If you’re looking to sell casual pants for your business and are considering to source them from China, here are some of the top things that you should consider:
Casual pants blend style and convenience. These fashionable products are used by people for a comfortable weekend look or a polished casual business ensemble.
For a wide range of professionals and social situations, casual pants such as chinos or cargo pants are wardrobe-essentials. This makes it an excellent item to sell because almost everyone wears it for different types of occasions.
Do you wish to purchase casual pants from Chinese suppliers or manufacturers? Read on to learn what you must know about sourcing casual pants for your business’ success!
How to Look for Casual Pants Manufacturer in China
When importing casual pants from China, It is important that you look for a qualified manufacturer so you don’t end up with a disappointing output. Here are some of the things that you should consider when finding the right Chinese manufacturer for your casual pants business:
1. Look for manufacturing businesses that are focused on producing Casual Pants
The main factor when qualifying potential apparel supplier is their product focus. Many Chinese factories are specialized in creating certain kinds of clothing that are also reflected in their subcontractors of materials and equipment.
By checking their page on Alibaba or Global Sources or their company website, you will get an idea of a manufacturer’s product scope.
If ' production, ' ' manufacturing ' or specific manufacturing processes are not indicated, you can assume that a supplier is most likely a trader. They usually tend to include a scope a big amount of product categories.
2. Check a Manufacturing Company’s Product Compliance Track Record
Many importers or business owners, especially those in the United States and the European Union, must guarantee that they comply with relevant product standards and regulations. There is a range of drug constraints in place when it comes to textiles, including restricting the content of lead, AZO coloring, and formaldehyde.
However, few Chinese suppliers of casual pants can provide records like test reports for compliance. This, in turn, results in difficulty in evaluating the ability of a clothing supplier to develop law-abiding products.
Instead, it is the textile fabrics subcontractors and foreign importers who usually hold compliance records than the clothing factory.
Thus, when importing clothes from China, non-compliance or product failure testing incidents risk is low.
Buyers of waterproof TPU or PVC-coated fabrics should practice caution because the coating may contain restricted substances like phthalates.
3. Guarantee the System in Quality Management and Social Compliance
In the supplier's workstream, a system for quality management is introduced to monitor and restrict inadequacies.
QMS certification is a requirement for manufacturers. Importers of casual pants and other apparel are wise not to rely on suppliers to cross check the quality but to execute their own processes for quality assurance.
That said, it is preferable to have an apparel manufacturer that possesses social compliance audit reports. Additionally, look for those with BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative) and are certified, Sedex suppliers.
Creating a Techpack for your Manufacturer
A tech pack is an informative sheet created by designers to convey all the necessary conditions to develop a product with a manufacturer. Measurements, materials, colors, trim, equipment, grading, labels, tags, and others are typically included by designers in a tech pack.
If you wish to create a casual pants based on your own design to build your own brand, then this is the way to go.
You can make sure the garment you designed is made to your exact specification while also reducing the risk of pricey failures. Your clothing manufacturer will be able to reproduce your design correctly using all the technical drawings, measurements and details of the parts that you've provided.
In this manner, the risk of an error occurring during sampling and bulk production is reduced.
Here are some of the most important things that should be included in your casual pants techpack:
Details of the Fabric/Fabric Specifications
Fabric Specification may be based on the OEM specification or on the existing standard fabric. The latter can lead to a vast rise in lead time, as well as the MOQ. Here is a list of the usual fabric requirements for a tech pack:
- Material / Strand Composition (i.e., 95% Cotton, 5% Spandex)
- Weight (i.e., 240 gsm)
- Colors (Pantone or RAL)
- Treatment (i.e., Flame Retardance)
- Coating (i.e., PU Coating)
- Yarn Count (i.e., 40 x 40)
- Yarn Type (i.e., Combed)
Obviously, factories of clothing usually get their supply from fabric textile producers. Most clothing manufacturers, through their subcontractor network, can provide lists of generic cotton and synthetic textiles provided.
