How to contact a clothing manufacturer (and get a reply)

To get a reply from a clothing manufacturer, send one message that answers the questions a factory asks before it quotes: what the product is, how many pieces per style and colour, what fabric, where it will be sold, and when you need it. Attach a tech pack or a reference garment photo, and end with one clear request. Factories receive far more enquiries than orders, and they answer first the ones they can price. Vague messages go to the bottom of the pile.

What a factory reads first, and what it skips

An enquiry is usually read first by a merchandiser whose job is to decide, quickly, whether it fits the factory and whether it can be costed. In practice, they look for five facts:

Product type. A knit factory does not make tailored jackets. If the product is outside what they make, they stop reading.
Quantity per style and per colour. This decides whether the order fits their minimum. “We want to start small” tells them nothing; “300 pieces per colour, two colours” tells them everything.
Fabric. Composition and weight, such as 100% cotton single jersey at 180 GSM. Fabric is a large part of any garment price, so they cannot quote without it.
Destination market. It decides labelling, testing and, often, which of their audits matter.
Timing. When you want samples, and when you need goods delivered.

What gets skipped: your brand story, your follower count, and long paragraphs about your mission. They are not unimportant, but they do not help a merchandiser decide whether to quote. Put them in one line, or save them for the call.

How to structure the first message

A first message that gets answered usually runs in this order. Write it in plain sentences, not as a list of demands.

Who you are, in one line. Your company name, where you sell, and whether you have produced before.
What you want made. The garment, the fit, and a reference if you have one.
The specification. Fabric composition and GSM, colours, decoration method and position, and sizes.
Quantities. Pieces per style and per colour for the first order, and what you expect if it sells.
Market and shipping term. Where the goods go, and whether you want FOB, CIF or DDP prices. The guide to FOB, CMT and full package explains what each covers.
Timing. When you want the first sample and the target delivery month.
Attachments. Tech pack, sketches, or photographs of a reference garment with the changes marked.
One clear request. For example: a price per piece for the stated quantity, the sample cost, and the minimum per colour.

If you have no tech pack yet, the free tech pack template shows every field a factory expects. Fill in what you know and leave the rest blank: blank fields become sensible questions from the factory, rather than guesses.

Why suppliers ignore messages

Unanswered enquiries tend to fail for the same few reasons. Each one has a simple fix.

What the message does	How it reads to the factory	The fix
Asks “what is your price for t-shirts?”	A price survey, not a buyer	State fabric, weight, decoration and quantity
Gives no quantity	Probably too small to be worth costing	Give pieces per style and per colour
Asks for free samples before anything else	Someone collecting free garments	Ask what samples cost and how they are credited
Sent as a copy to twenty factories at once	Low chance of winning, so low priority	Address each factory by name, with one relevant detail
Product outside the factory’s range	A mismatch	Check what they make before you write
Wants everything in two weeks	Unrealistic, so risky	Give a target month and ask what is possible
Twenty questions and no specification	Hard work before any sign of an order	Specification first, a few questions after

The minimum is often the deal-breaker. If your quantity is small, say so up front and ask how they handle it, rather than hiding it until the quote. A mismatch is easy to avoid in Bangladesh: the BGMEA member search lets you filter member factories by product type, such as knit, woven or sweater, before you write. The guide to minimum order quantities explains why minimums exist and how they are set.

Ten questions to ask, and what a good answer sounds like

Once a factory replies, these questions separate the capable from the merely willing. A good answer is specific, and often comes with a question back to you.

Which factory will make my order, and where is it? A good answer names the unit and its address. A buying house should name the partner factory in writing before production.
What do you mostly make now? Good: product types and fabrics that match yours. Worrying: “everything”.
What is the minimum per style and per colour, and what happens below it? Good: a number, plus an honest alternative such as a surcharge or a different route.
What does the sample cost, how many rounds are included, and is it credited against bulk? Good: a figure per round, stated in writing.
Where does the fabric come from, and how long does it take to arrive? Good: the mill or the source, local or imported, with a realistic time.
Which audits and certificates does the factory hold? Good: names, numbers and expiry dates you can check.
How do you check quality during production? Good: inline checks, a final inspection to an AQL level, and photographs.
What is included in the price? Good: an itemised quote showing the shipping term, trims, packing and testing.
Who is my day-to-day contact, and how fast do you reply? Good: one named person and a stated reply time.
What happens if the goods fail inspection? Good: rework or replacement at their cost, before shipment, and the right to re-inspect.

Watch how questions come back to you. A factory that asks about your measurement tolerances, your care label or your target market before quoting is thinking about your order, not just about winning it.

NDAs and protecting your design

Many founders want a non-disclosure agreement signed before they share a design. The UK Intellectual Property Office publishes example one-way and mutual NDAs, and it is reasonable to ask for one. Be realistic about what it does. An NDA is only as strong as your ability to enforce it in the factory’s country, and many factories will not sign one before seeing any detail of the enquiry. If you do use one, keep it short and mutual, name the documents it covers, and send it with a brief description of the product so the factory can judge whether the enquiry is worth the paperwork.

