You will probably choose your knitwear manufacturer from two things: a sample they sent you and a price they quoted. Both are easy to produce well once. Neither tells you what happens on the four hundredth piece, or in the second season, or on the day a yarn lot arrives off-shade.
The questions below are the ones that surface that. Ask them on the first call. The answers take five minutes and they will tell you more than another round of samples.
1. What gauges do you run, and on what machines?
Gauge is the needle density, and it decides what a knit can be. A 3gg machine makes chunky, structural pieces. A 12gg machine makes fine, drapey ones. Most factories are set up for a narrow band and quietly steer you toward it.
Ask for the actual range and the machine names. If your line runs from a heavy cable coat to a fine merino tee, a single-gauge factory will make one of them well and compromise on the other.
2. Fully-fashioned, cut-and-sew, or whole-garment?
These are three different ways to build a knit and they are not interchangeable.
Cut-and-sew means knitting fabric in a length and cutting the shapes out of it, the way woven garments are made. It is fast and it wastes yarn. Fully-fashioned means each panel is knitted to its finished shape, with the shaping built in at the edges, then linked together. It costs more and it holds its shape far better. Whole-garment means the piece comes off the machine in one piece with no seams at all.
A factory that only does cut-and-sew will still say yes to a fully-fashioned brief. Ask which one your piece will be made with, and why.
3. Who actually knits it?
Some of the work will be subcontracted almost everywhere. That is normal. What matters is whether the people you are talking to know where it goes and whether they have anyone standing there.
Ask who owns the machines, whether the linking and finishing happen in the same place as the knitting, and who from their side is physically present when your order runs. An answer that stays vague is itself an answer.
4. What happens when a yarn lot comes in off-shade?
Natural fibres vary between lots. This is not a failure, it is the material. The question is what the factory does about it.
Good practice is to reserve the full yarn quantity for your order from one dye lot before production starts, and to flag it to you if that is not possible. The alternative, which you will only discover on delivery, is a run where the first two hundred pieces and the last two hundred are visibly different.
5. How is colour approved, and what happens if a swatch cannot be shipped?
Shipping a lab dip across a border can take two weeks each way. On a tight calendar that is a month of the timeline gone to one decision.
There is a workable alternative: approving colour from a white-balanced photograph against a known reference. It carries more risk than a physical swatch and anyone offering it should say so plainly rather than presenting it as equivalent. What you want to hear is the trade-off named, not hidden.
6. Who owns the pattern and the tech pack?
Your designs, your brand, and your intellectual property are yours. That part is rarely disputed.
The pattern and the tech pack engineered to manufacture them are a separate question, and most brands never ask it until they want to move production. Get the position stated in writing before you place an order rather than after. A clear answer either way is better than a vague one.
7. Do you sign an NDA, and does the factory sign one too?
An NDA with the agency you are talking to protects you from the agency. It does nothing about the factory floor where your styles are actually made.
Ask whether the obligation runs down the chain. Ask what stops an overrun, which is the quiet version of design theft: the factory makes your order plus fifty, and the fifty leave through a side door. The only real control is someone counting on the floor.
8. What is the minimum, and is it per style or per order?
Minimums are usually quoted per style, and often per style across a set number of colours. A minimum quoted per order sounds lower and behaves differently once you have four styles.
Get the unit clear before you plan the range.
9. What is the lead time, and what is it measured from?
"Eight weeks" can mean eight weeks from deposit, from yarn arrival, or from the day the pre-production sample is approved. The three can be six weeks apart.
Ask what starts the clock and what the calendar assumes. A factory that gives you a range and names what would push it to the top of the range is being straight with you.
10. What happens if the run is wrong?
The most useful question and the one most likely to get a soft answer.
You want to know: who inspects, against what standard, at what point, and what happens if the goods fail after they have shipped. A stated guarantee period with a defined remedy is worth more than a promise to make it right.
Reading the answers
The pattern matters more than any single reply. You are listening for whether someone names limits and trade-offs without being pushed. A manufacturer who tells you what they will not do is telling you the truth about what they will.
A sample proves a factory can make one good piece. These questions tell you whether the four hundredth will match it.
Tirarin is a custom knitwear manufacturer working in fully-fashioned cashmere and merino from 3gg to 12gg, with our own people on the factory floor. See how the process works from first reference image to delivered freight.
