Custom Knitwear Manufacturing for Japanese Brands

A first enquiry from Tokyo often arrives as a spreadsheet before it arrives as a conversation: a full measurement table, a size curve, a colour standard and a note on which sample was signed off last season. That order of things suits us. The sheet is the brief, and the work is to read it as written rather than rounding it into something more familiar.

This page covers the Japanese side of the relationship: grading, how a specification is read once it reaches Dongguan, the calendar and the inspection gate, cartons from Yantian, and the wording on the labels.

Grading begins with the chart you send, not the one we keep

Asian grading is the starting point here, and in practice that means the block is built from your measurements rather than adapted from a US pattern. A Japanese chart typically sits closer at the shoulder, shorter in the body and longer in the sleeve than a US chart at the same nominal size, and those three differences change how a polo hangs more than the fabric choice does.

The size curve is yours to set. Grading increments are followed as written, so a chart that steps one value at the waist and another at the hip is graded that way rather than smoothed into a single rule. Tall, petite and kids’ blocks sit on the same style where a range needs them. Where a label also sells in the United States, the same pattern can be graded a second time to a US set; our page for brands producing to a US chart sets out what changes.

100 pieces per style per colour is the floor, and the size spread sits inside that hundred rather than adding to it. Two colourways of one style is two runs, at two hundred pieces. The 100-piece order page walks through the counting in full.

One hour apart, and a specification read line by line

Tokyo sits one hour ahead of us. The floor runs 08:30 to 20:00 Monday to Friday and 10:00 to 18:00 at the weekend, GMT+8, so a question sent from Tokyo mid-morning lands while the sampling room is still working through the day’s list, and the reply is normally back before the Tokyo office closes. There is no overnight gap to plan around; the two working days overlap almost entirely.

The document side is where the detail lives. A tech pack in PDF or Excel, artwork in AI, EPS or a high-resolution PDF, and a size chart with the measurements you actually sell against. We return the pack marked up with questions before the first sample is cut, in English or in Japanese, and the factory profile covers who reads it at our end.

Once the comments are settled, the approved sample becomes the reference. Later measurement checks are made against that garment rather than against the drawing, which is the only way a fit comment survives the distance between two countries.

Sample, approval, bulk, and the inspection gate between them

The first sample takes 3–7 days, and a wash test happens inside that stage rather than as a separate appointment booked later. Further samples follow until the fit, the hand-feel and the trims are settled.

Bulk runs 15–25 days, counted from the point the pre-production sample is approved rather than from the date the order was placed. That approval is the trigger, and a signed-off sample sitting in a courier’s depot adds its own time to the schedule. The floor turns out between 150,000 and 200,000 pieces a month across four production lines.

Before cartons close, every order goes through 100% inspection: in-line checks as the panels are joined, a final measurement audit against the approved sample, and an AQL 2.5 acceptance level. Bonded and seam-sealed builds start at two hundred pieces per style and colour; the seamless polo manufacturing page explains what that construction involves, and our answer on how long samples take sets out what the first stage covers.

Yantian sailings, and the terms printed on the quote

Quotations are issued on EXW, FOB Shenzhen Yantian or DDP. Japanese buyers most often take FOB and book their own forwarder, and DDP is there where a delivered price is easier to work with internally. Sailings from Yantian into Japanese ports run regularly, with Yokohama, Osaka and Kobe among the pairings we book.

A container load can go entirely on an L/C at sight; anything smaller runs on T/T: an advance that secures the fabric, the rest released against the pre-shipment documents. The trade term on the quote decides which documents travel with the cartons, and the invoice is issued to match it.

What the neck label and the care label will say

Label copy is printed from your artwork, in Japanese, with the size designation, fibre content and care symbols set as your market requires. Care text is a place where translation drifts, so the wording is proofed against the artwork before the labels are ordered rather than after they arrive.

Fibre content is stated in the same terms the fabric is booked in, and where recycled polyester-spandex is used, GRS documentation is arranged to your order. The polo manufacturing page lists the compositions and weights that line is set up for, and this site also runs in Japanese for colleagues who would rather read the specification without a translator in between.

Questions Japanese buyers ask before the first cut

Do you grade to a Japanese size chart, or adapt a US one?

To your chart. The block is developed from the measurements you send, with shoulder, body length and sleeve length set to your numbers rather than adjusted from a US pattern. Where a range also sells in the US or the EU, one style can be graded twice, to two separate charts.

How much of the working day overlaps with Tokyo?

Almost all of it. Our floor runs 08:30 to 20:00 GMT+8 on weekdays and 10:00 to 18:00 at weekends, and Tokyo is one hour ahead, so a message sent in the Japanese morning is read on the same working day and answered before your office closes.

Can the neck label and care label be printed in Japanese?

Yes. Size designation, fibre content and care symbols are printed from the file you send, and the wording is checked against that same file before the order is placed.

What is the smallest run you will take on a new style?

100 pieces per style per colour, with the size spread mixed inside the hundred. Bonded and seam-sealed construction starts at two hundred. A second colourway is a second run at the same floor.

Next step

Send the measurement table, the colour count and the size curve you are planning, and we will come back with a marked-up spec, a sampling date and an itemised quote on EXW, FOB Yantian or DDP terms. Contact SLSPOLO to open the file. Brands that also sell into Australia work to a different seasonal calendar, and our page for Australian brands covers how that shifts the production window.