Why Two Knitwear Factories Quote Different Prices for the Same Sweater

You send the same tech pack to three factories. One quotes 9 dollars, one quotes 12, one does not reply. The gap is usually not the factory’s margin. It is four decisions made before the price was written down.

1. The yarn, not the style

Yarn is the largest line in most knitwear costs. Two sweaters can look identical on a flat lay and sit at very different prices because one uses a 2-ply 16-micron cashmere and the other a 2-ply 30% cashmere blend.

Ask which yarn the quote uses: composition, count, ply and micron. If the answer is only “cashmere”, the quote is not comparable yet.

2. Gauge changes knitting time

Gauge is needles per inch. A 3GG sweater knits fast on a coarse machine; a 14GG top needs a finer machine and more passes for the same panel. Fine gauge also needs tighter quality control on stitch density, which shows up in labour.

The same style quoted at 3GG and at 12GG is not the same product, even if the drawing looks the same.

3. Construction: fully fashioned or cut and sew

Fully fashioned panels are knitted to shape. They waste less yarn and the seams are cleaner, but linking takes time. Cut-and-sew is cheaper per panel and common at higher volumes, yet it loses yarn in the cutting room and changes how the garment holds shape.

Ask which construction the price assumes. A quote that switches construction between sample and bulk is how order budgets break.

4. Order size and colour count

Cost per piece falls as quantity rises because machine set-up and yarn minimums are spread across more garments. Colour splits work the same way: three colours inside 100 pieces is three smaller yarn bookings, not one 100-piece run.

This is the part of the price a buyer can actually move, by ordering fewer colours or accepting stock yarn.

What a quote should show

A usable knitwear quote lists: yarn composition and supplier, gauge, construction, sample cost, bulk price per size break, MOQ per design, lead time, and what is excluded (custom yarn below the yarn minimum, extra fit rounds, hand-work, express shipping).

If three of those are missing, you are comparing estimates, not quotes.

Eight questions before you compare

1. Which yarn exactly, and is it stock or custom-dyed?
2. Which gauge and which knitting machine?
3. Fully fashioned or cut and sew?
4. What is the MOQ per colour, not only per design?
5. What is the sample cost, and is it credited against bulk?
6. How many fit rounds are included?
7. What is the inspection standard at final inspection?
8. Which shipping terms and documents are included?

How we quote

JIERQI quotes from the tech pack or a reference garment: 100 pieces per design, sampling in 7–10 days on stock yarns, production 30–45 days after approval, and final inspection at AQL 2.5 under ISO 2859-1. Sample cost is credited against the bulk order.

If a style does not fit our sample room, we say so rather than pad a quote.

If you want a second opinion on a quote you already have, send it with the tech pack and we will point out what is missing.

Related: low MOQ knitwear manufacturing, cashmere sweaters, custom OEM, how inspection works.