Ready Stock vs. Made-to-Order Eyewear: A Founder’s Guide to Smart Sourcing

Ready stock, also known as Make-to-Stock (MTS), refers to eyewear that is fully manufactured based on demand forecasts and held in inventory, ready for immediate shipment. In contrast, Made-to-Order (MTO) is a model where manufacturing begins only after you receive a confirmed customer order, allowing for deep customization but requiring a longer lead time.

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The Two Core Sourcing Models Explained

At its core, your sourcing choice is a decision between anticipating demand or reacting to it. One model prioritizes speed and efficiency by producing in bulk, while the other prioritizes customization and cash flow by producing on demand. Understanding the mechanics of each is the first step to choosing correctly for your brand.

Defining Ready Stock (Make-to-Stock / MTS)

Ready Stock is a proactive manufacturing approach where you produce eyewear based on anticipated customer demand. You analyze market trends and historical sales data to forecast how many pairs of each style to manufacture. This requires an upfront investment but positions your brand to capture sales the moment a customer is ready to buy.

The core mechanic of Ready Stock is a “push” system. You are effectively “pushing” products into the market based on a forecast rather than a direct customer request. Your manufacturing schedule runs independently of incoming orders, creating a steady rhythm that keeps your warehouse stocked and ready for immediate fulfillment.

Simple Analogy: A “push” system means you are building inventory in anticipation of sales. You are making a calculated bet on what your customers will want to buy in the near future. Think of it like a grocery store stocking its shelves with milk and bread before shoppers arrive—they use data to predict demand and have the product ready for instant purchase.

A perfect eyewear example is manufacturing 10,000 units of a classic, black acetate Wayfarer frame. This style has proven, predictable demand, making it an ideal candidate for advance production. These frames sit in a warehouse, ready to ship the same day an order is placed, giving you a powerful competitive advantage. The defining feature is immediate product availability.

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Defining Made-to-Order (MTO)

Made-to-Order is a reactive manufacturing philosophy where production begins only after you secure a confirmed customer order. This approach prioritizes customization and eliminates the financial risk of unsold inventory, making it highly efficient from a cash flow perspective. Every single resource you invest serves a paying customer.

The MTO model operates as a “pull” system. Here, a confirmed customer order is the trigger that “pulls” the entire manufacturing process into motion, from sourcing materials to final quality control. Your production schedule is dynamic, responding directly to the rhythm of sales, not to a predetermined forecast.

Simple Analogy: A “pull” system means that actual customer demand initiates production. Nothing is made until a sale is confirmed and paid for, eliminating guesswork. Think of it like a high-end restaurant where the chef only starts cooking your steak after you’ve placed your order, ensuring it’s prepared exactly to your specification.

A typical MTO scenario is a customer ordering a titanium frame with custom engraving on the temples. Production begins only after the order is confirmed. The 4-6 week timeline ensures the customer gets a highly personalized product. Its greatest strength is enabling a high degree of customization, from frame color to lens options.

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The Eyewear Founder’s Sourcing Checklist

Your choice of sourcing model is a strategic decision, not just a logistical one. Answering these four questions honestly will guide you to the model that best fits your brand’s specific needs, designs, and financial reality.

1. Are Your Designs Classic or Trend-Driven?

Your design philosophy is the most important factor. Classic styles have predictable demand, making them suitable for Ready Stock. In contrast, fast-moving, trend-driven designs carry a high risk of becoming obsolete, which makes MTO a much safer approach.

• For Classic Styles (e.g., Aviators, Wayfarers): Ready Stock is a strong candidate. These timeless designs have sustained appeal, which reduces your forecasting risk. You can confidently invest in larger production runs knowing the style will likely sell just as well next month as it does today.
• For Trend-Driven Styles (e.g., seasonal colors): Made-to-Order protects you from unsold stock. Fashion trends change quickly. MTO protects your cash flow by ensuring you only produce what customers have already committed to buying, avoiding the risk of “dead stock.”

Critical Warning: The global eyewear market is projected to see rapid growth at an 8.6% CAGR through 2030, but this is driven by both classic and trend-conscious consumers. Misreading the longevity of a trend can result in dead stock that requires heavy markdowns.

Pro Tip: Use MTO to test a new design with a pre-order campaign before you commit to a large Ready Stock run. If pre-orders are strong, you can confidently transition the design to a stock model for future production.

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2. What Is Your Starting Capital & Cash Flow?

Your financial reality will dictate your options. Ready Stock requires a significant upfront investment to build inventory, while MTO allows you to operate with customer-funded production, preserving precious cash.

