We are registered as a trading company, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we are not is a company that forwards your tech pack to a factory and adds a margin.
We develop the sample, we buy and place the yarn and trims ourselves, our own QC inspectors work inside the knitting factories, and the pre-shipment inspection is ours. The factories knit — everything else is done by us. Some buyers call that a virtual factory; we would rather just show you the split and let you check it.
That structure is common in this industry and it is not a secret. What differs between suppliers is how much of the work the office actually controls — and whether the supplier will let you verify it. That is the part worth comparing.
The usual trading company forwards your tech pack and adds a margin. We do the development, the yarn buying and the QC ourselves, and place only the knitting with the factories.
| Our Nanjing office does this | The knitting factories do this |
|---|---|
| Design and sampling — tech pack review, yarn selection, counter-sample | Knitting on flat machines, at the gauge agreed |
| Yarn specification and purchasing — we choose the mill and place the order | Linking, hand-finishing and trim attachment |
| Merchandising — one merchandiser per customer, following the order daily | Washing, pressing, packing to the agreed carton specification |
| Quality control — our inspectors inside the factories, plus our own pre-shipment inspection | Their own in-line operators, which we do not count as our QC |
| Documentation, testing and certificates for your file | — |
If an order is delayed, the merchandiser you email is the person who has to explain it — not an account manager relaying messages from a third party.
All five are in eastern and northern China, all five are BSCI audited, and all five knit garments and nothing else — no home textiles, no woven, no bought-in finished goods. They are not interchangeable: each is set up for particular gauge bands and product types, which is why "we work with five factories" is a capacity statement and not a price list.
Tell us the style, the gauge and the quantity, and we will tell you the factory, the address, and who your merchandiser would be. Then check it however you like:
We would rather be checked before the deposit than argued with after it. A supplier who cannot name the factory has not told you anything you can verify.
Two SOFTEX QC inspectors are stationed inside the factories, checking production day to day. Our Nanjing quality team travels out and supervises on site. They are our employees on our payroll — not the factory's own inspectors, and not an outside agent called in when something has already gone wrong.
That arrangement is what makes a partner-factory model workable rather than risky. It is also the thing you can see for yourself: ask to meet the inspector on a video call and hear them describe your order.
Knitted from the yarn we placed, to the same measurements and with the same finishing as the bulk, so what you see is what the line will produce. It reaches you already checked here, line by line, against the comments you signed off at sampling. Because 45–60 days does not survive a sample round-trip, we release the knitting at the same time as we send the sample, not after your reply. Changes at this stage are normally small: a shade, a trim, a centimetre. Those we absorb in the bulk. A change to silhouette, gauge or yarn stops the line and re-quotes the timing, because that is a different order.
Our inspectors on the floor check measurements, stitches and linking as the order builds, so a fault is caught at piece 300 rather than at piece 3,000.
Carried out against the sample you approved, at 80% packing, by our QC. This is the inspection written into our terms — not a second, separate promise.
A common trap is a certificate that belongs to the yarn mill and gets presented as if it covered the factory. Here is which document covers which part of your order.
| Document | What it actually covers |
|---|---|
| BSCI audit report | Social compliance of the specific factory that would run your order. Held per factory — ask for the one that applies to you, not a generic copy. |
| ISO 9001 | Our quality management system: documented procedures for sampling, production and final inspection. |
| OEKO-TEX Standard 100 | Harmful-substance testing on both the yarn we buy and the finished knitted sweater, at product class I. Many suppliers hold only the yarn certificate; the garment needs its own. |
| GRS | Recycled content, where your style uses recycled yarn. Transaction certificates are issued per order. |
The certificate numbers are published on the About page so you can verify them at the issuing body yourself. The certificate files are a different matter: we send the current PDF on request, because a scan is only true for the period it covers and we would rather send you a live one than leave a stale copy on the web.
Correct — Unit 1706-1708, Tower 2, Nanjing Financial City. Design, sampling, merchandising and quality control are all run from here.
An office-tower address genuinely tells you nothing on its own: plenty of trading companies sit in one, and plenty of manufacturers keep their sales office downtown and knit in an industrial zone. It is not evidence either way. The evidence is the factory name, the audit report and the inspection record — all three of which we will hand over.
Sweaters, cardigans, scarves, hats, dresses and knit sets, from 1.5GG to 16GG. A supplier offering knitwear, home textiles and furniture in one catalogue is usually a trader.
Ours is one category with a wide gauge span: everything we make is knitted, and everything is made on flat knitting machines. Fine gauge at 12–16GG and chunky at 3–7GG are different machines and different technicians — which is exactly why we spread the work across five factories rather than claiming one plant does all of it. It is one product type, not several.
If you are comparing suppliers, send the same requests to all of them. We are comfortable being measured against it.
Ask for all of them at once and you will get all of them. If any supplier in your shortlist will not name a factory, that is your answer about who you are actually buying from.
No. Production runs in five BSCI-audited knitting factories in eastern and northern China. We are registered as a trading company — Nanjing Codeal Corp., Ltd., where SOFTEX is the knitwear business unit — but we are not a middleman: we develop the sample, we specify and buy the yarn and trims ourselves, our own QC is stationed inside the factories, and the pre-shipment inspection at 80% packing is ours. We will name the factory for your order, with its address, so you can check it independently.
Because design, sampling, merchandising and quality control are all done from this office, and the knitting happens at the factories. An office-tower address proves nothing either way — which is why we answer the question with the factory, the audit report and the inspection record rather than with a postcode.
Yes. We give you the factory name and address for your style and quantity, and a live video walkthrough of the knitting floor, linking and finishing, and the inspection area can be arranged. A physical visit can be arranged as well.
The BSCI audit report for the factory that would run your order; the ISO 9001 certificate held by Nanjing Codeal Corp., Ltd. (SOFTEX is its knitwear business unit), number 17324Q20598R0S, valid to 13 May 2027; and the OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certificate for the finished knitted sweater, number 25.HCN.74820, product class I, valid to 30 June 2027 — that number you can check yourself at the OEKO-TEX Label Check. GRS is not a company-wide certificate: where your order uses recycled yarn, a transaction certificate is issued against that order.
We do. Pre-shipment inspection happens at 80% packing, against the counter-sample you approved, carried out by SOFTEX QC staff rather than the factory's own inspectors or an outside agent called in at the end.
Buying merino, or comparing gauge bands? See our merino styles, gauges and minimums.
Send the style and quantity. You get a factory name, an address and an audit report — before any deposit.
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