Bulk changes three things and nothing else: how the fixed setup cost is spread, how many cartons your order becomes, and which freight mode stops making sense. The sock does not change, the minimum does not change, and the price per pair moves for a reason you can calculate.
This page is the arithmetic. Every figure below is printed elsewhere on the site already — the quote page, the packing page, the shipping-volume page — gathered here so you can size a run before you ask anyone for a costing.
A bulk order mixes fixed numbers with numbers that only exist once your specification does. Marking which is which is the difference between a quotation you can compare and one you cannot.
1,000 pairs per style, 20–30 days bulk, 25–40 days by sea. These do not move per order, and if one changes, this page changes with it.
Pairs per carton, colour split, freight mode, trade term. Two bulk runs of the same sock at different carton rules price differently, so those values travel with the quote instead of sitting here as if they were universal.
A stock list, a price list, a customer name, a discount ladder. A bulk page that fills those gaps with adjectives is the page a buyer regrets trusting.
Each row names the mechanism, the figure we publish for it, and the page where that figure is already printed. The third column is the part most quotations leave out: what your own order does to the number.
| Mechanism | What we publish | How volume moves it | Where it is published |
|---|---|---|---|
| PublishedThe counting unit | 1,000 pairs per style, counted per style and not on the order total. | Two styles means two runs of 1,000; a bigger run never buys down the minimum on a second style. | Quote and every product page. |
| PublishedSetup spread | A run at 1,000 pairs and a run at 5,000 pairs do not share the same cost structure. | The drop depends on the style, not on a discount table: the fixed part is knitting setup, yarn booking and sampling. | Negotiating sock pricing. |
| QuotedColour split | At 1,000 pairs, three colours works out at about 333 pairs a colour and five at 200. | Each added colourway is another yarn position; the split is yours to set and it is priced with the run. | Retail chains, where the split is the whole job. |
| QuotedCase pack | Export packing as standard; retail options quoted per style. | 100 pairs to a carton is the figure used in our own arithmetic, but your DC’s receiving rules decide the real one. | Packaging options. |
| PublishedVolume to freight | One pair takes 0.00096 m³, so 10,000 pairs at 100 a carton is 100 cartons and 9.6 m³. | Cross the LCL-to-FCL line and the cheapest mode changes; that line is a volume decision, not a price negotiation. | Shipping volume per carton. |
| PublishedTransit | Approx. 25–40 days sea, 5–10 air, 3–7 express. | Dense cargo bills close to its actual weight, so air stops being competitive quickly on socks. | Shipping volume and the FAQ. |
| PublishedProduction window | Typically 20–30 days after deposit received and sample approved. | The window is published as a range because the two ends of it are different line loadings, not different promises. | Wholesale terms. |
| QuotedDeposit and balance | Payment runs through the entity named on your quotation and proforma invoice. | The split is settled with the order, and the proforma invoice carries the validity dates and the currency. | Wholesale terms and document desk. |
A bulk order that is priced lower than another is almost always a different specification, a different carton, or a different trade term — rarely a better deal on the same sock.
Take a single style, one colourway, 100 pairs to a carton. These are the figures that come out the other end, all of them published on this site.
The 9.6 m³ figure comes from the worked example on the shipping-volume page, which also shows the same arithmetic at 1,000 pairs: ten cartons, under a cubic metre, and a freight decision that is not the one a 10,000-pair run makes.
Buyers often assume a large enough order eventually moves everything. On this floor it moves the setup spread and the freight mode, and it leaves six things exactly where they were.
Terry density, needle count and where the cushion starts and stops are set per style on the machine. Volume buys you a longer run of that machine setting, not a different one.
Evidence: Line count on about the factory.
A compression class is a knitted property, not a volume one. 20–30 mmHg is what the machine holds for that style; ordering 20,000 pairs does not shift the band.
Evidence: The band discussion sits on compression socks 20–30 mmHg.
BSCI and SEDEX cover the floor, not the order. A larger run is produced under the same two documents, and asking for a bigger order does not produce a third certificate.
Evidence: Numbers, holders and dates on contact.
Bulk is knitted to the approved sample. Nothing in the volume argument reopens the spec, and a change at this point is a new sample round, not a favour.
Evidence: Sample policy, including the credit against the first bulk order.
Invoice and packing list travel with the shipment whatever the size of it, and a certificate of origin is added where the destination asks. A container does not simplify the document set.
Evidence: Document desk, template at v2026-10.
Volume is a real lever on cost and a false lever on everything else. These are the four places buyers most often expect it to work, and it does not.
Each of these pages carries one of the figures above in full, with its own worked example. None of them is a sales page.
| Page | The figure it carries | What you can do with it |
|---|---|---|
| Shipping volume per carton | 0.00096 m³ per pair; 9.6 m³ at 10,000 pairs. | Size your own carton count and quote a freight rate against a real number. |
| Packaging options | Export packing as standard, retail formats quoted per style. | Decide whether the case pack is a cost line or a shelf requirement. |
| Negotiating sock pricing | Which part of the price is fixed setup and which is per pair. | Argue about the right line instead of the total. |
| Reorder lead time | What a repeat skips that a first order does not. | Plan a second run without re-sampling. |
The two numbers that change a bulk costing most are how many styles the range carries and how many pairs go in a carton. Send both with the market, and the reply comes back within one working day with a reference range against your own arithmetic.
Michelle Zhang, Export sales manager, answers enquiries within one working day — sales@sockwholesalers.com, +86-13761030160 (WhatsApp same number).
Sock Wholesalers