Buying Chinese knitwear: jumpers and cardigans

Turn the sample into a repeatable knitwear specification

Use the finished, washed garment as your approval reference. Ask each supplier to quote against the same fibre percentages, yarn specification, knit gauge, stitch structure, garment weight, size chart and finishing process. Record how measurements are taken and agree tolerances with the supplier rather than borrowing an unexplained industry allowance.

For a jumper, mark chest width, body length, sleeve length, neck opening and rib dimensions. For a cardigan, add placket length, button spacing, buttonhole position and the appearance of the garment when fastened. Photograph the approved garment flat, including the inside seams. Put these details into a product specification before comparing prices.

For a cashmere claim, request analysis of a representative production sample. ISO 17751-1:2023 covers identification and quantitative analysis of cashmere, wool and other speciality animal fibres using light microscopy. Ask the laboratory to select a method appropriate to the actual blend. Our cashmere and animal-hair sourcing guide covers the material buying decision.

Compare Puyuan suppliers with the same sample brief

Puyuan town is in Tongxiang, Jiaxing, Zhejiang. Zhejiang’s government portal identifies its knitwear industry, while its report on the Puyuan sweater market names that market in Tongxiang. Use Puyuan as a starting point for comparing finished sweater ranges and discussing production against your approved sample.

A sourcing location is not evidence that a particular seller knitted your sample. Ask who supplies the yarn and where knitting, linking, washing and finishing will take place. Request separate answers for each operation, then compare suppliers using the same garment brief.

Approve washing and pilling before releasing production

For wash performance, specify a washing and drying procedure under ISO 6330:2021 and measure dimensional change using ISO 5077:2007. Ask the laboratory to match the procedure to the proposed care instructions. Record chest, length, sleeve and neck measurements before and after treatment, and photograph any twisting or change in shape. The wash-performance approval guide explains how to turn the result into an approval record.

For surface deterioration, ISO 12945-2:2020 provides the modified Martindale method for pilling, fuzzing and matting. Agree the test conditions and acceptance grade before testing. Keep the method, result, sample identity and photographs together; a report naming a different yarn or garment is not your approval record.

Use a knitwear-specific inspection checklist: look for dropped stitches, holes at linked seams, uneven neck attachment, loose yarn ends, shade differences between panels and distorted ribbing. For cardigans, fasten every button and check alignment, puckering and whether the placket lies flat, both before and after the agreed wash treatment. These are recommended buying checks; the named test methods do not establish your commercial pass limits.

Before shipment, compare production garments with the sealed approval sample and record defects by style, colour and size. Agree how failed goods will be corrected and rechecked before authorising dispatch. See what happens during a quality inspection.

Prepare labels and the Great Britain safety file

For sales in England, Scotland and Wales, GOV.UK’s textile-labelling guidance requires fibre content, including fur and other animal parts, to be shown. Where components have different fibre contents, their contents must be identified. The Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012 remain available as revised legislation; the official legislation site reports no known outstanding effects.

The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 continue to apply in Great Britain. They prohibit producers from placing unsafe products on the market, and official guidance includes UK importers within producer responsibilities. Keep a style-level file containing the supplier identity, composition evidence, approved labels, relevant safety assessment, test reports and production identification.

The ISO methods above are proposed purchasing and testing references, not a claim that every jumper must pass one universal statutory pilling or shrinkage grade. This section addresses Great Britain; obtain a separate requirements check before extending the range to Northern Ireland.

Classify wool and cashmere before calculating duty

The following selected lines were read from the UK Trade Tariff for imports from China into Great Britain on 16 October 2026. They illustrate why fibre, garment type, weight and the full ten-digit suffix matter. They do not cover every cotton, synthetic, blended or children’s style.

The heavyweight wool line is specifically for qualifying jerseys and pullovers. Do not apply it to a cardigan merely because it is heavy. The selected cashmere line is a specific women’s or girls’ category. Have your customs agent confirm the finished garment against the complete tariff description.

Check the current China-specific measures for each commodity code before declaring the shipment, including whether any anti-dumping duty applies.

Worked example: adult knitwear at 12% duty

Hypothetical example, not a supplier quotation: assume adult cashmere cardigans correctly classified under 6110129090 have a customs value of £10,000, already including transport and insurance to the UK border. Assume a further £200 of delivery costs to the first UK destination, not already included, and no other additions or reliefs.

Duty is £10,000 × 12% = £1,200. The import VAT base is £10,000 + £1,200 + £200 = £11,400. At the standard 20% VAT rate, import VAT is £2,280. Duty plus import VAT totals £3,480; the assumed customs value, additional delivery and taxes together total £13,680. This is not a complete commercial landed-cost quotation.

Do not automatically use 20% for a children’s range. HMRC’s VAT Notice 714 permits zero-rating only when its clothing, fur, design and suitability conditions are all met. Assess those conditions separately from the commodity code. The UK import duty and VAT guide explains the wider calculation.

Send an approval brief with your sourcing enquiry

Send your intended adult or children’s range, target fibre composition, garment drawings, size chart, care proposal, sample photographs and required delivery destination. Identify which decisions remain open, especially cashmere content, washed dimensions and cardigan fastening construction.

Use Cambridge China Bridge’s service for brands to discuss sourcing against that brief. Ask for the quotation to identify the sampling, testing and inspection work included. Factory checks and inspections are normally included in our quote; anything complex enough to need a third party is charged separately and agreed in advance.