Apparel Sourcing Statistics (2026): 45+ Data Points on China Plus One, Import-Share Shifts, and the Real Cost of Diversifying for Small Brands

Key Takeaways

1. 47.4% of leading US fashion companies plan to source from fewer suppliers or vendors over the next two years, up from 17.6% in 2025 (plan, not outcome) (USFIA / University of Delaware, T1).
2. 73% of USFIA respondents still sourced from China in 2026, down from 100% in 2025: China is shrinking in big-brand portfolios, not leaving them (USFIA / University of Delaware, T1).
3. 50.6% of US apparel import value came from the top five non-China suppliers (Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Cambodia) in 2025, a record high: plus-one mostly means Asia (OTEXA (US Department of Commerce), T1).
4. 15.7% Western Hemisphere share of US apparel imports in April 2026, versus 15.8% a year earlier: nearshoring has not moved the trade data (OTEXA (US Department of Commerce), T1).
5. 75% vs 20% of executives in Kearney's 2026 survey switched sourcing from China to other low-cost countries, versus those who looked at domestic manufacturing (all industries) (Kearney, T1).
6. EUR 26.58B EU apparel imports from China in 2025 (+1.17%), with volume up 11.64% as unit prices fell 9.38%: China defends Europe on price (Eurostat, T1).
7. US$27.73B China's yarn and fabric exports to ASEAN in 2025 (+0.7%), while its apparel exports to the region fell 19.6% (China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Textiles (CCCT), China Customs (GACC) data, T1).
8. US$11.4B Cambodia's 2025 garment exports, up 16.5%, the fastest-growing major plus-one garment base in this dataset (Cambodia Ministry of Commerce, T1).
9. 27,994 apparel, footwear and textile import lines stopped under UFLPA from June 2022 to November 2025, the most of any industry by count (apparel, footwear and textiles only; CBP line-level counts, not comparable with pre-2026 entry counts) (US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), T1).
10. +11.34% vs +0.70% growth in Vietnam's fibre and yarn exports versus its apparel exports, January-July 2026: Vietnam is building upstream capacity faster than garment capacity (Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), T1).

1. The 2026 Sourcing Map: Who Supplies US and EU Apparel Now

Vietnam is now the default US apparel supplier, with 21.5% of 2025 import value and 22.2% in January-May 2026 (OTEXA, 2025 full year; OTEXA, January-May 2026, a different period). China’s fall is steeper in dollars than in pieces: its US apparel import value dropped 35.6% in 2025 while quantity fell 27.2% (OTEXA, 2025 vs 2024), so it still ships 27.3% of the pieces for 13.7% of the value. For a small brand, that gap says more than the headline share. China still ships a far larger share of US apparel pieces than of value.

Europe is a different map. In 2025 China grew its EU apparel volume 11.64% as its unit prices fell 9.38% (Eurostat). When EU apparel imports shrank 9.70% in January-June 2026, Vietnam was the only major supplier to grow, by 0.36% (Eurostat, January-June 2026).

Tariff costs per shipment sit in our separate breakdown of what China apparel tariffs actually cost small brands. This page tracks where the orders went.

China supplies a far larger share of US apparel pieces than of value: 27.3% of the pieces but only 13.7% of the value.

US figures are OTEXA apparel-only customs values. The 2025 full-year table and the January-May 2026 shares are different periods, not one series. EU figures are Eurostat values in euros; some relays print them with a dollar sign.

2. What China Plus One Means Now: Fewer Vendors, Mostly Inside Asia

Plus-one used to mean adding countries. Among USFIA’s 2026 respondents, 47.4% plan to cut their supplier count, and only 21.1% plan to source from more countries, down from 58.8% a year earlier (USFIA). In OTEXA’s 2025 data, the top five suppliers outside China, all in Asia, shipped a record 50.6% of US apparel import value (OTEXA data analysed by Dr. Sheng Lu). The diversification has largely happened, and it happened inside Asia.

Kearney’s 2026 executive survey, which covers all industries, points the same way: 75% of executives switched sourcing from China to other low-cost countries and regions, and 20% looked at domestic manufacturing (Kearney 2026 Reshoring Index). Within apparel, China’s role is shrinking: 73% of USFIA respondents still source there, and 12% put more than 30% of their apparel there (USFIA 2026 Benchmarking Study).

