What is OEM?
OEM — original equipment manufacturer — is the term the wider manufacturing world uses for a factory that produces a product to a customer's complete specification, to be sold under the customer's brand. In clothing it overlaps almost entirely with full private label: you provide the tech pack, the factory makes the garment. ODM — original design manufacturer — is the factory's own design offered for you to brand.
Why it matters
The term matters more in export contracts and with larger buyers; brands and startups say 'private label'. From our floor, they are the same service — and most factories offering true OEM start at 300 pieces, where we start at 50.
On our floor
OEM production for export customers in the US, UK and Gulf: tech pack in, garments out, nothing of ours on them.
Common questions
- OEM or private label — which do I ask for?
- Either; we treat them as the same service. OEM implies you are supplying a full tech pack.
- What is ODM?
- The factory designs the garment and you brand it — closer to white label with design input.
- What is the OEM minimum?
- 50 per style, 30 per stock colour — unusually low for OEM; a custom colour is a 300-piece dye lot.
- Do OEM orders get a sample?
- Always — a pre-production sample approved in writing before bulk.
Related terms
private label
Private label means the garment is made for your brand to your specification — your fit, your fabric, your colour, your trims — and sold…
white label
A white-label garment is one the factory already makes — its own blank, pattern and fabric — supplied with your woven label sewn in and…
tech pack
A tech pack — technical package — is the document that specifies one garment completely: flat sketches, bill of materials, measurements per…
cut and sew
Cut and sew means the garment is made from fabric — cut to a pattern and sewn — rather than bought as a finished blank and decorated. It is…
Where this applies
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