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Blog / Beginner's handbook / The Complete Guide to Private and White Label Clothing

Beginner's handbook

The Complete Guide to Private and White Label Clothing

The Complete Guide to Private and White Label Clothing
Karlina Rozkalne

By Karlina Rozkalne

7 min read

There have never been more ways to start an online clothing business: dropshipping, white label products, private labeling, print-on-demand . . . and the list goes on. But with so many options that differ just slightly, there’s room for confusion.

This article will give you insight into:

  • The difference between white label clothing and private label clothing

  • The pros and cons of each

  • White label clothing examples

  • How to start a white label clothing business with Printful

What is white label clothing?

White label clothing is apparel produced by one company but designed or rebranded and sold by another business under its own brand name. This allows sellers to offer custom-designed products without holding inventory or owning the production process. For example, if you partner with a print-on-demand company like Printful, you can design apparel, accessories, and other products, and sell them under your brand without Printful’s name appearing anywhere.

Valuable read: White Label Business Opportunities: From Apparel to Home Decor and Beyond

White label vs. private labeling

White-label clothing involves garments made by a third-party manufacturer, which retailers can customize with their own branding. This approach is more affordable and faster for launching a clothing brand. In contrast, private label clothing also uses product blanks but involves a more collaborative process with the manufacturer, allowing sellers to have more input in the base product’s design. The key difference is the level of customization and involvement with the manufacturer, with private labeling offering more hands-on control over product creation.

Valuable read: Private Label Dropshipping: What It Is and What to Sell to Succeed

 

White label clothing pros and cons

Pros

Cons

Quick market entry with existing products

Limited differentiation from competitors, making it harder to stand out

Low initial costs as there is no need to create new products

Less control over the manufacturing process

Focus on branding rather than product development

Dependency on suppliers for product availability and consistency

Flexibility to switch products based on market demand and trends

Lower profit margins compared to getting products in bulk

Easy scalability without worrying about manufacturing 

Less product customization compared to developing them from scratch

Private label clothing pros and cons

 

Pros

Cons

Potentially higher profit margins thanks to more unique products

Higher initial costs for product development and branding

Complete control over product design, product variants, and packaging

Stock management that can lead to potential excess inventory costs if products don’t sell

Increased customer loyalty thanks to having products tailored to a specific audience

Longer time to market compared to rebranding existing items with white labeling

Greater oversight of quality assurance

Managing supply chain production, quality control, and logistics

Flexibility to adapt products to market trends and customer feedback

Limited product range because it takes more resources to develop a poduct

 

Valuable read: Dropshipping vs. Private Label: Which is Best For Your Business

Custom label options for your white label or private label business

Your white label or private label clothing manufacturers are the ones that determine how many custom label options you get. 

For example, with Printful, you get to design inside and outside labels, and tearaway labels.

You can filter garments by Branding options in Printful’s Catalog to find products with the branding option you’re interested in. 

a screenshot of a website

Source: Printful’s Catalog

White label clothing examples

Let’s take a look at 5 products you can design to start or expand your white label clothing line.

Valuable read: 7 Printful Branding Tools to Create a Consistent Look and Feel for Your Brand

Custom t-shirts

T-shirts are one of the most popular garments in the world. You can also customize multiple shirt variations (different sleeve lengths, fabrics, and fits) to diversify your lineup.

Here are some Printful shirt options for your store:

Printful logo
man with jacket
Printful logo
Create and sell custom products online
Let’s go

 

Custom hoodies

Like tees, hoodies are an established wardrobe staple. If you want to design them for your clothing line, here are some great options with Printful:

Valuable read: 37 Hoodie Design Ideas to Get You Inspired

Bottoms

Both private label and white label brands can design matching bottoms to go with the tops they offer for a cohesive look. 

Here are some bottom options for your store:

Hats

With Printful, you can design a range of different hats and have them printed or embroidered. In our catalog, you’ll find hats for all seasons and occasions: 

Source: Printful’s Catalog

Swimwear

Swimwear is a growing industry, presenting you with a lucrative opportunity to expand your offering. Bikinis, one-pieces, swim trunks, speedos . . . there are many beachwear products you can design for your customers.

Here are some options you can design with Printful:

Valuable read: How to Start a Swimwear Line: Your Guide to Success in 2024

Starting a white label clothing line with Printful in 7 steps

Printful is the best POD company to partner with for white labeling, according to Forbes. So, let’s go through the process of starting a clothing brand with Printful.

