Why Vietnam is the hidden gem of global apparel, textile, and garment manufacturing

Vietnam offers one of the most integrated and cost-effective infrastructures for fabric and garment production. After years of working with overseas brands, one of the most common misconceptions our clients have when finding a textile or garment suppliers in Vietnam is believing they are working with just a single factory to produce their t-shirts, hoodies, and other apparel items. In reality, a complete textile and apparel production ecosystem is required. You won’t just be dealing with one supplier. In Vietnam, textile and garment projects are typically multi-sourced to different manufacturers handling specific stages of production. Many factories specialize only in one specific area such as fabric knitting, cut & sew, or final assembly. Below, we'll describe the standardized and non-standardized steps required to produce clothing products such as t-shirts, shirts, hoodies, and other types of garments in Vietnam.

Best practices for managing suppliers and factories in one project

Each stage is often handled by separate suppliers or factories in different locations. There are three main stages you need to manage to produce a garment in Vietnam: development > sampling > production.

1) Development

So you built a prototype and finalized the design? Now it’s time to take a step ahead and prepare for manufacturing. Many OEM/ODM clothing suppliers in Vietnam offer in-house development teams that use specialized apparel development tools to prepare your designs for production:

• A cutting pattern is created based on your final design.

• All the graphic files are prepared for printing or embroidery.

• For screen printing or embroidery, you have to vectorize your design. Make sure there are no pixels in your images;

• Don’t use gradients for screen printing. If you want gradients, go for a DTG print instead.

• We can help you pick up label options and sync up with suppliers for trims like size tags, care labels, woven brand labels, all of it.

2) Sampling

Once we move into sampling, the moment of truth begins: the factory turns your file into a single prototype based on your approved design. If something’s off, it shows up loud and early. Vietnamese factories handle this in two ways: some sew the sample themselves; others farm it out. Either way, what comes back tells you who you're dealing with.

3) Production

Without someone bridging the handover, even the smallest misstep snowballs into reworks, delays. You signed off. But unless someone’s babysitting that supplier switch, you’re flying blind while production drifts off course. Factories don’t wait. They start. And if no one’s double-checking what was handed over. That’s why it’s important to have an experienced third-party partner overseeing manufacturing process. Our team is engaged at this stage to help coordinate everything correctly.

Unless you're hunting something niche, there's no real need to go outside Vietnam. Most fabrics? We get them locally—from mills we actually know. Trims, labels, cords, buttons—same deal. But if your spec calls for something the market doesn’t stock, we’ll pull it in.

• Once the fabric's delivered, production moves fast. What comes next—pre-treatment, dyeing, and printing. This is an essential part of Vietnam manufacturing textile processes. Some fabric types may need washing or compacting first to avoid shrinkage issues later on. Dyeing can be done either before cutting (pre-dyeing) or after the garment is assembled (garment dyeing). Printing and embroidery usually happen before cut & sew. Screen print, DTG, heat transfer, sublimation—your print method isn’t just a style choice; it affects when and how it gets done.

• Once the fabric is ready, it’s laid out in layers for cutting. This can be done with a cutting machine or laser depending on the fabric type and order volume. After cutting, panels are grouped, labeled, and prepped for the sewing lines.

• Sewing and assembly follow a step-by-step production line, where each sewer typically focuses on one task — a common method used by many cut & sew knitwear factories in Vietnam.

• After stitching is completed, any post-sewing prints (if required) are added. Then garments go through final finishing: ironing, pressing, loose thread trimming, and label attachment.

• Final quality control checks are done before packaging. Once packed, items are moved to the warehouse, where shipping is arranged through local freight forwarders — by air for smaller volumes or sea freight for bulk orders.

How do I find reliable textile suppliers in Vietnam for fabric and accessories?

Vietnamia connects you with the right garment factories in Vietnam — from small-scale t-shirt factories to large-scale textile suppliers and verified cut & sew partners. Need help finding a low-MOQ garment supplier in Vietnam? We’ve worked with factories big and small—and we’ll point you in the right direction, fast. You can also skip the back-and-forth and browse verified suppliers directly on our Vietnam sourcing website.