Four-way stretch activewear for your label
We're an activewear manufacturer in China that develops leggings, sports bras, men's gym shorts and fitted tees from your own designs. Most of a legging's price goes into a knit heavy enough to stay opaque when the wearer squats.
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Styles and factory prices
We make activewear for yoga studios, gyms, boutiques and online labels. For Ready-made styles, we charge the factory's rate and add our sourcing fee. We price Custom pieces when we quote your design. Expect prices near the top for nylon fabric or a double-layer build.
Bra and legging sets$6–19
High-rise leggings$4–11
Bike shorts$4–10
Sports bras$3–9
Flare leggings$6–13
One-piece unitards$6–16
Seamless leggings$4–10
Crop tops$4–10
Men's training shorts$3–10
Men's fitted tops$3–12
- Black cups over a pink underband
- Pink high-rise waistband
- Curved side panels in two colors
- Mesh at the calves
Design details
Leggings
Most legging lines start with two lengths, a full-length cut and a 7/8 that stops just above the ankle. If your customers wear leggings around town, a flare that opens below the knee looks right with sneakers. Key pockets fit inside the waistband, tall and flat or crossed into a V. For yoga and lifting, a diamond-shaped gusset at the crotch and a front cut without a center seam give a smoother fit. Details like a scrunch seam over the seat or a phone pocket on the thigh push up the price per pair by adding panels to cut and sew.
Sports bras
The simplest sports bra is a pullover with no pads. Pockets for removable cups add to that base price, and so do mesh panels. You pay more for a running bra: it needs molded cups, a wider underband and often a hook closure. Necklines are mostly square or scoop. Strappy cross-backs take longer to sew than a plain racerback and add a little to the price. Longline bras reach the lower ribs, long enough to wear as a top.
Men's shorts
Men's training shorts usually have a 5- or 7-inch inseam and an elastic waistband with a drawcord. Many buyers add a zip pocket for a phone and split side hems that open up in a squat. We make running shorts, with their lighter shell and built-in brief liner, in our sportswear range.
Men's tees and tanks
Raglan sleeves, cut in one piece up to the collar, leave fitted tees more shoulder room for overhead lifts. Lifting tanks have deep armholes. Stringers go further and cut the straps down to narrow bands. On close-fitting tees and tanks, we use flatlock seams that leave no raised ridge to chafe the skin.
Activewear fabrics
To stay opaque in a deep squat, leggings need a knit of 220–280 gsm. Pale colors need the heavy end. Nylon fabric costs 20–30% more than polyester.
| Fabric | Feel | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| 80% nylon, 20% spandex | Smooth and cool on the skin | Studio leggings and sports bras |
| 85% polyester, 15% spandex | Dries fast | Lower-priced gym leggings and bras |
| Nylon with 20–30% spandex, 280–350 gsm | Firm, compressive hold | Compression leggings, men's compression shorts and long-sleeve tops |
| Brushed nylon-spandex | Soft, peachy face | Yoga leggings and bras |
| Cotton-spandex | Soft like a T-shirt, slow to dry | Low-impact and lounge styles |
| Polyester-spandex jersey, 90/10 or 92/8, 150–200 gsm | Light and quick-drying | Men's fitted tees and tanks |
| Stretch polyester woven, 5–10% spandex, 100–150 gsm | Light, with a little give | Men's training shorts |
Seamless leggings come off a circular knitting machine as a tube. Their ribs and contour lines are part of the knit. For a new design, the knitter has to reset the machine and asks for 200–500 pieces of it. Seamless styles a knitter already makes are available Ready-made from 50 pieces.
Matching set colors
Bras and leggings cut from two dye lots can look a shade apart in product photos. We cut the two pieces of a Custom set from one lot of fabric. Ready-made orders use the colors the factory already stocks. Pick a style the factory sells as a set: a bra from one listing and leggings from another are the pair most likely to differ in shade. Custom styles can use any of the mill's stock colors at no extra charge, or a shade matched to your Pantone code.
We courier you a lab dip, a test swatch the mill dyes in that shade, while your sample is being sewn. Once you approve the swatch, the mill dyes your fabric in a small lot. That costs $80–150 and lengthens delivery by 5–7 days. The factory keeps what is left of the lot for six months. Reorders in your color within that period come out of the leftover fabric and need no new dye lot.
