It’s better to custom directly from sports clothing manufacturers for anyone who wants to start a sportswear business. There is a list of sports apparel manufacturers or suppliers online, but which to choose and how you can custom sportswear from them with a money-saving method, here is the millionaire Guide!

What is a Professional Sports Clothing Manufacturer?

professional sports clothing manufacturer

A professional sportswear clothing manufacturer should be now focusing not only on manufacturing service, but also designing, sourcing, and shipping services. Even the after-sale service can be included, that will be perfect. If you plan to wholesale custom sportswear from one sports clothing manufacturer, of course, you will hope, it can custom-made sportswear for you, source clothing materials for you, producing bulk sports apparel for you, and shipping the clothes for you!

Do not use the 2 types of sports apparel suppliers, one is CM, CM service supplier only focus on “cutting and making” segments of the garment manufacturing process. The other is FOB, a FOB service supplier would cover a wider area of manufacturing. He will help you to source materials, carry out inbound logistics, develop new samples, produce, package, and delivery the goods. the term “FOB” in this case is not just the term Free On Board in Incoterms 2010, it means that the manufacturer would help their customers transform raw materials to finished product and then deliver those cargoes under any term of trade.

What you are looking for is a sports clothing manufacture that supports OEM, ODM, and One-Stop-Shop services. That sports clothing manufacturer usually has in-house experts and technicians in yarn, fabric, and garment to help them handle every customer’s needs. Typical characteristics of those services are flexibility and adaptiveness so that a team of experts and technicians who have enough knowledge and experience to catch their customer’s idea very well and take action quickly to handle it. Sometimes, you may only the idea and requirement of the function of the sportswear, those sportswear clothing manufacturers still have the ability to give you the best recommendation of materials & design. 

The OEM, ODM, and One-Stop-Shop sportswear clothing manufacturers will offer you a full service on sportswear customization, sourcing, producing, inspecting, and shipping. Just order from them, you are no need to do anything except for designing the customized sportswear with them.

Where to find those Professional Sportswear Clothing Manufacturers?

best sportswear factory

Search Engine

Searching Google is convenient to find sports clothing manufacturing companies if you’re willing to dig deep and work hard to find them. The most important thing to keep in mind when searching Google is that it’s not easy to find them. Factories and manufacturers notoriously do a poor job of keeping their websites updated and optimized for modern times. That means that most of the factory websites are very outdated and aren’t optimized for Google searches.

What this all boils down to is the fact that you’ll have to dig deep. Really deep. It’s not unusual to have to parse 20-30 pages on Google before finding what you’re looking for. So don’t give up. Make sure you also try a variety of search terms. You might just be searching for “sports clothing manufacturer” but you may need to be less specific and search for keywords like “sportswear manufacturer” too.

Verified Supplier Directories

Directories can be your best bet for searching the sports clothing manufacturers. Some of the larger directories can contain thousands of potential manufacturers/factories for your sportswear project. Notice there are many of them are low-quality or outdated, to find good and reliable sports apparel manufacturers is a time-spending thing.

B2B Marketplaces

You can find manufacturers on popular, China-based online marketplaces such as Alibaba and AliExpress. Manufacturers often sell directly via these platforms so if you come across a listing that’s similar to the clothing product that you want to make, you can try contacting the seller and asking if they are a manufacturer.

You have the added benefit of being able to read reviews and contact previous customers. However, you do need to be wary of scams and you should still undertake due diligence using the guidelines above.

Industry Meetups and Trade Shows

Tradeshows are a goldmine for finding, vetting, and getting to know potential manufacturing partners and there’s no lack of tradeshows in the clothing and apparel niche. The same goes for industry meetups. You can’t beat talking with a manufacturer face-to-face. It helps to build trust and confidence and establishes a more personal business relationship.

Local Fashion Schools & Incubators

Another great place to find manufacturers for your clothing and apparel brand is by calling or visiting a local fashion school or fashion and apparel incubator. These institutions are rich sources for vetted manufacturers since these schools and incubators tend to have good relationships with many manufacturers and make use of them regularly.

Try giving them a call or emailing them and ask for referrals to local manufacturers that can help you with your project.

Local Library

Believe it or not, libraries still exist and they have some excellent resources for finding factories and manufacturers. We talked about directories already, but libraries have exclusive or paid access to some really great directories that can help you with your search.

Many of these directories are simply too expensive for an average entrepreneur but free to access through your local library. Ask your local librarians to see what resources their establishments may be able to offer you.

