This page answers the question that arrives in most of our manufacturing enquiries: do you take contract work, and how does it actually run? The short answer is yes — private label, ODM and full custom — and the numbers are published rather than kept for a call. The entry minimum is 100 units on five stock SKUs, 300 for a private-label run in a standard colour, 500 for a modified design, 1,000 for a new mould. A stock sample ships in three to five business days; bulk production runs 25 to 35 days after sample approval and deposit.
One thing has to be said before the rest of it, because it is the difference between this page and a factory brochure: we are a brief desk, not a plant. The devices are built by our manufacturing partners to a specification we publish, and every number on the catalogue pages is that specification. We take no commission from either side of an introduction, which is also why this page can tell you where the traps are in a quotation instead of which model to buy.
Do you take OEM and private-label work, and how does it start?
Yes — private label from 300 units, modified design under ODM from 500, and full custom from 1,000, across 9 catalogue SKUs in body-safe silicone and ABS. It starts with a written brief: target market, first-order quantity, intended annual volume, what you want changed, and the target landed cost. You get back a written scope with the route, the tier, the tooling position, the lead time stage by stage and the documents that will travel with the goods. The catalogue page for each SKU already carries its MOQ, lead time, material and certification set, so you can check most of it before you write to us at all.
- Entry minimum from 100 units on stock SKUs · 300 private label · 500 ODM · 1,000 new mould
- Sample in 3–5 business days, bulk in 25–35 days after approval and deposit
- 30% deposit, 70% before shipment — never 100% upfront on a first order
- Tooling ownership written into the purchase order, not agreed verbally
What we actually manufacture
The catalogue is deliberately narrow: body-safe silicone and ABS devices for intimate wellness, in formats from a 93 g dual-motor unit up to full-size rechargeable models. Every SKU states its material, its protection rating, its documented runtime and its measured noise on its own page. That narrowness is the point — a factory that quotes you everything from silicone to electronics to cosmetics is a trading company with a catalogue of other people’s factories, and the moment something goes wrong there is nobody in the building who can fix it.
What we do not quote, and would rather say here than waste your time on a call: PVC and jelly materials, realistic anatomical moulds, novelty and joke lines, medical devices or anything carrying a therapeutic claim, and private-label electronics assembled from components with no test report. The last one matters most. A device with a lithium cell but no UN38.3 or IEC 62133 report cannot legally fly, and often cannot sail, which is a landed-cost problem that appears after the goods are made.
OEM, ODM, private label, white label — the four words procurement uses
These four words are used interchangeably in supplier emails and they describe four different commercial relationships with four different price points. Getting them straight before a first call saves a negotiation, so they are set out here on the six things that actually differ rather than as definitions.
The distinction that costs the most money is intellectual property. The Wikipedia entry Original design manufacturer is blunt about it: in an ODM arrangement, unless one explicitly purchases the IP, the manufacturer retains it — which means the manufacturer can sell the same product to your competitors. A private-label agreement is a subset of that: you own your logo and your artwork, and you do not own the device.
| Route | Who designs it | Who owns the design | Exclusive? | Entry quantity | Time to first sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White label | Nobody — it already exists | The manufacturer | No. The same unit is sold to other brands | 100 units | 3–5 business days |
| Private label | The manufacturer; you specify colour, logo, packaging | The manufacturer keeps the design; you own your brand assets | On your artwork, not on the product | 300 units, 500 with a custom colour or logo | 3–5 business days on stock, longer on a colour match |
| ODM — modified design | The manufacturer, modified to your brief | The manufacturer, unless the IP is purchased | Negotiable, as a written term | 500 units | After a tooling or firmware change |
| Full custom / OEM | You, or you and the factory together | You, if you paid for the tooling and the design | Yes, because the tool is yours | 1,000 units | After the mould is cut and a first article is approved |
Read the last two columns together. The route that gives you a defensible product is four times the commitment of the route that gives you a product this month, and no amount of negotiating closes that gap, because it is not a margin — it is the cost of a mould. Our MOQ pricing guide works through what a factory is actually recovering at each tier.
