Three terms get used interchangeably in sourcing conversations and mean quite different things in a contract. Here is how we use them.
The short definitions
OEM — Original Equipment Manufacturer. We produce to your specifications: your tech pack, your design, your labels. You arrive with the product defined; we make it.
ODM — Original Design Manufacturer. We co-develop the design with you, from sketch through sample to production. You arrive with an intent; we help define the product, then make it.
Private label — a branding arrangement rather than a design one. Your branding, your labels, country-of-origin compliance, and packaging coordinated through our Ulaanbaatar partner network. It describes whose name is on the finished piece, not who designed it.
The first two are a spectrum, not a binary, and most clients use a mix. A brand might run OEM on a carryover crew it has made for years and ODM on next season's new silhouette, in the same production run.
Which one you need
The honest test is how complete your specification is.
You are ready for OEM if you have
- A tech pack with measurements, construction and finishing detail
- A decided gauge, composition and colour
- Graded sizing, or a base size plus a grading rule
ODM is the right route if you have
- A sketch, a reference photo, or a written description
- A garment you own and want reproduced or adapted
- A clear commercial intent but unresolved construction
There is no penalty for the second. Our in-house design team can build a tech pack with you from any of those starting points, and we work with emerging brands launching a first cashmere programme as readily as with established houses.
What does cost you is arriving with an incomplete tech pack and treating it as complete. A pack missing its finishing detail produces a sample that is wrong in a way nobody predicted, and each revision round adds weeks.
Matching an existing garment
A specific and underrated route. Send us a reference garment — or a photograph with measurements — and we will propose a construction plan, yarn composition and gauge to achieve the same hand and silhouette.
This is often faster than specifying from scratch, because the physical reference silently answers a dozen questions a written pack would have to spell out. It is ODM in practice, but it starts from an object rather than a drawing.
What private label does and does not include
We produce the garment and sew your labels into every piece. We do not manufacture the trim.
Our floors run fibre, yarn, cloth and garments. Neck labels, care labels, hangtags, boxes, tissue, dust-bags and cashmere storage bags come from trusted Ulaanbaatar suppliers. We connect you with them, coordinate the trim alongside your production, and sew in what arrives.
Two practical consequences:
- Trim is invoiced separately and sits outside the unit price you are quoted.
- Trim has its own lead time, which runs alongside production rather than inside it. Late label approval delays shipment even when the garments are finished.
Composition declarations and country-of-origin compliance we do handle, and both are backed by accredited laboratory testing of composition and blend ratio.
Who owns the design
Stated plainly, because it is the question brands most often ask last and should ask first:
Your designs remain yours. Every brand keeps and owns the designs it brings to us or develops with us. That covers tech packs, patterns, and any development work our team does alongside you. We do not share, reuse, or show them to anyone else unless you agree in writing.
We sign NDAs as a matter of course. Not on request, not as a negotiation — as standard.
This applies to ODM as much as OEM. Work our design team does with you belongs to you.
How an engagement runs
- Enquiry — company details, product interest, estimated quantities, timeline. Response within two working days with feasibility, indicative pricing and next steps.
- Specification — your tech pack, or one we build with you.
- Sampling — a prototype to your spec. Fees apply and are credited back in full against production.
- Approval — the approved sample becomes the reference for the entire order. Construction, measurements, colour and handle are all judged against it.
- Production — the clock starts here, not at the order date.
That fourth step carries more weight than it appears to. If goods arrive defective against the approved sample, remaking them is our responsibility. The approved sample, not a written description, is the standard everything is measured against — which is a good reason to approve carefully rather than quickly.
Getting started
You do not need to know whether you want OEM or ODM before you contact us. Describe what you are trying to make and how complete your specification is, and we will tell you which route fits.
Send it through the quote request.
Related guides
- Cashmere manufacturing MOQs: what to expect, and why
- What cashmere samples cost, and why the fee comes back
See also OEM / private label, custom design, and sampling.