Mr_Carry

joined 11 months ago
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1
How do you negotiate on price with overseas manufacturers? (alien.top)
 

I've got a little soft-goods passion project I'm working on...let's call it a backpack.

I've found a good freelance designer whom I enjoy working with for the tech pack and once that's ready i'll be submitting it to manufacturers for sampling. I'll be looking into both domestic (USA) and overseas manufacturing and comparing the price/quality/batch size, etc.

From what I understand, manufacturing companies tend to operate on very thin margins so there's not a ton of wiggle room on manufacture price. Likewise, most overseas manufacturing companies operate on MOQs of a thousand units.

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My questions:

  1. How do I position discussions with a manufacturer? Look up the company and find a sales rep on linkedin? Reach out directly? What's the recognized practice for setting up a point of contact?
  2. What can I expect to negotiate on with a particular manufacturer? Do they ever budge on MOQ? Colorway? Actual production price?
  3. Is it acceptable to identify multiple manufacturers and request a sample from each, then go with the one who makes the best sample?
  4. Do many manufacturers have "sample" pricing? I had heard of one company that actually was offering up to 5 sample iterations for a reasonable, fixed price (like $1500). Is that a common thing in manufacturing?

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What love some help on navigating this part of the process. I've been itching to build a custom-product ecommerce site for ages, but I can't seem to get a product to sell!

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Thanks!

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Anyone know a trusted freelance soft goods designer or agency that can do a tech pack for $1k? in c/entrepreneur@indiehackers.space
[–] Mr_Carry@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Thanks for your response…what would you say might be a more appropriate budget for a tech pack?

1
Anyone know a trusted freelance soft goods designer or agency that can do a tech pack for $1k? (alien.top)
 

Hey all,

I’d like to get a little passion project side-hustle going but I’m having trouble getting a factory-ready tech pack. I’d like to skip a lot of the hullabaloo that comes with working directly with an agency (stuff like emotion boards and T&M billing with a team of multiple people).

My budget is flexible but I've burnt a ton of money before and never really got anything useful out of it.

Basically I already know what I want to create, but I’m looking for an agency that can turn it into a tech pack that I can hand to a factory and start the sample-iteration process.

Anyone have someone trusted they can recommend?

Thanks!!