Knitwear MOQ Explained: Why 100 Pieces, and When It Moves

Every factory conversation eventually reaches the same sentence: our minimum is a hundred pieces per design. Buyers usually hear that as a commercial position, something that might be negotiated if the relationship is good enough. It is not. A hundred pieces is roughly where the fixed cost of setting a knitting machine up stops dominating the cost of the garment itself. Below that line the price per piece does not rise gradually, it rises in steps you can feel.

Understanding what those steps are is more useful than arguing about the number, because it tells you which conditions to relax when you genuinely need a smaller run.

The Fixed Block: One Setup, Four Costs

A flat knitting machine does not switch from one design to another by pressing a button. Between two styles, four things happen regardless of how many pieces come off the bed:

1. Programming. The design is rebuilt as a machine file — which needle knits, tucks, transfers or drops at every course. A plain crew neck is quick. A multi-colour jacquard band, a cable panel or a 3D relief motif is a full day of programming and testing.
2. Yarn threading and tension setting. Every yarn position has to be threaded and tensioned, then tuned so the fabric density lands where the spec says it should.
3. Swatch verification. A panel comes off the machine and gets measured, washed and compared to the intended result before the run is allowed to continue.
4. Finishing setup. Linking, washing and blocking, trim attachment and packing all have their own changeover.

Three of those four happen once per setup, not once per garment. At 500 pieces they are noise. At 50 pieces they are most of the cost. That is the entire logic behind a minimum, and it is why the honest answer to can you do fifty is not yes or no — it is yes, at a materially higher unit cost.

Why a New Colour Is Cheaper Than a New Style

This is the single most useful distinction in knitwear ordering, and it is where most costing conversations go wrong. Adding a colourway to an approved style keeps the programme intact. The machine file already knows where every needle goes; you are changing which yarn feeds a position. Changeover is threading and tension, measured in hours.

Adding a new style discards the programme. Even a small silhouette change — a different neckline depth, a dropped shoulder, a longer body — alters the course count and the shaping sequence, which means the file is rebuilt and re-verified. So a minimum usually applies per style, not per colour, with one important exception: colour count inside a single design is constrained by how many yarn carriers the machine has. Past that ceiling, the design stops being a jacquard problem and becomes an intarsia or embroidery problem, and the cost structure changes with it.

Three Conditions That Move the Minimum Down

When a buyer truly needs a smaller first run, these are the levers that actually work, in order of effect:

1. Use a structure we already knit. If the garment is a crew neck, a ribbed beanie, a plain scarf or an existing cable panel, the programming cost largely disappears because the file already exists and is proven. A new artwork on a known body is a far smaller ask than a new body.
2. Use yarn that already exists. Stock colours and running shades avoid a dye lot minimum at the yarn supplier. A new Pantone matched to a specific fibre usually means a minimum dye batch before knitting can start at all — and that minimum is often larger than the garment minimum.
3. Accept a combined run. Several colourways of one style scheduled together share a single setup. So does a mixed size ratio, because grading changes stitch counts, not the programme logic.

A fourth lever exists but is rarely worth it: simplify the construction. Dropping an intarsia panel, a hand-applied pom or a high-density embroidery block removes manual operations, and manual operations are what make short runs painful. The saving is real, but so is the change to the product.

What Pushes the Minimum Up

The reverse list matters just as much, because buyers are often surprised by a minimum higher than the one they were quoted on a different style:

• A new dye lot. Dyeing to a fresh Pantone reference carries its own batch minimum, separate from knitting.
• High colour count in a jacquard. The closer a design runs to the machine's carrier limit, the less room there is for error, and the more setup time each colourway takes.
• Heavy manual finishing. Intarsia panelling, pom-poms, hand-linked collars and dense embroidery are labour per piece, so small runs do not amortise them at all.
• Speciality yarn that has to be ordered in. Thermo-chromatic yarn, brushed mohair and unusual counts are bought against a lead time, not pulled off a shelf.

Ask This Instead of Asking for a Lower MOQ

A request to lower the minimum invites a yes or no. A brief that describes the constraint invites a solution. The four things worth stating up front:

1. The quantity you can genuinely commit to for a first run, and the quantity you expect on reorder.
2. How many colourways, and whether they could launch in sequence rather than together.
3. Your on-shelf date, which tells the factory whether a stock-yarn path is even possible.
4. Whether the silhouette can come from an existing structure, or whether it has to be new.

With those four answers, a factory can tell you which lever is available. Without them, the only safe reply is the standard minimum.

Frequently Asked

Can I order 50 pieces?

Usually yes, at a higher unit cost and with less flexibility on yarn. The fixed setup block does not shrink, so it is spread across half as many garments. What we will not do is quote fifty pieces at the hundred-piece rate and then discover the difference at the sampling stage.

Do mixed sizes count as one minimum?

Yes. Size grading changes stitch counts and shaping, not the programme logic or the machine setup. A run of a hundred pieces split across four sizes is one production slot. Splitting across four colourways is also one slot, provided the colours are within the machine's carrier capacity.

Does a second colourway double the minimum?

No, and this is the most common misconception we correct. A second colourway of an approved style is a yarn change, not a new programme. It typically adds setup time and may add a dye lot minimum at the yarn supplier, but it does not double the garment quantity.

If you are weighing a first run and the minimum is the obstacle, send the silhouette, the colour count and your launch date. The useful reply is which of the three levers applies to your case — not a discount.