?
• Which sample stages do you run, how many rounds does the quote include, and what do extra rounds cost?
• What is the minimum quantity per style, per color and per size, and how are fabric minimums handled?
• How long do sampling and bulk production take after approval, and what would delay them?
• How do you inspect, against what reference, and what happens to pieces or lots that fail?
• Who supplies the label wording, and who checks it against the rules of the country I sell in?
• Who owns the patterns and artwork, and may you produce my style for others?
• What are the payment stages, and what am I approving at each one?
• How is a repeat order matched to the first one?

A manufacturer that answers these in writing is easier to work with than one that answers only on a call. Exact terms depend on the manufacturer and the contract, so compare the written answers, not the sales pitch.

Common first-brand mistakes

• Starting without a tech pack. A photo and a message thread leave the factory to guess, and each guess is a possible dispute.
• Approving from photos. Color, fabric weight, fit and print quality cannot be judged on a screen. Approve physical samples.
• Skipping the pre-production sample. It is the only sample that shows the real materials, artwork and labels together.
• Changing the design after approval. A change after the pre-production sample is a new development round, with new cost and time.
• Launching too many options at once. Every added style, color and size splits the order into smaller lots and multiplies what has to be developed, sampled and stocked.
• Leaving labels to the end. Fiber content, origin, identity and care wording take time to confirm and belong in the tech pack from the start.
• Putting nothing in writing. Tolerances, the inspection method, ownership and what happens when something is wrong should be agreed before money and fabric are committed.
• Skipping the wear test. Wash and wear the approved sample the way a customer will before you order bulk.

None of these steps is complicated once it is written down. If you are planning a line and want to talk through a specification, contact our team. Our manufacturing page describes how an order moves through production, and the guide library covers artwork, decoration and sizing in more depth.