Before a single specification is agreed, a brand placing an outdoor furniture programme has to answer a question the supplier cannot answer for it: how much of this product should actually be yours? The three routes on offer — private label, ODM and full OEM — get used loosely and interchangeably in supplier emails, and the confusion is expensive, because each implies a different timeline, a different development burden and a different claim on the design.
Choosing the wrong model is a more common cause of a disappointing first season than choosing the wrong specification. Here is how we define the three, and how to tell which one a given product in your range needs.
The three models, defined properly
Private label: our catalogue, your brand
Private label means taking a product that already exists in the factory’s catalogue and putting your brand on it. The frame, fabric options, tooling and packaging structure are fixed. What changes is the logo, the printed artwork, the carton graphics, the hang tag and the manual.
The development burden is close to zero and the timeline the shortest of the three: the tooling exists, the bill of materials is settled and the quality history is known.
The trade-off deserves stating plainly rather than discovering later. The product is not exclusive to you, and the same platform can be supplied to another buyer in another market. For a strong catalogue item that matters less than most brands fear — a well-executed piece like the Black Director Camping Chair earns its place on build quality, availability and the brand you put around it, not on being unavailable elsewhere. But if your entire pitch to a retailer is distinctiveness, private label will not carry it.
ODM: our platform, your product
ODM is where the factory’s existing platform is modified for you. The frame architecture and folding mechanism carry over; you specify fabric, colour, armrest and headrest treatment, hardware finish, accessory set, dimensions within the platform’s engineering limits, and your branding throughout. In many cases the result is a variant that exists only for you.
This is the middle path, and for most growing brands the right one. Because the geometry, mechanism and load path are already proven, what would otherwise be a structural development collapses into a specification exercise. You are making decisions, not solving engineering problems.
Both the British Army Camping Chair and the British Army Camping Chair Gen 2 sit in our camping chairs range and are typical ODM starting points: a buyer selects the frame behaviour they want, then builds their own product on top of it. The result reads as distinct, because the parts a customer sees and touches are the parts that changed.
OEM and full custom: your design, developed from zero
Full OEM means your design and your drawings, developed and tooled from scratch: new extrusion profiles, new dies and jigs, structural validation starting from nothing, and several rounds of samples before anything is signed off. Individual rounds still run at typically 7–15 days once drawings are settled, but there will be several, and the intervals between them are filled with tooling and testing rather than waiting.
It is the only route to a genuinely novel mechanism and the only one where the design is unambiguously yours. It also assumes real capability on your side: someone who can produce or commission drawings, read an engineering response, and hold their nerve through sample rounds two and three. Brands without that should buy it in first.
Comparing the three on the dimensions that matter
| Dimension | Private label | ODM | OEM / full custom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to market | Shortest — artwork approval plus a production slot | Moderate — sample rounds on a proven platform | Longest — tooling, validation and multiple sample rounds |
| Effort required from the brand | Artwork and packaging files | Colour references, a written spec brief, timely decisions | Drawings, engineering review capacity, patience |
| Order quantity implications | Lowest — the platform already runs | Moderate — driven by fabric and component minimums | Highest — tooling must be justified by volume |
| Differentiation | Branding only | High on everything the customer sees and touches | Total, including function |
| Exclusivity | Rare; negotiable on colourway or territory | Normal on the variant; platform stays with the factory | Full, if the contract says so |
| IP ownership | Factory owns the design; you own your marks | Factory owns the platform; your variant and artwork are yours | Yours, subject to the agreement on tooling |
| Main risk | A competitor lands the same product | Scope creep turns it into an OEM project without the budget | Development cost sunk before the market is proven |
Which model fits which situation
- Testing a new category, or filling a gap in an existing range. Private label. You are buying market information, not building a signature product, so the fastest route to real sell-through data is the correct one. Reserve development money for what the data tells you.
- Proven sell-through, and you want a look that is recognisably yours. ODM. Sales already justify the investment and the platform work has been done. This is where most successful outdoor brands live for most of their range.
