Caps for Agencies: reordering
By The Velocity Wear Team
A repeat cap order runs from records we already hold: the digitised stitch file, the blank reference and the thread numbers. Artwork approval is quick because nothing new has to be interpreted. Everything else is unchanged — fifty pieces minimum per design, and 10 to 15 working days of production once that approval is given.
What does an agency need to keep between runs?
Less than you would think, as long as you keep the order reference. Quote it and the blank, the colour and the stitch file come back together. What agencies should hold their own copy of is the decision trail: which panel colour was chosen, why the artwork was sized as it was, and who approved it. Staff turnover is the real enemy of a repeat order, not record keeping on our side. The styles sit on the wholesale caps page, and account-level work is described on the corporate pages.
The other thing worth keeping is one cap from the first run, bagged and labelled. It settles arguments about colour faster than any file.
Will the second run match the first?
The decoration will. Thread is specified by number, so the mark comes back identical. Fabric is where drift appears, because cotton twill is dyed in batches and two batches of the same navy can read slightly differently side by side. Nobody notices at an event; everyone notices on a shelf or in a product photograph.
If a client is going to mix old and new stock in the same shot, say so up front. If the caps are simply being handed out at a second event, the difference is academic.
Does a repeat get a better price?
Only through quantity. Caps start at $12 a piece at fifty, and the tiers step at 100, 250, 500 and 1,000, reaching up to 35% off the fifty-piece price. A repeat of fifty is priced as fifty. An agency running a rolling programme for a client is usually better off consolidating four small runs into one larger one, and warehousing the difference, than reordering every quarter.
That decision is a cash flow question as much as a pricing one, so put both numbers in front of the client rather than choosing for them — caps for agencies: cost lays out how to frame it.
What counts as a new design rather than a repeat?
Any change to the blank, the panel colour, the closure or the artwork. Clients often describe these as small tweaks; production treats them as a new run with its own fifty-piece minimum and its own approval. A different panel colour that needs its own screens is a separate design in its own right.
Where the change is real, treat it as a new line and sample it before the bulk run. Caps for agencies: samples covers the approval stage, and can I reorder the same design later answers the underlying question of what we keep and for how long.
