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In a true sense, garment factories do not produce surplus garment intentionally. They make garments for their buyers (international). When they can't sell some garments from whatever quantity they made, those stock lots become surplus garments for the garment factory. The question is incorrect in that sense. You may be asking for how surplus garments are generated at the garment factories.

Surplus garments are known as export surplus. Retailers sell surplus garments as export surplus products. As the product design, fabric and trims quality are very good, available at a lower price, consumer love for buying an export surplus garment.

Garment factories sell that surplus garment to the surplus market (wholesalers).


To answer this question, here I have listed some of the reasons how a huge volume of the surplus garments generated in garment factories.
Normally, garment factories produce more garments than the order quantity they get from their buyers. So garment factories get surpl…

Cutting processes followed by the garment factories will be discussed in this post. Fabrics are cut into garment patterns using one of the cutting aids for making garments from fabrics. I have shared a pdf document in this post compiling some of the cutting process related articles published in this blog earlier.

In the ready-made garment manufacturing, garment manufacturer mostly does cut-to-pack processes. The cutting process comes next to the fabric sourcing and prior to the stitching garments.

In the earlier post, cutting room overview explained details about various process performed in the cutting section in the garment factory. In the global apparel sourcing supply chain, garment manufacturers are called export houses and garment suppliers. Here we will see the process flow of the cutting department. The cutting process sequence is shown by arrows.

Receiving cut plan and maker plan based on work order --> Preparing cut ratio --> Receiving fabrics from fabric store (wa…

If you are making garments for the USA apparel Brands, you might have already seen a 5 digit number RN number (7 digit code starting with RN 99999) in the label (one of the labels). What does this RN number mean?
Definition of RN Number: "RN stands for Registered Identification Number. It is a number issued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to U.S. businesses that manufacture, import, distribute, or sell products covered by the Textile, Wool, and Fur Acts. Businesses can use this number on product labels instead of the company name". Source: FTC website


Many times, I searched the meaning of RN number on the internet in the past but I forgot it each time (the reason maybe I am not a brand or not a garment manufacturer). This time I decided to write a post on this question and publish it in my blog. So, next time when I forget the meaning of it, I can quickly find it from my blog. For your reference, I have given useful links for learning more about the RN number.
A busi…

These days I am reading and exploring the topic sustainability in fashion. You might be also reading many buzz-words and trends in sustainable fashion manufacturing - all focussing to the same goal - making the fashion industry more sustainable. Last week, we have published an article on Circular fashion and challenges in circular fashion movement. These days almost all fashion journals and fashion news websites featuring sustainability things.

In one side, the apparel industry is focussing on the real-time data, IoT, machine to machine networking, micro-factory, intelligent manufacturing for making the business sustainable. On the other hand, we need to make the fashion products sustainable way. All we need to understand the technology of the latest manufacturing tools, and the concept of sustainable fashion manufacturing.

During my study, I came to know about many terms related to sustainability in the fashion industry. Most of the terms we read on the journals and apparel and text…

The fabrics come out from the loom shed are in greige form. After the weaving process, fabrics are passed through various wet processing to achieve desired feel and properties. In this article, would be focused more on the additional processes done on the fabric as a value addition by imparting newer properties. After reading this post, you will have a good idea of different types of textile finishes.

Finishing is the process done after production in the textiles .i.e. yarns, fabrics, garments to make it attractive, presentable as well as impart certain desirable properties, broadening the area of textile application and use. It is most often that the yarns are exempted from the finishing process as they can be later finished in fabric or garment form. A desirable finished can easily increase the value of textile goods rather than their raw form.


Different Types of Textile Finishes With growing demands both in quality as well as properties finishing techniques can be divided into thr…

In today's post, Max Grosse Lutermann, the founder of maru.co has shared how the traditional apparel supply chain is changing. How digital apparel sourcing platforms can help fashion manufacturers through the new business model.
A new generation of fashion brands is winning the market  In the past decade, a new generation of brands has started to transform fashion retail and the way people shop. Brands like Boohoo, Misguided, Everlane or Lululemon were born on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Amazon or Shopify, which enabled them to connect to their consumers directly, offer their items for less by cutting out wholesale and distribution middlemen and scale sales rapidly.

These new winners in fashion are faster than incumbent retailers and respond to the ever-changing demands of a new generation of consumers by churning out new styles on a continuous basis as opposed to a seasonal basis. Those brands value transparency and sustainability and appeal to the conscious consumer by…

Safety is the top priority to all the leading apparel brands. To eliminate the accident to the wearer due to the sharp items remaining in a garment, like a broken needle part, brands provide needle policy to their suppliers.

It is therefore mandatory that a Needle Control Procedure is adopted by all apparel manufacturers. It is not only for infant wear and kids wear manufacturers who need to follow the needle policy and each garment need to pass through the needle detector machine prior to packing the garment. Now, this becomes a discipline of the garment factory and a major component of the factory compliance checklist.

What does the broken needle policy mean? Normally, the broken needle policy covers the following details
how to keep a record of each needle purchased by a garment factoryhow to keep a record of broken needles (See the format for broken needle record) who should be responsible for implementing, managing the needle policy in a factory?needle replacement guides,need…

In this article, the author of this write-up has shared an idea for making the sewing needles with an alternative material. The idea is innovative and may be required further research work to convert this idea into reality.

High productivity, the routine necessity for a competitive world, is now accompanied by maximum occupational safety and various environmental considerations. As like other industries, even garment factories also need to comply with strict regulations with respect to quality. The most importance is given in to the handling of sewing machine needles, majorly the regulations in this part are imposed by brand owners and buying houses.

The Challenges The major role in part, particularly to broken and damaged needles. The goal is to prevent pieces of broken needles from remaining in items of clothing, which pose a risk of injury for the end-user. It may also attract heavy penalties from the buyers.

Nowadays garments factories facing many challenges to improve efficienc…

Long has terms like Industry 4.0, fast fashion, etc. been a buzzword in this fashion industry. It is agreed that concepts like Industry 4.0 will improve a great lot in production ultimately boosting fast fashion throughout the world, but have anyone thought of the consequence that it will bring to the environment. Circular fashion should be the next big thing as it goes in tandem with the upcoming sustainable model of the fashion industry. In this article,  Soumyadeep Saha has discussed all this term, what it symbolizes and what the difficulties in achieving this are.


Definition of Circular fashion According to Dr. Anna Brismar, head, and owner of the Swedish consultancy firm Green Strategy and owner of circularfashion.com, circular fashion can be defined as clothes, shoes, accessories that are designed, sourced, produced and provided with the intent to be used and circulate responsibly and effectively in society for as long as possible in the most valuable form, and hereafter return…

Prints and embroidery works are the inseparable components in fashion and apparel products. Also, printing and embroidery are the value-added processes in garment manufacturing. The print quality, embroidery quality and their appearance on apparel must be as per the design provided by the customer (brands). Normally, in the apparel product development stage and in bulk production, garment factories develop print strike-off and embroidery strike-offs.

You know strike-off development is done for avoiding major mistakes in bulk production. Approval of the strike-off is also necessary for bulk printing.

How to Give an Approval for Print and Embroidery Strike-off? You need to follow the quality standards of the print quality to give approval to the sample. You can prepare a checklist to avoid mistakes in the approval of the above. In the buyer’s style techpack, most brands mention the print/embroidery quality requirement and give a reference. You can follow techpack details on print and e…