250 pieces per colour-size is our real minimum. Here's the maths behind a Canadian capsule, why flat-knit sets MOQs where it does, and the trade context worth knowing first.
Minimum order quantity is usually the first number that stalls a Canadian brand's sourcing conversation. Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal have a strong independent and DTC scene, but the market is smaller than the US or EU, and most first orders are planned around real capital limits, not a growth-stage budget. Knowing what a 250-piece MOQ actually means — and why it's set there — makes it possible to plan a first order that fits your size instead of assuming overseas knitwear is out of reach.
Every style needs its own machine programme — stitch, shaping and construction logic entered before a single unit runs. That setup time is the same for 50 pieces or 500, so below a certain quantity it makes the style uneconomical to run.
Mills sell yarn in lot minimums, often 10–25 kg per colour. A custom dye-to-match colour usually carries an even higher minimum from the dye house. Below that threshold, the material cost per unit stops making sense.
Inline and final inspection carries a baseline cost regardless of order size — the first piece off a run is checked the same way as the last. That overhead doesn't shrink cleanly for very small runs.
Invoice, packing list, certificate of origin — these are per-shipment costs, not per-unit ones. A 200-unit shipment carries almost the same paperwork load as a 2,000-unit one, so small runs absorb it at a far higher rate per piece.
250 per colour-size means exactly that: every unique combination of colour and size inside a style has a 250-garment floor. Flat knitwear is knitted to shape rather than cut from fabric, so each size is genuinely its own machine run — the minimum multiplies across colours and sizes together. For a capsule aimed at the Canadian market:
Most Canadian brands placing a first overseas order go narrow on purpose — one or two styles, one or two colours, a tight core size range — because every added colour or size is another full 250-unit run. Holding the grid tight and expanding it next season based on what sold is the reliable path, not negotiating the per-size minimum down.
A few facts worth building into your model, none of which we'll dress up. Canada does not currently have a free trade agreement with Turkey, unlike the UK or EU — Turkish-made knitwear enters under Canada's general MFN tariff schedule for HS Chapter 61, so that duty needs its own line in your landed-cost sheet, separate from the MOQ maths above. On price, Turkish FOB pricing generally sits between high-volume Chinese pricing and Western European factory pricing; if unit cost at very large volume is the only variable, China often still wins. Quotes are typically issued in US dollars, as is standard across the export industry, so budget a buffer for CAD/USD movement between quote and payment. And garments sold in Canada need English and French text on care and fibre-content labels — unrelated to MOQ, but bilingual label artwork has to be finalized before bulk cutting, not after.
We're a factory, not a sample house. We can produce proto samples and salesman samples during development — that's normal. What we can't do is run 50 or 100 pieces per colour-size for retail at factory pricing; machine time, yarn minimums and QC overhead don't compress that far. If your total planned volume across every style and colour is under 250 pieces, a factory relationship isn't the right fit yet — a local Canadian knitter or a made-to-order studio would serve you better until volume grows. That's an honest answer, not a pitch.
No. Turkish-made knitwear enters Canada under the general MFN tariff for HS Chapter 61, the same category most non-FTA countries fall into. Model it with your customs broker as a separate line from the 250-piece MOQ.
For structured flat-knit sweaters specifically — not cut-and-sew jersey — reasonably so. Export-focused Chinese flat-knit factories at comparable quality often quote 500–1,000 per colour-size; the setup economics are the same there too.
Yes, directly. Every size dropped removes a full 250-piece block. Moving from a 5-size curve to a 3-size core on a single-colour style takes the minimum from 1,250 to 750 — the single biggest lever on a first order.
A tech pack or clear reference image, your target sizes and colours, and your intended first-order quantity. We'll quote FOB per colour-size and flag anything in the spec that would push the effective minimum up or down.
Send us your styles, colours and target sizes and we'll work through the real MOQ maths with you — plus an honest read on where 250 per colour-size fits your budget and where it doesn't.