Lab Dip Or Stock Colour Card: How To Choose A Colour You Can Repeat

Colour is one of the two decisions that set the minimum order (the other is fabric). Before you pick a shade, it helps to know which of the two routes you are on, because they fail in different ways.

Stock colour card

The mill already holds the yarn or fabric in that shade. You choose from a physical card, the shade ships in the next production run, and there is no dye lot of your own. This is the route behind the 20-piece tier: pick an existing style, pick an existing colour, apply your logo.

What you give up is exclusivity and exactness. A stock card shows you the family, not a guaranteed match to a Pantone chip, and another brand can order the same shade next week.

Lab dip

A lab dip is a small piece of fabric dyed to your reference and sent for approval before bulk. The dyehouse adjusts the recipe until the dip matches under the light source you will use, then the bulk is dyed to that approved dip.

This is what a Pantone reference is for. It also carries a fabric minimum per colour, because the dye vessel has a minimum batch. That is why a first drop in one colour is cheaper than a first drop in four.

The practical comparison

• Time: stock colour ships with the order. A lab dip adds a round trip for approval, and a second one if the first dip is off.
• Minimum: stock colour is bounded by the style minimum. Lab dip is bounded by the fabric minimum per colour, which is higher.
• Repeatability: stock colour can be discontinued by the mill. A lab dip you approved is a record you can dye against again next season.
• Risk: stock colour risk is disappointment. Lab dip risk is delay.

What to check before you approve a dip

Approve it on the fabric you are actually buying, at the weight you are buying, under daylight and under shop light. A dip on a lighter fabric reads differently once it is on a 240 gsm knit. Keep the approved piece; it is the reference for any claim later.

Where mixed colours break down

Mixed sizes inside one colour are normal. Mixed colours inside a small order are limited by the per-colour minimum, and each extra colour adds a dye batch and a matching step at packing. If you need four colours for a launch, the honest answer is that the run is four small runs.

Tell us the shade and the quantity in the quote form and we will say which route the order actually needs. The tier structure is described on the private label and OEM page.

Where to go next

• Private label and OEM activewear — the three tiers of change, from stock style plus logo to a full OEM run
• Women activewear — stock styles and colours you can sample now
• Seamless fabric weight and squat-proof — why weight per square metre is not the same as coverage
• Quality and delivery — how a colour or fabric claim is checked before shipment
• Request a quote — send the shade, quantity and target date for a costed reply