The four rungs of the price ladder
Every yoga garment you sell passes through the same rungs, even if you skip one of them as a seller. The factory price, usually quoted FOB, is the first. The landed cost is the second: what the garment costs once it is in your warehouse. The wholesale price is the third: what a studio, boutique or retailer pays you. The retail price is the fourth: what the end customer pays.
Direct-to-customer brands sell at retail and skip wholesale, but they still need to know the wholesale rung if they ever plan to sell to studios or stores. A retail price that cannot support a wholesale price closes that channel later.
| Rung | Symbol | Built from |
|---|---|---|
| Factory price, FOB | C | Fabric, make, trims, decoration, packaging, setup per piece |
| Landed cost | L | C plus freight, insurance, duty, brokerage, inland delivery, receiving |
| Wholesale price | W | L times your wholesale multiplier, kw |
| Retail price | R | W times the retailer's multiplier, kr |
From factory price to landed cost
The factory price C covers the garment at the port of export. To reach the landed cost L, add the cost of moving it and clearing it: international freight, insurance, import duty on the garment's tariff classification, customs brokerage, delivery to your warehouse and any receiving or labeling fees there. Duty depends on fiber content and garment type, which is one more reason to fix the fiber composition early.
Freight per piece depends on how many garments fit in a carton and how the shipment travels. Sea freight usually costs less per piece than air; air saves time. If a late launch forces air freight, L rises without any change to the garment. Our FOB vs DDP note explains who pays which part under each term.
From landed cost to wholesale
The wholesale price W has to cover L and everything your business spends to exist: design and sampling, photography, salaries, warehouse, returns, marketing, payment fees and profit. Write it as W equals L times kw, where kw is the multiplier your business needs. There is no universal kw. It depends on your overheads, your volume and your channel. What matters is that you calculate it from your own costs instead of borrowing a number from someone else's model.
From wholesale to retail
A retailer or studio buys at W and sells at R equals W times kr. Their multiplier kr covers their rent, staff, shrinkage and profit. If you sell direct to customers, you collect R yourself, but you also carry the costs a retailer would have carried: customer acquisition, shipping to the customer, returns and payment fees. Direct selling is not free margin; it is a different cost structure.
A worked example with letters
Suppose a legging has a factory price C. Freight, duty and handling add an amount H per piece, so L equals C plus H. Your business needs a multiplier kw, so W equals L times kw. Your studio accounts use a multiplier kr, so R equals L times kw times kr.
- If C rises because you choose a heavier, brushed fabric, R rises by that change times kw times kr, not by the change alone.
- If H rises because the shipment goes by air, R would have to rise by the same compounding effect, or your margin absorbs it.
- If you sell the same legging direct at R, your gross room is R minus L, from which you pay acquisition, shipping, returns and fees.
The compounding is the point. A small change at the factory rung becomes a larger change at the shelf, which is why specification decisions are pricing decisions.
Working backward to an affordable spec
Many brands start from the retail price their customer will accept. That is a good start, as long as you work backward through the ladder:
- Set the target retail R for the style.
- Divide by the retailer multiplier kr to get the wholesale W you can charge.
- Divide by your multiplier kw to get the maximum landed cost L.
- Subtract freight, duty and handling H to get the maximum factory price C.
- Choose fabric, construction, trims and quantity that fit within C.
This is how an affordable yoga apparel line is built responsibly: not by pushing the factory price down after the spec is fixed, but by choosing the spec that fits the ladder. A polyester and spandex base, fewer construction details, a single logo placement or fewer colors per style can each bring C into range. The pricing guide lists the drivers, and our cost breakdown shows where each one sits in C.
Price tiers within one line
Most yoga lines need more than one price point. A core legging at an accessible price, a hero legging with a premium fabric and details, and a set or one-piece suit at the top give customers a choice and give you room to tell a story. Each tier should have a reason the customer can see or feel: fabric hand, waistband construction, pockets, a seamless knit texture. A price difference with no visible difference is hard to sell.
Wholesale terms that affect the ladder
Wholesale accounts care about more than W. They ask about minimum order per style for them, reorder availability, delivery timing and whether you honor a suggested retail price. Studios buying for a retail corner usually want small, frequent reorders across sizes. That has a cost for you, because your own factory minimums are per style per color. Plan stock depth so wholesale reorders do not drain the stock your direct channel needs. See our wholesale buying guide.
Review the ladder at every reorder
Fabric costs, freight and duty change over time, and so does your volume. Recalculate L at each reorder and check whether W and R still work. If they no longer do, adjust the specification or the price deliberately rather than letting margin erode quietly.
The desk provides quotations with the factory price components listed so you can build your ladder from real inputs. Request a quotation with your target retail price, and we will tell you which specification choices fit it.