The practical signal for a small brand is that the biggest buyers plan to consolidate onto fewer suppliers. A plus-one plan that adds suppliers faster than you can audit them runs against how the largest buyers now manage risk. For what one factory-direct relationship looks like in practice, see how we work with small brands, from sample to bulk.

More big US fashion brands now plan to consolidate onto fewer suppliers than to add new sourcing countries.

USFIA surveys 30 leading US fashion companies, about 80% with over 1,000 employees, so these are big-brand behaviours. Kearney, QIMA and McKinsey samples cover all industries, not apparel only. Plans through 2027 and nearshoring plans are intentions, not outcomes.

3. Where the New Capacity Is Going: Cambodia Up, Bangladesh and India Under Pressure

Cambodia’s garment exports rose 16.5% in 2025, to US$11.4B (Cambodia Ministry of Commerce). US buyers’ QIMA inspection demand there, a measure across all consumer goods rather than trade value, rose 26% in Q1 2026 (QIMA Q2 2026 Barometer). Bangladesh went backwards: its garment exports slipped 1.64% in fiscal 2025-26 (EPB), and its share of EU apparel imports fell to 21.5% in January-May 2026 (Eurostat). India’s apparel exports to the US, its largest market, fell 9.49% in fiscal 2025-26 (AEPC).

Shifts can also reverse. On QIMA’s Q2 2026 service-volume measure, across all consumer goods, China took 35% of North American clients’ volumes, a six-quarter high, as fuel shortages strained South and Southeast Asian factories (QIMA Q3 2026 Barometer). That reading uses a different base from QIMA’s Q1 US-sourcing share, so the two are not one trend. The six-quarter high on its own shows how quickly orders can swing back to China when a plus-one base hits a supply shock.

It is one reason we run our own garment factory in Yangon, Myanmar alongside our base in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, so our production does not depend on one location.

When fuel shortages hit South and Southeast Asian factories, China’s share of QIMA’s North American service volumes rose to a six-quarter high.

Periods differ by country: Bangladesh and Pakistan report July-June fiscal years, India April-March, Cambodia calendar 2025. QIMA figures measure inspection and audit demand across all consumer goods, not trade value, and the Q1 and Q2 China shares use different bases. The Bangladesh plus Vietnam share of world clothing exports is 2023 data, the latest verified figure.

4. Nearshoring in Numbers: More Talk Than Trade

Nearshoring is the most discussed part of plus-one and the least visible in customs data. The Western Hemisphere held 15.7% of US apparel imports in April 2026, against 15.8% in April 2025, while Asia’s share fell to 70.2% (OTEXA data analysed by FASH455). In 2025, US apparel imports from CAFTA-DR fell 6.68% by value, and Mexico shipped 7.64% more units for 0.83% less value (OTEXA). Kearney’s reshoring index, which covers all manufacturing, improved to -86 but stayed negative (Kearney 2026 Reshoring Index).

Europe’s near-shore suppliers are not winning either. Turkey was the only major EU apparel supplier to shrink in 2025, down 10.73% (Eurostat). In QIMA’s inspection data for Western European brands, across all consumer goods, nearshoring and reshoring reached a record 14% of EU sourcing in 2025 (QIMA Q1 2026 Barometer). QIMA’s Q2 2026 service-volume data is a separate measure that cannot be read against that 14%: on it, nearshoring and reshoring were 7% for North America and 11% for the EU, both below 2025 averages (QIMA Q3 2026 Barometer).

In our experience, factories closer to the US and EU suit high-volume basics better than small multi-colour runs, which need a wide fabric range and low per-colour minimums.

Nearshoring fills strategy decks but has barely moved the US trade data.

QIMA figures measure inspection demand across all consumer goods, not shipment value. OTEXA figures are apparel only. Morocco’s figure covers textiles and clothing combined and cannot be compared with EU apparel-only totals. Kearney’s April 2026 press release gives the 2025 index as -91; the full report page gives -86.

5. The Hidden Dependency: China’s Yarn and Fabric Inside Plus-One Garments

A garment labelled Made in Vietnam or Made in Cambodia often starts as Chinese yarn or fabric. China’s yarn and fabric exports to ASEAN rose 0.7% in 2025, to US$27.73B, while its apparel exports to the region fell 19.6% (CCCT analysis of China customs data). China is selling Southeast Asia fewer garments and more of the material to make them. The same split shows in its worldwide totals for 2025: textiles up 0.5%, garments down 5% (CCCT).