- Your whole proposition is a mechanism nobody else has. Full OEM. If the pitch is that the chair does something existing chairs cannot, no amount of fabric selection will deliver it. Commit properly, and budget for the sample rounds you have not thought of yet.
Why the middle path usually wins
The under-discussed fact about platform-based customisation is how much visual distinctiveness it buys for how little. Change the fabric, colourway, armrest, headrest, trim and packaging, and the product reads as yours to a customer in a store or scrolling a listing — comfortably eighty per cent of the perceived difference, for a fraction of the tooling cost and the timeline.
What you do not pay for is the invisible work: frame geometry, fold mechanism, load path, and the failure modes already designed out. That is the expensive part of a chair, and the part no customer notices you changed.
What “exclusive” actually means in each model
Exclusivity is negotiated, not implied, and means something different at each level. Under private label it is limited: you may secure a colourway or a territory for a defined period, but the underlying product remains available. Under ODM, exclusivity on your variant is normal and reasonable to ask for — your fabric and colour combination, your trim, your accessory configuration — while the platform stays with the factory. Under full OEM the design is yours, but still agree in writing who owns the tooling, who holds the drawings, and what happens to both if you later move production.
Our 50+ registered R&D and design patents sit on the platforms, which is why the platform stays with us while what you develop on top of it can be contractually yours. Settle it before the first sample, not after a good season.
The progression most successful brands follow
Across 300+ brands served, the pattern repeats. Start with private label or light ODM to prove the category exists for your customer. Reinvest into deeper ODM customisation once sell-through is real, taking control of fabric, colour and detail as volume justifies component minimums. Only then commission full custom, and only for the one or two hero products whose distinctiveness genuinely carries the brand. Everything else stays on a platform.
Brands that invert this order usually find the development cost went on proving something a catalogue sample would have told them in a season.
What each model asks of you
- Private label needs print-ready artwork, packaging files and a decision on carton graphics. That is genuinely most of it.
- ODM needs colour references (Pantone or physical swatches, not descriptions), a spec brief covering dimensions, fabric weight, hardware finish and accessories, and someone empowered to decide when a sample raises a question.
- OEM needs drawings, the capacity to review engineering feedback, and the patience to work through several sample rounds without treating each iteration as a failure.
We have manufactured foldable outdoor furniture since 1995 and run all three models, and the platform library built over that time is what makes the ODM path fast rather than theoretical. If you have a spec brief, a mood board or a drawing, send it to our engineering team and we will tell you which of the three models it actually calls for — including when the answer is the cheaper one.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between private label and ODM?
Private label is the factory's existing catalogue product with your logo, artwork and packaging on it. Nothing structural changes, so it is the fastest and lightest route, but the same product can be sold to other buyers. ODM keeps the proven frame and mechanism but modifies the product for you: your fabric, colour, dimensions within the platform's limits, hardware and accessories, usually as a variant that exists only for your brand.
Do I need my own drawings to start an ODM project?
No. Drawings are an OEM requirement. For ODM you need colour references, ideally Pantone codes or physical swatches rather than written descriptions, plus a spec brief covering dimensions, fabric weight, hardware finish and the accessory set. The factory supplies the engineering. What you must supply is timely decisions, because each unanswered question stalls the sample round it belongs to.
Can I get exclusivity on an ODM product?
On the variant, usually yes, and it is reasonable to ask for it: your fabric and colour combination, your trim details and your accessory configuration can be reserved for you. The underlying platform normally stays with the factory, since that is where its own design patents and development sit. Agree the scope, the territory and the duration in writing before the first sample, not after the product succeeds.
How much longer does full OEM development take than private label?
Substantially, and the gap is mostly tooling rather than sampling. Private label moves as fast as artwork approval and a production slot. ODM adds sample rounds on an existing platform, with samples typically 7 to 15 days each. Full OEM adds new tooling, structural validation and several sample rounds before sign-off, so a custom programme is planned in months, not weeks.