Referrals

As you’re using the methods listed in this post and talking to potential suppliers and manufacturers, you’re very likely to hit a bunch of dead ends. Maybe your order will be too small for a potential manufacturer, maybe they can’t do what you need them to do, or maybe they are just too busy to take on new customers.

While these may feel like dead ends and setbacks, you can still make the most of each of these conversations by asking every person and company you speak with if they know any other factories or manufacturers that they could recommend. The fact that they are in this industry likely means they have some good friends and contacts they can likely share with you to help you get closer to finding your perfect clothing manufacturing partner.

Choose Domestic or Overseas Sports Clothing Manufacturers?

overseas sports clothing manufacturer

It depends on which merit is more important to you, if you want to choose a fast-delivery sports clothing manufacturer, then domestic ones are the choice if you want to choose a cheap but a good quality sports clothing manufacturer, the overseas Chinese sports clothing manufacturer factory can be the option.

Domestic Sportswear Manufacturers Overseas Sportswear Manufacturers
Advantages
  1. Easy and efficient communication
  2. Similar time zones and holiday schedule
  3. Marketability and brand-ability of locally-made goods
  4. Faster shipping times and cheaper shipping costs
  5. No import duties or tariffs
  1. Lower manufacturing costs
  2. A greater number of manufacturers/factories to choose from
  3. Well established directories like Alibaba have made it easy to find potential suppliers
  4. Tons of sportswear styles to choose from
  5. Full customization, you can add or remove anything you want
Disadvantages
  1. Higher manufacturing costs
  2. Typically smaller choice of potential factories
  3. Smaller product choice (many items are exclusively made overseas these days)
  1. Import clearance to deal with
  2. Potential language barriers, cultural and timezone differences
  3. More costly to visit and verify the manufacturer
  4. Longer shipping times
  5. Higher shipping costs

Steps to Custom Sportswear from Sports Apparel Manufacturers

custom sports clothing manufacturer

A.Share with them your concept or idea

After getting a list of sports apparel manufacturers in hand, email or use any other means to contact them, say out your need, and share them with your concept or idea. The one that can give you the best design in time can be your potential sportswear manufacturer.

B.Ask them to make you the samples

The fitting samples are very important, no matter you choose which sports clothing manufacturer, you should tell them you need the samples and the sample fee would better be free or can be refunded.

C. Confirm lead time, shipping time, and payment

Before deciding on any sportswear manufacturer, ask them the lead time, shipping time, shipment options, custom fees, and the payment method. Only pay the one that fits your need in nearly every aspect.

D. Sign a contract with them and send payment

In this stage, you already choose one sport clothing manufacturer, remember to sign an official contract with them, and then send payment on the wholesale order.

E. Wait for delivery to your warehouse

It’s the last step, if your sports apparel manufacturer is a good one, he can deliver the products on time.

Recommended Sports Clothing Manufacturers in US

Manta

If you are looking for high-quality sportswear for wholesaling, then you should probably look for Manta. They are offering all kinds of sportswear for clients around the globe. As we have heard from Manta’s happy clients, a company has perfect customer support. They are working 24 hours for you to answer all your questions and solve all the issues if there are any. Keep in mind that, Manta is dominating the industry for more than a decade, so a company is trying its best to stay on top. You will have a great experience with Manta if you’ve decided to step into sportswear wholesaling in US market. 

Recommended Sports Clothing Manufacturers in UK

Wholesale Sportswear

If you have never heard of Whole Sales Sportswear in the UK, then you are probably a newbie in this industry. They are indeed the best at quality and prices. Keep in mind that a company is always giving customers lots of discounts and sales. As the representatives of the company said, they are always focusing on quality, prices, and customer service. Quality customer service is always the backbone of a successful business. As they mention on the website, Wholesales Sportswear Limited is the largest company in the UK market. They don’t have a minimum order value, and that makes the company’s offers more attractive. 

Recommended Sports Clothing Manufacturers in AU

Evosportswear

EVO Sportswear is an end-to-end custom team wear and custom team sports apparel brand that specializes and delivers a complete functional solution for your team, club, school, corporate event or gym. It’s passionate and committed to delivering excellence, providing a true “high performance” experience that will exceed your expectations.

Born in Melbourne, EVO Sportswear is a fresh face on the high-performance team sports category who is a cutting edge teamwear brand that goes beyond the norm to engineer, design, and manufacture technically advanced performance athletic garments, helping humans optimize performance.