Logo methods
Logos on activewear usually sit on the back waistband or the band under a bra. The print there has to stretch with the knit, or it cracks.
- Stretch heat transfer (DTF)
- DTF (direct-to-film) is the stretch transfer we use on leggings and bras. We print the logo on a film with a stretchy glue backing and press it on at 260–300°F, low enough that polyester doesn't scorch. On dark polyester, a blocking layer under the print stops the fabric dye from bleeding into the logo. Any DTF logo up to 8.3 inches wide and 11.7 inches tall comes to $1.50–3.50 on a garment, small waistband logos included.
- Screen print
- Looser men's tees and shorts take a screen print straight onto the fabric. One color in one position costs between $0.50 and $1.20 a garment. Two colors, or two positions, cost twice that. A color's screen costs $15–45, paid once.
- Embroidery
- Embroidery holds its shape on the doubled fabric of a waistband, but it can pull thin spandex out of shape. The artwork first becomes a stitch program for the embroidery machine. This step is called digitizing, and we charge $10–75 for it once per design.
- Silicone and reflective film
- We quote raised silicone logos and reflective film per design.
Size ranges
Ready-madeS–XLMost stock styles, some to 3XL
CustomXXS–3XLOne price
Custom4XL–6XL+15%
We add no plus-size surcharge to Ready-made styles. The factory grades a Custom pattern from your approved sample to the sizes you list. Proportions change more from one size to the next past 3XL. For a range that goes that far, you get a size set before bulk: a sample in your biggest size and another in your smallest, sewn for a fit check. It's billed as one extra round of corrections: $30–80 and another 8–13 days.
Minimums and timing
Ready-made (Stock Match)
Smallest order per style50
Days from payment to your door11–18
You can mix colors and sizes within the minimum, provided the factory has them in stock. We ship by express to your US address. Before you order, we can send one sample piece. You pay the factory's price for it plus $15–60 express shipping. The piece's price comes off the bill once you order the style.
- Your label sewn on
- $0.35 per garment
- Packaging with your logo
- $0.45 per garment
- Hang tags in your design
- $0.25 per tag
- Sourcing fee
- 12% down to 5% as the order total rises
Custom (Made to Order)
Smallest order per color50
Days from order to your door, first sample approved31–48
You decide the size split inside a color. This minimum is for cut-and-sew styles. The development fee is $120–220 per new style, paid once. It covers drafting your pattern, sewing a first sample and making two rounds of corrections. Corrections add 8–13 days per round. We bill $30–80 for a third round and for any after it.
- Sample sewing7–12 days
- Sample delivery by courier3–6 days
- Bulk sewing after approval15–20 days
- Air freight and delivery6–10 days
Reorders go straight to bulk sewing and reach you in 21–30 days.
One online activewear label has us book fabric for its compression range before it reorders. Its reorders arrive in 14 days, at the price of its first quote.
Quality control
Our inspectors pull a pair of leggings tight over the seat and the top of the thigh, then photograph the stretched fabric. Those photos come with your inspection report. Inspectors check that waistbands spring back after stretching and that no stitches pop when a seam is pulled to its limit.
| Check | Custom | Ready-made |
|---|---|---|
| Pieces checked | All of them, checked against the approved sample | A sample sized under ISO 2859-1, inspection level II, or every piece for $0.18 more a garment |
| Pass rule | A piece that differs from the sample is fixed or replaced | Major defects: AQL 2.5. Minor defects: AQL 4.0. Sampled pieces with faults are swapped for good ones |
| Fabric test | Bulk fabric tested for colorfastness to sweat before cutting | The factory's own stock fabric |
Acceptable quality limit, or AQL, is the percentage of faulty pieces a batch can show in its sample and pass. If a Ready-made batch fails, inspectors check the whole batch piece by piece and we repair or swap out the faulty ones.
The Launch Kit
Our AI Studio makes a free Launch Kit out of photos of your actual garment, one kit per style on the order.
- Five listing photos against a plain background
- One image of your garment worn by a generated model, posed in a setting you choose
- A vertical 10-second video ending on your logo
The kit shows the color you pick. The listing photos are ready in your dashboard two working days after inspection. The model image follows a day later and the video a day after it. More images start at $4.
Quotes from a single photo
Share a photo of the leggings, bra or men's gym shorts you want to make and tell us which fabric you'd like. We reply with a quote within a day.