Finding clothing manufacturers is one of the most important tasks for all clothing lines. A good and responsible clothing manufacturer will not only help you with the manufacturing of high-quality garment products but also ensure that your customers are happy with the clothing from your brands.
About 10 years ago, Vietnam clothing manufacturers have become one of the top choices for clothing lines when it comes to finding a wholesaler. With an 11-30% market share, more than 6000 clothing manufacturers, and 2.4 million people working in the industry, Vietnam is currently one of the fastest-growing countries in the apparel industry. Zara, Mango, Calvin Klein are among the biggest brands that trust garments that are made in Vietnam.
This article will try to provide you with as much information as possible on finding quality clothing manufacturers in Vietnam, why you should work with them, and a list of reputable clothing manufacturers in Vietnam.
Why should you work with clothing manufacturers in Vietnam?
Clothing manufacturers in Vietnam are among those manufacturing companies that produce the highest quality products. Benefitting from many FTAs that are signed by the government in 2020 and 2021, Vietnam clothing manufacturers have many opportunities to be on the list of the biggest garment suppliers in the world. However, there are still some drawbacks that outsourcing companies have to keep in mind before working with a Vietnamese supplier.
Here are the top reasons why you should be finding clothing manufacturers in Vietnam, and things that you should consider before signing a long-term contract with your clothing manufacturing company in Vietnam.
Advantages of working with Vietnam clothing manufacturers
Lower prices with premium quality
Recently, companies working in the textile and garment industry have improved their technology to comply with many international standards. As the rule of the economy of scale, with a mechanical system capable of producing clothes in bulk quantity and a large number of workers, the manufacturing prices of fabrics, clothes, and other types of apparel in Vietnam clothing manufacturers are cheaper than in other countries without sacrificing the quality of the goods.
Thus, the main incentive for finding clothing manufacturers in Vietnam is reasonable prices. According to many reports in 2021, outsourcing your clothing products from Vietnam clothing manufacturers is cheaper than in China, as the monthly minimum wage of workers in the former is lower than in the latter.
Manufacturing labor costs per hour for China, Vietnam, Mexico from 2016 to 2020
However, it is worth noting that even if clothing manufacturers in Vietnam produce clothing at the same level of price as in China, Vietnamese clothing is often of better quality. Moreover, with the new free trade agreements, businesses can greatly reduce the tax rates when bringing Vietnamese clothing products to the EU market.
In terms of quality, finished products from clothing manufacturers in Vietnam are among the top 10% in the world, but the price is very reasonable, not to say among the cheapest countries to outsource your clothing products
Advantages of Taxes and Free Trade
Another appeal of finding clothing manufacturers in Vietnam is the free trade & tax incentives. Vietnam has a lot of Free trade agreements (FTA) with many countries in the world, such as all nations in ASEAN, South Korea, Australia.
Recently, Vietnam has signed two big agreements: the EU – Vietnam Free trade agreement (EVFTA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), UKFTA, opening up many opportunities for garment manufacturers in Vietnam and international investors.
Lead time
Lead time is the top thing that fast fashion brands and casual wear brands consider when choosing a clothing manufacturer. Unlike designer goods that take months or even years to develop, casual brands have to get their finished product to the store as soon as possible to catch the trend.
When finding clothing manufacturers in Vietnam, you will find out that they have a large pool of skillful workers that can get your ideas right away and make sure that you get the products right when trends hit the market. Working with Vietnamese clothing manufacturers will greatly reduce the time for designing, developing fabric, sample testing, and bulk production.
Normally, clothing manufacturers in Vietnam often need 3-5 days for quotations with full fabric & technical solutions after receiving your idea and requirements. Then 7-10 days for sample development, testing, and finally 10-12 weeks for bulk manufacturing, depending on the quantity of your order. With lower quantities, it often takes less time for garment manufacturers to finish the order, but the price will be higher, sometimes even twice as much the price for bulk orders.
