"Low MOQ" is the most over-promised phrase in this industry, and the least explained. So here is ours, with the arithmetic.
Standard run is 300–500 pieces per style. On a first order we go down to 50. Below 300, the unit price goes up by 8–15%.
That last sentence is the one most suppliers leave out.
Where the 8–15% goes
A production run has costs that do not care how many pieces you ordered.
- Setup and changeover. Threading a line, changing needles, mounting a screen or a mould, and running the first pieces to waste. Same cost for 50 as for 500.
- Material minimums. Fabric is woven in rolls and dyed in lots. A 50-piece run in a custom colour still buys a dye lot. The leftover is yours in cost even when it is not yours in inventory.
- A slot on the floor. A small run occupies the line for a shorter time but not proportionally shorter — the setup does not shrink.
Spread over 500 pieces, that overhead disappears into the unit price. Spread over 50, it is visible. 8–15% is the honest range for that arithmetic, and where you land in it depends mostly on how custom the colour and the print are.
What makes it cheaper
Combine styles toward one MOQ. Five styles at 60 pieces each is a 300-piece order to the factory, and it prices like one. This is the single most effective thing a smaller buyer can do, and it is why we ask what else is on your list before we quote a single style.
Keep a stock colour. Not because we prefer it, but because a stock colour skips the dye lot minimum entirely.
Decide the spec before sampling. Every sampling round has a real cost. One free round is normal; the third round is being paid for somewhere.
Why we publish this
Two reasons, and the second is the honest one.
First: it is the question every buyer asks in the first email, and answering it on a web page is faster than answering it forty times.
Second: a 50-piece first order that behaves like a 500-piece order is not a good deal for either of us. If you know the number before you ask, you can decide whether a first order at 50 is a test worth running or a false economy. Usually it is worth running — you learn what the factory is actually like for the price of a small premium. But you should know you are paying it.
What we will not do
We will not quote you a low MOQ and then discover a "special charge" after you have committed. If the number moves, it moves at quote stage, in writing, before you decide.