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In other articles, we’ve given detailed instructions for starting an online store and steps to launch a clothing brand with Printful, so in this one we’ll cover each aspect briefly.

Step 1: Create a Printful Account

The first step in this recipe is creating your Printful account.

Printful Sign Up pageSource: Printful’s login page

Sign up with your Facebook, Google, Apple, or email account. It’s completely free and easy to do.

Choose an ecommerce platform or marketplace for your white label or private label business.

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Valuable read: Marketplace vs. Ecommerce Platform: Which Is the Best?

Once you have created a store, connect it to Printful by going to your Printful Dashboard, clicking on Stores > Choose platform. Then, choose the platform your store is on, press Connect, and following the steps from there.

Step 3: Pick white label products

How you choose the products to add to your store depends on your niche and target audience. Some white label brands start by designing trending products while others go for tried-and-tested bestselling products.

If you’re unsure where to start, you can browse Printful’s Product Catalog to see your options.

 

a screenshot of a website

Source: Printful’s Product Catalog

 

Pro tip: When researching white label clothing manufacturers, read the customer reviews to ensure you pick a manufacturer that has high quality products.

Let’s say you’ve decided to go for a private label and white label classic—a custom t-shirt. Now you need to customize it.

Step 4: Create or upload a design

Personalize your private label products with our free Design Maker. You can either upload your existing design or create a new one using the tools and resources the Design Maker has.

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Valuable read: How to Create Designs for Print-on-Demand Even If You’re Not a Designer

Step 5: Add products to your store

There are 3 ways you can add custom private label clothing products to your store:

  • From your Printful Dashboard > Product Templates > Add to store

  • From your Printful Dashboard > Stores > Add product

  • On any open product page, click Add to store

Now all that’s left are technicalities, and your store will be fully functional.

Step 6: Set up shipping and billing

Let’s first address shipping. You’ll need to decide what your shipping pricing strategy will be. There are 3 different approaches:

  1. Let customers pay the total price for shipping (the same as Printful charges you)

  2. Increase product prices to cover a % of shipping costs

  3. Offer free shipping by incorporating shipping costs in product prices

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Valuable read: A Complete Guide to Ecommerce Shipping Pricing

The next and final thing is setting up billing. You have to set up a payment method on your online platform so your customers can pay you, and a payment method in your Printful account so you can pay us for fulfilling your orders.

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Learn more: Your guide to Printful payments and pricing

Once you’ve set up your shipping and billing, your store’s ready to receive orders, and you can start selling.

Printful logo
man with jacket
Printful logo
Create and sell custom products online
Let’s go

 

Step 7: Market your products and start selling

If you want marketing advice, one of the best resources is the Marketing tips section on Printful’s Blog. You’ll get general marketing advice, platform-specific guides, tips for tailoring content to special occasions, and much more.

a screenshot of a computer

Source: Printful Blog

Here are some articles from Printful’s Blog to get you started:

Put it all together

It’s time for you to turn this knowledge into a white label or private label clothing line. 

Need some inspo? You can check out some successful POD white label brands.

Frequently asked questions

A white label brand buys its products from another company and designs them for their business. The company selling the final product is typically not involved in the manufacturing process.

A print-on-demand t-shirt is an example of a white label product. All garments made by a print-on-demand company are white label products.

Yes, white labeling is legal. As long as a company follow intellectual property laws like trademarks and patents, it’s legal to rebrand and sell existing products under their own brand.

Yes, white labeling can be highly profitable. The success of a white label business depends on product quality, pricing and marketing strategies, and finance management. One of the main advantages of white labeling is the reduced cost and time associated with product development.

Absolutely! If you want to launch a business with minimal upfront investment or risk, white labeling is for you.

 

author

By Karlina Rozkalne on Jul 24, 2024

Karlina Rozkalne

SEO Content Writer

Karlina is an SEO Content Writer specialist at Printful. As a firm believer in attitude over aptitude, Karlina gives her 100% whenever she works on something new. Karlina spends her free time reading, traveling, and doing yoga.

Karlina is an SEO Content Writer specialist at Printful. As a firm believer in attitude over aptitude, Karlina gives her 100% whenever she works on something new. Karlina spends her free time reading, traveling, and doing yoga.