Disadvantages of working with Vietnam Clothing Manufacturers
High minimum order quantity
To keep the attractive price, big Vietnamese clothing manufacturers often do not accept small quantity orders below 3000 and small sample runs. This means if your company is a new company in the market, chances are you have to be finding clothing manufacturers of a smaller scale, and then gradually scale up and find another supplier to reduce the production cost.
On the other hand, there are still some small manufacturers that provide a private label or drop shipping service, but the price might be high and you cannot control the quality of the product.
But if you are a wholesaler or an established fashion brand that is finding clothing manufacturers that can carry bulk orders at cheaper prices, then Vietnam would be a great destination.
Less developed logistics chain
With so many ports across the country, clothing manufacturers in Vietnam can transport your order to the West Coast of the US within 3 weeks, to Europe within 4 weeks, and even much faster if your business is in Southeast Asia. However, Vietnam’s in-country logistics have yet to be as well developed as China, so it may take longer for clothing manufacturers to ship their goods to ports. Besides, with a lot of goods to be exported and long Tet holidays, Vietnamese ports are usually crowded, and your order can be delayed for days.
However, this disadvantage will be solved within a few years, as Vietnam’s infrastructure is getting better and better every day. Therefore, working with manufacturers in Vietnam will be easier and faster within a few years.
How to find a Vietnam clothing manufacturer?
In the past, finding clothing manufacturers in Vietnam can only be done via offline events and trade shows. However, with the growth of means of digital communications, it is easier than ever for you to find a clothing manufacturer in Vietnam and work with them.
Find manufacturers through Trade shows
Meetups in the textile and garment industry can help you a lot in finding clothing manufacturers with the right potential to work with your company. Every year, in Vietnam, there are many Trade shows for domestic and foreign businesses to connect with clothing manufacturers in Vietnam, thereby the two sides can establish a close and mutually beneficial business relationship. You can refer to some of these Trade shows in Vietnam:
- The Vietnam International Textile & Apparel Accessories Exhibition: This is a very big exhibition, not only with the participation of garment manufacturers from Vietnam but also from China and Southeast Asian countries.
- Vietnam International Textile & Garment Industry Exhibition: This exhibition focuses mainly on machinery commonly used in the production of fabrics.
- Vietnam Hanoi Fabric & Garment Accessories Expo (HanoiFabric): This expo does not focus on finished garment products, but promotes textile machinery, sewing technology, dyeing, and other chemicals in the textile and garment industry.
- Vietnam Saigon International Textile and Garment Industry Expo (SaigonTex): This exhibition is organized by Vietnam National Textile & Garment Group, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, VCCI Exhibition Service Co Ltd. Vietnam Textile & Garment Industry. This is considered a big fair and brings together many of the most famous clothing manufacturers in Vietnam.
- Vietnamese clothing manufacturers can also be found in some international textile and garment expo. Here are some international trade shows, where you can find many clothing manufacturers worldwide:
- Texworld Paris: Occurring twice a year, Texworld unites more than 1,000 exhibitors of the textile and clothing industry. It’s an international show with clothing manufacturing companies coming from 26 countries and 26,000 brand visitors from all around the world.
- Who’s Next: For more than 20 years, Who’s Next is one of the leading fashion shows in Europe for clothing manufacturers producing womenswear. It gathers twice a year almost 50,000 industry professionals and 600 exhibiting companies from over 100 countries.
- Intertextile Fair Shanghai: These fairs will be bundled with the textile fabric, yarn, and garment manufacturers from all over Asia.
Work with Directories
Directories can help you with finding clothing manufacturers that are suitable for your business. You should stick to well-known and experienced directories because these directories usually have a lot of options for you. When working with directories, you should carefully explain your requirements, so that you can choose a clothing manufacturer that suits your needs the best.
Here are some famous clothing directories in Vietnam. With many years of experience, these directories will help you find the clothing manufacturer you need.
