I paid an Italian guy experienced in the fashion industry. He organized all of the bikinis for one upfront purchase price, which also included service fees for him.

But that was a pity later on when I ran out of bikinis and didn't manage to hire him again.

This guy sounds like the key angle on your business. How did you find him in the first place?

Yes, when he couldn't broker another delivery, I stopped selling. He was crucial to the business.

I knew him through a shared friend. I lived in Asia for some years, and that's where most westerners go if they want to create a manufacturing business.

Really interested in this question - am looking at a particular clothing niche and wondering whether to just get a run of cheapy print-on-demand clothing, or look for a batch of better quality custom produced stuff.

It's like $12 per print on demand versus $2 per screenprinted ahead of time.

Plus screen printing tends to have much stronger colors and feel more valuable than the offset printing used in on-demand production.

I'd suggest a Kickstarter to finance a 100+ shirt bulk order at $15 per shirt. That way, you have good profit margins and good quality.