Budgeting a Bulk cap Order
By The Velocity Wear Team
Budget a bulk cap order in four blocks: the caps themselves from $12 each at the fifty-piece minimum, the decoration and any one-off setup, the £150 sample if you take one, and delivery. The sample credits back against the bulk order, so for most buyers the real planning question is how many caps to commit to, because that single decision moves the unit price more than anything else.
What does the smallest cap order cost?
Fifty caps of one design is the floor, and $12 a piece is where the ladder starts. Mixing the fifty across colours is not the same as mixing across sizes — a colourway that needs its own setup counts as its own design, so a budget built on "fifty caps in three colours" is really a budget for three runs. Check that assumption first, because it is the one that quietly triples a plan. The wholesale caps page covers the styles available at that minimum.
On top of the caps, allow for artwork setup. Embroidery needs digitising once per design, and that cost does not repeat when you come back for more of the same cap later. Treat it as an entry fee rather than a running cost, which changes how it looks if you expect to reorder.
How much does the budget move as the order grows?
Substantially, and in steps rather than a smooth curve. The tiers are 50–99, 100–249, 250–499, 500–999 and 1,000 or more, with up to 35% off the fifty-piece price once you are at the top of that ladder. The practical effect is that an order just under a tier boundary is poor value: if you need 95 caps, pricing 100 is worth doing before you decide. The pricing page shows where each step sits.
Which costs sit outside the per-cap price?
The sample is the first. It is £150, it is credited against the bulk order when you place it, and it is worth planning as a cash-flow item rather than a cost — you pay it early and get it back inside the main invoice later. Private label work is the second: woven labels, tear-out labels, swing tags and packaging are all priced as additions, and each one adds a step before the caps can be boxed.
Delivery is the third, and the one people forget to scope. We ship to the UK, USA and Europe, and invoice in seven currencies, but a quote built around one address will not cover a split delivery to four regional offices. If the caps need to arrive in more than one place, say so while the budget is still a draft.
Where do cap budgets usually slip?
Three places. Adding a second decoration position late — a side panel or a rear embroidery — after the front price was already agreed. Splitting one design into two colourways without re-checking the minimum. And leaving no headroom for spares, which matters for team kit where a handful of extras costs far less now than a second run later; the practicalities are in handing out caps to a team.
Timing is the fourth, indirectly. Production runs 10–15 working days from artwork approval, plus transit. A budget that assumes an air-freight rescue because the order went in late is a budget with a hole in it, so put the order date in the plan alongside the money.
Hold a contingency of your own rather than treating the quote as a ceiling. Not because the figures move, but because plans do: a head count grows, a second site appears, someone decides the caps should have a tag after all. A small reserve lets you absorb those without reopening the approval. Teams that keep one place a single order. Teams that do not place one order and then a second at the minimum, which costs far more per cap than ordering a few extra at the start.
