Corduroy Fabric Wholesalers

The Wholesaler's Place in the Chain

Corduroy reaches most garment makers through three channels, and wholesalers are the middle one. Mills manufacture to order in production quantities; retailers sell cut yardage a few yards at a time; wholesalers and distributors buy or commission stock ranges and resell them in intermediate quantities — bolts, rolls and smaller production lots — to clothing brands, uniform suppliers, quilters' suppliers and workrooms. That middle position is why wholesale is the practical channel for a small label making a few hundred corduroy trousers or jackets: mill minimums are out of reach, retail prices would erase the margin, and a distributor's stocked range can be sampled and shipped quickly.

When researching fabric wholesale distributors, you may also want to visit the wholesale fabric section on Apparel Search, which covers the channel beyond this single fabric. The questions to bring to any wholesaler are consistent: which wale counts and weights are stocked rather than special-order, what the minimum is per colour, whether continuity exists — can you reorder the same cloth next season — and how shade is controlled between lots. Corduroy's pile makes shade and nap consistency more than a formality, so ask to see a cutting from the actual roll before a production order.

Reading the Distributor Listings

The two listings below show the channel's two common shapes. Fashion Fabric Club appears through its corduroy search, a fabric club and online catalogue model where corduroy is one range among many apparel fabrics, suited to buyers who want to browse stocked cloth and buy at club or wholesale terms. Robert Kaufman is a fabric company whose main focus has shifted to the quilting retail customer, while it continues to supply fabrics to various apparel and non-apparel manufacturing customers — the profile of a converter-distributor whose ranges reach both shops and makers.

That second point deserves attention when you plan a range. A distributor oriented to quilting retail will stock corduroy in the weights, widths and colours that market wants, which may or may not match apparel needs; a general apparel fabric wholesaler thinks in garment weights and continuity. Neither is better in the abstract. Check the actual corduroy on offer — wale, weight, fiber and width — against your garment, and confirm whether the cloth is a running stock line or a one-time buy, because a one-time buy cannot support a repeating style. Robert Kaufman has also added a finished product division, a reminder that distributors increasingly sell packaged product alongside cloth.

Working With a Wholesaler Well

Wholesale relationships run on clarity. Send a written specification — fabric name, wale count, weight, width, fiber, colour and quantity — rather than a photograph alone, because pile fabrics photograph ambiguously. Order sample yardage or a swatch card first, wash and sew a test garment or panel, and check pile behaviour, shrinkage and shade under the light the garments will be sold in. Agree minimums, payment terms and returns for faulty cloth before the first production order, and keep a cutting of the approved roll with your paperwork so a later shade or nap dispute has evidence on both sides.

If you know of any additional resources that should be added to this section, please let us know. It would be our pleasure to add beneficial listings to help make this section more informative, and your suggestions regarding ways to improve it are greatly appreciated. Suggestions from working buyers are the most valuable: the distributor's name and website, the corduroy it genuinely stocks, the minimums it works to, and whether it serves apparel manufacturers, retailers or both. Thank you for taking the time to view our Corduroy Fabric Distributor guide — used with the mills and stores pages, it completes the sourcing picture for this fabric.

Wholesaler and Distributor Listings

Confirm stocked wale counts, minimums and continuity directly with each company.