If you are in the realm of reselling products online you have likely come across the term “Private Label”, and today I am going to explain exactly what this means. Let’s begin!

Let’s use clothing as an example; Even though there are millions of brand names, there aren’t millions of manufacturers of the same product. For example (and this may surprise you) there are only 5 major clothing manufacturers in the USA:

• Hyak Design Group
• Suuchi Inc.
• Mark'et II International Ltd.
• Privy Label
• Nicobar Isle Inc.

There are approximately 45 additional USA clothing manufacturers but they are smaller companies who mostly specialize in a few areas (such as zippers, patches or embroidery).

This means that if you want your clothing line “Made in the USA” you have only two options:

1. You can get a pencil, a sketch pad and buy the material, then learn to measure, cut and sew.
2. You can contract one of those 5 companies to produce it for you

Obviously, the second option is a much faster, more effective way to go, especially if you want to have a chance to sell the apparel before you die of old age. And, clearly it is more cost efficient to hire a manufacturer who already has everything needed to mass produce your clothing line versus the astronomical cost of buying all of the machinery, hiring employees and leasing all of the space needed to start your own factory from scratch.

So, let’s water down this process into super simple terms:

After you pick a company you want to contract, you essentially look through their catalogue to pick what merchandise you like. Let’s say you want to roll with a basic tee in assorted colors:

Next you design your shirts to fit whatever your brand is. Here’s a couple random examples from a basic Google Search of Private Label shirts people created and are selling online:

You also decide what you want to be displayed on the tag and how you want the tag to look:

And, you might want to add a pocket, or lace or make it a “destroyed look” or whatever. This is all part of the process of taking the “base shirt” and turning it into your Private Label shirt. Equally, every customization, every additional color of print, every place you want to add graphics, etc are all going to increase the cost of the shirt.

Then you have to decide on “paper tags”. Do you want a basic, cheap tag:

Or are you going to go all-in on a fancy tag:

Or are you selling it online-only or strictly to boutiques so you don’t want to add a paper tag? All of this goes into the decision process. And once all of the decisions have been made you can end up with a simple production, like this single-color screen print on a solid color basic-tee:

Or a more complex design, like these:

Solid color tee with foil graphic

Solid tee with foil fringe and sequins

Multiple colors of sequins on giant pattern

Glitter Graphics on top of solid color screen print:

“Destroyed” tee with “bleach” and 2 colors screen print graphics

WHAT “PRIVATE LABEL” MEANS IN THE WHOLESALE BUSINESS

If you are looking to buy merchandise and it is listed as “Private Label” it usually means one of two things:

1. That the clothing (or item) is a custom brand that the seller made

2. The clothing is something you can add your company name on

So, if you see an online post that says the merchandise in the listing is "Private Label", it means it is NOT "actual Calvin Klein".  Hope that makes sense! 

~ Happy Selling!