Practical protection comes from three habits:

Share in stages. Send a description and quantities first, and the full tech pack only once a factory has replied seriously.
Know your rights at home. In the UK, design right protects a garment’s shape and configuration automatically, and supplementary unregistered design right protects its appearance for three years from disclosure. Registration gives longer, stronger protection.
Keep dated records of every file you send and who you sent it to.

Most garment designs are not novel enough for an NDA to matter. Your fit, your fabric choices and your brand are harder to copy than a sketch.

Time zones and follow-up

Bangladesh is on Bangladesh Standard Time, six hours ahead of UTC, and has had no daylight saving since 2009. The gap to your office therefore changes when your own clocks change.

Your city	Dhaka is ahead by (your winter)	Dhaka is ahead by (your summer)	Best time to send
London	6 hours	5 hours	Your morning, which is Dhaka’s afternoon
Berlin, Paris, Madrid	5 hours	4 hours	Your morning
New York	11 hours	10 hours	Your evening, read at the start of Dhaka’s day
Los Angeles	14 hours	13 hours	Your afternoon
Sydney	Dhaka is 4 hours behind	Dhaka is 5 hours behind	Your afternoon

For follow-up, allow two working days, then send one short reminder that repeats the key facts. CBI, the Dutch government’s centre for promoting imports from developing countries, advises garment exporters to reply to a buyer within 24 hours, even if only to confirm receipt. A supplier that takes a week to answer an enquiry will rarely be faster once your order is in production. We reply within one working day.

Email, WhatsApp or a call?

Use email, or a website form, for the first message. It keeps attachments together, creates a record, and lets the merchandiser forward your enquiry to costing. Messaging apps are useful once a conversation has started, for quick questions and photographs of samples. Keep decisions such as prices, quantities and approvals in writing by email, even if you agreed them on a call. Book a video call once you have a quote, so you can walk through the specification and, if possible, see the production floor.

If you are still choosing who to contact, the guide to finding a manufacturer in Bangladesh covers the directories and associations where factories are listed.

What to do next

Contacting factories one by one works, but it takes time: each one needs its own message, its own follow-up and its own comparison of quotes that are rarely laid out the same way. A buying house does that sorting for you. It sends one specification to factories it already knows, compares like with like, and names the factory it recommends before you commit. The trade-off is a service margin inside the price, and you should always be told which factory is making your goods. Our page on how we work sets out each step, from the first enquiry to the named factory, inspection and shipment.

Write your first message using the order above, attach whatever you have, and send it to a short list of factories that make your product. If you would like us to be one of them, the quote request form asks for exactly the facts in this article, so nothing gets lost.

Questions buyers ask.

How do I email a clothing manufacturer?

Keep it to one screen and lead with the facts a factory needs to quote. Use a subject line that states the product and quantity, for example “Quote request: heavyweight hoodie, 2 colours, 300 pieces per colour”. Open with one line about your company and market. Then give the garment, fabric composition and weight, colours, decoration, sizes, quantity per style and per colour, the shipping term you want quoted, and your target delivery month. Attach a tech pack, or photographs of a reference garment with your changes marked. Close with one clear request, such as a price per piece, the sample cost and the minimum per colour. Address the factory by name and mention why you chose it. Avoid asking for free samples in the first message, and do not send the same email to twenty suppliers in one copy line, because it reads as a price survey.

What should I ask a clothing manufacturer before ordering?

Ask questions whose answers you can check. Which factory will make the order, at what address, and can you see it or send an inspector? What is the minimum per style and per colour, and what happens below it? What does a sample cost, how many rounds are included, and is the charge credited against bulk? Where does the fabric come from? Which audits and certificates does the factory hold, with numbers and expiry dates? How is quality checked during production and before shipment, and to what AQL level? What exactly is included in the price and the shipping term? Who is your day-to-day contact? What happens if the goods fail inspection? Write the answers into the purchase order, because a promise made on a call is hard to enforce once the goods are on a ship. Specific answers are a good sign; vague ones are a reason to keep looking.

Why won’t clothing manufacturers reply to me?

Usually because the message could not be priced or did not fit the factory. The common causes are a missing quantity, a quantity far below the factory’s minimum, no fabric or weight, a product the factory does not make, or an email that reads like a price survey sent to many suppliers at once. Timing matters too: factories are slower to answer new enquiries in their busiest months and around major holidays. Fix the message before you chase. State the product, fabric and weight, quantity per style and per colour, market and target month, and attach a tech pack or reference photographs. If your quantity is small, say so and ask how they handle it. Then follow up once, two working days later, with a short reminder. If there is still no answer, the factory is probably the wrong fit, and a better-matched one will reply.

Sources

Checked 22 September 2026. Rules and figures change, so confirm anything that affects your pricing.