Starting a bag manufacturing project?
Published by Steve Hill on December 21, 2016Bag manufacturing – what’s the process?
Bag manufacturing is what we know. You’ve found a niche in the market and you’re going to fill it with THE BAG OF THE YEAR. Congratulations, we can’t wait to make it for you! You can start thinking about the following things before you get to us for your bag manufacture. Once you know these things, we can start making suggestions on fabric dependent on the purpose of the bag or what it needs to hold. You might have a specific size in mind for a pocket, so once you know what needs to go in it, we can help you measure up.
Quantity
Our minimum order quantity is 250 for a bespoke tailor-made bag, you get economies of scale with increasing your number of units.
Textiles for bag (fabric)
Do you know what fabric you want to make the bag from? Have you seen a fabric you like? Please send an image of the bag if so, it will help us work it out. Or if you don’t know what it can be, can you let me know the properties it should have such as wipe clean, water resistant, reflective, lined, etc.
Fabric colour
Do you have a Pantone reference for the colour of the bag? We can match to that colour. Or will it be printed all over? Please send artwork.
Dimensions of your bag
What size should the bag be? What does it need to hold? This will help determine the fabric strength and how big it should be.
Handles for a custom bag
What length should they be? Is there one or two? Will there be a long and short handle? Should it be adjustable?
Do you want a logo printed on it? Where should it be? How many colours is it? Send artwork.
Fastenings
Will the bag be closed by a zip? What colour is the zip? Is it plastic or metal? What colour is the zip tape? Are there poppers? Is there Velcro?
Pockets
Is there a pocket on the inside or outside? What are their sizes? Should they have closures? What are they?
Lining your bag
Is there a lining? What colour is it? What characteristics should it have? Wipe clean? Washable?
Labels
Do you have a label on the bag? External or internal? Should it be woven, leather, PVC, PU? What colours? What is on it? Please send artwork or text it should have on it. Is there a care label? Printed? Shall we recommend the content? Do you want a swing tag with a barcode on it (are you selling through Amazon, you’ll need to consider their specification and detail required)? Send artwork.
Delivery date required
This is important if you are trying to achieve an event or a promotion so we can work back from that. Bear in mind that we offer the following guidelines for timing and then firm that up once you’ve placed your order based on current scheduling, quantity ordered and closures of the bag manufacturing factory for Chinese New Year, Diwali etc (we have two factories in China and India but also UK for some work, but we can’t offer a lot of customisation from UK, the price is also often prohibitive for smaller projects).
Sampling 2-3 weeks.
Bulk production 4-6 weeks
Shipping by sea 3 weeks (cheaper)
Shipping by air 3-4 days (more expensive)
Budget
It’s quite important to have a figure in mind at the start. Not so we spend it for you but so we can make sensible suggestions on fabric, fastenings, straps etc. It’s also important for you to know that you aren’t going to exceed your budget. Set it at the start and know what you are going to get for your spend. This will then help you retail it and work out your profit. Bag manufacturing can begin with the budget you want to spend and then work backwards because of the elements involved.
Supporting information
If you have an annotated sketch, please send it over. If you have a mood board showing bags you want to emulate or items from each bag that you like, then send it over and let us know what bit you like or don’t like.
What happens next
Send over this information. Let us digest it and one of the team will give you a call back to go through it. Once we’ve understood your specification then we can give you a guide price and let you know if we can make your bag within your budget and with the fabric and things you want on it for your price.
You might want to increase the specification of the bag by upgrading the fabric weight, because we came in under your budget. Or you might want to add a lining or something else which means we can then price your job accurately when you have finalised your specification. We then have a sample maker who makes your bag from paper to allow us to calculate the amount of fabric required, the detailing of the bag and the hardware associated with it (zippers, leather patches on the base or embroidery etc).
We supply a formal quote to you and on approval, you pay a 50% deposit to launch bag manufacturing. You then approve the sample and we launch bulk production and advise your shipping dates. Easy peasy. Come on, get your bag project moving +44 (0) 1225 667979
