T-shirt Factory

[derk]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy t-shirts wholesale directly from a factory in SE asia. I'm only interested in high quality garments made in factories where employees are respected and treated fairly. If you own a factory or have a contact you can PM me.

Derk

[nemo38]

Good to hear you are concerned for the welfare of workers.

Check out Bangladesh for high quality T-shirts produced in good conditions. They can't compete with China on low quality T-shirts but they produce a lot of the world high quality clohting. Make sure you buy from a factory in an Export Processing Zone as within zones care and conditions of workers is monitored.

BTW, You need to import by the 20 foot or 40 foot container to make any money.

[Crash999]

I'd think twice about looking at Bangladesh. With quota and the various duties around the world currently imposed against Chinese garments, retailers have scrambled to move production into alternative countries like Bangladesh. The market is currently saturated with orders and as such vendors are being relatively selective regarding who they service. Bangladesh is also rather notorious regarding the level of product quality and consistency of delivery. Price can be great, though.

Minimums in factories in Thailand that are large enough to have been audited by exporters would be around 200 dozen units per color per style, though there are ways to bring this amount down. Smaller quantities can be done but you'll be looking at smaller outfits that won't have record of compliance audits so you won't be able to verify if workers are treated fairly and respected.

[nemo38]

I'd think twice about looking at Bangladesh....The market is currently saturated with orders and as such vendors are being relatively selective regarding who they service.

What rubbish. The current situation for garments factories in Bangladesh is that they are only making money from high volume orders. Small manufacturers are slowly being closed. As for them being selective. Smells like, well, not teenage spirit.

Minimums in factories in Thailand

India finds it tough to compete in the garments sector. Thailand can forget it. We have recently seen factories closing in Thailand and I expect that trend to continue.

Bangladesh is also rather notorious regarding the level of product quality and consistency of delivery. Price can be great, though.

Marks and Spencers, Walmart, Beneton (who have 100% of their world wide production of hats in Bangladesh Export Processing Zones), North face (vast majority of their production), and Asda don't think so. Companies cancel orders for late delivery so garments manufacturers world wide aren't tardy.

[Crash999]

Marks and Spencers, Walmart, Beneton (who have 100% of their world wide production of hats in Bangladesh Export Processing Zones), North face (vast majority of their production), and Asda don't think so. Companies cancel orders for late delivery so garments manufacturers world wide aren't tardy

It appears you have some knowledge of the industry but I still disagree with you. I'm familiar with the folks you mentioned as we work with them as well as almost 1000 other retailers and brands across the globe.

The point is not that some folks source in Bangladesh because of course there is a garment industry there (we will do approx $350m this year ourselves) but what would be most appropriate for a person souring a small volume of t-shirts. If the OP is going to place 50,000 dozen knit tops then I would advise differently, but in such case he obviously wouldn't be posting here.

As for manufacturers world wide not being late with delivery, I only wish that were true as it would make life a lot easier (though air forwarders wouldn't be too happy).

[nemo38]

Fair enough. Sorry I was rude to you in my earlier post.