Is Overseas Manufacturing Actually Cheaper?

Your numbers

The run

Total units

Style / colour combos

Overseas minimums usually apply per combo, not to your total order.

Quotes you have

Domestic, all-in per unit

Overseas FOB per unit

FOB is the price at their port. Everything after it is yours. Don't have these yet? Start with the cost calculator.

Getting it here

Duty rate %

Apparel carries some of the highest duty in the tariff schedule and rates move with trade policy. Check your actual HTS code before trusting this line.

Freight

Development

Sample rounds

Each overseas round adds courier both ways and about a week and a half of waiting.

The real comparison

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Domestic

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Unit price—

Duty—

Freight—

Landed per unit—

Sampling—

Weeks to goods in hand—

Reorder turnaround—

Overseas

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Unit price (FOB)—

Duty—

Freight, spread over the run—

Landed per unit—

Sampling—

Weeks to goods in hand—

Reorder turnaround—

Total cost as the run grows

Domestic Overseas

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What the money actually buys

Domestic

Reorder a winner in weeks instead of months — the sales you don't lose rarely show up in a cost comparison
Minimums in the tens, not the hundreds, per style and colour
You can stand on the floor and fix a problem while it's still fixable
Far less cash sitting in transit
Made in USA is a price lever, not just a sticker

Overseas

Genuinely cheaper per unit once volume spreads the fixed costs
Capability breadth — specialty knits, hardware and finishes that barely exist domestically
Vertical mills, so fabric and sewing sit under one roof
The right answer once you're reordering the same style repeatedly at scale

See what each route does to your launch date →

Freight figures are rough all-in estimates including destination charges, customs brokerage and drayage — a real forwarder quote will differ, and small LCL shipments get hit hardest. Duty is entered by you because apparel rates are high, vary by fibre and construction, and change with trade policy. This compares cost and speed; it can't compare the two samples sitting on your desk, which is the comparison that should decide it.