In the world of high-volume garment production, the "100" is the fundamental unit of momentum. For a shirt manufacturer, buying cloth by the hundred—whether in yards, meters, or full bolts—is the bridge between a designer’s sketch and a retail floor. The Economy of Scale
Large batches often come from the same "dye lot," ensuring that every shirt in a production run is the exact same shade of navy or crisp white.
In the textile trade, the "100" is often the threshold for wholesale pricing. It’s where the cost per garment drops, allowing for a healthy profit margin. The Logistics of the Bolt a shirt manufacturer buys cloth by the 100
Buying this way also shifts the stakes of quality control. A single flaw in the middle of a 100-yard roll can throw off an entire automated cutting sequence. Manufacturers must perform "four-point" inspections to check for snags, knots, or uneven weaving before the first blade touches the fibers.
At its core, buying by the 100 is about . It is the manufacturer’s bet that their pattern is perfect and their market is ready, turning a massive roll of raw material into a uniform fleet of style. In the world of high-volume garment production, the
Fabric cutters can layer dozens of "plies" (layers of cloth) at once. A 100-yard bolt allows for long, continuous markers that maximize every square inch of the textile.
When a manufacturer orders by the 100, they move past the "retail" mindset and into the "industrial" one. Buying in these increments allows for: In the textile trade, the "100" is often
Cloth arriving "by the 100" usually comes in heavy, cylindrical bolts. For a standard men's button-down, which requires roughly 1.5 to 2 yards of fabric: translates to roughly 50 to 60 shirts .