A 100-Piece Order, Start to Finish

One hundred pieces per style and colour is the smallest run our lines will take. For most brands it is also the first order they place with us, so the useful question is not whether 100 is low enough. It is what those 100 pieces actually buy, in what order things happen, and what sits outside them.

This page is the operational version. For the reasoning behind the number, read what makes a realistic MOQ for custom clothing. For the definition and the full table of minimums, see our answer on the SLSPOLO minimum order quantity. What follows is the run itself: the count, the set-up work, where the calendar goes, and the five things that make a quotation answerable.

How the 100 pieces are counted

The minimum is counted per style and per colour, not per order. A style in each colourway is cut, sewn and finished as its own run with its own set-up, so each colourway carries its own hundred. This one rule decides most first orders, and it is the thing buyers most often miss when they compare quotes side by side.

What you order	Separate minimums	Pieces in total
1 style, 1 colour	1	100
1 style, 2 colours	2	200
2 styles, 1 colour	2	200
1 style, 1 colour, bonded or seam-sealed	1	200
1 style, 3 colours, bonded or seam-sealed	3	600

Inside one minimum the size spread is yours to set. S to XL at 20 pieces each is one order of 100; so is a run weighted towards M and L, if that is what your sales history says. Mixed sizes are normal and do not change the count. Mixed colours do.

Bonded and seam-sealed garments start at 200 per style, per colour. Those seams are joined with adhesive film under heat and pressure instead of stitching, and the film and the fabric have to be validated as a matched pair before the run, so there is materially more set-up to absorb. Our bonded line runs six press stations, four ultrasonic welders and one laser cutter, and that equipment only becomes productive once a run is long enough to fill it.

What happens before the first panel is cut

Four pieces of work happen before bulk, and none of them shrink because the order is small. This is the reason a floor exists at all, and it is worth seeing item by item, because it is what the unit price is paying for.

• Pattern, grading and marker. The pattern is developed or adjusted to your size chart and graded across your size set, and a cutting marker is laid for the fabric width. This cost is fixed by the number of sizes, not the number of pieces.
• Fabric and colour. Fabric is booked to the composition and GSM you name and dyed to a colour standard you approve. A knit style at 100 pieces is enough yardage to dye and shade-match as one lot, which is why the shade holds across the run.
• The first sample. Made in our own pattern room in 3–7 days, with further rounds until the sample is approved. The approved sample then becomes the reference the bulk is measured against.
• Line set-up. Thread, needle size, tension and stitch length are set for that specific fabric. A line set up for a midweight fleece cannot move to a lightweight jersey mid-run without stopping to reset.

Read together, these explain why the price per piece at 100 is higher than at 1,000 without anyone adding a fee: the same fixed work is spread over ten times fewer units. It is a different point on the same cost curve, not a different product.

Where the calendar goes

Two durations in the process are fixed. Everything else moves with the specification, and with how quickly decisions come back.

1. 3–7 days for the first sample. This clock starts once the pattern work is done, so a specification that arrives complete moves faster than one that arrives in instalments.
2. 15–25 days for bulk, counted from sample approval rather than from the order date. Approval is the trigger. A sample that sits in a parcel for a week is a week added to the schedule, and nothing on our side can recover it.
3. Inspection sits inside that window. 100% inspection, in-line checks at every stage and a final check against the graded spec, accepted to AQL 2.5, followed by folding, bagging and carton marking to your requirement — before the cartons are closed, not after.

What the 100 pieces do not cover

Two things sit outside the garment minimum, and both are the kind of surprise that surfaces after a budget has already been approved.

Trims. Woven labels, hangtags, jacquard patches and silicone badges are produced to their own supplier minimums, counted per design and separate from garments. They are not added on top of the garment minimum — an order of 100 pieces still starts at 100 pieces — but they arrive in the supplier’s quantity, not in yours.

Trim	Supplier minimum	Counted as
Woven labels	1,000 pieces	Per design
Hangtags	1,000 pieces	Per design
Jacquard patches	300 pieces	Per design
Silicone badges	300 pieces	Per design

A 100-piece run of one polo uses 100 neck labels. The label minimum is 1,000, so the label order arrives at ten times the garment quantity. That is a property of how labels are made rather than a surcharge, and it is identical whether the garment order is 100 pieces or 900.

Samples. Samples are made and approved before bulk begins, and the bulk quantity is ordered after approval, so the sample itself is not part of the 100.

Commercial terms sit outside it as well. We quote EXW, FOB Shenzhen Yantian or DDP, on a T/T deposit with the balance before shipment, or L/C at sight for full-container orders.

What to send, and what comes back

An incomplete specification is the main reason a first quote takes longer than it should. Five things make a quotation answerable in one pass:

1. Something to work from — a tech pack, a reference sample, a competitor’s piece, or a sketch. Whichever you have is enough to start.
2. A size chart, even a rough one. It decides grading, which is the single specification that most affects both cost and fit.
3. A colour standard — a Pantone reference, or a physical swatch if the colour has to match something that already exists.
4. Fabric composition and weight in GSM. Our jersey runs 140–260 GSM and our fleece 240–500 GSM. On the polo line, piqué sits at 200–260 GSM, jersey at 180–220 and interlock at 220–280.
5. Quantity per colour, and the size spread you have in mind. A flat run and a weighted run at the same total are different orders to cut.

What comes back is an itemised quote — fabric, trims and making-up shown separately rather than as one number — together with a sampling date. The polo, hoodie and T-shirt manufacturing pages show the fabric and construction ranges each line is set up for.

When 100 is the right number, and when it is not

It fits four situations well: a first drop for a new brand, a market test on a style, a colour extension on something that already sells, and a team or event order where the quantity is known in advance.

It does not fit these three, and it is cheaper to know that before the quote than after it:

• Two or three colourways at once. That is 200 or 300 pieces, not an exception to 100. Planning for it from the start costs less than asking for it later.
• A bonded or seam-sealed programme. The floor is 200 per style, per colour, and the film-and-fabric validation is what sets it.
• A style that needs more than one fabric. A second fabric is a second set-up, normally cut as a separate style with its own minimum.

Questions buyers ask before a first order

Is the 100 pieces per style, or per order?

Per style and per colour. Two styles in one colourway is 200 pieces; one style in two colourways is also 200 pieces. The count follows the number of separate runs, not the number of cartons.

What happens if I add a second colourway later?

It runs as its own minimum of 100 pieces. The pattern, the grading and the approved sample already exist by then, so the repeat is shorter than the first round was.

How long is it from enquiry to shipment?

Bulk is 15–25 days after sample approval, and the first sample takes 3–7 days. On top of that sits the time it takes to read and approve the sample, which is the part of the schedule we do not control.

Are trims included in the 100?

No. Trims are counted separately and their minimums belong to the suppliers: 1,000 for woven labels and hangtags, 300 for jacquard patches and silicone badges. They do not raise the garment minimum.

Can I see the order before it ships?

Every order runs 100% inspection in-line and final, accepted to AQL 2.5, with the final check against the graded spec before packing. Third-party lab testing is available on request from a nominated laboratory in mainland China.

Next step

Send the style, the colour count and the size spread you are planning, and we will confirm whether it sits at 100 pieces or at 200 for a bonded build, with an itemised quote and a sampling date attached. Contact SLSPOLO to start, or read how the bonded and seam-sealed polo is built if that is the construction you need.