Clothing manufacturers in Pakistan: how to find and work with one

Clothing manufacturers in Pakistan range from a tailor who stitches 10 pieces to export factories that sew for foreign brands. Test one design with a tailor (10–30 pieces), then take 100–200 pieces to a small stitching unit in your own city that charges a rate per piece. The big clusters are Faisalabad, Karachi, Lahore and Sialkot, but their export factories will not take an order that small. Get three written quotes, pay for a sample and cost one kurta line by line before you order. Every order size here is our planning assumption, because each unit sets its own minimum.

We do not list company names, because we have not inspected any factory. For the steps around manufacturing, read how to start a clothing brand in Pakistan.

Four kinds of maker, and which one fits you

Match your order to the right maker, or a big factory will ignore you and a small one will overcharge you.

We found no published minimum order for Pakistani garment units, so the sizes in this table are our assumptions. Ask each maker for its own.

Minimum order quantity

A unit may count its minimum per design, per colour or per size. A 100-piece order in 4 sizes and 2 colours is 8 lots of 12 or 13 pieces, which a per-size unit may refuse. Ask for the rate at the minimum and at double it.

Decision rule: do not order more than you can sell in 60 days. If the maker you want asks for more, take a smaller maker at a higher rate per piece. The extra rupees cost less than stock on a shelf while cash on delivery returns your money slowly.

Private label or your own design

Private label puts your label on a plain tee, hoodie or shirt the maker already cuts. It needs no pattern of your own, so it suits a small test, but the maker can sell the same style to the next buyer. Makers Row, a US sourcing marketplace, draws the same line between private label and custom full-package. We found no Pakistani source that defines the two.

Decision rule: use private label to test demand for a basic, and your own design when the cut, print or fit is why people buy. Ask which current styles can carry your label and whether the maker sells the same style to others.

Where to look and how to find a unit

A buyers’ guide from v-trust, dated January 26, 2022, names Lahore for denim, Faisalabad for more knitwear, Sialkot for sports and technical wear, and Karachi as the southern hub with skilled labour. Other sourcing guides we read name Faisalabad or Karachi for denim, so treat this as where to ask first, not a ranking. It is written for export buyers and gives no minimums or rates.

• Jeans and denim jackets: ask in Faisalabad, Karachi and Lahore, and compare the three quotes.
• T-shirts, hoodies, knit basics: Faisalabad.
• Tracksuits, activewear, team kits: Sialkot.
• Kurtas, shirts, two and three piece suits: your own city. Our advice: a unit you can visit every week beats a better one you cannot.

Industrial areas in Karachi, Faisalabad and Lahore

The International Accord, a safety agreement between brands and unions, publishes the factories that make for its signatory brands. Its list of January 31, 2026 gives 679 factories and 649,091 workers, both labelled approximate by the Accord. These are export factories, so many will not take 100 pieces, but their addresses show where the stitching floors are. The table names areas that appear in those addresses. Search the PDF for an area name to check it.

To find a unit:

• Ask the shops in the cloth markets. Stitching units depend on them for fabric. Our guides to wholesale markets in Lahore and wholesale markets in Karachi show where to go.
• Ask three sellers in your city’s Instagram and Facebook business groups who stitches for them.
• Ask the tailor you already use which bigger unit they trust.
• Search Google Maps for the area names above plus “stitching unit”, and message six units, not one.
• Visit every unit before you pay anything. Count the machines and look at the tables.

CMT or full package

CMT means cut, make and trim. You supply the fabric, trims, labels and patterns, and the unit supplies the labour and machines. Full package means the factory buys the fabric and trims too. For a first order, use CMT, so you check the fabric yourself. Move to full package when one design sells again and again.

On a CMT order you hand over cloth worth real money before a single piece exists. For 100 kurtas at the fabric cost below, that is 100 × Rs 800 = Rs 80,000. Ask for a written receipt in metres, and agree in writing that the unit pays for fabric on any piece it spoils. The fabric calculator gives metres per piece by cloth width and size, so you know how much cloth to send.