Which route fits your stage
The most expensive mistake in this category is buying the route a brand thinks it should have rather than the one its volume can carry. A first order is a test, and a test should be cheap enough to survive being wrong.
| If you are here | The route that fits | What you get for it | What it costs you later |
|---|---|---|---|
| Validating whether the product sells at all | Stock SKU with your label | A real product in your packaging at the lowest commitment in the catalogue | Nothing is defensible: a competitor can buy the identical unit tomorrow |
| Selling, and needing the product to look like yours | Private label | Your colour, your logo, your retail packaging, your manual language | The design is still the factory’s, so the point of difference is cosmetic |
| Beating a competitor on a feature | ODM modified design | A motor, firmware or control layout you specified | Half the investment of a mould, half the protection of one |
| Building something a competitor cannot copy | Full custom, new mould | A shape, a mechanism and a tool that belongs to you | A five-figure commitment before a single unit is sold, and a tool that is only worth its cost at volume |
Three routes, three different answers to the same question: how much of this product is actually yours?
How many of the 12 attributes you can change, by route
Private label changes six of the twelve attributes; a new mould changes all twelve. The price gap between them is the gap between ordering and designing.
Two honest observations from the enquiries that reach us. First, most first orders should be private label, not custom — the packaging is what a customer sees, and it is a fraction of the cost of a mould. Second, the brands that escalate to a new mould almost always do it on the second or third order for a product that has already sold, never on the first for a product that has not.
MOQ, tier by tier
Read this before the price table. The route decides the minimum, not the other way round — and a buyer who picks the route after negotiating the price negotiates twice.
Entry quantity by manufacturing route
The gap between the first row and the last is 10×: the same category of product, with a new mould, asks for ten times the commitment.
A minimum order quantity is not a demand forecast and it is not a negotiating position. It is the number of units over which a fixed setup cost gets spread. That cost is the mould, the colour change, the print plates, the packaging run and the line time — and it is different for every route, which is why a supplier quoting one number for everything is usually quoting the smallest setup cost in their range and cannot actually deliver the product you asked about.
Three things move the number, and none of them is asking for a discount. A written volume ramp — a small first order with the second and third committed in the same document — changes the factory’s risk calculation, because the setup is now spread over a known sequence rather than a hope. An itemised cost breakdown shows which of the charges are genuinely fixed and which are padding. And narrowing what you want changed lowers the setup cost the minimum has to recover: dropping a custom carton can move a 500-unit minimum down to a 300-unit one, and it is usually the first thing to drop.
Tooling: cost, ownership, amortisation, transfer
This is the section that decides whether a first order is an asset or a hostage situation, and it is the one most supplier pages leave vague. Four questions, in the order they should be asked: who pays for the tool, who owns it, how is it accounted for, and can it leave.
This is not a quotation, it is a division. Put your own tooling quote in the numerator and the shape does not change.
What one tooling spend costs per unit, indexed to 1,000
Moving from 300 units to 5,000 spreads the identical tooling spend 16.7 times thinner.
The economics are a division, not a secret. A tool is a fixed cost, so its weight in the unit price is the tooling spend divided by the number of units you commit to — which is exactly why the same product can look cheap at 5,000 units and absurd at 300. This is the mechanism behind economies of scale, and it is also why the minimum order quantity exists at all. Adam Smith’s observation that the division of labour is limited by the extent of the market [Smith, 1776] is the same argument in its original form: a small order does not merely cost more per unit, it cannot be made the same way at all.
Ownership is a separate question from payment, and conflating the two is the expensive mistake. A dedicated mould is what economists call a specific asset: it has little value to anyone but the two parties, which gives whoever holds it leverage over whoever needs it. That is the hold-up problem set out in [Williamson, 1985], and in this industry it shows up as a brand that paid for a tool, then discovered the tool does not travel. The defence is documentary, and it is short:
- If you pay for the tool in full, you own it. The purchase order names the tool, the amount and the transfer obligation, and transfer happens on request to a moulder you nominate.
