The eight stages
Every order, stock or production, moves through the same eight gates. What changes is which ones take days and which ones take weeks.
The two stages buyers consistently underestimate are stage 4 (approval to deposit) and stage 8 (customs clearance), because neither is production work and both can consume a week.
- 1 — Enquiry: quantity, size curve, colour, deadline, destination.
- 2 — Quote: price with basis stated, lead time, what is excluded.
- 3 — Sample: 7–10 days including decoration; wash it twice.
- 4 — Approval and deposit: the stage that silently eats a week.
- 5 — Production scheduling: 25–35 days from approval, capacity-dependent.
- 6 — Inline and final inspection: your gate, not ours.
- 7 — Shipment: ocean 30–40 days, air 5–10, express 3–7.
- 8 — Customs, duty and inland delivery: 5–10 days, variable.
Stage 1–2: what makes a quote accurate
A quote built on a guessed quantity is wrong for both sides. Send the real number and the real deadline together: a genuine deadline changes the shipping mode, which changes the landed cost more than the unit price does.
Also send the destination. FOB and DDP differ by the entire freight and duty line, and the same shirt can be quoted at two very different numbers depending on which one you want.
Stage 3–4: the sample is a gate, not a courtesy
The sample exists to be rejected. Measure it against the size chart, stretch the neck twice, look at the print edge under raking light, then wash it twice at 40°C and measure again. Shrinkage and cure failures only appear after the wash.
Then the gap: approval to deposit. On a production order this is where a week disappears because a PO needs internal sign-off. Book it in advance or accept the slip.
Stage 5–6: production and inspection
Production is scheduled after the deposit, not after the enquiry. A supplier who says "we will start Monday" before the deposit has arrived is describing hope.
Inspection is the buyer’s responsibility. A third-party inspection before final payment costs a few hundred dollars and is the only objective check that the bulk matches the sample. Suppliers who resist it are telling you something about what it would find.
Stage 7–8: shipping and customs
Choose the mode against the deadline, not against the freight quote: air costs more per kilogram but can be cheaper per day of delay avoided. For stock orders none of this applies — the goods are already through customs.
Customs is the least predictable stage. Have the HS code, the declared value and the entry documents ready before the vessel sails, not when it arrives.