How to find the right Swimwear manufacturer.

This 10:43 audio is transcribed and slightly edited.  It is the first in a series that will cover topics such as fabrics, pricing, MOQs and much more about the swimwear industry.

I thought I’d do something different today and mix things up a bit, kind of walk you all through the process of getting started based on my experience working with customers from all over the world for the past 20 years. So, a little bit about myself, I’ve been with Mar Egeu swim for almost 20 years now. 

We are a swimwear bikini manufacturer based in Sao Paulo Brazil, and I have been representing the brand overseas mostly doing sales and marketing to clients in over a hundred different countries. So, how does someone get in touch with us? What is the process? Well, first of all, it starts with the customer who is usually someone who likes the beach lifestyle but not necessarily.  A lot of them, most of them are women.  But again, not necessarily and they also see swimwear as a way, as a product that they can sell online and as starting off as a second job with a website, where they can also sell anything related to swimwear, and many of our clients are quite popular online, many of them are models but again, not necessarily. 

So when people ask me, what is the typical client profile? I really can’t pinpoint exactly what they are because it’s so diverse, so mixed up from all over the world, and which makes this all so much more fun. And the age range is anywhere from I would guess early 20s to 50-55 and it’s something fun to deal with too. 

So, the first, the journey of designing your own swimwear is something that we can help fulfill. And so, let’s say you might begin by searching online, for example, using Google and typing in bikini, swimwear, manufacturer, or swimwear producers, bathing suit distributors. So there are a few terms used in our industry that all mean the same thing. 

So we say, bathing suits, swimsuits, swimwear or even bikinis. All of these can be used interchangeably and so they type this into Google and they come up with a list of dozens of links and these links will lead you to different producers or suppliers around the world. Mostly based in Asia, a few in Europe, a few in North America and of course, several in South America. And we are based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And for those who know the industry well, Brazil is recognized, is renowned worldwide for producing incredibly creative pieces – vibrant colors with the best fabrics available in the market to all. So yeah, so then the customer would want to know prices. 

So how much does it cost to buy swimwear in bulk? How much does it cost to even design and produce their own swimwear collection? Which is a service we also offer. And there are three services we offer as a bikini manufacturer and one is you can choose our branded swimwear with the Mar Egeu logo on. And there’s just a minimum order of 12 bikinis for fulfilling that order.

The second option is private labeling and that is where you can choose any of our styles and we would include your own logo, your brand on the labels and the tags. And the minimum order for that is just 80 bikinis, which makes it extremely accessible because you can pick any 80 styles in a mix of four different sizes – extra small, small, medium, and large and in some cases extra large. Then of course you have the option to design and create your own collection where you can design, send us three or four different styles that you have in mind and we would prototype them and you would approve them before they go into production. 

So each service depends on your budget. It depends on your goals and I can tell you that over the past five years, at least the majority of our sales by far are now private labeled orders and custom design bikinis. Okay so after you get access to prices from all these swimwear vendors, then you would compare and get a feel for what they each offer and their price points. 

And one thing we are quite proud of is that we are very accessible and we speak your language, primarily English, of course, but we also being based in Brazil, we speak Portuguese too, and one of the compliments we receive most of is that we are so accessible. So, in addition to email, which we respond within minutes, if not ours because of time differences, then we can communicate over the phone or live chat, Whatsapp or even zoom. 

So we’re open to all options of communication and believe that is one of the fundamental tools in helping you realize your goals and in building trust.

“So one of the things again, I always tell everybody that doing this for almost 20 years is that I’ve learned that customers do not just buy products, they don’t just seek the highest quality product, but the team and person behind the product.  What do they represent? Are they ethical people? Do they take care of their workers, of their employees? Most of our employees are made up of women, and our seamstresses have been with us for over 20 years so that alone is a sign that we kind of are in line with what customers are looking for now. “

Okay. So moving on, once you get your prices and then you will look at your budget and decide which option to move forward with, it can be a combination of designing one or two of your own styles and in conjunction with using some of our styles too. And so this is kind of the whole process of getting started. 

It takes usually just a few weeks to fulfill our branded swimwear and getting that out to you and five to seven weeks if we were to design your own swimwear collection. And so, I hope this all gives a picture of the entire process. We encourage you to do your research, and to look around and compare. 

But one thing I can definitely assure you and something I’m most proud of is how our customers often come back. The best testimonial is a repeat customer because it shows you that they are happy not just with the quality, but the service and the prices and and above all that it’s profitable, that it is worth selling bikinis and you can make money selling bikinis.  

So I hope this all gives you a general picture of how we work and what is the typical journey of an aspiring swimwear seller.

Okay. Wishing you all the best bye from me, Thales Panagides of Mar Egeu, Brazilian bikinis.