Most sourcing disasters are visible before the deposit is paid. They show up as a vague answer about MOQ, a sample that arrives without a spec sheet, or a bank account in a different company name than the quotation. Catching them costs one email. Missing them costs a container.

This is the checklist we would use ourselves if we were buying bags from a supplier we had never worked with.

First, is it a factory or a trading company?

Neither is automatically better, but they fail differently, and you should know which one you are dealing with.

• Factories are cheaper at volume, control quality directly, and are slower to answer anything unusual. Small factories often cannot print in-house.
• Trading companies are faster, more flexible on mixed orders, and better at English — but they mark up, and they cannot fix a quality problem they cannot see.

How to tell in ten minutes: ask for a short video walking through the workshop, filmed in one take, showing cutting tables, sewing lines and the printing area with the machines running. Then ask two technical questions only a production person answers cleanly — for example, what needle size they use on 12 oz canvas, or how long printed goods rest before packing. Vague answers to specific questions are the signal.

The 12 checks

1. Production capability, matched to your bag

Ask which operations are in-house: cutting, sewing, screen printing, heat pressing, embroidery, washing. A supplier who subcontracts printing cannot control print quality, and every print complaint will bounce between two companies.

2. MOQ — and whether it is real

Canvas bag MOQs commonly run 100–500 pieces per colour per style, with printing MOQs sometimes higher than bag MOQs. Ask specifically: "Is the MOQ 300 pieces in total, or 300 per colour?" The difference is a 3× order.

3. Sampling terms

You want three facts: sample cost, sample lead time, and whether the sample fee is credited against the bulk order. Normal is USD 30–100 and 7–15 days, often refundable at order. A supplier who cannot produce a sample before a deposit is asking you to buy a promise.

4. Material specification in writing

Ask for GSM, fibre content, yarn construction and shrinkage on paper, not in chat. Then ask for a test report: OEKO-TEX Standard 100 for harmful substances, GOTS if organic cotton is claimed, a colour-fastness report for the dyed fabric. If the answer is "our fabric is very good quality", you have your answer.

5. Quality control and AQL

Ask how they inspect, and how many pieces they check. The industry standard is ISO 2859-1 sampling with AQL 2.5 for major defects and 4.0 for minor. A supplier who has never heard of AQL inspects by eye, which means it depends on who is standing there that day.

6. Payment terms

30% deposit and 70% against the bill of lading copy is the norm for Chinese export. Be cautious with:

• 100% prepayment, especially to a personal account.
• Bank account name that differs from the company name on the quotation or contract.
• Pressure to pay outside the platform you found them on.

If the order is large, a 30/70 split with an inspection clause — final payment released after passed inspection — is worth more than a small discount.

7. Capacity against your delivery date

Ask how many sewing lines they run, how many pieces per day, and what is already booked. A factory with 40,000 pieces on the floor in November will not deliver your 5,000-piece order in December, whatever the quotation says. Also plan around Chinese New Year: production effectively stops for three to four weeks and ramps up slowly on both sides of it.

8. Packaging capability

Packaging is where small orders quietly go wrong. Confirm: individual polybag or paper wrap, hangtag attachment, barcode sticker placement, master carton strength (5-ply for export), pieces per carton, and carton dimensions so you can calculate freight. Ask for the carton drop-test result if the goods ship by parcel.

9. Who you actually talk to

Ask directly: "Are you the salesperson, the merchandiser, or the owner?" A merchandiser who sits in the factory solves problems; a salesperson who forwards messages adds a day to every question. Response time is the cheapest quality signal you will get — send a technical question and see how long a specific answer takes.

10. Compliance and audits

If you sell to a retailer, you may need BSCI, Sedex/SMETA, or a brand-specific audit. Audits take months, so ask early. If you do not need them, do not pay for them — but do ask for the business licence and export licence, and check that the year of establishment and registered capital are plausible for the capacity claimed.

11. Intellectual property and tooling ownership

Your logo file, screens and print films should be yours. Put it in writing: artwork will not be reused, resold, or shown in the supplier's portfolio without permission. Ask whether they produce for competitors — not because they will admit it, but because the reaction is informative.

12. References and a retained sample

Ask for two customers in your category, ideally in your market, and actually contact one. Then, before bulk production, sign off a golden sample — the approved piece kept by both sides — with the spec sheet attached. Every later dispute is settled by comparing against it.

Red flags worth walking away from

• Price noticeably below every other quote, with no explanation of what was changed.
• Refusal to put fabric weight and tolerance in writing.
• Sample arrives without measurements, weight or a spec sheet.
• Answers arrive fast but never address the question asked.
• Bank details change mid-order, or payment is requested to a personal account.
• "No problem" for every request, including the physically difficult ones.
• No photographs of the actual production line, only catalogue renders.
• Pressure to skip the sample because "our quality is stable".

An RFQ that gets useful answers

Suppliers respond to clarity with clarity. A useful first email contains:

• Bag type, dimensions (W × H × D), and fabric weight you expect.
• Quantity, and whether the design may change.
• Print method and number of colours, with artwork attached.
• Target market and any compliance requirement.
• Delivery date, destination port or door, and Incoterm you prefer.
• Packaging requirement.

Six lines. Suppliers who answer all six are the ones worth a sample order.

Before you approve the sample

1. Measure the bag against the drawing: width, height, depth, handle drop, handle width.
2. Weigh the bag and calculate fabric GSM from a cut swatch (see our GSM guide).
3. Check stitching density — 8–10 stitches per inch is normal; fewer means it will pull apart under load.
4. Load test it: put in 1.5× the intended weight, lift by one handle, and look at the handle anchors.
5. Wash one piece at 30 °C and check shrinkage, colour bleed and print adhesion.
6. Confirm the print position and size with a ruler, not by eye.
7. Photograph everything and attach it to the approval email. Approval without measurements is how "as sample" becomes an argument.

When something goes wrong

Assume one order in ten will have a problem, and price the remedy in advance. The order should state: defect rate above which the supplier replaces or credits, who pays return freight, the inspection window before final payment, and the remedy if delivery slips (a percentage penalty per week is common). None of this needs to be adversarial. Written terms protect the supplier too.

Frequently asked questions

Should I visit the factory?

If the order is above a few thousand dollars, yes — or hire a third-party inspection company for a factory audit. A one-day visit answers more than a month of emails.

How many suppliers should I compare?

Three to five quotes on the same spec. Fewer and you have no price reference; more and you will spend the week translating instead of deciding.

Is a cheap sample a good sign?

Sometimes, but a free sample often means a stock item, not your specification. Pay for the sample that matches your brief, and ask whether the fee is credited to the order.

What if the supplier has no export experience?

Workable for small orders if you are comfortable handling freight, but expect documentation errors and slower shipping. For a first order, the risk usually outweighs the saving.

If you are comparing quotes and want a second opinion on whether a specification is realistic at the price you were given, send us the details — we will tell you what the number implies about the fabric and the print.