If you have specific demands for fabrics, however, you should directly contact a supplier of textiles. This will make finding the correct sort of fabrics much easier.
Design
It is possible to replicate design components from reference samples or design sketches. It's unwise, though, to limit yourself to just one or two. During the sample development phase, a physical sample offers the supplier with a much needed reference item.
Design aspects also need to be communicated as design sketches that also serve as attachments to sales agreements and other product documentation.
The design sketches shall also display the position of washing labels, prints, and embroidery to reduce the likelihood of misunderstanding.
Components/Bill of Materials
All parts must be included in the materials bill and may indicate anything from fabric parts to velcro, buttons, zippers, or seam material. It is also necessary to specify the amount of each element per unit.
Size Table
For all sizes, a size table lists dimensions. This is an addition to the design sketch on which the different measurements (i.e. chest width and length) are to be defined. It may include the following measurements:
- Chest
- Shoulder Width
- Arm
- Hem
- Collar (Front and back)
- Length
Logos
All print, label washing, and embroidery files must be given in either.ai or.eps format to your manufacturer.
Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) For Casual Pants
The MOQ is generally set at around 500 to 1000 pcs per item when importing casual pants from China. Why? Manufacturers of casual pants must buy a certain number from the supplier of textile fabrics and components.
This demand for amount is then expressed in the MOQ to be set by the clothing manufacturer. Suppliers of clothing set MOQ requirements not only for each product (i.e. design) but also for color, fabric, and size.
Clothing importers must therefore ask potential apparel manufacturers for the following MOQs:
- MOQ per Color
- MOQ per Size
- MOQ per Fabric
- MOQ per SKU
How To Reduce The Moq Requirement When Importing Clothing?
Five hundred pcs per SKU is not a bulky amount. It is barely enough to get a middle-sized clothing factory running for more than a few hours.
Most brands, however, are not restricted to just one item. Therefore, the number of SKUs in your catalog multiplies a MOQ requirement of 1000 units per product. The following alternatives are available for start-up brands and small companies:
- Decrease the quantity of SKUs
- Reuse fabrics and colors as much as possible on SKUs
Option B allows both suppliers to fulfill the MOQ criteria set by subcontractors while providing a narrowed down MOQ to their foreign customers. As said, wholesale apparel suppliers of Casual Pants can afford to be a bit more flexible about the procedures they handle in house. Trimming or sewing, for instance.
However, expect a reduced volume to lead to a higher cost per unit.
There's another benefit to this approach. The cost of substance testing depends mainly on the amount of cloth and colors. Therefore, by restricting the amount of fabrics and colors used in producing a collection, compliance testing expenses can be much cheaper.
Most countries only require importers to provide material test reports (if appropriate) instead of product-specific test reports.
Shipping Casual Pants from China
Apparel products (and that includes casual pants) are considered as high-volume products. Because the cost of air freight usually increases due to Volumetric charges, sea freight is the most feasible transport mode.
Sea freight charges are based on three factors; Incoterm, volume and destination. It is convenient and it’s easy to do sea shipping in China as the country has several ports.
However, expect your goods to arrive a bit longer as transportation by sea is slower. It may even take as long as one month to arrive depending on your location.
Conclusion
The process of importing casual pants from China may be a bit complicated especially if you’re just starting out. To make sure that you’re getting the best manufacturers out there to do business with, due research is a must.
Otherwise, we at Lazpanda will be glad to help you find the right manufacturers as your sourcing agent. Our directory of the most qualified textile and apparel manufacturers can provide you with an awesome casual pants products for your apparel business.
Import from China actually is not a simple task. If you are working with a sourcing agent like me, then you’re already way ahead of the game. But what if you’re one of the 99% of small business owners or Amazon sellers who are not familiar with importing from China. I want to share my sourcing expertise with you to help you grow business.