Cost one kurta line by line

A plain cotton lawn kurta at 100 pieces, as of October 2026. Only the sourced lines are market data. The others are our assumptions. Replace each with your own quote.

Fabric is 48% of the cost and stitching is 42%. Check both, then check the price.

Check the fabric. Rs 320 a metre is the cheap end. In the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics weekly price survey for the week ended October 15, 2026, average-quality shirting was Rs 548.58 a metre and printed lawn from Gul Ahmed and Al Karam was Rs 682.80.

Check the stitching. We found no published rate for stitching a plain kurta, so Rs 700 is our assumption. Get a written rate from three CMT units. Two public numbers frame the range. Sindh’s minimum wage is Rs 43,000 a month in the 2026–27 budget, reported by Pakistan Observer on June 17, 2026. Over 26 working days that is Rs 1,654 a day. If one machinist finishes 8 kurtas a day (our assumption), wages alone are Rs 207 a kurta, and a quote near that cannot pay for rent, power and the owner.

At the other end, The Nation reported on March 16, 2026 that tailors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa charged Rs 2,000–2,500 for a single suit in the Eid rush, almost double normal days. A unit working in volume without fittings should quote a plain kurta well below that.

Check the price. Alkaram’s public product feed on October 20, 2026 listed 45 women’s ready-to-wear kurtis from Rs 1,395 to Rs 2,995, with a median of Rs 1,995. Our kurta costs Rs 1,669, which is 84% of that median. Our rule of thumb, a judgement and not a standard: if the cost on your shelf is more than 60% of the selling price, little is left after courier, returns and ads. The table shows the price each case needs.

A plain lawn kurta at retail fabric prices cannot win on price against a big brand. Ask your maker for the CMT rate at 200 pieces as well as 100, price fabric at a wholesale market (Lahore or Karachi) instead of Daraz, and sell something the brands do not stock, above Rs 2,782. Labels get cheaper in bulk: on the same Daraz search, 500 custom woven labels were Rs 2,900, or Rs 5.80 each against Rs 24 at 100. To set your price, see how to price products in Pakistan.

Quotes, tech pack and sample

Send the same message to three units on WhatsApp so the answers are in writing. Fill the brackets:

• Assalam o alaikum. I run a small clothing brand in [city] and need a CMT unit for a first order.
• Design: plain cotton kurta, photos and measurement table attached, sizes S, M, L, XL.
• Quantity: [100] pieces. Fabric: I supply [250] m of [44] inch cotton lawn.
• Please quote CMT per piece at [100] pieces and at [200] pieces.
• What does the rate include: thread, buttons, interlining, pressing, polybag?
• Minimum per design, and per size within a design?
• Is the sample charged, and is it deducted from the bulk order? How many days for the sample, and how many for bulk after I approve it?
• How much advance, and when is the balance due?
• What happens to pieces that fail my check?

If your quantity is below their minimum, ask which unit they send small orders to. For private label, replace the fabric line with: “Which of your current styles can carry my label, in which colours?”

Decision rule: if one quote is below two thirds of the other two, ask what is left out, such as pressing, finishing or thread.

The tech pack is one or two pages: a front and back photo or sketch, a measurement table per size in inches, the fabric name, width and colour, seam, hem and neckline details, trims and label position, and how to fold and pack. Write the tolerance you accept, such as 1 cm either way (our suggestion). The size chart guide has measurements to start from.

Pay for the sample. Measure it against your tech pack, wash it the way a buyer will and measure again, because fabric that shrinks turns a size M into a size S. Approve it in writing with a photo and keep it sealed: every bulk piece is compared with that sample. Plan for two sample rounds before the first bulk order.

Pay, check and walk away

Payment terms

Never pay 100% before delivery. Our default is 50% when you approve the sample and place the order, and 50% after you have checked the finished pieces. For 100 kurtas at a CMT rate of Rs 700, that is Rs 70,000 in total: Rs 35,000 on order and Rs 35,000 after the checks. If a unit asks for more up front, ask why and agree it in writing. Pay by bank transfer to a named account and keep the receipt.

