How to Compare Two Knitwear Factory Quotes Without Missing Hidden Costs

You have sent the same reference to two factories. Both replied within 24 hours. Factory A quotes $11.50 per piece. Factory B quotes $14.00. The instinct is to choose Factory A and negotiate further. That instinct is wrong often enough to be worth examining carefully before you act on it.

Knitwear quotations are not standardised. Two factories quoting the same style may be quoting completely different things — different yarn weights, different gauge assumptions, different sample fee structures, different packing inclusions, different shipping terms. The $2.50 difference on the surface can easily reverse when you account for what each quote actually includes.

This guide explains how to compare two knitwear quotations properly, which cost items are most commonly misread or omitted, and what to ask each factory before treating a price as comparable. It follows directly from our guide on how to read a sweater factory quote — if you have not read that first, it is worth doing before you go further here.

Why the lowest unit price is rarely the cheapest outcome

The unit price on a knitwear quotation is one number that hides many decisions. A factory that quotes low has made choices to get to that number — choices about yarn grade, about what is included and what is billed separately, about how sampling costs are structured, about what happens if something goes wrong.

From our experience receiving buyer questions at Lin Sweater Factory in Dalang, the most common reasons a lower quote ends up costing more are:

• Yarn substitution. The lower quote uses a lighter yarn count or a cheaper fibre grade. The garment looks similar in photos but weighs less, pills faster, and produces more customer returns.
• Excluded costs that appear later. Sample fees, revision fees, label sourcing costs, special packing requests, and export document preparation are often omitted from the first quote and invoiced separately later.
• Shipping terms that shift freight cost to you. A quote on EXW (ex-works) terms means the buyer pays all freight from the factory gate. A quote on FOB terms means the factory handles inland freight to the port. The difference can be $0.80–2.00 per piece on a small order.
• No sample revision buffer. A quote that prices bulk accurately but underprices sampling means the factory has little incentive to iterate carefully. Sample revisions become friction points rather than routine improvements.
• Hidden MOQ per colour. A headline MOQ of 50 pcs that turns out to mean 50 pcs per colour per size effectively multiplies your minimum commitment by three or four times.

None of these are necessarily dishonest. Some are genuine omissions. Some are structural differences in how factories price. But all of them affect the real cost of an order, and none of them appear in the headline unit price.

The eight areas to compare line by line

When you have two quotes in front of you, work through each of these eight areas before drawing any conclusion about price.

Six hidden costs that most buyers miss

Beyond the eight comparison areas above, there are cost categories that routinely do not appear in first quotations but materialise during sampling and production. These are not rare edge cases — they are standard parts of knitwear production that some factories price separately and some include.

For a broader breakdown of what drives knitwear costs at each production stage, our guide to what increases knitwear cost the most covers these factors in more depth.

Yarn is the biggest single variable — and the hardest to check

Of all the comparison points above, yarn specification deserves the most attention because it is both the largest single cost driver and the easiest to obscure in a quotation.

Consider two quotes for a women's crew neck sweater at 7G:

• Factory A: "100% wool, 7G" — $11.50/pc at 100 pcs
• Factory B: "100% wool, 7G" — $14.00/pc at 100 pcs

The description reads identically. But "100% wool" covers a wide range. Factory A may be using a 2/28Nm standard wool yarn at ¥80/kg. Factory B may be using a 2/32Nm finer-count yarn at ¥140/kg with better softness and pilling resistance. The garments will look similar in photos. They will feel and perform very differently in use.

The questions to ask both factories to make this comparison real:

• What is the yarn count — Nm or Ne?
• What is the ply — single, 2-ply, or 3-ply?
• What is the finished garment weight in grams for the stated size?
• Can you provide the yarn supplier name or a yarn swatch?

If a factory cannot or will not answer these questions, that tells you something important. Factories that know their product can answer yarn specification questions immediately. Those that are reselling or guessing take longer and give vague answers.

Our guide to acrylic vs wool knitwear explains how to read these yarn differences and what they mean for your retail positioning and return rates.

Sample terms often matter more than bulk price

For buyers placing their first order with a factory, the sample phase is where the real cost of the relationship becomes clear. A factory that prices bulk accurately but treats sampling as a loss-leader tends to rush the sample process — producing technically adequate samples that get approved quickly but then diverge in bulk production.

When comparing sample terms between two quotes, check:

• Sample cost. Is it a fixed fee, or does it depend on complexity? A flat $80 sample fee covers simple styles but may be inadequate for jacquard or complex shaping — leading to revision charges.
• What the sample cost covers. Does it include yarn, knitting, linking, washing, and finishing? Or just knitting? Some factories quote a low sample fee that covers only the knitting stage and invoice separately for everything else.
• Revision policy. How many rounds are included? What is the per-round charge after that? Is the revision fee waived if the original sample missed your brief?
• Whether sample cost is credited to bulk. Many factories credit the sample fee against your first bulk order above a minimum quantity. This is standard practice and worth confirming.

