Hoodies for Agencies: cost
By The Velocity Wear Team
Custom hoodies start at $31 a piece at the 50-piece minimum, and the per-piece price falls as quantity rises — up to 35% off that starting figure at the top tier. For an agency quoting a client, the number to build the budget around is the tier you will actually land in, not the entry price, because a 250-piece campaign prices very differently from a 50-piece one.
How does the price move across the tiers?
Quantity bands run 50 to 99, 100 to 249, 250 to 499, 500 to 999, and 1,000 and above. Each band moves the per-piece figure down, and the full 35% reduction sits at the top. The practical consequence for an agency is that the gap between 95 pieces and 100 pieces can be worth more than the five extra hoodies cost. Before you sign off a quantity, check whether you are sitting just underneath a break. Rounding up is frequently cheaper in absolute terms than the number you first wrote down.
What sits in the price besides the garment?
Four things move a hoodie quote. Garment weight is the first: 280 GSM brushed-back fleece and 450 GSM brushed-back fleece are different products at different prices, and an oversized cut uses more fabric than a classic one. Decoration is the second — screen printing carries a setup per colour, embroidery is priced on stitch count, and DTF prices flat regardless of colour count. Private label is the third: woven neck labels, tear-out labels, swing tags and packaging are each a line item. Delivery is the fourth, and it sits outside the production lead time entirely. A fuller breakdown of where the money goes is in the real cost breakdown of custom hoodies.
How should an agency present this to a client?
Quote the landed per-piece cost and show the tier underneath it. Clients who see only a total assume the number is padded; clients who can see that 250 pieces costs meaningfully less per hoodie than 100 will often fund the larger run themselves. Two other points belong on the page.
- The 50-piece minimum is per design, so two colourways needing separate screens are two orders of 50
- The £150 sample fee is credited against the bulk order, so it is not a sunk cost if the campaign proceeds
- Sizes mix freely inside the 50, so a broad size curve costs nothing extra
- Invoicing is available in seven currencies, which matters on a cross-border client account
Where do agency budgets usually go wrong?
Two places. The first is counting designs as one line when they are several — a front-and-back print in two colourways is not one order of 100, it is two orders of 50 with separate setups. The second is leaving no float in the calendar, which turns into an expedited shipping bill that swallows whatever the volume discount saved. Production runs 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval, before transit, and we set out how to plan around that in hoodies for agencies: lead time.
How do you compare two suppliers' quotes fairly?
Line by line, and on the same specification. Quotes for custom apparel are not comparable unless the garment weight, the fit, the decoration method, the number of positions and the label treatment all match, and it is common for a lower headline number to be quoting a lighter garment or a single-colour print where the other quote assumed three. Ask every supplier to state the GSM, the decoration method per position, what is included in the way of labels and packaging, whether delivery is inside or outside the figure, and what the sample costs.
Then compare the landed per-piece cost at the quantity you will actually order, not at the minimum. A supplier whose entry price is slightly higher may be considerably better at 250 pieces, and that is the number your client will be paying.
Current weights, fits and from-prices are listed on the wholesale hoodies page. If the campaign extends into polos, caps or uniform alongside the hoodies, the corporate apparel page covers how those orders are handled together.
