Leggings have become an extremely popular clothing trend, especially among the female demographic. Most women have added them to their daily wardrobes and now it is not uncommon to find them being worn in the gym or even on the street while people run around handling personal errands.
A major reason for this boils down to the fact that these garments are extremely comfortable and easy to wear, not to mention, highly-versatile, as they can be worn with almost anything on top. With the market demand at an all-time high, it’s no wonder that many entrepreneurs and brands are starting to launch their own leggings collections.
To this end, if you’re looking to try your hand and create a space for your brand in this market, then you will need to get personalized leggings from a legging manufacturer, for example, Appareify. So, for those that may still be inexperienced in this industry, we put together this guide to help you get a clear idea of what is needed to launch a custom leggings collection with ease.
What You Should Know About Working With Custom Legging Manufacturers
When it comes to working with custom legging manufacturers, you will usually have the option of working with domestic manufacturers in the country or internationally-based manufacturers. Each option comes with its pros and cons, which typically revolve around aspects like communication, pricing, and shipping.
For instance, when it comes to domestic manufacturers, you will often be able to benefit from in-person supervision, faster deliveries, easier negotiation, etc. However, the downside is that it will often be more expensive to produce your garments locally. Alternatively, you can work with internationally-based manufacturers that can provide you with high-quality products at cheaper rates but the main downside is that it takes longer to get your orders delivered.
Another thing to consider is the production process because you will need to decide if you want the manufacturer to produce generic leggings and label them with your branding or design the leggings from scratch using your preferred patterns and fabrics. If the answer is the latter, then you will likely need a manufacturer like Appareify that offers cut and sew services.
However, this tends to work best for brands that already have experience producing their garment designs, so if you’re still new to the industry, it is usually best to opt for a full package production service (FPP). These factories will be able to handle the entire design and production process on your behalf, which means that you won’t need to deal with complicated aspects like fabric selection, sizing, etc.
What To Look For In A Custom Leggings Manufacturer?
It is important to keep in mind that, unlike most other types of generic clothing, leggings are made using materials like elastane, which can often prove to be very difficult to cut and sew. To this end, you can’t pick any clothing manufacturer and assume that they will be able to provide you with high-quality leggings.
You need to find an experienced manufacturer like Appareify that knows their way around such flexible and stretchy materials, otherwise, you risk ending up with several disproportion and pattern failures in your finished products. In this respect, here are the main aspects that you should be looking out for in a custom leggings manufacturer:
#1. Experienced design team: The company has to be able to provide you with custom design solutions that will enable you to create your own unique leggings designs. This means making sure that they have an experienced team of designers that will not only understand your design ideas but even enhance them where necessary.
#2. Fabric expertise: As mentioned before, fabric selection and production can be complicated when dealing with leggings. As such, you need to ensure the company has a proven track record of working with a wide selection of high-quality fabrics such as spandex, polyester, cotton, and nylon.
#3. Up-to-date equipment: The company you choose to work with must have state-of-the-art production facilities that will enable you to keep up with market trends and also keep up with large-scale bulk orders. After all, your leggings brand is bound to expand in the future, so you need to be sure that they have an efficient production model in place to cater to small and large-scale orders.
#4. Strict quality control: Quality control is extremely important because producing leggings with flaws only leads to customer dissatisfaction, which could damage your reputation and lower sales revenue. As such, you need to enquire about the manufacturer’s quality control process to ensure that everything they produce meets international quality standards.
#5. Fast turnaround: You should be confident that the company you partner with can produce your leggings in a timely fashion. This is crucial because if customer demand suddenly rises, you need to be sure that the clothing manufacturer will be able to meet tight deadlines and consistently deliver the new inventory on time.
Factors To Consider When Producing Custom Leggings
Now that you know what to look out for in a leggings manufacturer, there are also a few important considerations that you need to keep in mind when it comes to producing any type of leggings. These include:
- Fabric: This can make all the difference in terms of the quality of the finished product, as leggings require the use of breathable, stretchy, durable, and comfortable-to-wear fabrics. Some of the most popular choices used by most leggings brands typically involve different blends of spandex/nylon/polyester/cotton.
- Design: The design that you choose to use is very important because no matter how functional the leggings may be, if they are not fashionable, then no one will be interested in buying them. This means staying on top of any current fashion trends and taking the time to understand the target market to add the right amount of style to your designs.
- Fitting: When it comes to leggings, the fit is everything because these clothing items always need to be comfortable to wear in any situation. This means making sure that they fit snugly and offer up a wide range of different sizes that can fit any body type.
- Durability: Leggings are typically worn for use in intense training activities, which means that the stitching, construction and seams must be extremely strong and durable enough to sustain any form of punishment. They also need to be able to hold up to regular washing, so keep that in mind if you intend to use a lot of different colors in your designs.
- Sustainability: With a huge amount of demand from consumers for brands to be environmentally responsible, it is important to consider using sustainable fabrics in the construction of your leggings. This can often be a huge selling point, especially in your online marketing efforts, so keep that in mind.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter if you plan on selling yoga pants, workout leggings, tights, or ankle-length leggings. At the end of the day, what you need is a manufacturer that can consistently produce top-quality products that customers will love.
To accomplish this, you need to conduct a fair amount of research to find the right manufacturer. And if you also follow the tips listed above, you may even be able to exceed customer expectations.
Also, a good rule of thumb is to always have the manufacturer sew up samples for every new collection. After all, just because they have managed to get things right in the past doesn’t mean that they are immune from making mistakes.
