Every flat-knit factory quotes a minimum order quantity, but the number means different things depending on how it's structured. Ours is 250 units per colour, per size — here's exactly how that multiplies across a real capsule, and how South African brands keep a first order lean.
"MOQ 250" sounds small until you see how it's applied. Our minimum is 250 units per colour, per size — every individual colour-and-size combination in a style needs its own run of at least 250 pieces. A single style in one colour and one size is a 250-unit order. The same style in three colours and five sizes is fifteen combinations, each needing 250 units — 3,750 in total. South African brands sourcing for the first time sometimes assume 250 is the whole order and are surprised when the quote comes back higher. It isn't a bait-and-switch — it's how flat-knit production works, and once you understand the multiplication, it's straightforward to plan a capsule that fits your budget and your local sell-through expectations.
The total order size is colours × sizes × 250. Widening either variable widens the total fast. Some real scenarios:
| Capsule shape | Colour-size SKUs | Total units (× 250) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 style, 1 colour, 3 core sizes (S/M/L) | 3 | 750 |
| 1 style, 2 colours, 4 sizes (S–XL) | 8 | 2,000 |
| 1 style, 3 colours, 5 sizes (XS–XL) | 15 | 3,750 |
| 2 styles, 2 colours, 4 sizes each | 16 | 4,000 |
Indicative — actual per-unit pricing and total value depend on gauge, yarn and construction. Ask for a quote against your real spec.
This isn't an arbitrary pricing rule. Our factory works in WHOLEGARMENT and fully-fashioned flat knit on Shima Seiki and Stoll machines — each size is knitted to its finished shape directly, with its own knitting programme, rather than cut from a bolt of fabric the way a cut-and-sew garment is graded across sizes. Add a colour and you add a separate yarn dye lot and a separate machine setup. Two hundred and fifty is roughly the point at which a colour-size run is worth the setup time on the machines — smaller than that and the changeover cost per unit gets uneconomic for us to quote fairly. It's a production reality, not a number picked to look good on a landing page.
Most South African brands testing us for the first time don't run the full colour-size matrix on order one. A few levers that keep the total down without giving up the ability to expand later:
S/M/L instead of XS–XXL cuts the SKU count in half. You can add XS and XL on a reorder once you know where South African demand actually sits, rather than committing 250 units to a size you're guessing about.
A single hero colourway, or two, is enough to test a new silhouette in-market. If it sells, the third colour becomes a data-backed reorder decision, not a guess baked into the first commitment.
If you're moving to WHOLEGARMENT or fully-fashioned for the first time, piloting one style — say, a crewneck jersey — keeps the first order to a single SKU set while you assess quality and fit.
A 1-colour, 3-size or 2-colour, 4-size first order (750–2,000 units) is a common starting point for a brand testing Turkish WHOLEGARMENT knit before scaling into the full matrix on a proven bestseller.
For a narrow first order, our per-SKU structure isn't automatically the smaller commitment. Many Chinese factories quote a flat minimum — commonly 500–1,000+ units per style — distributed across colours and sizes however you like. For a single colour in a narrow size range, that flat number can land close to, or above, our 250-per-SKU model. Where the two diverge is as the matrix widens: a Chinese factory's flat minimum stays fixed regardless of how many colours or sizes you spread it across, so a wide assortment can cost less there in total units. Worth flagging for South African buyers: neither origin gets a duty advantage at the border — South Africa's MFN duty on knitwear applies to Turkish and Chinese goods alike — so MOQ structure and quality are the real variables, not a tariff gap. A shared China minimum also tends to mean thinner stock depth per size once sliced fifteen ways; our per-SKU minimum guarantees a dedicated run and dye lot for every size you commit to.
It applies to any production run. A reorder of an existing bestseller colour and size still needs to clear 250 units for that SKU, though reorders are usually easier to plan since you're working from real local sell-through data instead of a forecast.
No — the minimum is set at the colour-size level within a single style, because that's what determines the machine setup and dye lot. Two different styles can't share a 250-unit run, even if the combined quantity clears 250.
You can, but be aware of the math: 5 colours × even 1 size = 1,250 units minimum, and most ranges need more than one size. If keeping the order small matters more than colour breadth, narrowing colours first is usually the more efficient lever.
Multiply your target colours × sizes × 250 for total units, then ask us for an FOB unit price against your actual spec — gauge, yarn and construction move the number more than volume does at this scale. From there, build a landed-cost model in ZAR including ocean freight to Durban, South Africa's MFN duty and clearance fees.
Send us your target style, colours and size range and we'll quote against the real matrix — no guessing, no rounding up. We'll also flag where narrowing the first order makes sense before you commit.