Samples Before Bulk: A Guide for Charities
By The Velocity Wear Team
A sample costs £150 and that fee is credited against the bulk order when you go ahead. For a charity committing donated money to 50 pieces, holding the real garment before approving the run is the soundest check available. A sample is never free, here or anywhere, because it carries the full setup cost of a production run for a single piece.
What does a sample cost a charity?
One hundred and fifty pounds, credited back against the bulk order. The reason it is not free is arithmetic rather than policy. Making one sample means burning the screens or digitising the embroidery exactly as the full run would, then running a machine for a single garment. That is most of the cost of a batch, spent on one piece. Treat the fee as an advance payment on the order rather than an extra line item, because that is how it settles. Ordering details are on the wholesale page.
What should the sample be checked for?
Four things, in this order. Colour, held under daylight rather than office lighting, because a brand red can read orange under fluorescent tubes. Print position, measured rather than eyeballed, since a logo two centimetres low looks wrong on every shirt. Fabric hand, which decides whether volunteers actually wear the thing on a warm day. And the wash, which is the test people skip. Put the sample through a full cycle at the temperature your volunteers will really use. AI mockups versus physical samples covers what a render cannot show.
Who should sign the sample off?
One named person, with the trustees informed rather than consulted. Sample approval by committee is the most reliable way to lose a fortnight, and the timeline is tight enough already: the sample has its own production and shipping time before the 10 to 15 working day bulk run can begin. Agree in advance who holds the pen, and give them a short written checklist so the decision is about the garment rather than about taste.
When is a sample worth skipping?
When you are repeating a design you have already held. If the same shirt in the same colour with the same print ran last year and you kept a piece, that piece is your reference and a fresh sample adds cost and delay for nothing. Sample when the garment is new to you, when the decoration method changes, or when the colour has to match a brand guideline. The charities and fundraising page shows the garments we run most often for volunteer and supporter kit, and branding options for charities covers the finishing you may also want to see in the flesh.
What should be recorded once the sample is approved?
Write down what you approved, not just that you approved it. The garment name and weight, the colour reference, the decoration method, the print dimensions and the position measured from the shoulder seam. Store that alongside the sample itself in a sealed bag. Three years later, when the person who ran the campaign has moved on, that record is what makes a repeat order a five-minute conversation rather than a fresh round of proofing.
It also protects the charity if a future run comes back looking different. A written specification and a physical reference piece turn a disagreement about shade into a straightforward comparison, and both are free to keep.
Where a charity has more than one campaign running, keep the samples together in one place rather than with whoever ordered them. Volunteer turnover is the reason. A box holding the approved piece for each design, labelled with the year it was approved, survives staff changes in a way that a folder on one person’s laptop does not, and it is the simplest piece of continuity a small organisation can build.
