Private label means the garment carries your brand, your labels, your packaging and your specification — but development starts from a base that already works. We have proven blocks across knit, woven, sweater and leather, so a brand can adjust fit, fabric, colour and detailing rather than engineering a pattern from a blank page.
That distinction matters commercially. Starting from a proven block cuts sampling rounds, which cuts both cost and calendar. A first range developed this way typically reaches production-ready samples in 7 to 21 days rather than the longer cycle a fully bespoke pattern demands.
How far you can customise
- Fit and grading — adjusted to your size chart, not ours.
- Fabric — GSM, fibre, yarn quality, organic or recycled content, hand feel.
- Colour — lab dips to your Pantone references, with bulk approval before cutting.
- Trims and branding — woven and printed labels, hangtags, custom hardware, packaging.
- Decoration — screen print, embroidery, DTG, heat transfer, appliqué.
What you do not get is exclusivity over a block itself. If you need a silhouette that is yours alone and legally defensible, that is OEM, and it is a different conversation with different economics.
Private label versus OEM, plainly
| Private label | OEM | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | An existing proven block | Your original design and patterns |
| Development time | Shorter — fewer sampling rounds | Longer — pattern engineering from scratch |
| Design exclusivity | The block is not exclusive to you | The design is yours |
| Unit cost | Lower, development is amortised | Higher, development is yours alone |
| Best for | Speed to market, growing ranges | Distinctive product, defensible IP |
Starting smaller than 500
Five hundred pieces per style and colour is where a compliant export line stops losing money on setup, and we will not pretend it is negotiable here. For brands that genuinely need to start smaller, our sister company Collective Studio runs GOTS-certified organic knitwear from 100 pieces — a real production line built for short runs, not a favour extracted from a volume factory.