Fabric MOQ, Lab Dips and Lead Times: How Custom Colour Actually Works
Why custom colour starts at 1,000 m, what a lab dip is, how a sealed standard keeps re-orders matching, and the real calendar from inquiry to inspected roll. The process buyers ask about most, explained once.
5 min readMOQcolourlead timesourcing
Every fabric inquiry we receive asks the same three things in a different order: what is the minimum, can you match my colour, and how long. Here is the whole process once, with the numbers we actually work to.
Minimum order quantities
| What you want | MOQ | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Stock fabric, stock colour | 1 roll (50-100 m) | It is on the shelf |
| Stock fabric, custom Pantone | 1,000 m | Minimum dye-bath at the mill |
| Custom weave or coating | 3,000 m | Loom and coating-line set-up |
| Custom printed fabric | 500 m | Rotary or sublimation set-up |
| PU leather custom colour | 500 m | Colour is in the cast layer |
| Neoprene custom face colour | 500 m | Face fabric dyed before lamination |
1,000 m of 600D polyester makes roughly 600-800 backpacks, which is why bag MOQ (100 pieces) and fabric MOQ rarely align for a first order. Below 1,000 m we match to the nearest of 60+ stock colours and send the colour card so you choose with fabric in hand.
The lab dip
A lab dip is a small swatch dyed to your Pantone reference by the mill's lab. We submit it within 3 days of receiving the reference (Pantone TCX preferred; TPX and physical swatches accepted). You approve it, or request a shift ("warmer", "lighter"), and a second dip follows in 2-3 days.
Once approved, the dip is sealed: it becomes the standard for bulk, for every roll check in the D65 cabinet, and for every re-order. Twelve months later, the second order is checked against the same sealed swatch. That is what keeps a school programme's bags matching across years.
Shade band A/B
No two dye lots are identical. We approve bulk within shade band A/B - a visually indistinguishable tolerance under D65 - and reject C or worse. If a programme needs tighter control, we hold a single dye lot for the whole order.
Matching across components
Fabric, webbing, binding, zipper tape and thread are dyed by different suppliers on different fibres. We dye all of them against the same sealed reference and check them together in the cabinet, because a body that matches the Pantone and webbing that does not is still a mismatched bag.
The calendar
| Step | Days |
|---|---|
| Inquiry to fabric proposal | 0.5 |
| Colour card and swatches by courier | 2-4 (transit) |
| Lab dip submitted | 3 |
| Lab dip approval (your side) | 1-5 |
| Bulk dyeing and coating | 15-20 |
| Roll inspection and test report | 1-2 |
| Ship | sea 25-40, air 5-7, express 3-5 |
Stock colours skip the middle rows: 3-5 days from order to dispatch.
Payment
T/T 30% deposit and 70% before shipment for dyed lots; stock rolls 100% before dispatch; L/C at sight for qualified orders.
From roll to bag
If the fabric is going into finished bags, the same sealed standard travels to our sister factory and the free bag sample is cut from the approved roll - so the sample you sign off is the colour the container carries. The polyester, nylon and canvas pages list stock colours per article.
Free colour card and swatches
Get the colour card and three fabric proposals for your bag
Tell us the bag type and target price. We reply with two or three fabric options, swatches by courier and, if you need the bags made, a sample plan from our sister factory.