- If the tooling is amortised, the schedule has an end date. The amount, the number of units, the per-unit figure and the date ownership passes are all written down. A per-unit rate with no end date is a charge that never stops.
- No re-setup fee on a repeat order. A repeat of an existing colourway should not carry a fresh setup charge. If it does, the first setup was never fully paid off.
- Ask for both quotes. Upfront and amortised, at your volume, with the total cash out compared rather than the unit price.
The same reasoning explains why a 300-unit order should never be a custom one: at that volume the tool is most of the unit price, you have paid for an asset whose value depends entirely on a relationship you have not tested yet, and the per-unit number will look worse than the stock product for a reason that has nothing to do with quality.
Sampling: what a sample proves, and what it cannot
A stock sample ships in three to five business days and tells you three useful things: whether the format suits the use it is for, how the motor feels at the setting a customer will actually use, and whether the noise level is tolerable in a room with thin walls. It cannot tell you whether the batch you receive will match it, because a stock sample comes off a line that has been running.
A custom sample is a different instrument and it is worth being precise about what to demand. The sample must be made on production tooling, not hand-finished from a prototype mould, and it must be accompanied by the first-article measurements for the dimensions that matter to your packaging. A hand-finished sample is the most common way a first order disappoints: the sample was beautiful because a technician spent two days on it, and the production unit is what a 40-second cycle produces. Ask for a production sample, approve the first article in writing, and keep the approved unit — it is the reference for any dispute later.
Sample charges are stated separately on the quotation, and a stock sample is credited against the bulk invoice for the same SKU. An open-ended sample charge with no credit is not a red flag by itself, but a supplier who will not separate it from the unit price usually will not separate anything else either.
Certifications: who applies, whose name goes on the declaration
This is the single most misunderstood part of a private-label relationship, and it is misunderstood in the direction that costs the brand money. A factory can give you test reports. It cannot give you your declaration of conformity, because the declaration is the statement of the party placing the product on the market under its own name — that is, you.
CE is a self-declaration by the manufacturer, not a certificate issued by an authority, which is what the Wikipedia entry CE marking describes and what the CE mark on a product actually asserts. So when a supplier offers to “give you the CE certificate”, the useful question is whose name is printed on the declaration. If it is the factory’s, it is not yours, and it will not survive the first customs query or marketplace review that asks who placed the product on the market.
| Document | Who applies for it | Whose name it carries | When you need it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CE Declaration of Conformity | You, as the brand placing it on the EU market | Yours | Before the first unit is sold in the EU or NI |
| Test reports behind the DoC (LVD, EMC, RoHS) | The factory runs the tests; you hold the report | The laboratory’s, with your model number | At customs, at a marketplace review, at an audit |
| UKCA / UK DoC | You, for the GB market | Yours | Before the first unit is sold in Great Britain |
| REACH statement and SVHC declaration | The factory, against the material list | The factory’s, referencing your SKU | At onboarding for most EU retailers |
| FDA 21 CFR 177.2600 material compliance | The factory, for the material | The factory’s | For US retail and marketplace listings |
| UN38.3 and IEC 62133 | The cell or pack maker | The battery maker’s | Before any lithium-powered unit flies or sails |
| EU GPSR responsible person declaration | You appoint one; the operator accepts in writing | The operator’s, shown on the product or its packaging | Before the first unit is placed on the EU market |
The practical consequence: budget for certification as a cost of your own launch, not as something bundled with the goods. The parts a factory legitimately supplies — test reports, material declarations, MSDS, battery transport certificates — are the evidence your declaration rests on, and they should arrive as a document pack with the invoice, not as a PDF someone finds later.
The EU GPSR and the responsible person
Regulation (EU) 2023/988, the General Product Safety Regulation (see the regulation text on EUR-Lex), has applied across the EU since 13 December 2024 and replaced the General Product Safety Directive. For a private-label brand the two obligations that arrive first are documentary, and both have to be settled before packaging artwork is signed off rather than after.