Vietnam is building upstream capacity. In preliminary January-July 2026 data, its fibre and yarn exports grew 11.34% and fabric 9.57%, against 0.70% for apparel (VITAS, via VietnamPlus). VITAS estimated in late 2025 that its localization rate, the share of raw materials and inputs produced in Vietnam, was roughly 52% (VITAS, via VnEconomy). OECD’s TiVA database puts foreign value added in Vietnam’s apparel exports at 44%, but that is 2022 data on a different measure, value added, so it neither contradicts nor updates the VITAS input-sourcing estimate.

For small brands this has two consequences. Plus-one lead times often include fabric shipped from China, and forced-labour checks follow the fibre, not the label. Our supply chain resilience data for small brands covers how to plan around both.

China is selling Southeast Asia fewer garments and more of the fabric to make them.

CCCT figures are its analysis of China customs (GACC) data; the Vietnam and Cambodia lines combine textiles and apparel. OECD TiVA lags about three years, so 2022 is the latest year available. VITAS’s 52% is an estimate from its November 2025 briefing, and the January-July 2026 Vietnam figures are preliminary. Q1 2026 China readings are distorted by Chinese New Year timing and a high 2025 base, so the full-year 2025 row is the steadier anchor.

6. The Price of Diversifying: Compliance, Supplier Breadth and Why Small Brands Can’t Copy Big Ones

Every new country adds a compliance file. Apparel, footwear and textiles led all industries by count, with 27,994 import lines stopped under UFLPA from June 2022 to November 2025, on CBP’s revised line-level count (CBP). Apparel enforcement is not only about China-made goods: in 2023, UFLPA-reviewed apparel, footwear and textile shipments from Vietnam were worth US$19.14M, against US$17.70M from China (CBP dashboard, reported by Just Style).

All-sector UFLPA figures, where electronics make up most of the value stopped, are a separate picture and are not apparel rankings. Across all sectors, Vietnam had the highest value of shipments under UFLPA review from October 2023 to August 2025, at US$560M (CBP data cited by Hogan Lovells). On a separate all-sector measure, China was the country of origin for 41% of 2024 detentions (CBP data analysed by Miller & Chevalier).

About 31% of USFIA respondents are already sourcing from fewer vendors or slowing new-supplier approvals because of UFLPA (USFIA). Large brands spread sourcing across many countries: about 65% of respondents with over 1,000 employees source from 10 or more. A brand ordering a few hundred pieces per colour cannot run audits across that many countries, and the 2026 survey’s pessimism sits mostly with companies under 1,000 employees.

So the small-brand decision is narrower than China versus plus-one. Add a second country when a product line sells at volumes that justify its own audit trail. Keep development, short runs and fabric-heavy lines with one traceable factory-direct partner, wherever that partner is based. Our China vs Vietnam vs Bangladesh MOQ, cost and lead-time comparison puts numbers on that choice.

Every country you add is another forced-labour audit trail you have to prove.

UFLPA enforcement: apparel, footwear and textiles only

UFLPA counts are not comparable across dashboard versions: in 2026 CBP redefined a shipment from one customs entry to one import line, so the 27,994 line-level apparel figure cannot be set against the 771 entry-level apparel detentions for 2024. Shipment values were not affected. The 771 figure comes from Miller & Chevalier’s analysis of CBP’s dashboard, and the 2023 apparel values by origin, from Just Style’s reading of the pre-2026 dashboard, are the only apparel-specific origin figures verified.

UFLPA enforcement: all sectors, not apparel

Every row in this table covers all sectors, where electronics make up most of the value stopped. The Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand value ranking, Vietnam’s US$560M and China’s 41% share of detentions are not apparel origin rankings. The US$560M and 41% figures come from law-firm analyses (Hogan Lovells, Miller & Chevalier) of CBP’s dashboard.

Supplier breadth and sentiment among US fashion companies

USFIA surveyed 30 leading US fashion companies, about 80% with over 1,000 employees, in April-June 2026, so these are big-brand behaviours. The supplier-breadth row covers respondents with over 1,000 employees only.

NewWay’s own terms (first-party, not statistics): 100 pieces per colour on stock fabric for dresses, sportswear and plus-size; 300 pieces per colour for knitwear on stock yarn; 1,000 pieces for custom-dyed fabric. Production is based in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, with our own factories in Zhoukou, Henan and Yangon, Myanmar. These are one factory’s terms, not an industry benchmark.

