European High-End Menswear Brand First OEM Inquiry: 4 Items We Make, 2 We Honestly Decline

Last week a European brand reached out through our website with a first-order inquiry — six menswear styles, target positioning "premium + quiet luxury (old money)". We get 30-40 inquiries like this every year, mostly from independent designer brands or sellers entering the European market.

I did not quote immediately, because the list contained four knit garments (our actual craft) and two woven garments (not our craft). A dishonest factory would accept all six, then either fail on the woven items or quietly downgrade them — which usually ends the relationship within the first season. After 25 years on the floor, we have learned that saying no clearly in the inquiry stage is worth more than saying yes for a quote.

The inquiry (anonymised)

I have anonymised the client's exact wording and preserved the structure:

The first thing a factory does with this list is sort by construction type: knit or woven. That decision determines what we even can quote.

The 4 items we make: detailed breakdown

All four below are knitted garments from flat knitting machines plus linking — exactly what our factory has done for 25 years. We control yarn sourcing, knitting, linking, and finishing in-house.

For these four, we have existing production lines, recent reference samples from last 3 years, and direct yarn supplier relationships for grade A cashmere and fine cotton. The remaining work is translating the client's reference images into a proper tech pack — which is what our technical team does daily.

The 2 items we honestly decline

These two are not "difficult" — they are simply not the construction we work in. Trying to fake them would create real damage.

Saying "no" actually helps us too — when the client comes back for the four knit items, they don't have the "this factory says yes to everything but does nothing well" worry. In this case, the brand came back three weeks later and placed a sampling order — for the four knit items.

Why this inquiry was hard to quote

Buyers often assume a factory should quote "within a few hours". In reality, even the four items we can make take at least 2 working days each to quote accurately. Reasons:

• "Fine knit" is relative — 12G or 14G? Combed cotton 21S/2 or 32S/2? Each step changes unit cost USD 1-3.
• "Premium quality" has no numeric standard — Zalando level or Mr Porter level? Cashmere weight and price differ by 30%+.
• "Old money / quiet luxury" is an aesthetic, not a spec — we need 2-3 reference brands (Brunello Cucinelli, Loro Piana, Sunspel etc.) to align craft expectations.
• "Embroidered logo" — until we see the logo file, we cannot count stitches or estimate complexity.

Our standard reply is: send a "clarification questionnaire" first, get the missing parameters, then quote precisely. The 1-2 days spent here saves 3-4 rounds of sampling later. Our knitwear tech pack guide shows what a complete brief looks like.

3 suggestions for brands preparing a first inquiry

If you are also preparing a first-order RFQ for a Chinese factory, here are three lessons we have learned over 25 years:

• 1. Clearly identify the construction (knit / woven / cut-and-sew)

  Mixing knit and woven in one inquiry is the most common mistake. You either need two factories, or a vertically integrated group factory (which adds 30-50% to cost). Smaller brands should split factories by construction.

• 2. Use reference brands instead of adjectives

  "Premium + quiet luxury + soft hand" tells a factory almost nothing. Naming 2-3 reference brands lets the factory immediately map to specific yarns, weights, and finishing methods. This single change halves your quoting time.

• 3. Ask for a craft proposal before asking for a price

  Have the factory send a "spec proposal" (yarn / gauge / weight / process) first; sign off; then ask for the formal quote. This stops factories from offering a low headline price by silently dropping craft details — and protects you from surprise surcharges later. Our how to compare two quotes guide covers this in depth.

FAQ

If you want to send us a first inquiry

The most useful inquiry format is:

1. 1-3 reference images per style (design sketch, market image, web inspiration — any works)
2. Confirm knit / woven / cut-and-sew (if unsure, tell us whether the garment has seams — woven usually does, knit usually doesn't)
3. Target weight + yarn direction (we can reverse-engineer if you're unsure)
4. Target order quantity (100 / 300 / 1000 pcs for tiered pricing)
5. 2-3 reference brands (defines the quality tier)
6. Target lead time / launch date

With that, we send a detailed craft proposal + FOB range within 1-2 working days. If anything is outside our capability, we say so first thing. What we decline matters more than what we accept — the former prevents future problems.