1330 S Santa Fe Ave, Suite 102
Los Angeles, CA 90021
By appointment only.
Kids Clothing Manufacturer in Los Angeles
Essentials Made is a garment-dyed kids clothing manufacturer in Los Angeles.
100% cotton tees, crewnecks, hoodies, sweatpants and matching sets for toddler and youth sizing, cut and sewn in the Arts District of Downtown LA and dyed as finished garments to your Pantone color.
A kids style runs the same way an adult style does here: same mills, same dye house, same floor. Your kids program sits on the same fabric and the same dye lot as the adult range if you want it to.
Send a garment your customers already love and we replicate it in your sizing. Patterns, grading and sample are all made here.
For the full picture of how production works, see our Los Angeles clothing and apparel manufacturer guide.
Start a kids or toddler program in Los Angeles
Tell us the styles, the size range and the quantity you are planning. We reply within one business day.
Prefer email? Email us your project. Include your brand, Instagram, whether you are currently selling, pieces per style, what you want to make, and a description of your project.
Kids clothing manufacturers — what we make
The adult range, cut in toddler and youth sizing.
Most kids clothing manufacturers work from stock blanks and decorate them. We build the garment itself, from your pattern, in fabric knit for your run.
Everything in the adult range is made in kids sizing on the same floor. The construction does not change, the grade rules do.
Kids and toddler tees
Crewneck sweatshirts
Pullover and zip hoodies
Sweatpants and joggers
Matching sets, crew or hood
Long sleeve tees
Toddler through youth sizing
Mini-me to an adult style
Childrens clothing manufacturers working only in 100% cotton
Polyester does not take pigment. Cotton does.
As a children's clothing manufacturer we run one fiber: 100% cotton. That is what makes garment dye possible, and it is what parents are reading the label for.
The garment is cut and sewn first in greige fabric, which is fabric that has not been dyed yet. Then it goes to our Los Angeles dye house as a finished piece, in any Pantone TCX color you name.
Fleece
340 GSM 3-end French terry body with a 415 GSM heavyweight 1x1 rib at the cuffs, waist and hood opening — the same fleece as the adult range.
Jersey
40/1 lightweight at 140 GSM, 30/1 midweight at 160–180 GSM, 20/1 heavyweight at 200–220 GSM.
Knit to order
Yarn is reserved and fabric is knit for your run, so a reorder comes back on the same yarn, weight and construction as the first.
One dye lot across sizes
Kids and adult pieces dyed in the same lot match each other, which is what a family or mini-me drop needs.
Minimums for a kids or toddler program
Same floors as the adult range. A kids style is not a smaller order.
A kids style takes the same pattern work, the same sewing operations and the same handling as its adult equivalent, so it carries the same minimum.
Fleece and sweats
72 pieces per style when two or more styles share one fabric and one dye lot. A single fleece style on its own runs at 150 pieces.
Tees and jersey
300 pieces per style, dropping to 150 when two or more jersey styles share one spec and one dye lot.
Counting kids with adult
A kids style and its adult version are two styles sharing one fabric and one dye lot, which is how most brands here unlock the lower fleece floor.
Size range
The minimum is per style, not per size, so you decide how the run splits across the size curve.
Running the adult version too? That is cut and sew manufacturing, with the tee and tank program and the hoodie and fleece program on their own pages.
Custom kids clothing manufacturer — how development works
Pattern, fabric and one finished sample, dyed in a single color.
Development starts from a physical reference garment you ship us, not from a tech pack alone. You send the piece whose fit you want, we replicate it in your sizing, and you approve a real sample before anything goes into production.
Development is priced per style at the same rate as the adult equivalent, because the work is the same:
Tee
$300 when you move into production ($600 for development only).
Crewneck
$400 when you move into production ($800 for development only).
Hoodie or sweatpant
$450 when you move into production ($900 for development only).
What it covers
Pattern, fabric and one finished sample garment dyed in a single color. Half the development fee is credited toward the production invoice when you move into production within two months of sample approval.
Grading
The graded size set sits in production cost, not in the development fee. Kids grading is its own rule set and we build it here.
Development on its own, with production elsewhere, is handled through pattern and sample making.
Wholesale childrens clothing manufacturers for established brands
Built for brands already selling, adding a kids range.
The brands that do well here are already selling an adult range and adding kids because their customers keep asking for it. The kids run piggybacks on the adult fabric buy and the adult dye lot, which is what makes a small kids program work at all.
Production runs 6 to 7 weeks from deposit once the sample is approved. All production takes a 50% deposit.
Kids clothing manufacturers in the USA, based in Los Angeles
You do not need to be in LA to run a program here.
Everything is cut, sewn and dyed in Downtown Los Angeles and shipped to brands in all 50 states. Samples ship to you, fit approvals happen over video, and production stays here under California garment worker protections in an SB62 compliant facility.
Ready to start?
Use the form at the top of this page — every project starts there. Prefer email? Email us your project. Include your brand, Instagram, whether you are currently selling, pieces per style, what you want to make, and a description of your project.