Ordering Caps for Freshers
By The Velocity Wear Team
Order freshers caps in July for a September arrival. The build is 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval, but a student order rarely fails on production. It fails on sign-off, because the committee that has to approve the design is scattered across the summer. July leaves room for that, for a sample, and for transit before term starts.
Why does a freshers order start in July?
Count the calendar rather than the working days. Two to three weeks of production, plus transit, plus receiving and sorting at the other end, already reaches the end of August from a mid-July start. Ahead of production sits the approval chain, and in a students union that chain often includes an incoming officer who does not take up the post until the summer.
The second reason is that August is the worst month to be chasing decisions. People are away, inboxes go unread, and a single unanswered question about thread colour can sit for ten days. Getting the specification agreed on the wholesale caps page in July means August only has to contain manufacturing.
Who has to sign the artwork off, and when?
Name the approver before you start, and name one. Student orders commonly involve a society committee, a union brand team and whoever controls the budget, and each of them can veto. Agree in writing who gives the final yes, and set a date by which they will give it.
The other thing to settle early is the university mark. If the cap carries an institutional logo rather than just a society one, there is usually a brand approval process with its own turnaround, and that runs in front of your production window rather than alongside it.
How many sizes does a freshers cap need?
Usually one. Snapbacks and strapbacks adjust across a wide range, so a single adjustable size covers the overwhelming majority of a cohort. That is a genuine advantage over hoodies and tees, where a size run has to be guessed and then lived with.
Fitted caps are the exception, and they turn a simple order into a collection exercise: you have to gather head measurements from people who have not arrived yet. Unless there is a specific reason to go fitted, stay adjustable. The differences are set out in snapback vs fitted vs strapback, and the broader fit question in fits and cuts for wholesale caps.
What happens if the design changes in August?
Production timing runs from artwork approval, so a change in August restarts that clock. A colour swap on an already-digitised embroidery is quick. A new logo, a different layout or an extra decoration position is a new approval and a new setup, and it can push a September arrival into October.
Protect against it by sampling. A sample is £150, credited against the bulk order, and requesting one through the samples page in July gives the committee something physical to argue about while there is still time to act on the argument. Arguing about a rendering in August produces the same changes with none of the room.
Budget is the last piece. Caps start from $12 a piece at the 50-piece minimum, and the volume tiers run from 50 to 99 up to 1,000-plus with as much as 35% off the 50-piece price at the top. A union ordering across several societies can often pool a single design and land in a better band than each society ordering separately.
