Finding a Manufacturer

I wasn’t quite sure where to start this blog off so I thought I’d go with one of the questions I get asked the most – how do you find a manufacturer?  I can only tell you how I do it although there will be many other ways to accomplish this!  Please remember I am self taught along the way and so probably my way of doing things may be unconventional but I find it works for me.  (Could I also say that the reason I do not manufacture within the UK is not because of price but because I have never found anywhere to make my goods here and those that have come remotely close as an option have never shown any interest towards me or the company- the last company I contacted told me that they would only meet with those they want to work with, so I couldn’t even get a meeting with them to discuss ideas.)

To begin with, before any samples, clothing etc it was suggested to me that I tried a site called Alibaba.  Many of you will have heard of this website.  For someone who has absolutely no links to any manufacturing its not a bad place to start.  But, it is a minefield.  When I first starting I searched through lots and I ended up contacting a manufacturer that were offering similar garments to what I wanted to make plus they advertised lower moqs (minimum order quantities) as this was my first thought – I can’t buy hundreds of each colour way!  I had a design that I  had created on photoshop which I sent to them.  Now this was luck – they interpreted my design pretty much exactly as I had hoped (bar the sizing).   In fact the half zip now, five years on, is still based on this very original design.  I went back and forward with this supplier for a few months creating different samples, and testing out sizes until I eventually placed an initial order with them.  Again by luck, the whole bulk order was absolutely immaculate and fault free!!

When you are looking for a supplier initially, especially on alibaba, be aware that many are trading companies and not the actual manufacturer.  There isn’t anything wrong with this, infact it’s sometimes not a bad thing as they can often act on your behalf with regards to getting your design right and assessing quality.  But some do profess to be the manufacturer!  This is a bit confusing and its not always obvious what they are but in my experience if you end up working with someone who delivers good product at a price you are happy with, and they’re making a cut out of as a bit of middle man then wheres the harm?  And if you get on and trust each other the chances are they will help you out more than you will realise.  I have experience of both of this.  One factory I work directly with and the others I go via a girl called Sandy, who is now my good friend.  (I met Sandy when I first went to China).

So maybe getting back on point, perhaps the best way for me to show how I would source a product would be to take an example product.  Say water bottles.

Firstly I would search online for the product I am interested in sourcing.

I should point out that I get the Rheign clothing manufactured in China.  I don’t get the garments made in China because of cost, as many people tend to accuse me of, but because I couldn’t find a manufacturer within the UK or even Europe and so I looked to China.  In general I have found the response and help from the Chinese far supersedes any customer service received here with regards to running Rheign.  If you email a factory with a query I would almost guarantee you’ll get a reply within 24 hours and whilst it might take a few emails back and forward to get to the answer you are looking for, you should get there.  I now work with a few factories which I have been out and visited and have a good working relationship with them – which of course makes things much easier now but that takes time, effort and some money to go and visit them.

Now because I am used to exporting items out of China I tend to vere towards that locality (but that’s probably because I’m comfortable with working with the factories).  There are differences between sourcing out of different counties – they all work in their own way and will have strength and weaknesses, including the UK.  China, for example, I find to be very quick to respond, pretty trustworthy but you do have to be very specific with what you want, what you want to accept with regards to quality and they do tend to have higher moqs. But then you’d have to do that anyway with any factory, even here.

I should say at this point you can refine your search by product or supplier.  I tend to go for supplier – you still type in a product e.g. water bottle but it will show you the results by suppliers which i find more useful.  So next I would look for one that is advertising something similar to what I’m looking for – it saves quite a bit of hassle if they are on the same page from the start.  (You can then start sending your own designs to them).

Alibaba do verify suppliers based on different criteria but I’ll be honest and say I’m not sure how valid these are but its helpful to look out for.  Please remember this is only my method and it’s not a guaranteed process – my posts are only there to assist if I can.  As I have worked with certain suppliers for a few years, many of which I have found since visiting China, and having friends out there now that help me I tend to go via them now but I did use Alibaba initially.  Also, if anyone is struggling to find manufacturers I can perhaps help you find someone reliable.

So this manufacturer looks like they offer lower moqs as well as custom design options so as an initial enquiry I would contact them via alibaba, ask them the relevant questions perhaps send them my design so that they can get a better idea of what I’m interested in and see what they say.

Samples should cost you around $50 – $70 depending on the product (plus shipping).  But should you place a bulk order with them many will refund this cost.

This is a basic overview of how I would initially start looking for a manufacturer and like I said before nothing is guaranteed and for all a sample can be great the bulk production is not always the same! That’s why it’s better to start with smaller quantities to test the water.  Same as you would if you found a manufacturer in the UK.  I’ll go into more detail about the process in a separate post but thought this might be a good starting place.

If anyone has any comments or I can help please either email me at info@rheign.com or comment below.  Many thanks for reading!