Lead Times Trades Should Plan For
By The Velocity Wear Team
Budget 10-15 working days of production from the point you approve artwork, then add delivery transit on top. For a site start date, working backwards means allowing three weeks for the build and transit and another few days for proofing. Firms that miss a date almost always lost the time at the artwork stage, not on the production floor.
How long does a trades order take from approval?
The clock starts when the proof is signed off, not when the purchase order arrives. From there the run takes 10-15 working days regardless of whether it is fifty pieces or five hundred, because the setup, the print or stitch run and the finishing are the same sequence at both ends of that range.
Transit is separate and depends on destination. We ship to the UK, the USA and Europe, and the difference between those routes is days rather than weeks, but it is real and it belongs in the plan. The construction and trades page sets out what we produce, and the wholesale overview covers how orders are placed.
When should the order go in for a site start date?
Count backwards in four blocks. Delivery transit, then the 10-15 working day build, then two to four days for proofing and approval, then however long your own sign-off takes. For most firms that totals around four calendar weeks, and the internal sign-off is the block that varies most.
- 1Fix the date the crew needs the kit in hand.
- 2Subtract transit for your delivery country.
- 3Subtract 15 working days for the build, using the top of the range rather than the bottom.
- 4Subtract your own approval time, which is usually longer than you think.
Long-running contracts make this easier, because the kit date is known months ahead. Short-notice work is where the pressure lands, and the answer there is stock held from the previous run rather than a rushed order. Apparel production lead times explained covers the same sequence in more detail.
What pushes a build past fifteen days?
Artwork supplied at low resolution, a logo with no vector original, a colour reference given as a screenshot, or a proof that sits unanswered for a week. None of those are production problems and all of them stop the clock. Sending a clean vector file with the placement and size marked removes most of the risk in one email.
Changing the spec mid-run is the other cause. Adding a second garment colour or moving a logo after approval restarts part of the process, and on a trades order that often means the outer layer arrives after the base layer. Building a buffer into the plan, as set out in planning apparel lead times, is cheaper than expediting.
Does a bigger order take longer to make?
Not proportionally. A run of five hundred sits inside the same 10-15 working day window as a run of fifty, because the time is dominated by setup, curing and finishing rather than by piece count. That is one more reason to consolidate a year of buying into a single order: it is the same wait and a better price, up to 35% off the 50-piece rate at the top tier.
What can be prepared before the order is placed?
Nearly everything that later causes delay. Have the logo as a vector file with a colour reference attached, decide the placement and the size in millimetres, agree the garment and base colour, and collect the crew sizes. Those four items take an afternoon and they remove the majority of the proofing exchange, which is where days quietly disappear on a first order.
Name the approver too. A proof that needs three people to agree takes as long as the slowest of them, and on a firm where everyone is on site during the day that can be a week on its own. One person with authority to reply the same day is worth more to the delivery date than any expediting a supplier can offer.
