The fastest route to a sweater with your name in the neck: we start from a construction we have already proven, you choose the yarn, the colours and the sizing. No design development, no tech pack, no waiting for a block to be built — and no pretending the piece is exclusively yours.
White label knitwear means the garment already exists as a construction before you arrive. The block is drafted, the machine programme is written, the fit has been knitted and corrected. You choose the yarn, the colours, the size run and the trims, and your woven label goes into the neck. Nothing is designed from scratch — which is why it is the quickest and cheapest way to put a knitted product on a shelf under your brand.
It is also why the product is not uniquely yours: a house construction is not protected for one buyer. That is a fair trade, but it should be made deliberately rather than discovered later. Kiwi Giyim has knitted in Gaziantep since 2010 and works in all three models — white label, private label and pure OEM. This page covers the first, and when to choose one of the other two instead.
The three terms get used interchangeably by suppliers, and they should not be. They describe different answers to one question: who created the design?
| White label | Private label | OEM / ODM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting point | Our existing house construction | Your design and tech pack | OEM: your design. ODM: the factory designs from your brief |
| Who owns the design | Nobody exclusively — the block is generic | You | OEM: you. ODM: negotiated with the maker |
| You supply | Yarn and colour choice, size run, labels | Tech pack, measurements, labels | Full specification, or a brief for ODM |
| Development time | None — straight to a confirmation sample | One to three sample rounds | OEM: as private label. ODM: a design step before sampling |
| Development cost | One sample, 80–180 USD | Each round at 80–180 USD | Sampling at 80–180 USD per round, plus the design step for ODM |
| Uniqueness | Low — yours by yarn, colour and label | High — the piece is yours | High — the construction is developed for you either way |
| Main risk | A competitor can use the same block | Spend before you know it sells | ODM: the creative starting point sits with the factory |
| MOQ with us | 250 per colour, per size | 250 per colour, per size | 250 per colour, per size |
| Best for | A first drop, a corporate programme, a category test | A brand with a fit it wants to own | OEM: brands arriving with a full specification. ODM: brands with no in-house designer |
Note the row that does not move: the minimum. Read the terms in more depth in OEM vs ODM vs private label.
The machines are ours: 22 dedicated flat-knit machines — 15 Shima Seiki including WHOLEGARMENT, and 7 Stoll CMS — run by a 50-plus in-house team with capacity for 100,000 pieces a month. See the full list on capabilities.
The floor in white label is exactly the floor in private label and OEM. Flat knitwear is knitted to shape from a machine programme per size, and yarn is bought per colour — so both dimensions carry a minimum. An existing block saves development, not set-up.
One style in three colours across five sizes is 3 × 5 × 250 = 3,750 pieces. That number, not the 250 headline, decides whether a white label programme is realistic for you. Fewer colours and a tighter size run keep a first order small.
A confirmation sample is a single unit at 80–180 USD in 10–14 days. You handle the actual construction in your actual yarn before committing a production piece.
We are not the right factory for a 50-piece run, and "white label" framing does not change that. We would rather lose the enquiry than take a deposit for an order we cannot run properly.
You pick a construction, a yarn and a colour. No tech pack to write, no block to draft, no fit round to schedule. The confirmation sample is knitted in 10–14 days.
Unchanged from any other model. Knitting, linking, finishing and in-house QC take the time they take — an existing programme does not knit faster.
By road from Gaziantep, under the Turkey–EU Customs Union with an A.TR certificate — no ocean schedule to plan a season around.
CMT bands run roughly 8–14 USD for a basic crew, 14–22 USD for textured work and 18–30 USD for WHOLEGARMENT. White label saves development spend, not knitting cost.
That last point is where expectations usually break. White label is not a cheaper garment; it is a cheaper start — one sample instead of four, and no weeks spent drafting a block. The knitting, the yarn and the finishing are identical. The full sequence is on our process page.
White label earns its place at the start, when the expensive question is not "is this design right?" but "will this category sell at all?" A house construction answers that with real sell-through data instead of a forecast — for the cost of one sample.
Then the answers get specific. The body length is wrong for your customer. The rib reads too traditional. You want a stitch nobody else on the rail has. At that point you have stopped buying a construction and started designing one — which is private label, or pure OEM if you bring a full specification. Same factory, same machines, same 250 minimum; the brief simply gets deeper. Examples at every level are on our work.
The dividing line is who paid to create the shape. In white label the construction is already ours — drafted, programmed and fit-corrected long before you enquired — so you take it as it stands and make it yours through yarn, colours, sizing, trims and your own label. Private label reverses that: the block is developed to your tech pack, so the garment belongs to your brand and nobody else can order it. One costs a single sample and no development weeks; the other costs sampling rounds and buys exclusivity in return.
No. Nothing sits finished in a warehouse waiting for a label. Every white label order is knitted after you confirm it, in your yarn and your colours, on our own flat-knit machines. What already exists is the construction — the house block and the machine programme — not the garment.
No. The minimum is 250 pieces per colour and per size in all three models — white label, private label and OEM. One style in three colours across five sizes is 3,750 pieces. The MOQ is driven by machine set-up and yarn minimums, and those do not change because the block already exists.
In principle yes — that is the honest trade-off. A house block is not exclusive to one buyer. Your yarn, colours, measurements, trims and labelling make the finished piece look like yours, but the construction underneath is not protected. If exclusivity matters, private label or OEM is the right route.
Never. Styles developed for a client are covered by NDA and stay with that client. Our white label starting points are generic house constructions — crew necks, v-necks, cardigans, knit tops and WHOLEGARMENT bodies — that we can adapt in gauge, yarn, colour and measurements.
A confirmation sample takes 10–14 days and costs 80–180 USD depending on complexity. Bulk production runs 45–60 days after approval, and Gaziantep to Europe by road is a further 5–7 days under the Turkey–EU Customs Union with an A.TR certificate. White label removes the development rounds, not the knitting time. More answers on our FAQ page.
Tell us the category, the yarn direction, the colours and the quantity — a reference garment or a photograph is enough. We reply within one business day with feasibility, indicative pricing and an honest read on whether white label or your own design serves you better.