Article 16 requires that a product may only be placed on the market if an economic operator established in the EU is responsible for the tasks listed in Article 4(3) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020. That operator can be an EU manufacturer, an importer, or a representative appointed under a written mandate — and where none of those exists, a fulfilment service provider handling the goods. An online marketplace is not automatically that operator merely because the product is listed on it. Article 16(3) then requires the operator’s name or registered trade mark and its postal and electronic address to appear on the product, the packaging, the parcel or an accompanying document; Article 19 adds a separate display duty for distance selling, where the offer itself has to show those details.
Two things follow for anyone briefing a factory. First, the address on the label is a launch blocker with a lead time: deciding it late means reprinting packaging. Second, the technical documentation has to be kept available to market surveillance authorities for ten years, which is a filing practice and not a document you can assemble in a week when someone asks. The Spanish-language version of this page is at /es/oem/ for the same section in Spanish.
IP: design, trademark, packaging artwork
Three different kinds of property get conflated in a manufacturing brief, and only one of them is usually discussed. The design is the shape and mechanism, protected by a registered design or a patent if anyone bothered. The trademark is your brand name and logo. The artwork is the packaging — and it is the one most often lost, because it is the one nobody thinks of as property.
What to put in writing, in order: an NDA before the first drawing is sent, covering the artwork and the source files as well as the product; a clear statement of who owns the design, which for ODM means the manufacturer unless the IP is purchased; the packaging artwork and dielines delivered back to you as editable source files on final payment; and a trademark registered in the markets you actually sell into, in your name. A flattened PDF of your carton is not ownership of a design, it is a picture of one, and a printer in another country cannot rebuild a dieline from it.
Payment terms, and what a quote has to itemise
30% T/T deposit with the 70% balance before shipment is the ordinary structure in this industry, with an irrevocable letter of credit at sight for larger programmes. What we will not ask for is 100% upfront on a first order, and a supplier who does is telling you something worth hearing: it usually means the order is being financed from your deposit rather than from their balance sheet.
The mirror risk is entirely yours as the buyer. Never pay a balance before an inspection report exists, whichever terms you agree, and never accept a quotation whose only number is a unit price. Eight lines have to be visible, and each one has a question that surfaces it:
| Line a quote must show | Why it matters | The question that exposes it |
|---|---|---|
| Unit price at your volume | A price at 10,000 units is not a price at 500 | "Is this the price at my quantity, or your best price?" |
| Tooling, as its own line | Folded into the unit price it can never be checked or recovered | "What is the tooling, separately, and who owns it after?" |
| Setup fees for colour, print and packaging | These are the charges that appear after the price is agreed | "Which of these are one-off and which repeat on a reorder?" |
| Sample charge and whether it credits | Changes the real cost of the first order | "Does the sample come off the bulk invoice?" |
| Packaging and manual, itemised | The most common place for a hidden margin | "Is the retail carton in this price or is it extra?" |
| Certification and testing | Either included or a surprise at the port | "Which test reports are included and which do I pay for?" |
| Incoterm — EXW, FOB or CIF | Decides who pays the freight and where your risk starts | "Which Incoterm is this price quoted on?" |
| Payment schedule and balance trigger | "Before shipment" and "before inspection" are different terms | "Is the balance due before or after the inspection report?" |
One line deserves its own sentence: the Incoterm. EXW means the goods are yours at the factory gate and you arrange everything after it; FOB means the supplier clears them for export and loads them, and your risk starts when they are on board; CIF means the supplier pays freight and insurance to your port but the risk still passes at loading. A price quoted without an Incoterm is not comparable to any other price, because the difference between them is often the size of the margin you thought you were negotiating.
