Home / Sourcing & Assurance
From loom
to cutting
table.
Six steps, one standard. Here is exactly what happens between your enquiry and the cloth arriving on your floor.
The sourcing process
Brief & target
You send a swatch, a tech-pack or simply the hand you're chasing, with your weight, width and volume. We translate it into a construction we can actually source — yarn count, weave, finish — and flag anything that will fight the price or the calendar.
Mill match
We place the brief with the mill best suited to it — by fibre programme, honest capacity and track record, not just the lowest quote. You receive options with indicative pricing, minimums and a realistic lead time before anyone commits.
Sampling & lab dips
Header cards and sample cuts come first, then lab dips against your colour standard. We turn dips in five to ten days and keep iterating until the hand and the shade are signed off. Nothing moves to bulk on a maybe.
Bulk & inspection
Production runs against the approved counter-sample. Every lot is checked on a four-point system for faults, with weight, width and shade verified roll by roll. Independent testing — shrinkage, fastness, composition — is booked through SGS or Intertek where the programme calls for it.
Consolidation
Cloth from multiple mills is gathered, finished and dyed where needed, then consolidated through Hong Kong into a single, document-clean shipment. One point of contact, one packing list, one invoice.
Ship & support
We ship to your confirmed window on the terms that suit you — FOB, CIF or DDP — and stay on the order until it's on your cutting table. The retained counter-sample means any query can be settled against the cloth you approved.
Assurance, in detail
What "approved" means
Approval at ONE WAY is a measured thing, not a feeling. Each lot carries a record you can audit:
- Four-point fault inspectionEvery roll
- Weight & width verification±3% tolerance
- Shade banding vs. standardGrey-scale 4–5
- Counter-sample retained12 months
Questions buyers ask
What are your minimums?
Bulk minimums depend on fibre and mill, typically from 300–1,000 metres per colour. Sampling and development quantities are far smaller — we'll always quote the real minimum up front, never a surprise at order.
How fast can I get bulk?
For stocked or in-programme cloth, three to four weeks is typical. Custom development with dyeing and finishing usually runs four to six. We commit to the date we can hold and update you if anything moves.
Can you match a fabric I already have?
Yes — this is much of what we do. Send the swatch and we'll reverse-engineer the construction, source the yarn and develop a costed, repeatable cloth that matches the hand and weight.
Do you handle certified and recycled fibres?
We do, with the paperwork to back it: GRS for recycled content, RWS for wool, FSC™ for cellulosics, plus OEKO-TEX® and bluesign® mill partners. Documentation travels with the order.
Ready to start
Send the brief. We'll send the plan.
Mill options, indicative pricing and an honest lead time — usually back to you within one business day.