Check the order before you pay the balance

1. Count the pieces, per size, against the order.
2. Measure 2–3 pieces in every size against the tech pack.
3. Look at every piece: seams, hem, neckline, buttons, label position, loose threads, colour next to the approved sample in daylight.
4. Wash two pieces and measure them again.
5. Check the folding and the polybag.

Checking 100 pieces at 2 minutes each takes about 3 hours (our estimate). Do it at the unit, before you pay the balance. If more than 5 in 100 have a fault, which is the reject allowance in the costing, ask for repairs or remakes first.

Red flags

• It asks for the full amount in advance, or will not give a receipt for your fabric.
• It will not make a sample, or says the bulk will “come out the same” without one.
• Bulk pieces do not match the approved sample, and the unit says the sample was a one-off.
• The rate is near or below Rs 207 a kurta, the wage floor worked out above.
• It will not put the rate, the quantity and the delivery date in writing, or will not let you visit.
• Your pattern or photos show up on another seller’s page.

Pieces that pass go into a clean polybag or flyer. For what to put in the parcel, see packaging for an online business in Pakistan.

Where your store fits

Once the pieces pass your checks, they need a shop. Your store starts at yourbrand.storelala.com, on a Shopify alternative built for Pakistan. Lite is free forever. You do not need a card to start, and it is a full store with cash on delivery, for up to 10 products and 3 photos per product, which is enough for a first drop of a few designs. There are no Storelala fees on any plan.

When you want JazzCash, Easypaisa and cards, or PostEx, Leopards and TCS booked from the order screen, Core is Rs 2,000 a month, or Rs 1,000 a month billed yearly. A .com can be bought in the store on any plan, and Core and Grow can connect a .pk or .com you already own. See the plans.

Questions sellers ask

Which city is best for clothing manufacturing in Pakistan?

There is no single best city, and sources disagree on denim. A buyers’ guide by v-trust, dated January 26, 2022, names Lahore for denim, Faisalabad for more knitwear, Sialkot for sports and technical wear, and Karachi as the southern hub; other guides we read name Faisalabad or Karachi for denim. The International Accord’s list of January 31, 2026 is led by Karachi, Faisalabad and Lahore. For a small brand, the best unit is the one near enough to visit every week.

What is the minimum order for clothing manufacturers in Pakistan?

There is no standard minimum, and we found no public Pakistani figure. Each unit sets its own, per design and sometimes per colour or per size. For planning we assume 10–30 pieces with a tailor, 100–200 with a small stitching unit (some will start at 50) and 300 or more with a full-package factory. Ask every maker whether the minimum counts per design, colour or size, and for the rate at double that quantity.

How do I find a manufacturer for my clothing brand?

Start in your own city. Ask the cloth-market shops, three sellers in business groups and the tailor you already use who stitches for them. Send the same quote request to six units, visit the best three, and pay for a sample before you commit. Never choose on the first price alone.

What is the difference between private label, CMT and full package?

Private label means the maker puts your label on a style it already produces. CMT means you supply the fabric, trims and patterns and the unit only cuts and stitches, and full package means the factory buys the fabric and builds a garment from your own design. For a first order, use CMT with your own design, or private label on a plain basic if you only want to test demand. Move to full package when one design sells again and again.

How much does it cost to stitch a kurta in Pakistan?

We found no published factory rate. We use Rs 700 for a plain cotton kurta at a small unit as a planning figure as of October 2026, Rs 900 for a tailor and Rs 650 for a larger unit, and you must replace them with written quotes from three units. For the top end, The Nation reported on March 16, 2026 that tailors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa charged Rs 2,000–2,500 for a single suit in the Eid rush, almost double normal days.

How do I stop a manufacturer from copying my design?

You cannot stop it with a promise, so reduce the risk. Keep your tech pack and approved sample, write into the agreement that your patterns and samples are not used for other buyers, and put your own label on every piece. Test a new unit with a small first order before you hand over your best-selling design.