Most lead-time questions arrive with a hidden assumption: that the clock starts when the order is placed. It does not. Production time runs from the moment you approve the sample, and everything before that point — development, sampling, colour approval — sits outside the figures below.
Getting this right is the difference between a delivery date that holds and one that slips by six weeks before production has even started.
Production windows
As with our minimums, lead times split on whether we already hold your colour.
Knitwear, accessories and outerwear
1–2 months in a stocked colour. Add about a month if the colour has to be sourced, dyed and spun.
Home textiles
4–6 weeks in a stocked colour. Add about a month if the colour must be produced.
Yarn and fabric
Ships immediately from stock. About a month if it has to be produced. Blends add a further one to two weeks, because blended yarn is never stocked — it is made to order every time. A custom colour adds 10 days.
A full custom programme
10–12 weeks, everything made from scratch. A capsule run is 8–10 weeks.
This is the figure to quote if someone asks "how long does a whole programme take" — it already accounts for the development, sampling and production stacking together, rather than adding each window end to end.
The recurring "about a month" in the tables above is the dye-and-spin cycle. It is the same month whichever product sits at the end of it, because it happens upstream of the knitting and weaving floors.
All of these are baselines. Quantity and any hand-finished steps move them, and exact timing is confirmed at quotation.
Sampling comes first
Because the production clock starts at sample approval, your real delivery date is sampling time plus production time. Sampling runs to its own schedule:
- Garment samples — instant from stock; 3–4 weeks for a custom prototype built to your tech pack
- Yarn swatches — instant from stock
- Fabric swatches — instant from stock; add 10 days for a custom colour
- Colour card — digital instant; a physical fan takes about 2 weeks
- Lab dips — about 10 days per round
- Fibre samples — instant from stock; 2–3 weeks to source
Note that lab dips run in rounds. A colour approved on the first dip costs you ten days. A colour that takes three rounds costs you a month, and that month lands before production begins. If your colour is critical, budget for two rounds rather than one.
Revisions on custom samples add time in the same way. A custom garment sample at three to four weeks, revised once, is closer to six.
Peak season
June to October is our peak season, and lead times extend through it. By how much depends on the quantity ordered, which is why it is better discussed against your actual volumes than answered in the abstract.
The practical implication is simply to build the buffer in early. Send us your volumes and delivery window together and we will confirm what is achievable at quotation rather than discover it in week five.
Reorders are faster
A repeat run is materially quicker than a first one, because the development work is already done: the pattern is graded, the machine programmes are written, and the colour is approved. We go straight to production.
The two-tier rule still applies, though. A reorder in a colour we hold enters the standard production window. A reorder in a colour that has to be produced still carries the extra month.
Changing the specification, the colour, or the size range on a reorder moves it back toward first-run timings, because some part of the development has to be redone.
Rush orders
Rush production is possible on a case-by-case basis, depending on current capacity and order size. Expedited lead times typically carry a surcharge.
We would rather quote you an honest date than an optimistic one, so if a timeline is not achievable we will say so at quotation rather than discover it in week five.
Worked examples
Two programmes, to show how the pieces add up.
A capsule in a colour we hold. Garment samples pulled from stock, approved in a week. Production 1–2 months. Total: roughly 5–9 weeks from first contact to goods ready at our facility.
A capsule in a custom Pantone. Lab dip, custom sampling, colour dyed and spun, then production — all from scratch. This is the capsule-run figure: 8–10 weeks. A full programme across multiple product types is 10–12 weeks.
Both are normal. The difference between them is almost entirely colour.
One caution on arithmetic: do not add the individual windows end to end. The programme figures above already account for stages running in parallel — colour is dyed while patterns are graded, and machine programmes are written before yarn arrives on the floor. Stacking each window sequentially produces a number roughly twice the real one.
What sits outside these figures
The windows above end when goods are packed and ready for collection at our facility in Ulaanbaatar. Our default Incoterm is Ex Works (EXW), so freight time is yours and sits on top.
Worth knowing when you plan: Mongolia is landlocked. We ship by air freight and do not use sea freight, so transit is fast but priced accordingly. Overland routes can be arranged where they suit a shipment. Transit times vary by destination and are confirmed per shipment, and all transit is subject to customs clearance at your end.
Planning checklist
- Ask which colours we currently hold before you finalise your palette — it is worth about a month.
- Budget two lab-dip rounds for any critical colour.
- Approve samples before peak season if you need autumn delivery.
- Add your freight time to every figure above.
- Send quantities and target delivery date together, so we can tell you at quotation whether the date holds.
Send us your timeline through the quote request and we will confirm feasibility within two working days.
Related guides
- Cashmere manufacturing MOQs: what to expect, and why
- What cashmere samples cost, and why the fee comes back
See also the full FAQ, our sampling service, and OEM and private label production.