• For High Capital / Stable Cash Flow: Ready Stock is a viable option. If you have the working capital to fund inventory—purchasing materials, paying for manufacturing, and covering storage costs before seeing revenue—you can leverage the benefits of this model.
• For Low Capital / Bootstrapping: Made-to-Order is superior for protecting cash flow. Customer payments fund your production costs, eliminating the need for large upfront capital. This allows you to grow your business using customer money.

The Bottom Line: Made-to-Order effectively turns your customers into silent investors who fund your production through their advance payments. This is a powerful advantage for any new or growing business.

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3. Is Your Brand’s Value Speed or Exclusivity?

Your brand promise determines whether customers value immediate availability or personalized craftsmanship. A brand built on speed needs Ready Stock, while a brand built on exclusivity and customization can leverage the MTO model as a core part of its story.

• For Speed & Immediate Availability: Ready Stock is essential. Modern consumers expect fast fulfillment. If your value proposition is convenience and rapid delivery, this model is mandatory to stay competitive.
• For Exclusivity & Craftsmanship: Made-to-Order reinforces your brand story. For premium brands, the production timeline becomes a positive feature. Customers will happily wait for a product they believe is being uniquely crafted just for them.

For Example: You can reframe a long lead time into a positive feature. Instead of apologizing for a delay, your marketing can state, “Your custom pair is being crafted for you,” turning a potential negative into a powerful statement about quality and exclusivity.

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4. How Predictable Is Demand for Your Products?

Your ability to forecast accurately is the single most critical factor for Ready Stock success. Predictable demand enables confident inventory investments, while volatile or unknown demand makes MTO the only safe and logical choice.

• For Highly Predictable Demand: Ready Stock is efficient. If you have historical sales data or are selling into a stable market (like replacement frames for an optical shop), you can forecast with a high degree of confidence.
• For Volatile or Unknown Demand: Made-to-Order is the safest choice. For a new brand launching into an untested market, trying to predict demand is pure speculation. MTO eliminates this uncertainty by ensuring you only produce what you’ve already sold.

Key Metric: According to industry data, the global eyewear market reached $200.46 billion in 2024, but this growth isn’t uniform. Accurate demand forecasting is the critical skill that separates profitable Ready Stock operations from those that fail.

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Managing Your Investment: Financial Risks & Realities

Beyond the strategic fit, you need to understand the cold, hard numbers. The two models have vastly different impacts on your cash flow, your exposure to risk, and the very economics of your manufacturing process.

Upfront Capital and Cash Flow

The financial demands of each model could not be more different. One requires you to have cash on hand to start, while the other generates cash to start. This is a critical distinction for any founder.

Financial Aspect	Ready Stock (MTS)	Made-to-Order (MTO)
Capital Required	Significant upfront capital to fund inventory before any sales. A run can require $100,000-$500,000.	Minimal upfront capital. Customer orders and payments fund the production costs directly.
Cash Flow Cycle	Negative. Cash is spent on production long before revenue is collected from sales.	Positive. Cash is collected from the customer before production costs are incurred.
Financial Risk	High. Capital is tied up in physical inventory that may or may not sell.	Low. Production is directly funded by a confirmed sale, eliminating inventory risk.

The Founder’s Bottom Line: MTO protects cash flow, which is the lifeblood of any new business. It allows you to reinvest your earnings into marketing and growth instead of tying them up in speculative inventory sitting on a shelf.

The #1 Risk of Ready Stock: Overstock

Overstock is the greatest financial threat to a Ready Stock strategy. It occurs when you hold more inventory than you can sell, creating “dead stock” that silently drains your capital through storage costs and eventual liquidation.

Simple Analogy: “Dead stock” is more than just unsold product; it is frozen capital that is actively losing value. You paid to produce it, you pay to store it, and eventually, you will likely pay to get rid of it at a massive loss. Think of it like a bag of fresh produce that you have to throw away—not only do you lose the money you spent on it, but you also got no benefit from it.

The financial drain comes from wasted capital, ongoing storage costs, and the eventual need for heavy markdowns of 50-70% just to clear space. In an industry like eyewear where fashion trends change quickly, a bestseller can become dead stock in a single season.

Best Practice: If you use a Ready Stock model, mitigate your risk by starting with a small number of SKUs (5-10 core styles) that have proven, classic appeal. This minimizes your exposure to changing trends while you build your forecasting expertise.

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How Your Choice Impacts Your Supply Chain

Your sourcing decision sends ripples through your entire operation, affecting per-unit costs, how you manage materials, and even your approach to quality control.

