Your Trusted Custom Garment Bags Manufacturer

A garment cover has one job that is easy to state and hard to hold: deliver a jacket that can be worn straight off the hanger. Everything about the build follows from that — the full-length zip has to travel without snagging a lining, the fold line must not set a crease into a lapel, and the fabric has to breathe, because a suit sealed inside a PE-coated cover in a humid warehouse comes out musty.

Specification options for custom garment bags

These are the three configurations most programmes settle on. Note the flat and folded dimensions together: the flat length is set by the garment, and the folded footprint is what decides freight and retail shelf fit.

How a garment bag is built

On non-woven covers the panels are joined by ultrasonic welding rather than stitching. Welding is faster, produces no needle holes and gives a flat seam that will not imprint through onto a pressed garment. It also means the seam cannot be reworked, so pattern accuracy has to be right first time.

Woven covers are sewn, and the critical operation is setting the full-length zip. A zip that long will wave if the tape is fed under tension, and a waving zip jams against the garment inside. The tape is fed slack and the shell is eased to it, which is a slower operation than it sounds and one of the reasons a sewn cover costs more than a welded one at the same size.

The hanger aperture takes the entire hanging load, so it gets the most reinforcement per square centimetre in the whole product. A die-cut slot on a non-woven cover is bound with tape and bar-tacked at both ends; on a woven carrier the aperture is a moulded frame riveted through a reinforcement patch, and the internal hanger hook is anchored into the same patch.

Fold lines are engineered, not incidental. On a tri-fold, the two crease positions carry a pressed line and a lightweight stiffener bonded behind the shell, so the bag folds in the same place every time. Without that stiffener the panel folds wherever the user happens to push, and sooner or later it folds across a jacket shoulder.

Breathability is a specification, not a preference. Non-woven polypropylene passes air and is the right choice for long-term storage; PE-coated or PVC-backed fabrics are cheaper and shed water, but they trap humidity, and garment mould is the most common complaint we see on stored covers. Where water shedding is required, a breathable shell with a water-repellent finish is the compromise.

Cost drivers and MOQ for garment bags

The three largest drivers are zip length and grade, shell weight, and whether the cover is welded or sewn. In that order. A move from a #5 to a #8 coil on a wrap-around run adds materially to cost, as does any increase in gsm on a non-woven, because non-woven is priced by weight.

Print method comes next. Screen printing suits flat non-woven panels and is priced per colour per position; heat transfer handles photographic artwork but sits on top of the surface and can crack at the fold line. For woven covers, an embroidered panel costs more per unit but survives repeated folding.

Opening quantities are 500 units per style per colour, falling to 300 for repeats once markers exist. Samples take 6–10 working days on stock fabric and 12–15 where a moulded aperture, a bespoke stiffener or dyed-to-match trim is involved; sample fees run USD 50–150 and are credited against your first bulk order, while dedicated moulding or die tooling sits at USD 300–2,500. Payment is T/T 30/70 against FOB Xiamen with EXW, CIF and DDP available under Incoterms 2020, and quotations return within 24–48 hours. Transit is 25–35 days by sea, 5–8 by air and 3–5 by courier; flat non-woven covers pack densely, so a 20GP at 28 CBM, a 40GP at 56 CBM or a 40HQ at 68 CBM is usually limited by carton weight rather than volume.

Quality gates and acceptance criteria

Final inspection runs to AQL 2.5 sampled under ISO 2859-1, with Critical 0, Major 2.5 and Minor 4.0, and AQL 1.5 where a customer's own protocol demands it. Reports are released from our 4,950 m² SGS-verified production floor before loading, and reorders are reported identically so one season can be compared with the last.

Because this is a protective product, functional checks matter more than appearance. Zip travel over the full length, hanging load at the aperture and crease recovery at the fold line predict field performance far better than a visual pass.

Storage life, breathability and retail presentation

Where covers are sold as a storage product rather than a travel product, the specification should be written for a two-year life in a wardrobe. That argues for breathable non-woven, a bound aperture and a zip with a nickel-free slider, and against any coated fabric that will hold humidity against wool.

Ordering path for garment bag programmes

The six steps below take a garment cover from brief to shipment, with first programmes typically at 10–14 weeks. Certification requirements are set out on our bag quality and certification page, and travel-format siblings are covered under custom travel bags.