Oct 13, 2026
How to Price Activewear: From FOB Cost to Retail Margin
The full pricing chain for activewear brands: FOB cost, freight and duty, landed cost, wholesale and retail multipliers - with the gross margin floor that decides whether a style survives.
Pricing activewear is a chain of multipliers, and every chain breaks at its weakest link. Start from the FOB cost, add freight and duty to reach landed cost, multiply toward wholesale or retail, and subtract the selling costs - and at every stage, know your number before someone else offers you theirs. Here is the full chain, with the floor that decides whether a style lives.
The input side - what goes into the FOB number itself - is covered line by line in the cost breakdown guide; this piece is the chain after the factory quote.
Step 1: FOB to Landed Cost
FOB is the factory price with goods loaded on the vessel - it excludes freight, insurance and duty. Landed cost adds them: freight (sea is cents per garment, air is dollars - the mode math is in the air versus sea guide), plus import duty at your country's rate for activewear, plus customs processing. Landed cost is the number that matters - comparing factory quotes before computing landed cost is comparing half a chain.
Step 2: Landed Cost to Wholesale (or Your DTC Equivalent)
Wholesale pricing traditionally runs a multiplier on landed cost - commonly around two to two-and-a-half times, covering your overhead: storage, fulfillment, marketing, payment fees, returns and the cost of your time. For direct-to-consumer brands, this tier collapses into your own selling price, but the same overhead bucket applies - DTC simply trades the wholesale margin for marketing spend.
Step 3: Retail Multiplier and the Market Ceiling
The standard retail multiplier on wholesale is roughly two to two-and-a-half - producing the industry's rough structure: landed cost, wholesale at double-ish, retail at double that. A legging with a 10-dollar landed cost can support a 20-25 dollar wholesale and a 50-70 dollar retail price depending on brand strength, fabric story and market.
The ceiling check is the step founders skip: research the retail prices of comparable premium leggings in your market before you order. If the ceiling cannot carry the multiplier chain, the style needs a cheaper spec - not optimistic pricing. Spec levers are covered in the cost breakdown guide.
The Gross Margin Floor
After retail price, subtract the selling costs: platform or retail commission, payment fees, fulfillment, marketing allocation and an allowance for returns. What remains is gross margin - and the floor that decides whether a style survives its first season. A style with a thin gross margin cannot fund marketing, and unfunded styles do not sell; the margin floor is why pricing is decided at the spec stage, not after the goods arrive.
Returns deserve their own line: activewear returns run real percentages, and sizing-driven returns are the most preventable - the size chart practices in the size charts guide attack them at the source.
Common Questions
What gross margin should I target?
Most activewear brands target gross margins in the 50-70 percent range at retail after selling costs. Below that, marketing math gets hard; above it, your price is probably out of position for the market.
Should I price by cost or by market?
Both: cost sets your floor, the market sets your ceiling. If the floor sits above the ceiling, change the spec - not the hope.
How do in-stock styles change the math?
In-stock lowers the FOB-side commitment and shortens the cash cycle - you can sell this month's inventory this month, which reduces the overhead allocation per piece. The mode comparison is in the in-stock versus made-to-order guide.
Price Is a Chain You Own
FOB, landed, wholesale, retail, margin - five numbers, each multiplied or discounted by decisions you made at the spec stage. Brands that understand the chain price with confidence; brands that don't, hope. Five numbers and a floor - that is the whole discipline.
Miss K quotes are built to plug into your pricing chain - bucketed FOB with the fabric spec attached, so your landed cost and margins compute cleanly. Price your next style with us at info@misskyoga.com or WhatsApp +86 136 4085 9182.
