How to Source Knitwear from China: The Complete Technical Guide for Small Brands

If you are a small fashion brand looking to produce sweaters, cardigans, or knit tops, China's Zhejiang province is where most of the world's knitwear comes from. We have been manufacturing knitwear here for over 30 years, and in that time we have seen hundreds of brands try to navigate this process for the first time. Most of the guides online are written by sourcing agents or directories. This one is written from inside the factory.

Here is what you actually need to know before placing your first knitwear order.

Why Zhejiang Is the Center of Global Knitwear Production

Zhejiang province, particularly the cities of Tongxiang, Haining, and Ningbo, produces an estimated 60% of the world's knitwear exports. The reason is structural: the entire supply chain is concentrated within a two-hour radius. Yarn spinners, dye houses, knitting mills, finishing facilities, and export logistics all sit next to each other. This density reduces lead times and gives manufacturers real-time access to the latest materials.

When you source knitwear from Zhejiang, you are not just working with a factory. You are tapping into an ecosystem where your manufacturer can visit a yarn market in the morning, source a new blend by lunch, and have a test swatch on the machine by evening. That speed and proximity simply does not exist in other knitwear-producing regions at the same scale. For a detailed look at how MOQ works specifically for knitwear, see our guide on negotiating MOQ with a China clothing factory.

Understanding Yarn: The Decision That Shapes Everything

The single most important decision in knitwear production is yarn selection. It determines your cost, your hand feel, your durability, and your MOQ. Most first-time buyers focus on style and color. Experienced buyers start with yarn.

Yarn Count and Weight

Yarn count is expressed as Nm (metric count) or Ne (English count). A higher number means a finer yarn. For most commercial knitwear:

Your yarn count directly impacts gauge (how many stitches per inch), which in turn determines which knitting machines can produce your garment. A factory with 3-gauge and 12-gauge machines covers most commercial needs, but if your design requires 18-gauge fine knitting, not every mill can do it.

Fiber Composition

The most common blends we produce for small brands fall into a few practical tiers:

• Acrylic or acrylic blends (50-70% of orders): The workhorse. Good hand feel at low cost. Anti-pilling acrylic has improved dramatically and most consumers cannot distinguish it from wool by touch. FOB price: $5-12 per piece depending on weight and complexity.
• Cotton or cotton-blend knits (20-25%): Preferred for spring/summer knit tops. Heavier than you might expect. Requires different finishing than wool-family yarns.
• Wool, merino, cashmere blends (10-15%): Premium tier. Cashmere content as low as 5% allows a "cashmere blend" label. Yarn minimums are the biggest constraint here. A 100% cashmere sweater can have a yarn minimum of 50kg per color, which translates to roughly 100-150 pieces minimum per colorway.
• Recycled and sustainable yarns (growing fast): Recycled polyester, organic cotton, GRS-certified blends. We hold GRS certification, which means the chain of custody is auditable from raw material to finished garment.

Fully Fashioned vs. Cut-and-Sew: Cost and Quality Trade-offs

This is the technical distinction that most sourcing guides skip entirely, but it affects your unit cost, your quality, and your production timeline.

Fully Fashioned Knitwear

Each panel (front, back, sleeves) is knitted to shape on a flat-bed machine. The pieces are then linked together. The result is minimal waste, clean edges, and a premium feel. You can spot fully fashioned garments by the fashioning marks (small diagonal lines) near the armhole and shoulder seams. This method is slower, more expensive, and requires skilled operators, but produces a noticeably superior garment.

Cut-and-Sew Knitwear

Fabric is knitted in large panels, then cut with patterns (just like woven fabric) and sewn together. Faster, cheaper, and easier to scale. Most commercial knitwear under $15 FOB uses this method. The trade-off is more fabric waste and slightly less refined edges.

For most small brands entering the knitwear space, we recommend starting with cut-and-sew for your first production run. It allows lower MOQ, faster turnaround, and lets you validate your market before investing in fully fashioned production.

