How to Import Leggings from China

If you want to start selling leggings for your business, China is undoubtedly one of the best countries to consider when importing. Here are the things that you need to know when importing leggings from China. 

 

Clothing has always been part of people’s daily life. As time goes by, clothing trends changes from more suitable to more comfortable. 

Leggings allow people to flaunt their amazing figure while offering flexibility and comfort. It is one of the best-selling apparels in today’s market so selling it will definitely do good for your business.

In this article, we will discuss the details that you need to be aware of so you can start importing leggings from Chinese Manufacturers.

Why Choose To Import Leggings For Your Business

These days, leggings are becoming increasingly popular in the global market, and is expected to grow, particularly in the UK and USA. Not only for females, but leggings are also popular among males and kids. 

The worldwide market for sports and fitness clothing is expected to achieve US$ 231.7 billion by 2024, according to a study released by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Market growth is driven by an increasing proportion of the population living healthier lifestyles and greater involvement in sports and fitness pursuits.

The study also shows that technological innovations intended to enhance convenience and efficiency have also resulted in the leggings apparel's sales development.

Due to this, sportswear such as leggings turns into an extremely common statement of style and trend of fashion. The report points out that the Asia-Pacific region, with a CAGR of 6.9 percent over the forecast period, is anticipated to be the fastest-growing region.

Classification of Leggings Produced in China

The first thing you need to understand if you are going to import leggings from China is the type of leggings you plan to sell. There are lots of categories of leggings produced in China. Here are the various kinds of leggings and where they are usually manufactured in China:

• Printed leggings are usually manufactured in areas such as Yiwu, Guangzhou, and Xiamen.
• Sports leggings are usually manufactured in areas such as Guangzhou and Dongguan.
• Leather leggings are usually manufactured in areas such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other cities in Zhejiang province.
• Fashion leggings are usually manufactured in areas such as Yiwu and other surrounding cities in Zhejiang province.

Where to Find Legging Suppliers from China

 

Now that you have an idea on the types of leggings that you can import, the next step is knowing where to import. There are manufacturers scattered all over China. 

Here are the most popular places where you can find the largest leggings manufacturer in all of China:

Guangzhou

In Guangzhou, the wholesale market of Guangzhou Baima Garment is the place to go for leggings. If you're buying leggings of medium or high end quality, you need to pay Guangzhou a visit. 

You can discover all sorts of leggings in different fabrics that you need here. ⠀You'll be surprised to find the latest fashion trends in this market If you plan to sell high-end and fashionable leggings for your business, this is the best choice.

Shenzhen

You can look for Shenzhen Nanyou Century Square if you're focusing entirely on excellent quality leggings and is targeting the American and European markets. It's a place worth visiting as there's a wholesale market cluster around it. 

Dongguan

Huanghe Clothing Wholesale Market in Dongguan is the right place for you if you're going to import casual leggings. It focuses more on Korean and Japanese-style leggings. If these are what you are looking for, then you can find several semi-manufacturing companies in this area.

Yiwu

Leggings take great portion in the Yiwu market as one of its categories. It is located in Yiwu International Trade City's east No.4 district.

If you're going to import for wholesale leggings, this is a great place to buy. If leggings are just one of the products you’re planning to sell and you need to purchase a lot of other products in your container, then Yiwu will be an appropriate location.

Yiwu Huangyuan Garment Market is another huge leggings market in Yiwu where you can find all types of leggings. This is one of the best places to go if you're looking to buy for retail.

Trade Fairs Where You Can Meet Legging Manufacturers

You can also drop by trade fairs of exhibits in China to personally do business with the top Chinese leggings suppliers. Here are two of the most popular clothing fairs in China:

China International Fashion Fair

It is China's biggest clothing fair where the recent fashion and clothing stops can be found The fair generally takes place around September's last week. You can meet merchants from all over the globe assembled here and sharing the latest of their products with each other as it binds China with the remainder of the world.

