Finding factory names is easy — a directory search gives you a hundred in an afternoon. Finding one that can actually make your product, at your quality level and your order size, takes a process. Here's the one we'd tell a friend to use.
If you're reading this, you're probably searching right now — a spreadsheet of factory names, a few Alibaba tabs open, maybe a sample charge you're not sure you should pay. The good news is that the sourcing process is learnable. Most brands that get burned didn't get unlucky; they skipped a step. This guide walks through the three that matter: where to look, how to vet a factory, and what to ask before you commit. It's written for US brands sourcing knitwear, but most of it applies to any apparel category. And a note up front: we're a knitwear factory ourselves, so we'll tell you plainly where we fit and where we don't.
No single channel is best. The brands with the smoothest experiences almost always used two or three of these in parallel:
Maker's Row (US-focused), Kompass, Fibre2Fashion and trade indexes give you volume and filters. Fast for building a shortlist. The catch: many listings are trading companies, not factories, so a directory is a starting point — not a decision. Treat every name as a candidate to be vetted, not a supplier you've chosen.
Première Vision (Paris), Texworld and Magic (Las Vegas) let you touch samples and read communication in person before any money changes hands. You get a first, honest signal on quality and responsiveness. The downside is cost and timing — but even one show a year sharpens your instinct for what a good factory feels like.
Ask other founders who they use, and search LinkedIn for factory sales contacts. A warm referral has already done part of the vetting for you — someone real has placed a real order. This is often the highest-quality channel and the most under-used, because it takes asking. Founder communities and Slack/Discord groups are worth mining.
A direct search — "[product] manufacturer export" — reaches good factories that don't market on platforms. Sourcing agents can shortcut the whole process for a fee or commission, which is fine if you know it and price it in. The trade-off: an agent adds a layer between you and the floor, so you lose some visibility and control.
A name on a list means nothing until it's vetted. Run every serious candidate through this checklist before you pay a sample charge — and honestly, ask us these too. A factory worth working with won't flinch at any of them:
These patterns come up often enough that they're worth calling out directly. Any one is a reason to slow down and ask a hard question:
Knitwear is its own discipline. A general apparel factory can quote your sweater and then subcontract it — which is exactly how quality and timelines slip. Screen for these specifics:
Sweaters and fully-fashioned knits are flat-knit; jersey, loungewear and tees are cut-and-sew. Ask which one they actually specialize in. A factory that "does both" may do neither well — the machinery and skills are genuinely different.
Ask what gauges they run, from chunky 3gg to fine 16gg. Your yarn and hand-feel dictate the gauge, and not every factory covers the range. A factory that names its range confidently knows its machines.
WHOLEGARMENT (Shima Seiki) and Stoll knit-and-wear produce seamless garments in one piece. If seamless matters to your product, ask by name — it's specialized equipment not every knit factory owns.
Where does the yarn come from, and can they document it? This drives both quality and compliance. A factory that controls or clearly traces its yarn source can stand behind the fiber content on your label.
If you want one thing to copy into your first outreach email, send these. The clarity of the replies tells you almost everything:
Honest placement: Turkey isn't the cheapest option. China and Bangladesh will usually quote lower; Italy and Portugal sit above us on premium positioning. Turkey's argument is the middle — solid quality, EU-grade documentation, Section 301-free imports and a two-week ocean lane from Mersin to the US East Coast. And our own limits are just as clear: we're knitwear-only (flat-knit and partner jersey), not a cut-and-sew house for the full range, and our MOQ is a real 250 pieces per color, not a marketing "low." If your product is sweaters and fine-gauge knits and those constraints fit, we're likely a match. If it doesn't, the checklist above still points you to the right factory somewhere else — which is the point.
There is no single best source — the strongest approach combines two or three. B2B directories (Maker's Row, Kompass, Fibre2Fashion, trade indexes) give you volume; trade shows (Première Vision, Texworld) let you see samples and judge communication in person; and referrals from other founders or a LinkedIn search often surface the most reliable factories, because a personal recommendation has already done part of the vetting for you. A plain Google search for "[product] manufacturer export" also works, since many good factories invest little in marketplace profiles.
Ask for a live video call from the production floor and ask them to name their specific machines, brands and gauge range. A real factory can show you machines running and describe its own equipment precisely. A trading company tends to deflect, quote instantly without seeing your spec, or send stock photos instead of a floor tour. Being a middleman is not automatically bad — some agents add real value — but you should always know which one you're dealing with, because it affects price, control and accountability.
The most common red flags are: refusing to make a sample, prices that are unrealistically low, slow or unclear communication, a minimum order quantity that stays vague (or jumps up after sampling), and compliance or certification claims with no documents to back them. Any one of these is worth a hard question; two or more together is usually a reason to walk away.
Beyond the general questions, ask knitwear-specific ones: Are you a flat-knit or cut-and-sew specialist? What gauge range do you run (3gg–16gg)? Do you have WHOLEGARMENT or Stoll seamless machines? Where does your yarn come from and can you document it? A factory that can answer these clearly is genuinely set up for knitwear, not just taking your order and subcontracting it out.
Contact three to five candidates and sample with at least two. Talking to several gives you a feel for realistic pricing and MOQs, and a paid sample from two factories is the single most reliable test: it shows you real quality, communication speed and how they handle your spec. Choosing on quotes alone — before anyone has knit a stitch — is the most common sourcing mistake.
Everything on this checklist, we'd rather you asked us directly — that's how trust gets built. Send us a tech pack or a rough spec and we'll come back with real numbers: MOQ, sample cost and lead time, machines, and where our cotton comes from. If we're a fit for your knitwear, great. If we're not, we'll tell you that too.