Can I Order Different Logos on the Same Run?
By The Velocity Wear Team
In principle yes, and it is a common request from groups with several sites, departments or sub-brands. The thing to understand before you plan around it is that each distinct logo is its own setup on screen printing, or its own digitised file for embroidery. The garments consolidate; the decoration does not. That single fact decides whether a multi-logo run saves you money or quietly costs you more.
What Combining Genuinely Saves
Consolidation is still worth doing, just not for the reason people assume. Putting three departments into one order buys you the same blanks at the same volume price, one delivery instead of three, one approval cycle instead of three, and one set of admin. Bulk discounts reach up to around 40 per cent as quantities rise, and those discounts attach to the total quantity rather than to the number of designs. So the garment side of your bill improves. The decoration side behaves differently, and that is where the surprises live.
Screen Printing: Setup Is Per Colour, Per Design
Screen printing is the least forgiving method for logo variety. Every distinct design needs its own screen for every colour in it, so three logos in two colours each is six screens, not two. Once the screens exist the per-garment cost is low, which is exactly why screen printing wins at volume on a single design and loses on a scattered one. If three sites want three logos and each site only needs a handful of garments, you are paying full setup to print very few pieces from each screen. The economics stop making sense long before the printing does.
DTF and DTG: The Methods That Do Not Punish Variety
This is where most multi-logo orders should land. DTF carries no per-colour setup at all, handles detailed and full-colour artwork comfortably, and works across cotton, blends and polyester. Printing five different logos across a run is not meaningfully different from printing one. DTG behaves similarly but is limited to cotton and gives a softer finish. If your order is a mixture of sub-brands, departments or event variants in modest quantities each, the digital methods are usually both cheaper and simpler than trying to force it through screens.
Embroidery: Digitise Once, Rethread Every Time
Embroidery splits the cost in a useful way. Each logo needs digitising, which is a one-off piece of work per design that you keep and reuse on later orders. After that, the run has to be batched by logo, with the machine set up and rethreaded between batches. So a multi-logo embroidered order is workable, but it is really several small runs sharing one delivery. The upside is that the digitised file is an asset. Order the same three departmental logos again next year and that part of the cost does not repeat.
- Ask for the setup to be quoted per design, so you can see what variety is actually costing you before you commit to it.
- Look at whether one shared mark plus a small variable element, such as a site name in text, would do the job more cheaply than three full logos.
- Put the variable element somewhere cheap: a sleeve, a back neck, or a vinyl name rather than a second full-colour chest print.
- Choose a digital method if the design count is high and the quantity per design is low, and screens if it is the other way round.
- Keep the digitised embroidery files and their reference numbers, because that cost only has to be paid once per logo.
“"Quantity buys you a better price on the garment. It does not buy you a second screen for free."”
The Minimum Applies to the Order
The minimum is 20 pieces per order, with sizes mixing freely within the run. That is a per-order figure rather than a per-size one, which is what makes small mixed teams viable in the first place. If you are planning to split a single order across several logos, say so when you brief, because how a run divides across designs affects both the quoting and the production sequence. It is a question worth asking up front rather than discovering at proof stage.
When Separate Orders Are Genuinely Better
Sometimes splitting is the right call. If two designs are on different garment types, in different fabrics, or needed at different times, forcing them into one run means the whole order waits for the slowest artwork approval. Production starts at artwork approval rather than order placement, so one department dithering over their logo holds up everyone else's kit. If one design is signed off and another is still being argued about, ship the first and follow with the second. The discount you lose is usually smaller than the delay you avoid.
A Simpler Approach That Often Wins
Before ordering three logos, ask whether you actually need three. Many organisations end up with departmental marks because somebody once made one, not because anyone outside the building recognises them. One strong logo with a small site or team identifier underneath gives you the same internal distinction with a single setup, looks more coherent to customers, and makes every future reorder cheaper. That is a branding decision rather than a printing one, but it is the printing bill that usually forces the conversation.