Recommended Sports Clothing Manufacturers in China

sports clothing manufacturer china

Berunwear is a leading global sports clothing manufacturer from China. We are able to serve worldwide clients if you accept overseas sportswear manufacturer, we are your best choice.

● Cheap

All our sportswear is manufactured in China, the cost is lower. Plus, we are 15+ years of sports apparel manufacturer, we have cheap material suppliers and can manufacture sportswear by ourselves in our factory. You get quality sportswear at affordable pricing.

● Variety

Berunwear can customize and produce all types of sportswear, activewear, gym wear, athletic wear, and team uniforms.

● Quality 

Quality guaranteed, if you are not satisfied with that, we can refund or resend, the fitting sample will satisfy you in advance.

● Efficient

Our designers and workers all are from clothing companies or are majoring in it, so they can provide efficient communication and production.

Small

Berunwear supports low MOQ or zero MOQ, offering big help to small sportswear startups and retail stores.

Punctual

We promise to deliver your products on time, if it can’t meet the deadline, we will refund too. Fast turnaround and fast shipping.

Recommended Sports Clothing Manufacturers in Canada

Nikoapparel

Since 1996 Niko has had the privilege of bringing high-quality, custom-made apparel to its clients, made in Canada. With deep roots in the community, we take pride in our dedicated staff and the positive effects of keeping manufacturing local.

With over 20 years of experience creating custom-tailored, technical garments, Niko constantly strives to be ahead of the curve. Every year sees new, improved equipment enter our shop, increasing our ability to deliver competitive, on-trend apparel, quicker, faster, and more efficiently.

Tips on Choosing Sportswear Manufacturers or Suppliers

sports clothing wholesaler

  1. Never quit searching once you’ve found one great manufacturer. You ALWAYS need backups, and who knows, the first one might go bankrupt or things may not work out, so you will need someone else you can depend on.
  2. Document all the manufacturers you have contacted, and what the result was. Maybe they make a product that is too cheap for you, but you may want them down the line when you offer a lower-priced option. Or perhaps their minimums are too large, but in theory, your quantities will grow and you will always want a manufacturer that can do larger quantities for you.
  3. Evaluate them as you go. Do they respond to emails? Answer the phone? Are they quick to get back to you? If I get someone who is impossible to contact or who rarely responds to emails, then I get concerned. It is one thing to deal with this when you are researching manufacturers, a whole other when you just got a huge order from Net A Porter and you are frantically trying to reach your factory to find out if they can make it on time. Reliability is key from a manufacturer, and if they are slow responding or late with their first set of samples, you should be listening to the alarm bells.
  4. It is really important that communication with your factory is easy. Do they speak your language? Are the time zones close enough that you can speak to them during their business hours, without having to be up at 4 in the morning? This is when manufacturing close to home can make sense.
  5. You can try and get your factory to sign a contract, but note that this is very difficult and complicated. Many won’t, and even if they do, the contract will likely not be worth the paper its printed on. That’s why gut instinct is important in these situations, you want to make sure you trust this person to do the job they say they will. And make sure to keep records of EVERYTHING, so that you can reference it should there be a problem down the line.
  6. When analyzing samples, do a quality assurance (QA) check. Check the seams (stitches) whether they are even, have unnecessary give, etc.
  7. Do wash tests to see if your colors fade or spill and ask your athletic clothing manufacturers to conduct stretch and recovery tests at proper labs for you to further assess.
  8. Ensure that the activewear manufacturers you speak to have experience.
  9. When reviewing manufacturers, always ask for references, carefully inspect previous product quality, and when you can, visit the factory floor to get a better sense of the company and the way they work.

Do sports clothing manufacturers support drop shipping?

sports clothing manufacturer drop shipper

No, they don’t, these manufacturers companies are the factories that are able to send your customized sportswear to your own warehouse. They only ship to you, do not ship to your customers one by one. If you want to find one that supports drop shippers, go to order in Aliexpress.com or some Printed-on-demand sites. Do not know what they are? Google. 

Conclusion

Choosing the right manufacturing partner for your business is a critical decision, not to be taken lightly or made quickly. This partner is an important piece of the puzzle for your business. Choosing a poor partner could mean production delays, unnecessary expenses, or even potentially a poorly made (or unsellable) product.

The guide here can not reply to all questions you may have on choosing sportswear manufacturers, so if you need more help, email [email protected], we will answer your any question even you finally do not choose us.