How to choose a fabric supplier?
When you start your job in purchasing or sourcing department, such as a merchandiser or assistant, you have to learn how to get quotations and how to find the best one from those quotations. And fabric sourcing and purchasing is a quite big job. Because there are too many kinds of fabrics, weaving or knitting, warp knit or circular knit, with or without stretch, 2-way stretch or 4-way stretch, cotton or polyester, plain or twill.....
Here we have some advice:
1. Sourcing according to end-use. If you want to find fabrics for leggings or fitness wear, it must be knitted in 4-way stretch. Four-way stretch will make people feel free when doing exercise.
2. It is great if there is an original swatch sample from the buyer or designer, firstly judge it roughly if it is woven or knitted. Then you can talk to the supplier accordingly.
3. Unfortunately, sometimes we have only photos or descriptions such as composition, weight, and structure, for example, single jersey, 88%polyester 12%elanstane, 180gsm/160cm cuttable, Then you can send this information to a knit fabric supplier. They may be experienced in judging fabrics without samples.
4. Ask for a quote according to the quantity, and mention about MOQ and MCQ of different suppliers. A matched supplier is very important, the best status is to give suppliers enough orders. To different suppliers, 10,000meter is quite different orders. To a big supplier, it is a small order, and to a smaller supplier, it is big enough.
5. Quality is the most important when we purchase. Of course, we will work with suppliers with good reputations. Here I have to remind you, the people in charge are much more important. Good communication and execution will save you a lot of time. And requirement standards should be list clear, such as color fastness, PH value, shrinkage rate, etc.
6. Price and payment terms are another important thing, we should try to find as good as we can at the same price. Try to get more quotes from different suppliers in the same condition, such as FOB US$ in meters with L/C at sight.
7. Deliver time is also important. As we all know, garments need to follow seasons, if we are too late to deliver, we will miss the best-selling season.
8. Special requirements such as certificates, test reports, and factory inspection. We need to double-check before starting, or it will waste a lot of time.
9. Details confirmation, such as inspection report, packing, shipping marks, etc.
10. The most important, is the team who is in charge of your order. There must be problems if there is an order. Before orders, you need a quote and sample; in orders, you may change order quantity, and color and face problems you never meet before; and after orders, you may need to increase the quantity if there is some shortage. If there is a team with high efficiency, you may save a lot of time.
Hello I TexTM is a medium knit fabric supplier who is a specialist in active wear. We have high-efficiency teams who will serve you on time. The technician team will make sure your quality and the sales team will make you feel free to put an order and export.
