Why low MOQ is a range problem, not a factory problem

"What's your MOQ?" is usually the first question we get. It is the wrong first question, and answering it in isolation tends to make a launch worse.

Where a minimum actually comes from

A minimum is not a factory being difficult. It is the point at which the fixed costs of a run are amortised enough to make the unit price defensible. Those fixed costs are mostly:

• A dye lot. Dyeing 80 kg of fabric costs nearly what dyeing 400 kg costs.

• A marker and cutting setup, per style and per size run.

• A fit approval cycle — sample, comment, revise, approve.

• Screen or embroidery setup, per design and per colour.

Notice that almost all of it is per style, not per unit.

The arithmetic that matters

Take 600 units. Spread them across nine styles and you are paying nine fit approvals, nine markers and nine setups for runs of 67 pieces — every one of them below the point where anyone gets a good price.

Put the same 600 units across three styles and you have 200 per style. Same total commitment, three sets of fixed costs instead of nine, and each run now qualifies for better fabric pricing.

Move the variety, don't remove it

You do not have to launch a boring range. Variety costs very little when it lives in the places that are cheap to change:

| Variation | Cost to add | | --- | --- | | Colourway on an existing body | Low — one extra dye lot | | Print or embroidery design | Low — one setup | | New fabric on an existing pattern | Medium | | New body / new pattern | High — full approval cycle |

Three bodies in four colourways with two graphics each reads as a 24-piece collection to a customer. To production it is three styles.

The practical advice

Come to your first conversation with a unit budget and a target price, not a SKU list. Almost every brand we work with ends up launching fewer styles than they planned and making more money on them.