Fashion Source

It is a chain expo of clothing that focuses on original concept and design. You can experience the charm of the trendiest clothing design just like other fashion shows. In addition to the recent fashion designs, it's displays encompass the apparel supply chain's upstream and downstream manufacturers and enterprises.

Finding Manufacturers Online

If budget and time is a restriction, you can always go online to search for leggings suppliers. There are three main ways to find the best selling leggings and search for suppliers online.

Popular E-commerce Platforms

There are big online malls that are highly well known in China, such as Taobao, Tmall and JD.com. Here you can find many suppliers for leggings and other apparel.

In the West, there is a common misconception that Taobao and Tmall are the same platforms, but this is not the case. Both Taobao and Tmall are operated by the Alibaba Group, but they use different models that are not apparent.

Taobao is a C2C (Customer-to-Customer) platform for independent suppliers, while Tmall is a B2C (Business-to-Customer) platform for manufacturers or organisations of authorized suppliers with legal entities in China.

Online Hypermarkets

Online hypermarkets operate on a B2B2C (Business to Business to Customer) system, unlike the online shops mentioned above. These hypermarkets on the internet function as intermediates. They buy a wide variety of products at wholesale cost from foreign vendors or manufacturers and sell them at retail marking their markup gain.

They differ in a few respects from online malls. There are no individual online storefronts for the foreign company to function in online hypermarkets. The hypermarket also manages storage and delivery. NetEase, Kaola, and Jumei are the most popular hypermarkets in China.

Social Media

WeChat and Weibo are China's most famous and used social networks. Through these two platforms, you can find sportswear or leggings company.

WeChat has more than 800 million active users every day, created by Tencent. The platform for social media is more than just an app for social media.

Suppliers also find it very easy to interact with their customers. The platform is renowned for its communication features where users on a closed network can send emails, share pictures and videos, call voice and video to other users.

Weibo is China's second-most-used social networking site, with approximately 82 percent of the country's penetration rate and over 50 million active users per day in 2016.

More than 130,000 businesses have also been drawn by the social microblogging network. The creation of their own Weibo Official Account and the verification of their account is very essential for sportswear brands.

However, you need to have a basic understanding of Mandarin to be able to make sense of it all since most of the content on these platforms are all in Chinese.

Things To Consider When Importing Leggings From China

Leggings win the heart of both men and women and many countries have strict rules and high requirement when importing leggings. Here are two of the main considerations before importing leggings from China.

Compliance and Safety

When importing leggings from China, compliance testing is very essential as most nations and regions have their own laws.

As consumers' knowledge of environmental protection and health lack, they focus more on their fabric security from their source to the goods in addition to comfort, security and function.

Leggings are something touchable to our skin, so there is a need for specific testing to ensure that the textile does not damage our skin.

This test usually includes: 

• Physical detection
• Chemical detection
• Label information detection
• Fiber composition analysis; Certification and recommendation testing; Country of origin information
• Fabric structure analysis; Dimensional stability analysis; Color fastness; Strength test; Fabric performance test
• Azo dyes test; Sensitizing Disperse Dyes test; Carcinogenic dyes test; Heavy metal test; Formaldehyde test; Phenol test; Phthalate test; Testing of natural raw materials for producing eco textiles

Design Infringement

Most factories like to print in their leggings some characters that are patented by another business. If the original corporation does not authorize them, then all these leggings with such personalities can be infringed on design.

Chinese custom, as well as foreign custom, will examine your goods. They will destroy them once they find that you don't have the authorization to use the characters or print in your leggings.

Thus, if you want to import leggings printed with some patented characters, you need to make sure your supplier has the prior approval to use the design. If not, you can switch to another supplier, or if you think it can harm your company, you have to give up selling this particular item.

Conclusion

We hope that this article enlightens you about everything that you need to know when it comes to importing leggings from China. If ever you need further help, do not hesitate to contact us and we at Lazpanda will be happy to help you source products for your business’ success.