Who is your customer? Not every person or store is right for your product. Before you find a factory, know who your customer is. Did deep in figuring out who they are and where they shop so you can find a factory that will work in the price point and quality expectations of that customer and store type.
Envision who will be buying your item or line. Think about where you would like to sell, as well as how you picture it being sold. Is this product for the customer in the high-income range or for the mass-market? These factors determine if it’s a high-cost or a low-cost item. Also consider the age of your customer and whether they shop often or rarely do shop. Do they shop online or in store? Your target customer and target retailer dictate how much you can spend on this item, which factories you should talk to in-depth, and helps filter the factories in terms of who has the appropriate quality and workmanship for your customer.
If your item is something you envision ultimately selling at a small specialty store, boutique or a high-end department store, then that dictates which factories you spend time researching and who you should or should not source from; since an item that you hope will sell at a higher-end department store needs a factory that makes higher-end products.
The best way of doing this is to look at items currently selling at retail that are similar to the type of product you want to manufacture. Take a look at their quality, prices they sell at, where they’re sold, what you like about them, what you do not like about them and, very importantly… where they are being made. It is beneficial to know what countries are producing garments that you believe would sell in the same stores or departments as where you envision selling. Basically, before you source production, check out your competition. Once you have thoughts on what competitor’s merchandise is the quality you wish to produce, you can use those brands as a benchmark and examine different factory samples to see which factories manufacture garments or products similar to the quality, look and point-of-view you have in mind.