Brisbane's apparel scene has grown up fast, but most local makers still can't touch overseas pricing at volume. Here's the honest comparison — MOQs, AUD costs, lead times and quality — plus the exact point where a Brisbane brand should stay local and where it should go offshore.
Last updated: 10 September 2026
In short: Brisbane has a small but genuinely good cut-and-sew scene — mostly in Fortitude Valley, Salisbury and out towards Yatala — and it's the right call for sampling, short runs under about 100 units, and anything you need in four weeks. Once you're ordering 300+ units per style, factories in China and Vietnam will land in Brisbane at roughly 40–60% of the local unit cost, even after freight and duty. Most Queensland brands that scale end up running both: local for development and reorders, offshore for volume.
Yes — more than most people think, and fewer than you'd hope. Brisbane's apparel manufacturing is concentrated in small studios doing cut-make-trim (CMT) work: sample rooms, uniform makers, swimwear and activewear specialists, and a handful of workwear operations servicing the mining and construction trade.
What Brisbane does not have is scale. Australia's garment manufacturing sector has shrunk to a fraction of what it was in the 1980s, and the machinists who remain are in high demand. A local maker who can produce 2,000 units of a technical activewear style, on time, at a price your margins survive, is a rare animal in South East Queensland.
That's not a criticism of local makers. It's a structural reality — and it's why the honest question isn't "local or overseas?" but "which parts of my range go where?"
Here's a realistic comparison for a mid-weight cotton crew tee and a technical activewear legging, based on what Australian brands are actually paying in 2026. All figures in AUD, per unit, at the stated quantity.
| Product | Qty | Brisbane (CMT) | China (FOB) | Vietnam (FOB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cotton crew tee, 220gsm, printed | 500 | $28–$42 | $6.50–$9.50 | $7.00–$10.50 |
| Technical legging, 4-way stretch, flatlock | 500 | $45–$70 | $11–$17 | $12–$19 |
| Typical MOQ per colourway | — | 20–50 | 300–500 | 300–800 |
| Lead time from approved sample | — | 3–6 weeks | 45–70 days | 50–80 days |
Add roughly $1.20–$2.50 per unit for sea freight to the Port of Brisbane on a shared container, plus 5% duty on most apparel (often 0% under ChAFTA for Chinese-origin goods with a valid certificate of origin) and 10% GST. Even loaded up, offshore lands well under local.
The gap narrows on small runs. At 50 units, once you account for offshore sampling costs, freight minimums and the sheer time value of waiting ten weeks, Brisbane often wins outright.
Stay local when any of these are true:
Your first 50–100 units exist to find out whether people buy it. Paying a premium to learn that in six weeks instead of fourteen is money well spent.
"Made in Australia" is a real premium in workwear, uniforms, and sustainability-led labels. If your customer pays for it, keep it. Just be careful with the claim itself — country-of-origin rules are strict, and "designed in Australia" is not "made in Australia".
A Brisbane maker can turn a 200-unit reorder in a fortnight. No factory in Guangzhou or Ho Chi Minh City can do that once you add ocean freight.
Merino, some technical performance knits and certain wool blends are easier and cheaper to work with here than to ship offshore and back.
Go offshore when you've validated the product, you're reordering the same styles, and volume is above roughly 300 units per colourway. Specifically:
Bonded seams, laser-cut edges, moulded cups, printed panels, technical trims. Chinese factories in Guangdong and Fujian do this every day, at a level of finish that's hard to match locally at any price.
Offshore factories source your fabric, trims, labels and packaging. Locally you'll usually be sourcing fabric yourself and paying a CMT rate on top. That sourcing burden is a hidden cost people forget to price in.
Vietnam has become the default second leg for Australian apparel brands — strong on knitwear, outerwear, footwear and cut-and-sew basics, with a workforce and compliance culture that suits brands selling into markets sensitive to China exposure. Read our full breakdown of the Vietnam vs China manufacturing decision for Australian businesses.
This is where most Brisbane brands lose three months. A factory quote is only as good as the brief behind it, and "here's a photo of a hoodie I like" isn't a brief.
Bring these five things:
Send the same pack to every quoting factory. If you send different information to each, you'll get quotes you can't compare.
From Brisbane, you can't walk the floor — which is exactly why verification matters more offshore than it does locally.
At minimum: confirm the business licence and registered capital, check the factory's actual export history rather than the trading company fronting it, request a video walkthrough of the production line and finished-goods area, and run a pre-shipment inspection to an agreed AQL standard before you release the balance payment. Our supplier verification checklist walks through this step by step.
The single most common mistake we see from Queensland brands: paying a 30% deposit to a company they found on a B2B platform, on the strength of a photo gallery that belongs to someone else's factory.
Say you're a Fortitude Valley activewear brand. You've sold through 100 leggings made locally at $58 landed, retailing at $139. Good margin, no scale.
| Scenario | Local, 100 units | China FOB, 1,000 units |
|---|---|---|
| Unit cost | $58.00 | $14.20 |
| Freight + duty + GST per unit | $0 | $3.10 |
| Landed cost | $58.00 | $17.30 |
| Total outlay | $5,800 | $17,300 |
| Gross margin at $139 RRP | 58% | 88% |
You spend three times the cash, but you free up roughly $121 of gross margin per unit instead of $81 — and you've built the base to run paid acquisition properly. That's the trade. The risk is that you've committed $17,300 to a style, which is precisely why you validate locally first.
Work your own numbers with our guide to calculating landed cost when importing from China to Australia.
Typically 300–500 units per colourway for cut-and-sew apparel, though it varies widely. Simple tees can start around 200; technical activewear and anything with custom fabric usually starts at 500 and can run to 1,000 because of fabric mill minimums. Vietnam MOQs tend to sit slightly higher than China's. A sourcing agent with existing factory relationships can often negotiate below the published minimum.
Budget 12–16 weeks end to end for a first order: 3–5 weeks for sampling and approvals, 45–70 days for production, and 18–25 days sea freight to the Port of Brisbane, plus customs clearance. Reorders of an approved style are faster — usually 8–10 weeks. Add four to six weeks if your production window collides with Chinese New Year or the Golden Week shutdowns.
China is generally 5–15% cheaper per unit on comparable apparel, mostly because its fabric and trim supply chain is deeper and closer to the factories. Vietnam competes on labour cost, tariff positioning and risk diversification rather than raw price. For knitwear, outerwear and footwear the gap is smallest; for anything needing specialised fabric or complex trims, China still has the edge.
Not necessarily, but somebody should. A video call plus a third-party inspection covers most brands. If you're committing serious money to a new supplier, having bilingual people physically on the factory floor is the difference between finding a problem before shipment and finding it in your Brisbane warehouse.
Yes, and most successful Australian brands do. The common pattern is sampling and new-style development locally in Brisbane, core range and volume reorders offshore. It keeps development fast and keeps unit economics healthy.
We've sourced more than 20,000 products for over 300 clients, with bilingual teams on the ground in China and Vietnam and offices across five countries — averaging around 77% savings against what clients were previously paying. For apparel specifically, that means matching your tech pack to the right factory, negotiating MOQs down to something a growing brand can actually fund, running quality control before the goods leave the country, and getting the container into Brisbane without surprises.
Have a look at our clothing manufacturing service, or if you're weighing up going offshore for the first time, start with our guide to importing products from China to Australia.
Ready to talk it through? Give us a bell and we'll tell you honestly whether your range should go offshore yet.
