Minimum order quantity in Bangladesh: what a 100-piece run really involves

Nearly every brand starting out in Bangladesh hits the same wall: the factory quotes a minimum order quantity far above what you want to buy. This guide explains where minimums come from, what a genuinely small run looks like, and how we handle small orders through our named partner factory.

Why factories set minimums

A minimum order quantity is not a sales tactic. It comes from four real constraints:

• Fabric. Mills knit and dye in batches. A custom colour means a dye lot, and dye lots have their own minimums, usually far more fabric than a 100-piece style needs.
• Pattern and grading. Pattern making, grading across sizes and a fit sample cost the same whether you make 100 pieces or 10,000.
• Line changeover. A sewing line has to be re-set for a new style: new machines, folders and a trained sequence. Short runs mean more downtime per garment.
• Trims and packaging. Woven labels, hang tags, zips and cartons all have supplier minimums.

This is why large export factories, the ones making tens of thousands of pieces a week, rarely accept a few hundred pieces. It is not worth stopping a line for.

What counts as low MOQ, honestly

Watch the wording. Suppliers advertising 25 or 50 pieces are usually printing or embroidering onto ready-made blanks. That is a real service, and it is fast, but you are choosing from someone else's garment: their fit, their fabric, their labels.

Cut-and-sew production from your own pattern, with your fabric, fit and labels, realistically starts around 100 pieces per style and colour. Below that, the set-up cost per garment makes the price hard to justify.

How we handle small orders

Our own partner factories are set up for larger runs, so we do not pretend to take 100-piece orders on our own lines. Instead we place them with our named production partner, Collective Studio Ltd., a knitwear factory in Narayanganj established in 2019 that shares our standards of work and our commitment to sustainable manufacturing. Its published terms:

• From 100 pieces per style, per colour, cut and sewn from your pattern rather than printed onto blanks.
• Roughly 40–50 days door to door from an approved sample, delivered DDP.
• GOTS-certified organic options under certificate RSC 9687, which you can check in the public GOTS database.
• Knit categories: t-shirts, polos, hoodies, sweatshirts, joggers, activewear, loungewear and kidswear.

We manage the order the same way we manage any other: tech pack, sampling, fabric approvals, inline and final inspection, and shipping documents. You always know which factory is making your goods. Collective Studio Ltd. is a separate company and our named partner for small quantities.

Five ways to keep a small order affordable

• Use stock fabric in colours the mill already holds, instead of a custom dye lot.
• Cut the colour count. The minimum applies per colour, so three colours means three times the commitment.
• Start from proven blocks rather than developing a new fit from scratch.
• Keep the size range tight for the first run, then extend it once you know what sells.
• Simplify decoration. One print position or one embroidery keeps set-up costs down.

What to expect on price

A 100-piece run costs more per garment than a 1,000-piece run of the same style, because sampling, set-up and minimum trim buys are spread over fewer pieces. See what makes up a garment price to understand which choices move the number most.

When you outgrow small runs

Once a style sells and you reorder in thousands, it usually makes sense to move it to a larger factory with its own knitting and dyeing. That is what we do every day: match each style to the factory that suits its quantity and construction. See how small orders work with us, or send your tech pack.