- Vietnam AZ
- Yes Asia (Vietnam Manufacturers)
- Vietnam Yellow Pages
- Vietnam Export
- Global Manufacturers
- ASEM Connect
- ZipLeaf
- Vtown.vn
- Global Sources Vietnam
- Alibaba Vietnam Pavilion
Search Engines
Search engines such as Google can be a great option to find a clothing manufacturer. However, most garment manufacturers in Vietnam do not regularly update information about their operations, factory photos, or partners on their websites. Therefore, if you are looking for information about manufacturers this way, please be patient to find the best Vietnam clothing manufacturing company.
Online Groups
Forums or groups on social networks are also a great place to seek help from businesses that have the same need to cooperate with clothing manufacturers in Vietnam as you. These businesses will not only give you a deeper insight into the manufacturers they have worked with, but they can also review the ordering process, product quality, and share with you the contact information for these Vietnamese manufacturers. You can join forums such as Quora, Reddit, Facebook Groups for vendors and brands to find a clothing manufacturer of your need
Old-Fashioned Research
Networking and talking to other businesses in the industry is very important in finding clothing manufacturers, especially when this is your first time working with a manufacturer overseas. For example, you need to carefully check the types of substances used in the factory, and whether they comply with the laws in the country where you intend to sell. Size is also a very important factor because size can vary between countries, especially between countries in Europe and Asia.
3 criteria when finding clothing manufacturers in Vietnam
As mentioned above, finding clothing manufacturers’ information is no longer as difficult as before. Brands have a lot of sources and online tools to read and learn about Vietnam clothing manufacturers such as Facebook, company websites, and clothing manufacturers sharing forums.
However, if you do not carefully consider the manufacturers that you are going to work with, chances are you may encounter some bad manufacturers with low-quality products. Therefore, before signing a contract with a clothing manufacturer in Vietnam, you should pay attention to the following issues:
Clothing manufacturing capacity & capability
Although Vietnam clothing manufacturers are famous to be among those with the best quality in the world, you still need to be carefully finding clothing manufacturers that can comply with your requirements. For example, the EU and US markets have many strict standards about fabric and dye safety.
To be able to evaluate the manufacturing quality of Vietnam clothing manufacturers, brands should do a background check or ask for a list of the clothing manufacturers’ past products to see for yourself the quality of their work. If you have many relationships in the apparel industry, you can also listen to feedback from their past clients. This is part of your due diligence process for your company as well.
Reasonable Price accompanies Ethics
One of the most important factors when it comes to finding clothing manufacturers in Vietnam is the right price. For an established brand, saving per unit costs but still having good quality products is a very important goal in your high-volume order.
The price of each unit of product is also influenced a lot by the service that you choose. For example, a CMT service for a 10.000 pcs order will have a much lower unit price than a dropshipping order of 100 pcs. Depending on your budget, time, and need, your brand can choose an ODM/OEM service, private labeling, dropshipping,…
In addition to this, you should also prioritize finding clothing manufacturers that are transparent with their fees and do not require any surprise charges post-production. Make sure that they will also give you a hand if your brand needs help with the design work.
Choosing clothing manufacturing companies with rates that suit your budget is a must, but you should also keep in mind that cheaper is not always better. Currently, many clothing manufacturers provide substandard work or have bad work ethics at a cheap price.
Therefore, you should be finding clothing manufacturers that can effectively manage not only the working environment but also sustainable production. A common approach is to inspect certifications for social responsibility & sustainable production such as SA 8000 and WRAP.
Clothing Manufacturers’ Reliability
Finding clothing manufacturers with reliability should be a top priority. To do this, brands should look for suppliers and manufacturers with 24/7 customer support service, or at least during office hours. The reason is that it is not always possible to directly monitor the process as well as the production progress according to your requirements, so good customer service will help brands to follow up the project now and then.
Besides, suppliers with great customer service will provide you with a lot of useful information and tips for success in your next project such as choosing fabrics, designs, and patterns for your next batch of clothing. This helps new brands to understand the production process and gives them many innovative ideas to grow in this competitive market.
Moreover, you can seek reliable suppliers by finding clothing manufacturers that offer timely delivery. You can also find out if that manufacturer is reputable for delivering the right product specifications as guaranteed.
