Short answer: Choose a factory that can run your small first order now and can still make your own designs later, so you don’t have to start over when a style sells. Don’t run OEM and ODM at the same time on a first order. Launch on stock styles with your logo, let sales show you which styles, colors and sizes work, adapt the best seller through ODM, and save full OEM development for the products that have earned it.
A new brand is short of two things: cash and information. You don’t yet know which style, color or size your customers will buy, and a custom order asks you to bet on all three before your first sale. The order you do things in matters as much as the factory you pick. The two decisions are connected, because the right factory lets you start small without closing off what comes next.
What OEM, ODM and stock with your logo mean
Factories use these words loosely. Some call any order with your logo on it “OEM” because your name goes on the product, and others call the same order ODM. So ignore the label and ask what changes on the garment. We quote four routes:
| Route | What you get | What changes | Minimum at YOUMEGA | First sample | Bulk, confirmed order to factory dispatch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain stock | A ready style, supplied as it is | Nothing: no logo, label or construction changes | From 50 pieces in total, mixing styles, colors and sizes | Order one to check fabric and fit | Confirmed with your order |
| Stock + your logo | A ready style under your brand | Logo, labels, hangtags and packaging | From 100 sets in total, mixing styles, colors and sizes | 7 days | 20–25 days |
| ODM | One of our base designs, adapted for you | Pattern, fabric, color or trims | 300–500 pieces per style, per color | About 7–10 days, not counting design preparation | 30–35 days |
| OEM | Your own design, built from your tech pack | Everything, to your specification | 300–500 pieces per style, per color | 10–15 days | 30–35 days |
Two things stand out. The minimum jumps the moment the garment itself changes. It also stops being a total across your order: custom minimums apply to every style and every color. That jump is the reason for the order of work below. For fuller definitions, see what factories mean by OEM and ODM.
Should a new brand run OEM and ODM at the same time?
Not on a first order, for three reasons.
Your cash goes further on stock. Take 300 pieces. On a custom order, that can be the minimum for a single style in a single color. On stock styles with your logo, the same 300 pieces can cover six to eight styles in several colors, which is a small collection you can photograph and sell. Five custom styles in one color each start at 1,500 pieces before you’ve sold a single one.
The two routes run on different clocks. A stock order can leave the factory 20–25 days after you confirm it. A custom style needs development and sample approval first, then 30–35 days in production. Start both together and your launch waits for the slowest piece.
You’ll make better decisions after your first sales. A custom order locks in fit, fabric and color. In our experience, roughly 70–80% of a focused first launch’s revenue comes from one style (how many styles to launch with). You want to find that style before you spend development money on it.
Stock and custom do work side by side later on. From your second or third order, keep your stock best sellers running and develop one custom style alongside them. One at a time is enough, because each development needs its own samples, minimum and cash.
When starting custom makes sense. Start with development if your product can’t exist as a stock style: a patented feature, a fit for a body or sport that stock patterns don’t serve, or pre-orders and wholesale commitments that already cover the minimum. Even then, start with one style rather than a full range.
A four-stage path from first order to your own designs
| Stage | What you order | What you’re finding out | Move on when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Try the product | Plain stock, from 50 pieces in total | Whether the fabric, fit and quality suit your customer | You’re happy with it, and testers ask where they can buy it |
| 2. Test the market | Stock + your logo, from 100 sets, in 2–4 styles and 2–3 colors | Which styles, colors and sizes sell | One style clearly outsells the rest |
| 3. Adapt the winner | ODM on your best seller, 300–500 pieces per style, per color | Whether your change lifts sales, price or repeat orders | The adapted version beats the stock one |
| 4. Build your own | OEM from your tech pack, 300–500 pieces per style, per color | Whether your signature products can carry the brand | You keep going, and stock can still fill out the range |
You can skip stage 1 if you already know the product. Stage 2 is the one not to skip. A focused launch usually shows a winner within 60–90 days. The signs we look for are a style outselling the others by 1.5 times or more, 50–60% sell-through on that style within 60 days, and customers asking for it in new colors.
