Low MOQ Cashmere Manufacturing: Why We Start at 50 Pieces

Small runs, by choice.

HYPECHASE produces cashmere knitwear from 50 pieces per style. This number is a choice we made at the very beginning, and it still shapes who we work with today.

From our first collections in Ulaanbaatar, our partners have been independent designers: small houses full of ideas, building their vision one season at a time. They gave us our start, and we wanted to give them theirs. A low minimum order is how we do it.

Why we start at 50 pieces

• Production, not developmentBelow 50 pieces, most of the work goes into programming, sampling and adjusting, with very few garments at the end. 50 is where a collection becomes production.
• Fair to the atelierAn atelier sets up its machines, programs each style and briefs its linkers on the details. 50 pieces keeps the machines running long enough to make that preparation worthwhile.
• Within reach of emerging brandsLarger factories often work with minimums several times higher. At 50, a young designer can produce a real collection, test it with stockists and come back for more.

50 pieces is the number that makes everyone happy: the designer, the atelier and the machine.

What 50 pieces means in practice

The 50 pieces are counted per style, across all its sizes and colours. A sweater in two colours and three sizes means six variations, so roughly eight pieces each.

The split is agreed together, style by style. To see what happens once production starts, read how a cashmere sweater is made.

Every cone becomes a garment

We care about leaving nothing behind. Small runs only make sense if they create no dead stock, neither for the brand nor for the atelier.

Stock colours make this easy: yarn is available from 1 kg, so a small collection uses exactly what it needs. When a collection calls for a rarer shade, we may kindly suggest using the full yarn lot, so that every cone dyed for the brand ends up as a finished piece.

When fewer than 50 makes sense

50 is our starting point, and we stay flexible around it. Some projects call for a handful of pieces:

• Handcrafted pieces made for a fashion show
• Limited editions for an event or a presentation
• Smaller runs for designers who choose to cover a small-run fee

If your project is special, tell us about it. We will find the right way to make it.

Growing together, collection after collection

Many of our partners started with very small runs. Season after season, their collections grew and they came back. Over the years, these exchanges became real growth partnerships: we know each other well enough to suggest ideas in both directions.

LIYA Antwerp is one of these stories. We have produced for the brand from its early collections, and we still do today. We have also made collections for Leon Emanuel Blanck and Eyn Vas, and taken part in experimental projects such as Archivio J.M. Ribot, a memorable collaboration.

We have also produced for Enfin Levé, My Sleeping Gypsy, AIREI, ACHIY and Winnie New York, from yak sweaters to cashmere beanies and scarves.

What these designers share is a dream, hard work and a great deal of kindness. Being part of their vision of fashion is a real pleasure.

Our newest partnership, with Evan Kinori, shows another side of small-batch work. The conversations take time, because time matters to the brand. We talk about touch, about origin, about the fibre itself. For a manufacturer who loves materials, these are the best conversations to have.

Small runs leave room for what large volumes rarely allow: time, experiments and a real dialogue with the designer.

Small runs, big ideas

A few pieces from independent designers we have knitted for, each one produced in a small run.

Starting even smaller: socks

For brands taking their first step into Mongolian fibres, socks are a simple entry point. In cashmere or in natural, undyed yak, they start from 30 pairs, sizes mixed freely, with your logo on every pair. More on the fibre in our guide to yak wool vs cashmere.

Frequently asked questions