Your First Bulk hoodie Order, Step by Step
By The Velocity Wear Team
Six stages: enquiry, quote, artwork approval, sample, production, delivery. Production is fixed at 10 to 15 working days and starts only once artwork is approved. Everything before that runs at whatever speed you and your supplier manage between you, which is why two orders placed on the same day can arrive a fortnight apart. The minimum is 50 pieces per design, with sizes mixed freely inside it.
What happens at the enquiry and quote stage?
You say what you want and we tell you what it costs. A useful enquiry names the garment, the quantity, the fabric weight, the decoration method, the print positions and the date you need it. A vague one produces a vague figure that changes later, which is the source of most unpleasant surprises. Hoodies start at $31 a piece at the 50-piece minimum, and the discount climbs as quantity rises, up to 35 per cent off that price at the top tier. The tier structure is set out on the pricing page.
A quote that only shows a per-piece figure is incomplete. Ask for the decoration cost per position, the sample cost, any setup charges, and the delivery cost to your address, broken out separately. That is the number you should be budgeting against. How to read one line by line is covered in reading a wholesale quote for hoodies.
What does artwork approval involve?
You send files, we send back a mockup showing the artwork at its actual size and position on the garment, and you either approve it or ask for a change. Send vector files with outlined text, at print size, with Pantone references for each colour. The clock on production starts when you approve, not when you place the order, so this is the stage where a first-time buyer most often loses a week without realising it.
Check the mockup properly rather than glancing at it. Look at the print width in millimetres rather than how it looks on screen, check spelling in any text, and check the position measurements. A mockup approved with a typo becomes 50 hoodies with a typo, and there is no way back from that. What to send so the first mockup is right is set out in briefing a supplier for hoodies.
Is the sample stage worth it?
For a first order with a supplier you have not used before, yes. A sample is £150 and it is credited against the bulk order, so on a real run it is effectively a timing decision rather than a cost one. It shows you the fabric hand, the true colour on that fleece, the fit against the size chart and how the decoration sits. Keep it once approved, because it becomes the physical reference for the production run and for any repeat.
It adds roughly one to two weeks to the overall schedule. If your deadline cannot absorb that, the fallback is to approve a fabric swatch and a print strike-off instead, which tells you about materials and colour but nothing about fit. Decide this early rather than at the point where it has become impossible.
What happens during production and delivery?
Fabric is prepared and cut, garments are made up, decoration is applied, labels are attached and everything is finished, checked and packed. That is the 10 to 15 working days. Delivery transit sits on top, and the time depends on destination: we deliver across the UK, the USA and Europe, and invoice in seven currencies. Garments arrive folded, individually bagged and packed into cartons sorted by size, with contents labelled on the outside.
Do an inspection on the day it lands. Check the carton count against the paperwork, open one at random, and compare a handful of garments against your retained sample. Twenty minutes now saves a difficult conversation later. For the wider set of things new buyers get caught by, the mistakes almost everyone makes on a first clothing order is worth reading before you place rather than after. Garment options and current from-prices are on the wholesale hoodies page.
