Want to Start a Clothing Brand? Better Learn How to Say No to Someone’s Brother-in-Law in Heilongjiang

If your supplier’s “solution” lives 2,000km away and doesn’t use email… you’re not scaling, you’re stalling.

Learn how to set real sourcing boundaries inside Garment Sourcing 101

Me when my supplier in Humen tells me they have a brother who does pad printing… he’s in Heilongjiang.

This is how it starts.

You’re working with a factory in Guangdong, everything’s going fine — until you mention you need a heat transfer print. No problem, they say. “My brother can do that.”

You ask where he’s based.

Heilongjiang.

If you’ve never looked at a map of China, that’s like asking for local embroidery in LA and being told someone’s cousin in Anchorage can help.

How Supplier Sprawl Kills Your Clothing Line Before It Launches [start a clothing brand]

If you’re trying to start a clothing brand, decentralised production might not sound like a big deal — until you’re managing three factories across two provinces, none of whom know who’s delivering what or when.

Here’s what happens:

• One factory is sewing

• Another is printing

• Someone else is packing

• And you’re holding it all together with WhatsApp and crossed fingers

It’s not just messy — it’s unscalable.

Why This Happens

When you’re new to production, it’s easy to say yes.

• Yes to the “helpful” factory that offers to outsource something for you

• Yes to the brother who “does a good job” but has no samples, website, or process

• Yes to solutions that are convenient for them — not you

This is how brands break before they even ship.

Because when you don’t own the structure, you don’t control the outcome.

And if you’re figuring out how to start your own clothing line, this is one of the biggest lessons: centralise or die trying.

What to Do Instead

If you’re going to start a clothing business, you need to:

• Keep as much under one roof as possible

• Vet every new supplier yourself — no matter who introduces them

• Map out your production flow before you agree to anything

• Say no to well-meaning “brothers” who add complexity and risk

The more moving parts you have, the more cracks appear.

And in garment manufacturing, cracks get expensive fast.

Want to launch without your entire supply chain held together by family favours?

Get the system, scripts, and sourcing mindset that actually works — inside Garment Sourcing 101.

Built for small brands that want to scale smart, not scattershot.