Delivering Bulk Orders to the USA
By The Velocity Wear Team
Bulk orders ship to US addresses regularly, and the planning is the same three-part sum every time: 10 to 15 working days of production from artwork approval, then transit, then whatever it takes for the receiving end to actually accept a bulk shipment. The third part is the one that catches buyers out, and it is entirely within your control if you settle it before you order.
What is a realistic timeline to a US address?
Treat the production window as fixed and everything else as a range. Transit to the USA varies with the service chosen, and an air shipment and a sea shipment are different orders of magnitude in both time and cost. The practical approach is to decide which of those you are buying at quote stage, because the decision is driven by your deadline rather than by the garments. A brand launching a product has flexibility; a company kitting out a trade stand on a fixed date does not, and should say so early.
Do not plan to the earliest possible arrival. Plan to a date you can defend, and keep a few days between the expected arrival and the moment the garments are needed. If they land early, nothing is lost.
How does the shipment get priced?
Separately from the garments, on weight, volume, destination and service level. That is why shipping should appear as its own line on the quote rather than being absorbed into the per-piece figure — you cannot compare two suppliers if one has hidden freight inside the unit price. Clothing is light but bulky, so volume often drives the cost more than weight does, and a heavier product like a tracksuit at $53 per set ships very differently from a run of caps. The per-piece side of the arithmetic is on the pricing page.
Which address details matter most?
The ones about receiving rather than the ones about location. Can the site take a pallet? Is there a loading dock, or does the delivery need a lift gate? What are the receiving hours, and is there a named person who will be there? A residential address or a small office that cannot accept a freight delivery turns an on-time shipment into a depot storage problem. Give a phone number that gets answered, because carriers call before delivery and a missed call costs a day.
Also confirm the legal name of the receiving business and any registration details required for the import, and make sure they match the commercial paperwork exactly. Mismatches are the single most avoidable cause of a hold. The equivalent European checks are in delivering bulk orders to Europe.
What if the deadline will not move?
Then work backwards from it out loud, with the supplier, before anything is ordered. Name the date, subtract the receiving buffer, subtract transit, subtract the 10 to 15 working day production window, subtract the sample round and the artwork approvals, and look at the date you land on. If that date has already passed, the honest answers are to change the deadline, reduce the scope, or pay for a faster shipping service — not to hope. Order quantity is also part of the lever: a smaller run moves faster through every stage. The range and the starting prices are on the wholesale page, and the shape of a launch calendar is set out in planning a first clothing drop.