Eight checks before you pick your first factory
Ask these in writing. The answers matter, and so does the way they’re given.
| What to check | Ask this | Good sign | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum order | Is that per order, per style or per color? | A clear figure for your exact order | A low website number that rises once you send your styles |
| Real factory | Where is the factory, and can you show me the floor on a video call? | An address and a live look at the line | Catalog photos only, or vague talk of a partner factory |
| Your category | Can you show me styles like mine that you’ve made? | Samples in your category, such as seamless or swim | “We can make anything” |
| A path to custom | If a stock style sells, can you develop my version, and who owns the pattern? | The same team, and a written answer on ownership | You’d have to move to another factory |
| Sampling | How long does it take, what is charged, and which changes are free? | The scope is in writing | “Free sampling” with no scope |
| Lead time | When does the clock start and stop? | A start and an end, such as confirmed order to factory dispatch | A number with no start point |
| Quality | Which standard do you inspect to, and what do I see before shipping? | A named standard such as AQL 2.5, plus photos | “We check everything” |
| Branding | Which logo methods, labels and bags can you add at my quantity? | A clear list with any minimums | Extra charges and outside vendors after you order |
The first and sixth checks matter more than they look. When we read the websites of 33 activewear manufacturers for our 2026 data report, 23 published a minimum order, but they counted it in different ways: 9 per color or colorway, 5 per style, 2 per design, and 6 gave a number with no basis at all. Bulk lead times started from different points too, including deposit, sample approval and the day fabric and trims arrive. Two quotes that look alike can be weeks and hundreds of pieces apart.
Our notes on MOQ figures that don’t hold up, factories and trading companies, free sampling and reading supplier quotes go deeper on each one. Once you have a shortlist, the standards established brands use give you a fuller audit, and payment terms are worth settling before you pay a deposit.
A free test: send the same brief to three factories
Before you pay for anything, send the same short message to three factories. It costs nothing, and the replies tell you more than any website.
Hi, I’m starting a [leggings and sports bra] brand for [your customer] in [country]. I’d like to start small with stock styles and my logo, then develop my own versions of what sells.
1. What is your minimum for stock styles with my logo, and is it per order, per style or per color?
2. Which logo methods, labels, hangtags and bags can you add at that quantity?
3. How long do a sample and a bulk order take, and when does that time start and stop?
4. If a style sells, can you develop my version, and who owns the pattern?My logo is attached. Target retail price: [ ]. Planned launch: [ ].
Then look at who replied, how quickly, and whether they answered all four questions. A good factory asks about your customer and your retail price, and tells you when something won’t work at your quantity. From our side of the inbox, a brief like this gets better answers because the factory can see what stage you’re at. If a quote comes back without a single question, expect the same attention on your order.
Running your market test on stock styles
- Keep the range tight. One core legging, one bra or top, and a third piece if the budget allows, in two or three colors.
- Split sizes on purpose. A common starting curve is S 1 : M 2 : L 2 : XL 1, shifted for your market. Our size ratio note shows how to set it.
- Spend on what customers see. Logo position, neck label and hangtag do most of the work on a stock style. See what you can add to a stock style.
- Hold off on custom bags. They’re made in a run of 2,000, which is a lot for a first order. Every piece ships in a standard bag anyway, so add custom bags when volume catches up.
- Record sales by style, color and size. Keep the units sold, the returns and their reasons, and what customers ask for in messages and reviews. That record decides your next order.
Here’s how we’d read the results:
| What you see | What it probably means | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| One style outsells the rest | You’ve found your hero style | Reorder it and make it your first candidate for ODM |
| One color outsells the rest | Color is driving the sale | Reorder that color, and price a custom shade only if it will earn its minimum |
| Good sales, but returns mention fit in one area | The style works and the pattern needs a change | Fix it through ODM: length, waistband, strap or coverage |
| Customers keep asking for the same feature | A product idea from real buyers | Brief it as an ODM change, such as a pocket or a longer inseam |
| Your largest sizes sell out first | Your customer is larger than your size curve | Shift the curve; for seamless, our Santoni machines knit up to 3XL |
| Nothing sells well | The audience, photos or price may be the problem, not the garment | Fix those first, because custom development won’t rescue weak demand |
What changes when you go custom
Going custom is a bigger move than it looks from a catalog, so know the rules before you start.
- Any change to the garment counts as custom. That covers pattern, fabric, custom color and trims. Swapping a zip, drawcord or webbing isn’t a small stock order. With us it sits at the same 300–500 pieces per style, per color as a new neckline.
- Fabric can move the minimum. 300 pieces is the low end. The fabric a style needs can push it up, and woven-in patterns such as seamless camouflage start at 500. See stock fabric and custom-knitted fabric.
