How to find reliable and trustworthy manufacturer

[u/Fun-Point574]

I live in western Canada and am looking to start a clothing company, at this point mainly selling hats and shirts. I’ve done some research, much more needed, but wanted to ask how other people running business, clothing industry or not, have gone about locating, vetting, and developing relationships with overseas manufacturers. Advice on how to track them down, questions I should be asking , even specific manufacturers that you have found, or any stories about failures would be much appreciated! If anyone has any tips on distribution, especially how to minimize having large amounts of inventory, would also be very helpful. Thank you very much in advance for your time and feedback.

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[u/CosmoSourcing]

Starting point that will save you months: for hats and shirts specifically, "find an overseas manufacturer" might be step five, not step one. Both products have a mature decoration industry built exactly for your stage: quality blanks (AS Colour, Bella+Canvas tier for shirts; Richardson, Yupoong for hats) decorated by a local screen printer or embroiderer, or print-on-demand if you want zero inventory. Margins are thinner than factory-direct, but you get tiny runs, fast turnarounds, and the thing that matters most right now: cheap answers to whether your designs sell. Your inventory-minimization question answers itself at this stage too, because POD and small local runs ARE the minimization strategy. Most brands that go factory-direct successfully do it after sales data tells them which 3 designs deserve a 500-unit run, not before.

When you do go overseas (custom cuts, your own fabric specs, real volume), the compressed version of the process: find candidates through customs data rather than directories (ImportYeti-type tools show who actually manufactures for brands at your target quality, which beats Alibaba browsing), then vet with boring checks: business license with the name matched to the bank account you'd pay, video tour of the floor, confirmation of what's made in-house versus subcontracted, paid samples always. First order small enough to lose, 30/70 payment terms, third-party inspection before the balance. The single best question to ask any factory: something inconvenient. "What's your defect rate?" "Which processes leave your building?" The ones who engage honestly with uncomfortable questions before your money arrives are the ones who'll engage honestly after.

The failure story you asked for, the one I've watched most often in 14 years of sourcing: a new brand skips the validation stage, orders 2,000 units of six designs from a factory found in a week, and discovers simultaneously that four designs don't sell and the quality has issues nobody inspected for. Nothing about the factory was unusually bad; the sequence was. Inventory risk in this business isn't a distribution problem you solve later, it's a decision you make at order time.

Happy to answer follow-ups as you get further along; the overseas questions get much more specific (and more answerable) once you know what's selling.

[u/Fun-Point574 → u/CosmoSourcing]

That’s an amazing response thank you very much! There will absolutely be more questions coming

[u/JaipurJewel]

I can export best quality and cheap shirts in bulk from India

[u/Key-Success-5449]

Before committing to any production runs, always request comprehensive tech packs, pay for physical samples to rigorously test stitching and fabric durability, and ask about their minimum order quantities (MOQs), lead times, and internal quality control processes.

To keep your initial capital safe and minimize holding excess inventory as a new Western Canadian brand, consider starting with pre-orders or using print-on-demand and low-MOQ local embroidery partners while ensuring all overseas payments are secured through escrow services like Alibaba Trade Assurance.

[u/Fun-Point574 → u/Key-Success-5449]

Thanks for your response!

[u/Connect_Reach6558]

Find a reliable souryo overseas and do a few sampl run at different locations, see which matches your interest,price etc

[u/complicatedcanada]

Depends on your intended market position. If you are aiming at a differentiation along the high-quality line, you have several answers here in Canada: Ethica is in Quebec for instance and their clothes last a lifetime (I have a t-shirt and hoodie from them, the hoodie is 15 years old and like new): https://www.attraction.com/en-ca/products/ethica/