What can Vietnam clothing manufacturers produce?
Vietnam Activewear Manufacturer
Knitted fabric products are very developed in Vietnam, especially fitness clothing. Wholesalers can order many types of activewear from leggings, sports bras, joggers to active tops, tank tops, hoodies, or jackets. There is no limit when it comes to designs and styles for ODM/ OEM Vietnam manufacturers, as long as you have an idea in mind.
Besides popular materials like cotton, nylon-spandex, polyester, clothing manufacturers in Vietnam are also developing, manufacturing, and providing numerous kinds of fabric made with new generations of polyester like Coolmax, Thermax, Tencel, modal… which has treated to overcome almost all disadvantages of basic polyester fiber. They are surprisingly lightweight, breathable, absorbent, quick-dry, soft with great hand feel, and anti-bacteria.
Vietnam Kidswear Manufacturer
Kidswear is one of those products that need careful consideration when choosing a manufacturer. However, Vietnam clothing manufacturers can assure you of their high-quality work. There are many children’s wear designs that can be made in Vietnam such as kids’ pajamas, shirts, pants, hats,…
Made of bamboo, cotton, organic cotton, or blended with several percentages of spandex in different knitting patterns and weights, made in Vietnam children’s clothing are light in weight, soft, breathable, absorbent, quick-dry, ecofriendly, soft & silky, antibacterial, natural UV function. However, you should pay attention to the size of kidswear, as the size chart for Vietnamese clothing might be different from that in the US or European countries.
Vietnam Casualwear Manufacturer
Thousands of designs of leggings, shorts, tank tops, t-shirts, hoodies, cardigans with unlimited color, prints, shapes, knitting patterns, weight… are available at Vietnam clothing manufacturers. Most of the casualwear made by clothing manufacturers in Vietnam are pretty basic, such as plain T-shirts, cotton joggers,… This could be a blank canvas for your ideas of pictures, embroidery, and many types of designs on the product.
Depending on your brand’s need, you can choose a clothing manufacturer that provides you with the right service so that you can save costs and effort for garment manufacturing. Clothing manufacturers in Vietnam often offer services such as CMT, ODM, OEM, private labeling.
Vietnam Underwear Manufacturer
Made in Vietnam underwear to be exported is comply with many international standards. Many types of underwear from knitted fabric can be developed and ordered from Vietnam clothing manufacturers: panties, bras, slip dresses, strap tops… They are all super soft & smooth, high stretchy, breathable, absorbent, quick-dry, odorless, and anti-bacteria… to keep things at the right place for the whole day and night without causing any discomfort.
Vietnam manufacturers can also produce many types of accessories such as hats, socks,… They are all made from functional fabrics and can be customized to the needs of customers.
List of reputable Vietnam clothing manufacturers
If you still have difficulties in finding clothing manufacturers, you can refer to our list of reputable clothing manufacturing companies in Vietnam.
Thygesen Textile Vietnam
Thygesen Textile Vietnam is one of the biggest clothing manufacturers in the North of Vietnam. With 90 years of experience in the field of garment and fabric manufacturing, we are a seasoned & worldwide reputable manufacturer that can cater to all of your requirements.
Thygesen Textile Vietnam has provided ODM/OEM and private labeling services for many reputable brands such as Calvin Klein, DKNY,… Our superior services are what make us a clothing manufacturer that many established brands can rely on.
Using the safest dye and fabrics, all of the products made by Thygesen Textile Vietnam comply with international standards such as ISO 9001, FDA, GSV, Oeko-tex 100. Beyond that, we also implement quality control measures to ensure the products’ quality consistency. Therefore, our garments can be sold in European countries and thrive even under stringent quality criteria.
