Why the QC stage is the one to care about
Four of these five stages are logistics. The fourth is the one that decides whether you are happy, and it is the reason the sourcing-agent model exists at all rather than everyone buying direct.
When your item reaches the warehouse it gets photographed and held. You look, and you can approve it, ask for more photographs, or reject it outright. The asymmetry is the whole point: a rejection at that moment costs domestic Chinese postage, a few dollars. The identical rejection after the parcel has crossed a border costs the international freight, which on most items exceeds what the item is worth.
Extra photographs are free and cost a day. Ask for specific things — the insole lifted, the midsole line, both size stamps — rather than "more photos", which gets you more of the same wide shots.
What single-unit wholesale actually means
Most sourcing operations quote a retail-ish price on one unit and a real price at volume, because handling one item costs nearly as much of their time as handling twenty. We quote the same rate either way and make the difference up on volume, which means the trade is straightforward: you can test with one item before committing to anything.
That is the honest framing. Larger orders still come down in price — the rate improves as quantity grows, and on bulk we can talk to the factory about it directly. But you do not have to reach a threshold to be treated as a wholesale customer, and there is no minimum order.
Freight, and why it is quoted after payment rather than before
International shipping is priced on the parcel, and the parcel does not exist until the goods are consolidated. Carriers bill on chargeable weight — length × width × height ÷ 6000 when that exceeds the weight on the scale — so a genuine quote needs the actual box.
This is not a delay tactic; it is the reason quoting freight up front produces numbers that turn out wrong. Four pairs of sneakers in their original boxes measure roughly 40×30×20 cm, which bills as 4 kg against maybe 1.8 kg actual. Ask us to remove the boxes and vacuum-pack and it drops below actual weight. That request is free, it takes one message, and almost nobody makes it.
The shipping calculator gives you a budgeting range for any route before you commit, using published parcel pricing.
Where the goods come from
The 30 catalogues on this site are supplier albums we have opened ourselves, spanning footwear, bags, watches, jerseys, clothing and accessories. They sit across the manufacturing clusters that dominate each category — Putian for athletic footwear, Guangzhou for leather goods, Dongguan and Shenzhen for accessories and precision assembly.
If something is not in any of them, ask anyway. Album coverage is not the same as network coverage, and a photograph is usually enough to find a source.
Questions before you commit anything
There is no obligation attached to asking. Send a photograph, an album link or a question about whether something is sourceable, and you will get a straight answer including when the answer is no. We would rather tell you we cannot get something than substitute it and have you find out at the QC stage.