Here are my best three tips for sourcing in Vietnam.

1. Use the Vietnam Yellow Pages to find factories online
2. Hire a private car with driver for a day
3. Show up with either a tech pack or physical sample AND projected quantities.

This website has a great index of factories that is relatively easy to search. You can search in English or Vietnamese. Try the English version first and see how far you get. Then I recommend using Google Translate to get the keywords for your product in Vietnamese. For example if you are searching for sock factories then get the word for sock in Vietnamese: vớ and paste it into the search box. You will see a lot of suggested sub-categories. Just click the search button and look at all the results. They have usually have images of their products, website URLs and contact info.

The website you want is: https://www.yellowpages.vn NOT www.yp.vn

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I have hired many different transportation service companies over the last 14+ years visiting factories in Vietnam and they are all ok. I now have my go to favorite. His name is Bao and you can use him. Ask me for his contact and I will introduce you. He charges me as low as 1,600,000 Vnd/day for easy trips inside the city. He charges 1,800,000 Vnd/day for trips further out. That’s $68 – $76/day. Price includes driver, gas and toll fees.

You can also book a car through your hotel. If you are staying at a 5-star hotel you will pay as much as $150/day. If you stay at a budget hotel you should be able to get the same price as Bao.

You can contact service companies in the city where you will be visiting. Go to Google and search like this:

Search: công ty thuê xe du lịch ở [name of city]

You will find websites like this: http://thuexevinh.com​

You can book a car directly from the website or call the phone number and book. Tip: ask your hotel concierge to help you book.

Ask them to send you a quote via text, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Everyone in Vietnam uses Zalo App. I recommend downloading and using Zalo if you plan to do business in Vietnam long term.

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Show up with either a tech pack or physical sample AND projected quantities.

The first question I ask people is, do you have tech packs? If they say no or ask me back, what is a tech pack, then I ask, do you need help with design and development. They usually say no, I know exactly what I want. But the truth is that they don’t know exactly all the details that they want. If you start talking to a factory and can not provide all the details for your design then it’s like rain to a baseball game. Game stops and the excitement is over. No one wins.

Write down your ideas on paper in order to communicate scores of details quickly and clearly to the factory.

If you need help choosing from options but don’t know what the available options are then make a list of questions you have for the factory to answer. For example if you know you need a drawstring but don’t know what variations of drawstrings are available then write down this question.

Use Google translate and translate all your questions into Vietnam. Bring them to the factory visit.

Here is a list of 27 questions. Try to answer them as best you can. If there is a question you can not answer then write, I need factories help to choose or create XYZ.

1. What is the name of your brand?
2. What is the designers name?
3. What is the short description of the garment?
4. What season does this garment belong to?
5. What is the date this tech pack was created?
6. What is the technical description of the main fabric?
7. What is the style name?
8. What is the style #?
9. What is the size range?
10. What is the sample size?
11. Do you have an image for the sample fabric swatch that shows details like artwork, pattern or texture?
12. Do you have a technical drawing (aka flat sketch?)
13. Do you know the item name, item description, color, sku #, quantity and supplier name for every item in your bill of materials?
14. Do you have pictures that show the details of each trim like, buttons, zippers, labels or patches?
15. Do you have pictures that show the details of each accessory like hang-tags, poly-bags or carton boxes?
16. Does your technical drawing call out all the special elements of your design like velcro strips, snaps, secret pockets or water proof seams?
17. Does your construction diagram list the sewing operation, stitch type, stitch width, stitches per inch, seam orientation and seam allowance?
18. Do you know the exact Pantone color code for every element of your design including fabric, lining, buttons, zippers and thread?
19. Do you have the original artwork for any printing that needs to be done on the fabric, trims or accessories?
20. Do you have all the correct wording for your main labels and care labels?
21. Do you know the exact materials, dimensions and placements for all your main labels and care labels?
22. What type of card-stock and print quality do you want for your hang-tags?
23. What material and thickness do you want for your poly-bags? Do they have an adhesive strip?
24. What are you folding instructions?
25. Do you have the exact measurements for at least one size?
26. Do you have the exact graded measurements for the full size range?
27. Do you have an accurate technical drawing that shows where to take measurements from when doing quality control checks?

Be prepared to answer the quantity question. Do not say, it depends on price because this is a fallacy. How much you buy depends on how much capital you have to invest. You know your target price and you know how much capital you have. Divide capital by target price and you will have your quantity. Tell them the quantity you want to produce and see how they answer. I predict that any quantity per style per color less than 1,000 will not get you past first base.

I can help you with all of this. It’s my area of expertise. Ready to move to the next step?

​Schedule a consultation here.​

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