With Thygesen Textile Vietnam’s OEM services, the manufacturer can produce your clothing at a hi-tech, high-capacity factory that has abundant skilled labor. We have hundreds of modern machines & workers, which help us manufacture more than 400,000 pieces of clothing monthly. Thanks to this system, we can also make almost any type of clothing such as:
- Casual wear
- Workwear
- Activewear
- Kidswear
- Underwear
- Hospital Wear & Bandage
Along with quality, we also deliver efficiency throughout the production process, especially time savings for your business. At Thygesen Textile Vietnam, the average production lead-time is between 8 to 12 weeks depending on the quantity and order type. At this time, quotations and fabric & technical solutions are provided in 3-5 days. Then, we spent 1 week on sample development and 10-12 weeks on bulk manufacturing.
Phuc An An Import Export Trading Co., Ltd
Phuc An An is the manufacturer of military surplus clothing and uniforms for manufacturing and service industries, schools and hospitals, etc. The manufacturer makes beautiful and fashionable designs from premium material, meticulous seams with advanced technology, and a production line.
De Charme Corporation
De Charme Corporation is a leading enterprise in the field of manufacturing uniforms in Hanoi with full equipment, modern facilities, and professional staff to meet all demands of customers. With top technique and professional staff, De Charme brings uniform manufacturing service to all customers with all needs. The fields that require professionalism, accuracy, and quality must always be guaranteed according to the strictest specification.
Typical products: T-shirt uniforms, shirt uniforms, jacket uniforms, office uniforms, school uniforms, restaurant uniforms, hotel uniforms, medical uniforms, etc.
Phuoc Son Garment Production Trade And Service Co., Ltd
Phuoc Son Garment Production Trade and Service Co., Ltd is an OEM in Binh Dinh specializing in manufacturing fashion and protective clothes that serves completely to international markets such as the UK, USA, Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Japan, etc.
The company confidently brings to customers the following products: Jackets, trousers, suits, labor protective clothing for men, women, children.
Trung Quy Textile Garment Co., Ltd
Trung Quy Textile Co., Ltd has nearly 20 years of experience in the field of manufacturing and exporting uniforms. The main products include School uniforms, worker uniforms, office uniforms, etc. The company’s main export markets are Japan, Korea, Germany, USA, France, Canada, etc.
Dragontextiles 1 Export Garment Factory
Dragontextiles 1 is a member of Thang Long Garment., JSC which specializes in manufacturing & exporting various clothes, such as women’s fashion: Jackets, t-shirt, jeans, vests, dresses, men’s fashion: Shirts, t-shirts, jackets, vests, children fashion,…
Dony International Corporation
Dony is the company that produces garments on order. With more than 10 years of REQUIRED CLOTHING SEWING, Dony can produce 30,000 products per month. Producing from raw materials to printing, printing, and finishing garments, Dony currently has 3 main businesses: Producing uniforms for companies, enterprises, teams; Producing fashion for fashion brands and shops; Producing export products in the form of EWX, FOB, CIF, DAT, DAP, etc.
Kim Son Vinh Phat Garment Joint Stock Company
The company specializes in producing T-shirts, Uniforms, Protective clothes, and accessories. Kim Son Vinh Phat has skilled staff with modern equipment systems, quality garment products with delicate seams, creative designs, professional and fast processing of urgent and bulk orders, competitive price, on-time delivery. Main export markets: Malaysia, Germany, Europe, etc.
T.V.S Saigon Services Trading Manufacturing Co., Ltd
Established in December 2013, T.V.S Saigon Services Trading Manufacturing Co., Ltd is proud to be one of the leading enterprises in Vietnam in garment processing and FOB orders of uniform and fashion items for the most demanding such as Japan, Korea, and the USA. With a team of technicians and skilled workers and modern machinery lines, TVS Saigon is committed to bringing satisfaction to all customers with the criteria “Quality Assurance – Competitive Price – Punctual Delivery”.
We hope that this article has made it easier for you to find a clothing manufacturer in Vietnam for your next project. If you want to bring your design to life with your future projects, Thygesen Textile Vietnam is eager to offer the help you need with our OEM/ODM services. We guarantee to satisfy all of your requirements for quality and efficiency. Contact us now!