Lead time, stage by stage
Nobody who has run a first order believes a single lead-time number, and they are right not to. The honest version is a sequence with a range on each leg, and the only way to plan a launch date is to add them up backwards from the shelf date rather than forwards from the order date.
| Stage | What happens | Typical duration | What can stretch it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sample | A stock unit, or a custom sample if the tooling already exists | 3–5 business days | A colour match, which needs a Pantone approval round |
| Tooling and first article | Mould cut, first units shot, dimensions verified against your packaging | The variable leg — ask for it in writing with a date | Design changes after the tool exists, which are the expensive kind |
| Bulk production | IQC, in-process checks, final inspection on every unit | 25–35 days after sample approval and deposit | A packaging component arriving late, which stops the line |
| Inspection and booking | Third-party pre-shipment inspection, then a vessel booking | 1–2 weeks | Inspection findings that need rework, and the booking queue in peak season |
| Freight | Sea to Europe or the Americas, then customs and inland delivery | 25–38 days | Port congestion, and a document set that does not match the carton |
The compounding effect is the part that catches people: 57 to 80 days end to end on a stock product, before any tooling, means the December campaign is decided in August. A custom project adds the tooling leg in front of that, so a mould ordered in September is a product on a shelf in February, not in November.
Quality control: AQL, inspection, and telling a plant from a trading company
The line on every catalogue SKU is the same: incoming inspection on components, in-process checks during assembly, final inspection on every unit, and outgoing inspection before packing, with a stated outgoing defect rate under 0.1% and a twelve-month warranty on business orders. On top of the per-unit line, sampling inspection follows ISO 2859-1, normally at critical 0, major 2.5 and minor 4.0 for consumer goods. AQL zero on critical means a single safety defect fails the batch, which is the only sensible reading of the standard for a device that goes near the body.
Book a third-party pre-shipment inspection, at your cost, before the goods leave. It is the cheapest insurance in the order and the clearest single signal of what kind of counterparty you have: a plant welcomes it because the report protects them too, and a trading company resists it because the report describes a factory they do not control. Six signals are worth gathering before a first deposit, and they are set out as a figure on our for-brands page — a business licence whose scope matches the product, a live unscripted video walk of the floor, a sample made on production tooling, a batch-level test report, an invoice beneficiary that matches the licence, and an audit above roughly $10,000.
Amazon FBA readiness and gated categories
Sexual wellness is a gated category in most marketplaces, which means approval before listing rather than listing and hoping. The application is a document exercise: a commercial invoice from the supplier, test reports that match the product, and images that match the ASIN. The most common rejection is not a policy problem, it is a paperwork mismatch — a model number on the invoice that does not match the listing, or a test report covering a different variant.
Two details worth building into the packaging rather than fixing later. The manufacturer field on the listing is your company as the brand owner, not the factory, and a listing that names the factory invites a duplicate-listing dispute later. And the packaging itself has to be opaque, non-explicit and compliant with the marketplace’s adult-product rules, with a suffocation warning on any poly bag. Order the document pack and the cartons at the same time so the invoice, the carton and the ASIN agree with each other, because that agreement is what the reviewer is actually checking.
How to send a brief
Six items, and none of them requires a finished design. Target market and channel. First-order quantity and intended annual volume. What you want changed, if anything. Target landed cost or retail price. Packaging and artwork status. Any compliance documents you already hold.
| What to send | Why we need it | If you do not have it yet |
|---|---|---|
| Target market and channel | It decides the certification set, the packaging language and the label | Give us the two most likely markets and we will quote both |
| Quantity for the first order and the intended annual volume | The first number picks the route; the second picks the price tier | A range is enough — we will tell you where the break points are |
| What you want to change | It separates a private-label run from a mould investment | Nothing needs changing is a valid answer, and the cheapest one |
| Target landed cost or retail price | It tells us whether the product is realistic before anyone spends time on it | Optional, but it shortens the conversation considerably |
| Packaging and artwork status | Artwork that exists shortens the schedule by weeks | We will quote packaging as a separate line so you can see the cost |
| Any existing compliance documents | It stops us re-testing what has already been tested | Say so, and we will price the testing in |
Send it through the enquiry form on the for-brands page and it reaches the partnerships desk, which replies with a written scope rather than a sales call. If you already know which SKU you are interested in, the catalogue specification table states its minimum, lead time, material and certification set, so the first reply can be about your market rather than about what the product is.
If what you actually need is not manufacturing but a measurement, the same desk runs the bench: the five-criterion protocol, the devices that have run it, and the 90-day plan that puts a first order in the order it has to happen.