The Sample Process: What to Expect and How to Prepare

Sampling is where most first-time knitwear orders stall. Here is the typical timeline:

1. Tech pack review (2-3 days): We review your specifications, identify potential issues, and confirm yarn availability. If you do not have a tech pack, we can develop one from a reference sample or detailed sketches.
2. Yarn sourcing (3-7 days): If your specified yarn is in stock at the market, this is fast. Custom blends or specific colors can take 2-3 weeks for lab dips.
3. First sample (10-15 days): The development sample. Expect it to be 70-80% there. This round validates construction, silhouette, and general hand feel.
4. Revision sample (7-10 days): Based on your feedback. Most orders require 1-2 revision rounds. Detailed, specific feedback shortens this considerably.
5. Pre-production sample (5-7 days): The final confirmation sample in your approved yarn, color, and trims. Once you sign off, this is the standard bulk production follows.

Total sample timeline: 4-8 weeks for most styles. The number one factor that slows this down is vague feedback. "Make it softer" is unhelpful. "Increase cashmere content from 10% to 20% and reduce gauge from 12GG to 7GG" is actionable.

MOQ Realities in Knitwear

Knitwear MOQ is structurally higher than woven garments, and this catches many small brands off guard. The reason is yarn minimums. A yarn spinner will not produce 5kg of a custom color. Typical yarn minimums are 30-50kg per color, and a lightweight sweater uses roughly 250-350g of yarn. That math means 85-200 pieces per colorway as a hard floor set by the yarn supply, not by the factory.

There are ways to work within this constraint:

• Use stock yarn colors: Major yarn suppliers in Tongxiang keep 50-100 standard colors in stock with no minimums. Your color options are limited but your MOQ drops to 100-200 pieces per style (across all colors).
• Consolidate colorways: Instead of 5 colors at 50 pieces each, do 2 colors at 125 pieces each. Same total order, but meets yarn minimums.
• Choose common blends: A 50/50 acrylic-wool blend in black is always available. A 70/20/10 cashmere-silk-wool in dusty rose is not.
• Accept slightly higher unit costs: Some factories (including ours) will absorb the yarn overage if you accept a 5-10% price premium on smaller runs.

What Your Tech Pack Needs for Knitwear

A tech pack for knitwear differs from woven garments. Beyond the standard measurements and flat sketches, a knitwear tech pack should include:

• Target gauge (stitches per inch or GG machine specification)
• Yarn preference or at minimum fiber composition targets
• Stitch patterns for any textured areas (cable, rib, jacquard, pointelle)
• Weight target in grams for the finished garment
• Construction method preference (fully fashioned or cut-and-sew)
• Trim details specific to knitwear: rib depth on cuffs and hem, neckline binding width, button/zipper specifications

If you do not have these details, that is fine. A good factory will ask about them during the tech pack review stage. What matters is that you have a clear vision for the finished product, even if you express it through reference photos and competitor samples rather than technical specifications.

Red Flags When Evaluating a Knitwear Factory

After three decades in this industry, these are the signals that should make you cautious:

• They claim any MOQ under 50 pieces for custom knitwear. This is almost always misleading. Either they are a trading company (not a factory), or the quality will not match your sample.
• They cannot tell you which gauge machines they operate. A real knitwear factory knows its equipment intimately.
• Sample lead time under 7 days. Quality knitwear sampling takes time. If someone promises a sweater sample in 3 days, they are pulling from existing stock, not making your design.
• No yarn market proximity. If a factory is sourcing yarn from a different province, your costs and lead times will reflect it.
• They do not ask about your yarn preference. A factory that jumps straight to price without discussing yarn is not asking the right questions.

Seasonal Planning: When to Start Your Knitwear Order

The most common mistake we see from new brands is starting the sampling process in July for a September delivery. That timeline is nearly impossible during peak season. Plan 5-6 months from first contact to delivery, and you will have a much smoother experience.