I boarded a bus this morning bound for Shaoxing, an industrial city 3 hours southwest of Shanghai in China’s eastern Zhejiang Province. Zhejiang is at the heart of China’s burgeoning textile industry where a large percentage of the world’s fabrics and finished textile products are produced. I'm sure the majority of DressMonkey’s upcoming “business trips” will be destined for this region. The two-lane highway connecting Shanghai to Shaoxing happened to follow an impressive constant stream of foreign owned textile factories and finishing plants where the brand name apparel items we spend hundreds on is made for pennies. Indeed, the drive was anything but ordinary, offering a candid snapshot of the kind of investments that are continually being made to China’s export-led economic growth.

The reason for my visit to China’s dirty backwaters was to tour a factory operated by a textile trading company that we are considering partnership with, as well as to gain some exposure to garment production. Our friend Aemy, the client liaison if you will between this trading agent and its nationwide network of garment factories, wanted to show me the production facilities of one of her top quality manufacturers of men’s apparel. She promised that I’d enjoy the visit and that it would be worth my time.

After the anticipated awkwardness of the Chinese greeting, which consists of fake smiles, weak handshakes, unnatural and drawn out head nods that falsely imply understanding, and the unnecessary ritual of swapping business cards, I was finally wisked away with the factory manager to a restaurant for lunch. I worried that I was being taken to the always dangerous yet highly entertaining Chinese-style banquet that is typical of any business occasion in China – where the food of choice is usually the organs of some animal or pet and the drink 100 proof rice wine. Turned out that wasn't the case, but instead I was treated to a pleasant seafood meal where you get to pick the fish you want and they scoop it out of its tank and cook it up.

With lunch sittin well in my stomach, we finally got down to business. I received a tour of the factory floor where all the garments are made. Hundreds of Chinese workers, men and women ranging in age from 16 to 65, working comfortably at their respective workstations. They were filling an order of 5,000 white cotton dress shirts for an Italian shirt maker. The pace at which these shirts were produced was incredible, at least for someone like me who'd never seen anything like it before! The production cost of one shirt was even more incredible: about $4 and change. 2 1/2 meters of cotton fabric, 12 plastic buttons, interlining, and some thread all sewn together in one highly effecient line of Chinese workers, all for the price of a Macdonald's happy meal.

I met with the factory manager after seeing the sample rooms and he immediately confirmed the worries I had going in. The problem we face, and will continue to face I'm afraid as we continue the search for local partners, is the ad-hoc production model and the low-volume nature of our business. The customization DressMonkey is hoping to offer to customers goes against the fundamentals of the textile production industry, which operates solely on a high-volume basis. All factories here want large volume orders and will therefore require minimums. What's needed to reach an agreement is a way for us to clearly convey the mutual benefits of cooperation. To accomplish this, the key will be to create a seachange in chinese business culture; to convince top managers to stop their obsession exclusively on short-term results and start realizing the business opportunities that develop in the long-term; to urge them all to think outside the box. This of course is a lot easier said than done. It will require a great deal of hardwork, determination, luck, and, in the end when a deal is struck, the inevitable moment of debauchery at the dreaded Chinese banquet table.