Understanding exactly what to prepare before sampling starts also reduces your revision count — and therefore your total sampling cost. Our checklist on what buyers should send before knitwear sampling starts covers this in detail.

The questions to ask both factories before deciding

Once you have reviewed both quotes against the eight comparison areas above, send each factory the same set of follow-up questions. The quality of their answers will tell you as much as the answers themselves.

1. Yarn count and fibre grade: "Can you confirm the exact yarn count (Nm or Ne), ply, and fibre composition for this style at the quoted price?"
2. Finished garment weight: "What is the estimated finished weight in grams for a size M at this gauge and yarn count?"
3. MOQ clarification: "Is the MOQ per style total, per colour, or per colour per size? For a 2-colour order with 4 sizes, what is the minimum total quantity?"
4. Sample revision scope: "How many revision rounds are included in the sample fee? What is the charge for additional rounds, and is the sample fee credited to bulk?"
5. Label and packing inclusions: "Does the quoted price include woven neck label, care label, hang tag, polybag and carton? If not, what are these priced at separately?"
6. Shipping terms basis: "Is this quote on EXW, FOB or CIF terms? If EXW, what is the approximate inland freight cost to the nearest port?"
7. Lead time from what point: "Does the stated production lead time start from deposit payment or from yarn arrival? Is yarn sourcing time included?"
8. Yarn dye situation: "Is the colour we have specified a stock colour or a custom dye? If custom, what is the minimum dye lot and how does that affect unit cost at our quantity?"

A factory that answers all eight questions clearly and promptly is demonstrating the kind of technical transparency that makes production easier to manage. A factory that deflects, answers vaguely, or pushes back on being asked these questions is signalling that the relationship will be harder.

What a suspiciously cheap quote usually looks like

It is worth being specific about the combinations that most reliably produce problems. These are not theoretical — they are patterns that surface repeatedly in buyer complaints about Chinese knitwear sourcing.

• Very low price + vague yarn description. "Acrylic blend," "wool mix," or "high-quality yarn" without any specification is almost always a signal that the factory is quoting a lower-grade input than you are expecting.
• Low price + free sample + no revision policy. A factory absorbing all sample costs with no stated limit is either very small with low fixed costs, or is pricing bulk to recover the sample loss — meaning bulk is priced tighter than it appears and quality control will be the first thing to compress.
• Very short lead time claim. "15-day bulk production" for a 100-piece order at a complex gauge is usually not realistic unless the factory already has your yarn in stock and nothing else to produce. Ask what assumptions that lead time is based on.
• Quote with no itemisation. A single line-item quote — "$11.50/pc, 100 pcs minimum" — with no breakdown of what is included tells you the factory either has not thought through the full scope, or does not want you to compare line by line. Either is a problem.

When the higher quote is the right choice

There are situations where the higher-priced factory should win the comparison clearly, and recognising these situations early saves time and money:

• When the higher quote specifies yarn and the lower does not. A factory that cannot or will not specify yarn count is not quoting the same product. You are comparing a known item against an unknown.
• When the higher quote includes label and packing and the lower does not. Once you add those items to the lower quote, the gap often disappears or reverses.
• When the higher quote has clearer revision and QC terms. The cost of one additional sampling round due to poor QC at a cheaper factory typically exceeds the price difference on a small order.
• When the higher factory has verifiable production evidence. Factory photos, YouTube videos of the production floor, a business licence with manufacturing scope — these reduce your risk in ways that are worth paying for. Our article on trading company vs real knitwear factory explains what to look for.

Build your own comparison table

The most practical way to apply this guide is to create a simple side-by-side table for the two quotes you are comparing. Copy the structure below and fill in what each factory has confirmed — not assumed.

The last row — total estimated landed cost — is the number that actually determines which quote is cheaper. It includes unit price, all add-on costs that are not in the quote, freight to your warehouse, and duty. Until you have calculated that number for both factories, you have not compared quotes. You have only compared two numbers that each hide a different set of assumptions.

How we quote at Lin Sweater Factory

We describe how we handle quotations directly because we think buyers deserve to know what to expect before they ask.

When we receive a brief, our quotation includes yarn specification by fibre content, count and ply; gauge; unit price at the stated quantity with breakpoints at higher quantities; sample fee and revision policy; a statement of what is included in packing and what is not; lead time from yarn confirmation, not from deposit; and shipping basis (we quote FOB Shenzhen as standard and can quote CIF on request).

We do not quote until we have enough information to quote accurately. If a reference image is insufficient to specify gauge and yarn, we ask before quoting rather than assuming and adjusting later. This sometimes means our first reply is a question rather than a number. We think that is more useful to buyers than a fast quote that changes after sampling begins.

If you are comparing us against another factory, we are happy to answer all eight follow-up questions above in writing before you make any decision. That is what how we work looks like in practice.