Thanks, Trisha

I am looking for a manufacturer as well as a pattern maker for a new line of ladies clothing. Do you have any suggestions.

This isn’t the answer you were looking for (suggested names of businesses) but it explains why we don’t list contractors on the site and how to go about finding them the way we do.

How to find sewing contractors
How to find help in the apparel industry for nearly nothing.

Vesta,
Small, high value runs indeed. I’m weary of those big corporations. The demands they impose are sometimes too stringent financially and they aren’t as operation-wise flexible. I believe in all likelihood I’d be dealing with owners if it were smaller to medium sized brands, something I’d enjoy since I have my own brand here in Manila on the side. I actually do have a blog right now but it is more trend oriented as per Kathleen’s analysis. I include snippets of the operation floor at times but nowhere near the detail it should be. This may change though in the future.

On a side note, I’ll be joining you all shortly at the forums. Just purchased the book. The amount of advice and guidance I’ve received in the comments section alone warrants the purchase of Kathleen’s book. I don’t mean to sound canned but I think it is an investment worth its weight (250 pages plus I believe).

the carbon footprint I’d make by shipping by air (which is pretty much how everyone does it)

This totally depends on the size of your orders. We ship by sea, in partial container loads. We’d never ship production orders by air because of the expense, but our batches are presumably larger than many.

Even if a factory doesn’t know about logistics, they just need to team up with a shipping specialist that they trust. You can find these people in any country, who can take the shipment from the factory (and presumably advise them on how best to pack the shipment safely) and shepherd it through to the final destination. My experience is that you’ll pay the factory for the goods separately from these brokers. We use a big brokerage company for our Indian shipments, but from Guatemala we use a one-man operation. Both were recommended as reliable by the factories.

On top of the things already mentioned in the previous comments, I would look for:

-A willingness to make small batches, even if you have to increase the price based on volume.
-A willingness to work with escrow accounts (we’ve used escrow.com, which was easy-cheesey). You’ll find quite a few experienced manufacturers who absolutely will not exchange money until they’ve inspected the shipment.

I’d also like to reiterate that you need to be familiar with the testing companies who work in your country (SGS most likely does, for one – sgs.com). They can run any tests needed by your clients, as well as perform audits on your facilities, if needed.

I loooove the blog idea. If you would really open the door to the internal machinations of your house, I think you wouldn’t even need to travel to shows to sign up new clients. Talk about problems you run into, and how you deal with them. Talk about really basic stuff like how dyeing works. Talk about your adventures sourcing yarn for production. Talk about your people, a lot. Between the blog and interacting with people in the F-I forum, you could make one annual trip to the US (say, for MAGIC) to connect with your clients, and you’d have tons of business.

This is all assuming that you’re wanting to focus on small, high-value business. If your goal is pulling in Wal-Mart-type accounts, then disregard everything I just said, lol. But if you’re trying to figure out your value proposition, I submit that you should focus on small, high-value runs. The biggest problem that I’ve run into is embellishments. In the U.S., most small manufacturers have trouble meeting minimums that allow them to affordably create uniguely-embellished products (embroidery, screen printing, etc).

Wow. Sorry so long. If you want to talk more, you can email/PM me directly through the forum.

Timmy,
I value the manual patternmakers. It is only a frustration with an inconsistent product that makes me consider CAD.

I think your best bet is to:

A) Determine the market you are most suitable to set up and export operation for (USA, EU, Japan, Dubai) because laws, standards and market structure are very different
B) Decide what sort of presence you want to keep in your main export area (sourcing office, agent, website, trade shows)
C) At first, focus on a specific product type and price point to penetrate your target market with (budget, moderate, designer, menswear, womenswear, childrens)
D) Invest in tools that promote consistency and encourage constant communication (CAD/CAM, PDM etc)

As a domestic US manufacturer, I don’t feel threatened by off-shore factories because I have been in both situations and know first hand the pros and cons of each situation…. (Worked in Production for global retailers , been an Agent, Importer, Exporter, DE, Merchandiser, etc)
With that in mind, I’ve found that the market has room for both options.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reminder. I almost forgot about Alibaba.com, although you really do have to be careful with the amount of spam that goes through that site. I don’t bother checking my mail there because of the amount of nonsense that goes through the inbox. But I guess if you become a premium member you get better quality inquiries and leads. Information overload but once you filter it down there are great suppliers there.

After browsing this site and corresponding with the owner Kathleen, FI seems like a viable alternative the additional thing being that you learn so much more on an operational standpoint.

But one place Timmy you can post your offerings would be on Alibaba and some of the other wholesale websites, they are out there and I know people use them. It is a point of contact at least unless you can come in person to some of the fabric tradeshows even if it is to just walk them to talk to people that way.

I believe the same as Marguerite, our factory in Pakistan is now responsible for about 30 families there. They like their work, come to work every day, know they have a job, life is a little more bearable there for them. Sure, if I had this same contact here in the US I would use US manufacturing but the cards fell how they did.

Pam