What Goes Into the Price of a Garment
A factory's per-unit price is a bundle of several separate costs, and understanding the bundle is the fastest way to compare quotes fairly. The main components are fabric, cut-make-trim labour, trims and labels, packaging, quality control and testing, sampling and development, and the supplier's overhead and margin. Freight, duties and VAT come on top if you buy ex-factory. Most overseas quotes are given as FOB or ex-works rather than delivered, so the number on the page is rarely the number that lands in your warehouse — our guide to CMT vs FOB pricing explains what each term includes.
The sections below take each component in turn, show how they combine on a typical mid-weight hoodie, and cover the hidden costs that most often turn a good-looking quote into a disappointing invoice.
Fabric Is Usually the Biggest Line Item
Fabric typically accounts for 40–60% of a garment's manufacturing cost, driven by fibre content, GSM (weight) and finishing. A 100% cotton 280 GSM jersey tee costs meaningfully less per unit than a 400 GSM French terry hoodie in an organic or GOTS-certified fabric — heavier fabric uses more raw material, and certified organic fibre typically carries a price premium over conventional cotton. When two quotes for "the same hoodie" differ significantly, fabric spec is the first place to check.
Labour Cost Varies by Country and Complexity
Labour cost depends on both where a garment is made and how complex the construction is. A basic crew-neck tee requires far fewer operations than a hoodie with a lined hood, kangaroo pocket, ribbed cuffs and drawcord — more seams and trims mean more labour minutes per unit. This is why country-level labour cost comparisons only tell part of the story; construction complexity can matter as much as country of manufacture.
Minimum Order Quantity Changes Your Unit Price
Unit cost almost always drops as order quantity rises, because development time, sampling and machine setup costs are spread across more pieces. A 500-piece test order will cost more per unit than a 5,000-piece reorder of the same exact style — which is normal, not a sign of a bad deal. Most buyers treat the first small order as a test cost and expect the unit price to improve meaningfully once a style proves itself and reorders at volume, rather than expecting bulk pricing from day one.
Trims, Certifications and Compliance Add Real Cost
Metal hardware, woven labels, embroidery and certified fabrics (OEKO-TEX, GOTS) all add cost over basic alternatives — and audited compliance itself (BSCI, WRAP) carries overhead that an unaudited factory simply doesn't have. A lower quote from an unaudited supplier isn't necessarily a better deal — it may just be excluding costs a compliant factory has to carry.
Sampling and Development Costs Sit on Top of the Unit Price
Before bulk production begins, most styles need one or more rounds of samples, and those rounds have a cost: pattern making, fabric for the sample, sewing time and courier. Suppliers handle this differently — some charge a flat sample fee, some charge by sample type (development, fit, pre-production), and some credit part of the fee against a confirmed bulk order. None of these approaches is wrong, but you should know which one you are dealing with before you ask for a sample. A complete tech pack reduces the number of sample rounds, which is usually the cheapest saving available, and the sampling process guide shows what each sample stage is meant to check.
For denim and wash-heavy styles, development can also include wash trials and fabric development, which add cost and time beyond a simple knit sample. Ask for a style-specific sample plan and charge in writing, not a generic estimate.
Ex-Factory Price Is Not Your Landed Cost
A quote for 1,000 hoodies at a given unit price tells you what the factory charges, not what the goods cost once they are in your hands. Landed cost adds international freight (sea or air), insurance, import duty where it applies, import VAT, customs clearance fees and delivery to your warehouse. For goods coming to the UK from Bangladesh, our import guide walks through the documents and duty basics. The right figures depend on the commodity code, the fabric composition and the trade terms in force at the time, so check them for your specific product rather than relying on a rule of thumb.
Payment terms matter as well. A deposit on order and the balance before shipment is common, and the timing affects your cash flow even when it does not change the unit price — see clothing manufacturer payment terms for how this usually works. Build all of these into your pricing sheet before you decide a quote is competitive.
An Illustrative Cost Split for a Mid-Weight Hoodie
To show how the components combine, consider a mid-weight cotton-blend hoodie with a lined hood, kangaroo pocket, ribbed cuffs and drawcord, ordered in the low thousands of pieces. As a rough, illustrative pattern — not a Ruhrose quote, and every style differs — fabric often accounts for something like half of the ex-factory price, cut-and-sew labour for roughly a fifth to a quarter, trims and labels for a single-digit to low-double-digit share, and packaging for a few percent. Quality control, compliance overhead and the supplier's margin make up the remainder.
Where a basic tee differs
A basic crew-neck tee shifts the balance. Lighter fabric uses less material and fewer operations reduce labour minutes, so the absolute price is lower, but fabric can still be the largest single share. The practical lesson is that the best place to find savings depends on the garment: on a hoodie it is usually fabric weight and construction detail, on a tee it is often fabric quality and order quantity.
How to use a cost split
Treat a split like this as a checklist rather than a benchmark. If a quote is far below what you expect, ask which line has been reduced. Cheaper fabric, thinner trims, fewer quality checks or a skipped compliance audit can all produce a lower number, and each of them has a consequence later in the process.
Hidden Costs Buyers Often Miss
Several costs rarely appear in the first conversation. Extra sample rounds, and the courier cost of sending them, add up if the brief changes. Lab testing for a particular market, such as fabric composition or colour fastness checks, is usually charged separately. Label, hangtag and packaging artwork can carry setup charges. Rush production or a split shipment to hit a date carries a premium. Currency movements affect any quote not fixed in your own currency, and defective or short-shipped units cost real money if the quality process is weak.
None of these is unusual, but each is cheaper to plan for than to discover. Our quality control and AQL inspection guide explains how pre-shipment inspection reduces the last item, and the lead times guide shows how planning early helps you avoid rush charges.
What a Fair Quote Should Include
A trustworthy quote should break out fabric, labour, trims and any tooling or development charge separately, not bury everything in a single per-unit number — and it should specify what quantity, fabric weight and construction it's actually based on, since a quote for "a hoodie" at 500 pieces and a quote at 5,000 pieces aren't comparable. If a manufacturer won't break down what's driving the number, that's worth asking about directly before committing to a sample, let alone bulk.
How to Reduce Cost Without Cutting Quality
The most reliable savings come from decisions made before the quote, not from haggling after it. Simplify construction where the customer will not notice: every extra seam, pocket or contrast detail adds labour minutes. Choose a fabric the mill already holds instead of a custom development where the brief allows it. Limit colourways and size-run complexity on a first order. Plan a realistic MOQ and treat the first order as a test, then reorder at higher volume when the style proves itself. Approve samples promptly and order early enough to ship by sea instead of air, since rushed freight is one of the most avoidable costs.
The cheapest quote is also not always the lowest cost. A unit price that saves a few pence but produces a higher defect rate, a late delivery or a failed audit costs more than it saves. When comparing offers, compare the full picture: the quote specification, the compliance status, the sampling policy and the delivery timeline. If you are also working out your selling price, the guide on pricing clothing for wholesale and retail shows how to turn a landed cost into a margin that works.
Getting a Comparable Quote From Ruhrose
To receive a quote you can compare properly, send the supplier a tech pack or a clear brief covering the garment type, fabric and weight, trims, quantity per style and colour, target market and delivery location. Ruhrose works from a London team with audited Bangladesh factories, and denim programmes start from 500 pieces per style, per colour — see the low-MOQ options and the private label service for how smaller first orders are handled. You can start a conversation through the contact section, and the more complete the brief, the more specific the quote will be.