What the MOQ is actually buying
The MOQ covers a dye lot, a spread on the cutting table, and a decoration setup. Below that, the unit price jumps because the setup is spread over too few pieces.
On hoodies we open at 100 pieces per color. On tees, 150. That is a floor, not a suggestion that you should buy only the floor.
Cash and the second order
Importers get stuck when the first order uses every color in the line and there is no cash for a reorder of the color that sold. Buy fewer colors at a deeper quantity.
Write the reorder lead time into the plan. If the second order takes three weeks, your first order has to cover those weeks of sales.
A practical split
A common first buy is two colors at the MOQ plus one hero color at two or three times that. You learn the fit without filling a warehouse with a guess.
If you sell on a marketplace, weight the size curve to the sizes you already sell. An even size run looks fair and then sits in XS and 3XL.