Picking a Clothing Supplier: Agencies
By The Velocity Wear Team
An agency is judged on the box that lands at the client, not on the factory behind it. So vet a clothing supplier on four numbers before anything else: the real minimum, the lead time measured from artwork approval, what a sample costs, and how the unit price moves with quantity. Ours are 50 pieces per design, 10 to 15 working days, £150 credited against the bulk order, and up to 35% off the 50-piece price.
What should an agency ask before the first quote?
Ask the questions that change the shape of the job rather than the ones printed on a homepage. A minimum of 50 pieces sounds simple until you learn what counts as one design: one set of artwork on one garment. A second colourway that needs its own screens is a separate run of 50, and that single fact decides whether a three-colour campaign is 50 units or 150. Lead time needs the same treatment. Ten to 15 working days sounds generous until you realise the clock starts at artwork approval, not at the purchase order, and that transit sits on top.
Then ask who answers when a client changes the logo lockup at five o'clock on a Friday. Agency work is rarely stable from brief to delivery, and a supplier who only communicates through a web form will cost you a day every time something moves. Our corporate and agency page covers how client-facing work is handled, and the wholesale range shows which products can carry branding in the first place, which is usually the fastest way to sanity-check a concept before you present it.
How do you compare two quotes that look the same?
Two quotes rarely differ on the headline unit price by much. They differ on what has been left out. Read both for setup charges, per-colour charges, whether the price assumes one print position or two, whether packing is included, and which side of the border the delivery price stops at. A quote that is 40p cheaper per piece and excludes a second print position is not cheaper. We work through the full arithmetic in what a garment really costs by the time it reaches you.
The other thing to line up is the tier structure, because that is where agency volume pays. Pricing steps at 50–99, 100–249, 250–499, 500–999 and 1,000+, reaching up to 35% below the 50-piece price at the top. If a client campaign is going to run twice, quoting the combined figure rather than two separate runs can drop a whole tier. Ask both suppliers to price the same two scenarios and the difference between them stops being a matter of opinion.
Who owns the artwork and the screens?
For an agency this matters more than it does for a direct buyer, because you may be handing the relationship to the client at the end of the retainer. Establish early whether the branding work you pay for can be reused on a reorder, and whether a private label build — woven neck labels, tear-out labels, swing tags, packaging — carries across if the client takes the account in-house later. A label programme that only exists inside one supplier's file system is a hostage.
Also settle the decoration method in writing. Screen printing, DTF, embroidery, 3D puff and sublimation all behave differently on a reorder, and a supplier who switches method quietly between runs will hand you a client complaint about colour drift. The list in questions worth asking a manufacturer before you order is a good script to run through on a first call.
What does a client campaign need from the timeline?
Agency deadlines are fixed by things outside your control: a launch date, a stand build, a press day. Work backwards from that date, not forwards from the brief. Put artwork approval far enough ahead that 15 working days plus delivery still lands with room, and treat any brand guideline sign-off inside the client as its own stage with its own slippage. The trade show ordering deadlines post sets out how to count that back for a fixed show date.
One practical habit saves more campaigns than any other: get the artwork approved before the quantity is final. Sizes and split can be adjusted much later than artwork can, so approving the design early buys you the production slot while the client is still arguing about how many mediums to order.