Apparel Sourcing by the Numbers: 18 Key Data Points (2026)

Methodology and Sources

We built this page from 118 candidate figures gathered in five research batches and checked one by one against fetched primary pages, PDFs or official data releases on 14 September 2026. Figures that could not be seen on a primary page, that were superseded by fresher data, or that duplicated another figure were removed, and every value shown uses the corrected figure recorded at verification rather than the number first found in search results.

Trade data come from OTEXA (US), Eurostat (EU), China customs data analysed by CCCT, and national export bodies in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan; survey data come from USFIA, Kearney, QIMA and McKinsey. Each row keeps its scope (apparel only versus textiles and apparel, euros versus dollars, calendar versus fiscal year, large companies only, all industries). Figures with different scopes are never chained together, and plans, targets and estimates are flagged as projections.

Tier breakdown: 47 distinct data points from 15 source organisations, counted once each in the themed-section tables; the 10 takeaways, 18 summary-table rows, intro and chart repeat those same figures. All 47 are Tier 1, with no Tier 2 or Tier 3 figures. Each row names the organisation that measured the figure (source) and the document that carries it (report), including where a news outlet, university analysis or law firm relays that organisation’s data. NewWay’s minimums and factory locations appear only as labelled first-party notes, never as statistics.

Recency notes

• Data older than 2023: the OECD TiVA foreign value-added shares (Section 5) describe 2022. They were published in October 2025 and are the most recent available, because TiVA lags about three years.
• The Bangladesh plus Vietnam share of world clothing exports (13.3%, Section 3) is 2023 data, published in 2024. A 2025 WTO figure for Bangladesh was seen only in a news digest and not on a WTO page, so it is not used.
• China’s shares of world textile (43.3%) and clothing (29.6%) exports are 2024 data published in October 2025; no WTO product-share update with 2025 data had been published as of September 2026.
• VITAS never published a final 2025 actual for Vietnam’s textile and garment exports. Its November 2025 figures were forecasts and a Ministry of Industry and Trade page still described 2025 as an estimate in September 2026, so this page uses VITAS’s January-July 2026 preliminary data and flags the 52% localization rate as a 2025 estimate.
• UFLPA shipment counts before and after CBP’s 2026 counting change are not comparable. The revised dashboard counts one import line as a shipment instead of one customs entry, so the 27,994 apparel lines stopped (to November 2025) cannot be compared with the 578 and 771 entry-level apparel detentions for 2023 and 2024. Values were not affected. The 2023-2024 figures come from a January 2025 analysis of the pre-revision dashboard.
• The apparel UFLPA values by origin (Vietnam US$19.14M vs China US$17.70M, Section 6) are 2023 data from the pre-2026 dashboard, reported in January 2024; no newer apparel-specific origin breakdown was verified. China’s 41% share of detentions and the 428-a-month rate are all-sector 2024 figures from a January 2025 analysis. The Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand value ranking is all-sector and is not an apparel origin ranking.
• The USFIA 2026 Benchmarking Study was fielded April-June 2026 among 30 leading US fashion companies, about 80% with over 1,000 employees; its plans through 2027 are intentions and are flagged as projections.
• McKinsey’s supply chain risk pulse (100 companies, all industries) was published in December 2025; the nearshoring and dual-sourcing responses are plans or in-progress actions and are flagged as projections.
• Partial-year and single-month periods are labelled on every row: OTEXA January-May 2026 shares, OTEXA April 2026 regional shares, Eurostat January-May and January-June 2026, QIMA Q1 and Q2 2026 (including the Q2 2026 nearshoring shares), VITAS January-July 2026 (preliminary), CCCT Q1 2026, WTO January-November 2025. Bangladesh and Pakistan use July-June fiscal years and India April-March; none of these are compared with calendar-year figures.
• QIMA’s Q1 2026 China share (27% of US sourcing) and Q2 2026 share (35% of North American service volumes) use different bases and are not a like-for-like series. QIMA figures measure inspection and audit demand across all consumer goods, not trade value.
• Kearney published two readings of its 2025 Reshoring Index: -91 in the April 2026 press release and -86 on the full report page. This page uses the report page.
• Eurostat publishes in euros. Some relays print euro values with a dollar sign; all EU values here are shown in EUR.

Last updated: September 2026. We update this page quarterly.