Imports Oriental Blog

Danny Coyle

Our business focuses on Textiles and Garments.  We started in jewelry, but now we only specialize garments and textiles. For about 5 years we focused on woven garments, but in the last year we’ve shifted to knitwear items.  The difference between our two lines of business is much greater than I expected.

Our woven apparel business is product-based.  We have a few core products with item codes; a customer can tell us the code # they want, and buy that product with minimal customized adaptations.

Knit apparel is a totally different story. It’s all about service and details. The customer’s need to get a long list of details exactly correct makes it hard for overseas buyers to source knitwear from China without going to a large, established, expensive factory with large minimum requirements..

A long list of details

A typical knitwear order with 5-10 styles could have as many as 1,000 individual details to receive from the buyer and then execute and monitor.  These details include:

• garment measurements (20-30 per style)
• garment style and construction details (yarn tension, knitting style, design elements)
• manufacturing details (requirements for washing, drying, and ironing)
• yarn details (color, composition, handfeel)
• accessories

Then there are all the other details involved in international trade deals, such as:

• Documents required by the customer
• Labeling
• Packaging
• Payment terms
• Shipping

Every one of these details has the potential to destroy an entire project.  While this may also be the case in many other industries, knitwear manufacturing includes a variety of subjective criteria that that cannot be quantified – suitability is up to the opinion of the buyer.  Handfeel variations, color variations, and even measurement tolerances can be acceptable to one buyer, and unacceptable to another.

Managing the varied and subtle details is a very complex undertaking. It is impossible to cover all your bases from a distance. This is where we come in, with a blend of foreign expertise and hometown advantage.

Where service comes in

Our job is to fully understand all aspects of the project, effectively communicate all requirements to the relevant parties, then monitor each stage of the process to return finished products in line with customer expectations. In short, we oversee and manage the entire project, from start to finish.

We take the detailed instructions we receive from our customers and explain them to all the suppliers involved – dyeing factories, knitting factories, after care providers, etc. We frequently work with smaller factories as they give the time and attention to detail that is required for smaller orders, without the higher costs associated with large factories.

The communication hub we provide creates benefit on all sides. Our foreign staff walk customers through the details of each style with greater effectiveness than a small factory owner could. Our local staff communicate with small factories more clearly than a foreign buyer could.

By using our services, our customers leverage the benefits of boutique factories while keeping their costs down.