Everything depends on two or three clients
The factory is full, but with orders from only a few brands. Any one of them switching supplier takes half the year down with it.
Sectors
Textiles and clothing: brand, catalogue and the move to your own label
Manufacturing for others is one business; having a brand is another
Much of Portugal's textile industry lives on manufacturing well for brands from elsewhere. It is a business built on relationships, technical specs and deadlines, where communication barely counts — the buyer already knows who you are and what you do. The problem shows up when that dependency starts to hurt: it only takes one big client switching supplier for a whole year to be at risk, and the usual answer is to start selling under your own name too.
That is where communication becomes the entire job. A company used to responding to technical specs has to learn to build a brand, to photograph collections, to write for someone buying one piece rather than a thousand, and to keep up with a seasonal calendar. None of that has anything to do with manufacturing, which is why the move from private label to your own name fails so often for reasons that have nothing to do with production.
We work on both sides: what a garment manufacturer needs to present itself to the businesses that commission it — catalogue, capability sheet, an English-language website — and what it needs to sell directly, which is brand, label, packaging and a shop.
What usually holds growth back
Requests from this sector almost always come to us for one of these reasons.
There is no way to show what you can do
The pieces you make belong to other brands, and often you cannot even show them. You end up with no portfolio, and every new client has to be won over the phone.
Your own label launched, then stalled
A logo got made, some labels, an online shop, and then there was nobody to keep it going. The collection stood still and the shop went stale.
The photographs do not sell the piece
In textiles, what people are buying is drape, colour and texture. Careless photography gives colours that are not the real ones, and the wrong colour is a guaranteed return.
The website does not speak the buyer's language
Buyers looking for garment manufacturing in Portugal often search in English or Spanish. A website only in Portuguese never turns up in those searches.
What we usually do in this sector
The scope changes depending on whether it is manufacturing for others, a brand of your own, or personalisation, but these are the jobs this sector usually asks for.
Website and capability catalogue
For those who manufacture for others: what you make, in which materials, with what minimum runs, what certifications and what lead times — in Portuguese and in English. It is the page that answers a foreign buyer before the first email.
Your own brand, from the name to the label
Name, logo, palette and typography, and then what is specific to textiles: neck label, composition label, brand card, packaging and bag. The label is where the brand gets touched every single day.
Collection and lookbook
Organising the collection, flat and model photography with true-to-life colour, and the lookbook that works both for the shop and for presenting to retailers.
Online shop with sizing and returns
A catalogue with size and colour variants, a proper size chart, and an exchange policy explained without small print — which is what reduces returns instead of just hiding them.
Personalisation and merchandising
For those working in printing, embroidery and promotional items: brand, catalogue, and the configurator or form that takes an order complete with quantities, colours and artwork file.
Trade fair presence
Stand, printed catalogue, sample book and the material that ends up in the hand of everyone who walks past. In textiles, the trade fair is still where relationships get sealed.
Services most requested by textile businesses
Each page explains the process, what you get at the end, and the most common questions.
- Branding and naming, for your own label or for the company;
- Online shop, with sizes, colours and exchanges;
- Websites, multilingual, with the capability catalogue;
- Graphic design, for labels, packaging, lookbook and stand;
- Layout, for catalogues and sample books;
- SEO and SEM, to be found by buyers looking for manufacturing;
- Social media, to keep the collection alive between seasons.
Work close to this sector
Let's be direct: we do not yet have a garment manufacturer in the portfolio. What we do have is work that sits close to this sector, and that is what we are showing here instead of dressing it up as something it is not. Resende Seixas is the brand of a digital printing, large-format and textile personalisation company — built from scratch, and designed to hold up across textiles, large format and small format without losing character. Funmerch is a name and a brand in the merchandising field. Alongside these, there are several product brands with online shops — WAKER and Lokahi, in the retail and online shops sector — where the path from your own label to the shop is the same one a garment manufacturer walks. The rest is in the portfolio.
Frequently asked questions from people working in textiles
What people ask us before starting a project in this field.
Have you worked with garment manufacturers before?
Not yet, and we would rather say so than find a way to make it sound otherwise. What we have is neighbouring work: the brand of a printing and textile-personalisation company, merchandising brands, and several product brands that sell online — which is exactly the path someone takes moving from private label to their own name. What a garment manufacturer needs from us is brand, catalogue, collection photography and a shop, and that is work we do every week in other sectors.
Is it worth having a website if we only manufacture for other brands?
It is, and this is the case where the website's job is easiest to measure: it exists to be found by buyers looking for manufacturing in Portugal, almost always in English. It does not need to be big. It needs to say what you make, in which materials, with what minimum runs, what certifications and what lead times, with photographs of the facilities and a simple way to request a quote. It is a page that works on its own while the factory produces.
Can we show pieces we manufacture for other brands?
It depends on what has been agreed with each client, and often you cannot. The usual way round it is to show the capability instead of the client: photography of the process, the machinery, construction detail, the types of knit and finish, and the numbers — run sizes, lead times, quality control. You show what you can do without saying who for, which is usually enough for someone choosing a supplier.
About to start selling under your own name?
Tell us what you make today, for whom, and what you want to start selling under your own name. You will get a proposal with scope, phases and price.