Manufacturing and Per-Unit Cost

The scale of production directly impacts your costs. Ready Stock is built for large, efficient runs, while MTO is built for small, flexible batches.

Definition: Economies of scale is the cost advantage a business gains as its production becomes more efficient. This means that as you produce more units, the cost per individual unit goes down because fixed costs (like machine setup) are spread over a larger number of items.

Factor	Ready Stock (MTS)	Made-to-Order (MTO)
Production Model	Long, uninterrupted runs of a single style.	Small, individualized production runs for each custom order.
Economies of Scale	High. Mass production and bulk material buys lead to lower costs.	Low. Smaller batches and frequent changeovers lead to higher costs.
Per-Unit Cost	Lower. Costs can decrease by 30-50% on high-volume runs.	Higher. Lacks the efficiency benefits of mass production.

Material Sourcing

Your material strategy must align with your production model. One requires deep inventory of a few standard items, while the other requires a broad inventory of many diverse components.

Sourcing Aspect	Ready Stock (MTS)	Made-to-Order (MTO)
Purchasing Strategy	Bulk purchasing of standard materials based on a master schedule.	Maintaining a diverse inventory of many raw materials for custom orders.
Inventory Example	May only need to stock black and tortoise acetate in large quantities.	Needs to stock 20+ different acetate colors to offer customization.
Supplier Relationship	Focused on volume discounts and predictable delivery schedules.	Focused on access to a wide variety of materials and quick turnaround.

Quality Control (QC)

How you ensure quality also changes. Mass production relies on statistical checks, whereas custom production allows for individualized attention.

QC Approach	Ready Stock (MTS)	Made-to-Order (MTO)
Methodology	Relies on batch testing and statistical process control to ensure consistency.	Allows for individualized inspection for each specific customer’s order.
Brand Implication	Focuses on efficiency and maintaining a consistent standard across thousands of units.	Can be a powerful marketing tool for premium brands emphasizing craftsmanship.

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The Hybrid Model: Assemble-to-Order (ATO)

For some brands, the best solution isn’t a choice between the two extremes but a blend of both. The Assemble-to-Order (ATO) strategy combines the efficiency of Ready Stock with the personalization of Made-to-Order.

The core concept is to mass-produce standardized components (Ready Stock) but perform the final assembly only after a customer places an order (Made-to-Order). This balances the need for speed with the desire for customization.

The Assemble-to-Order model means you prepare the ingredients in advance but build the final product on demand. This gives you the speed of having components ready to go with the flexibility of customization. Think of it like a high-end sandwich shop that preps all its meats, cheeses, and veggies but only assembles your sandwich once you tell them exactly what you want on it.

A practical example is stocking unfinished frame fronts in several popular shapes and a wide variety of temple arms in different colors and materials. When a customer orders, you can assemble their unique combination in days, not weeks.

Pro Tip: ATO works exceptionally well for brands offering prescription eyewear. The frame styles can be mass-produced and stocked, while the custom prescription lenses are made and installed only after receiving the customer’s specific requirements.

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Conclusion: Making the Right Choice for Your Brand

There is no single “best” answer. The right choice depends entirely on your specific business model, your access to capital, and the story you want to tell. MTO is a strategy of flexibility and risk mitigation, perfect for custom or unproven designs. MTS is a strategy of efficiency and speed, best for scaling proven, classic styles. In my two decades of working with designers, I’ve consistently observed that the most successful founders start lean, validate their designs with real sales data, and then let that data guide their sourcing evolution.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is a “pre-order” the same as Made-to-Order? No.

A pre-order typically collects payments for a product that will be mass-produced via Ready Stock methods. MTO involves manufacturing a product to an individual customer’s unique specifications.

2. How does a manufacturer’s MOQ affect my choice?

Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs) for Ready Stock can force large inventory investments (typically 100-1,200 pieces per style/color). MTO often allows for lower or no MOQs, as production is tied to individual sales.

3. What is the biggest mistake founders make with these models?

The most common mistake is choosing Ready Stock too early without enough capital or proven market demand. This often leads to severe cash flow problems and having to write off large amounts of unsold inventory.

4. How do I forecast demand for a new eyewear brand?

Start with conservative estimates based on market research of similar brands. Use pre-order campaigns to gauge real-world demand for new designs, and always begin with a small collection of proven, classic styles.

5. Does one model lead to higher profit margins?

Not necessarily. MTO can achieve higher gross margins through premium pricing on custom products. Ready Stock can achieve high net margins through the operational efficiency and lower per-unit costs of manufacturing at scale.