Founders write “sportswear brand” in the first line of the deck and then attach every sport they personally play. The floor reads that as four developments. This note is how we ask them to choose, before anyone falls in love with a fourteen-style grid.
The others can be drawn. They are not cut until the first one has a reorder swatch.
Tennis and golf share the Dongguan floor. They do not share a pocket brief.
Bulk often 30–40 days after PPS. A two-piece is two sample fees.
Per style, per colour. From 100 is a library trial in writing, not a founder discount.
Pick the sport that can reorder
The useful question is not “which category is trending.” It is which silhouette you can photograph, sell, and cut again on the same cloth without opening a new mill. A reorder on a named base is how a small brand survives the second ad. A new exclusive cloth on drop two is how the cash calendar breaks. Mill cloth, when you do go there, is typically 500–1300 m per colour. A 150-piece garment order does not open that lot.
Reconstruction of a deck we cut down: four sports, one marker.
Yoga, when black and one pale colour are enough
Yoga is the cleanest first sport if you will live with a public test: squat opacity on the lightest colour, largest size, after a wash. PowerForm™ at 215 g/m² is the opacity-first hand we put under leggings and bras when structure matters. AirTouch™, around 195 g/m², is the cooler studio hand. It also shows sheer sooner in oat, stone and bone. If your hero colour is a pale neutral, sample that colour first. Black will lie to you.
A set is two styles. Bra and legging in the same black are still two MOQ gates. Samples are US$50–100 per garment piece, so budget two fees, not one “outfit fee.” Fit notes worth keeping are rise, inseam, waistband height and underband — written, not a voice note that says “more snatched.”
Do not start yoga on CloudTouch™ because the hand feels soft in a meeting. That base is a brushed 260 g/m² knit for lounge and cover. It will not behave like a sculpting legging, and you will spend the reorder arguing with your own product page.
Tennis and golf are one floor and two briefs
If your people are already on a court or a course, start there instead of forcing a studio brand. Tennis needs a pleat depth, a built-in short length, and a ball pocket with an opening and a bag you have measured. White is a dye and yellowing problem, not a word on a moodboard. The dress and the skort are separate styles even when they share a dye lot.
Golf is the same sewing building. There is no golf-only factory page because we will not invent one. What changes is the brief: longer coverage, a quieter hand, pockets that hold a glove or a rangefinder rather than only a ball. “Same as the tennis skirt, longer” has started more bad golf samples than any cloth problem. Read the golf skort note before you add the slide.
Both can sit on PowerForm™. That is a reason to sequence them, not a reason to cut them in the same month as swim.
Swim is a different clock
Open swim first only if you accept the calendar. AquaForm™ is a 220 g/m² nylon/elastane face built for chlorinated water. Lining, gusset and hardware are BOM lines. A bikini top and bottom are two pieces at sampling and two styles at MOQ if they are sold as separate SKUs; a one-piece is one style with more construction time. Bulk is typically 30–40 days after PPS, not the 25–30 days we use for a yoga path on a stocked base.
A dry hanger photo is not a chlorine approval and not a wet-opacity approval. If the deck’s hero is a pale swim colour, that sample happens in water, not only under the office LED. Modest and longer-coverage swim, including GCC programmes, is a coverage map on this same desk — extra length and lining — not a second company.
One named hand, not a fabric wardrobe
Year one, pick one of PowerForm™, AirTouch™ or AquaForm™ and stay there. Custom dye and exclusive mill work wait until a colour has already sold. Payment stays boring on purpose: samples, written fit, signed PPS, 30% deposit, bulk, 70% after final inspection under the protocol on the PO. We do not quote a public garment FOB on this page. The number comes after fabric, construction, trims and quantity are locked.
If you want the arithmetic of styles × colours, use SKU discipline and the founder desk.