- The proven fit carries over. When you build on a style that’s already selling, the pattern has been cut, graded and worn, so the sample tests only what you changed. Our note on styles that stand out covers which changes customers notice.
- Get pattern ownership in writing. For custom work you pay to develop with us, the pattern and specs are yours. Ask any factory the same question before sampling, and read will a manufacturer steal my design.
- Settle changes before sampling. Adjustments within the original design are free with us, and major changes are charged again.
Mistakes we see from new brands
- Picking on unit price alone. A lower price can come with a higher real minimum, a longer real lead time or extra charges later.
- Starting with a full custom range. Five styles, 1,500 pieces and no sales data is the most expensive way to learn what your customers want.
- Switching factories after the first success. Your pattern, color records and fit notes sit where the work was done. Moving a best seller can mean sampling the very thing that’s already working.
- Treating the sample as a formality. The approved sample is the standard your bulk order is checked against. See why bulk can differ from the sample.
- Expecting a stock style to be exclusive. Stock styles are offered to more than one brand, which is what keeps the minimum low. At this stage your brand, photos and service set you apart. If you need a design no one else can order, develop your own and agree exclusivity in writing.
Two brands that started small with us
A Warsaw brand’s first order was 100 sets of one legging style. It sold through, the next two orders each doubled, and within two years the brand was running 8,000 sets a season on the same fabric specification and pattern blocks. Jousfit in Mexico City started with 500 sets across three styles and now runs 20,000+ pieces a quarter, with every style still on its original pattern and grading.
Both stories make the same point. The factory that takes your test order is often the factory you’ll still be working with at scale, so choose it for where you’re going as well as where you are.
How this works at YOUMEGA
We’re a private-label activewear manufacturer with two of our own factories, cut-and-sew in Xiamen and seamless in Yiwu, and 1,000+ private-label projects since 2017. The path above is the one we recommend to new brands.
- 3,000+ stock styles. Browse them in our online catalog, with fabric, sizes and price shown for each style, and pick what you want to test.
- Every route in one place. Plain stock from 50 pieces, your logo from 100 sets, and ODM and OEM from 300–500 pieces per style, per color, so you can move up without changing factories.
- Branding under one roof. Logo work happens in house, and labels, hangtags and packaging are added to your order. See our stock and branding service.
- Seamless up to 3XL. Our 17–21-inch Santoni machines in Yiwu knit 2XL and 3XL, where standard 13–15-inch cylinders usually stop around XL.
- The same checks at every size. Finished garments are inspected under AQL 2.5, and we reply within 24 hours on working days.
FAQ
Should a new activewear brand start with OEM or ODM? Start with neither if a stock style can do the job. Launch on stock styles with your logo, from 100 sets at YOUMEGA, and use your sales to choose what to develop. Adapt the best seller through ODM next. Keep OEM, where you supply the full design, for products that have no close base style.
Can I run stock and custom orders at the same time? Yes, once you have sales data. Keep your stock best sellers running and develop one custom style alongside them. Plan them as two orders, because each has its own minimum and timeline: 100 sets and 20–25 days for stock with your logo, 300–500 pieces per style, per color and 30–35 days for custom.
Do I need a tech pack for my first order? No. A stock order with your logo needs style codes, colors, sizes and a logo file. A tech pack matters when you develop your own design. Even then you don’t have to write it alone, because a factory can build it with you from a sample, a sketch or a marked-up photo.
What is a realistic first order for a new brand? Two to four styles in two to three colors. At YOUMEGA that fits the stock route: from 100 sets in total with your logo, mixing styles, colors and sizes. If you only want to try the product before branding it, plain stock starts from 50 pieces in total, supplied as it is.
Can another brand buy the same stock style? Yes. Stock styles are offered to many brands, which is why they’re fast and low-minimum. Set yourself apart with your logo, labels, packaging and photography. If you need a design no one else can order, develop it as your own and agree exclusivity with your factory in writing before sampling.
How long until I have product to sell? On stock with your logo, a sample takes 7 days and bulk takes 20–25 days from confirmed order to factory dispatch. On custom, an ODM sample takes about 7–10 days after design preparation, an OEM sample takes 10–15 days, and bulk takes 30–35 days. Shipping is extra, and current figures are on our lead-times page.
Starting a brand and not sure which route fits? Send us your idea, your logo and a rough quantity. We reply within 24 hours on working days with the styles we’d start with and what a first order would look like. Tell us about your brand →
