How Do I Choose Between Suppliers' Quotes for Custom Kit?
By The Velocity Wear Team
Compare the specification, not the total. Two quotes for the same job routinely describe different garments, different decoration and different setup arrangements, and until you have lined those three things up the numbers are not comparable. Ask each supplier which garment, which method, how many colours and positions, and what the price does on a repeat order.
Why Two Quotes for the Same Job Look Nothing Alike
The word hoodie covers a range of garments that feel entirely different in the hand. One quote might be built on a lightweight blank around 280 GSM with a thin brushed back. The other might be built on a heavier 350 GSM piece with ribbed cuffs that actually recover after a wash. Neither supplier is being dishonest. They have answered the brief with different assumptions, because the brief did not specify. The same thing happens with the print: a 100mm left-chest logo and a large back print are not the same job, and if nobody wrote down which one you wanted, you will get one quote for each.
Normalise the Garment First
Before anything else, get both quotes onto the same garment. That means a style code and a colour name, not a description. Ask for the fabric weight in GSM, the composition, and whether the fit is unisex or fitted. If a quote says only black hoodie, it is not a quote yet, it is an opening position. This one step removes most of the difference between two numbers that looked mysteriously far apart, and it takes a single email.
Then Normalise the Decoration
Decoration pricing behaves differently depending on the method, and this is where quotes stop being comparable. Screen printing carries a setup cost per colour, which is why a three-colour design and a one-colour design are different products commercially even though they look similar on a proof. DTF has no per-colour setup at all, so a full-colour design on a short run can land cheaper than a two-colour screen print. Embroidery has a one-off digitising step per logo, after which the running cost depends on stitch count rather than colours. A supplier who has absorbed setup into the unit price will look expensive next to one who lists it separately, right up until you compare like for like.
The Question Most Buyers Forget to Ask
Ask what the second order costs. Setup is a one-off if the supplier keeps your screens or your digitised embroidery file, and a repeat expense if they do not. A quote that looks slightly higher today because setup is itemised can be the cheaper option across two years, precisely because you can see what you will not be paying again. It is the most useful question in the whole exercise and almost nobody asks it while they are still choosing.
- Garment: style code, colour name, GSM, composition and fit, so both quotes describe the same physical object.
- Decoration: method, number of ink colours, number of positions and the finished print dimensions.
- Setup: what it covers, whether it is itemised or absorbed, and whether it is charged again on a reorder.
- Sizes: whether the larger end of the range carries an uplift, and from which size that starts.
- Timing: whether the stated lead time runs from order placement or from artwork approval, plus carriage.
Where Money Hides in a Quote
The usual hiding places are additional print positions, size uplifts, artwork redraw charges when the supplied file is not usable, and delivery. None of these are unreasonable in themselves. They only cause trouble when one quote includes them and the other adds them later. Ask directly whether the figure you have been given is the figure that will appear on the invoice if nothing about the job changes.
“"A quote is a description of a product with a number attached. Read the description first and the number stops being confusing."”
Lead Time Belongs in the Comparison
A cheaper quote that arrives after the event is not cheaper. Production begins at artwork approval rather than at order placement, so the clock you care about starts when you sign off the proof. As a rough guide, screen printing and embroidery run around 10-15 working days from approval, and sublimation or more complex multi-part jobs sit nearer 15-20. UK delivery on a tracked service is typically 2-5 working days after dispatch. Two quotes with an identical production window can still differ by a week if one of them is counting from the day you paid.
Judge the Questions, Not Only the Number
Pay attention to what each supplier asked you. A quote that came back with questions about fabric, wash regime, placement and artwork format was produced by someone who has watched this go wrong before. A quote that came back instantly with no questions at all has made assumptions on your behalf, and you will discover what they were during production. Silence at quoting stage has a habit of becoming email at the worst possible moment.
Build Your Own Baseline Before You Ask Anyone
It is far easier to read a quote when you already know how the variables move. Velocity Wear's free instant price calculator updates live as you change garment, method and quantity, so you can see what happens when a run goes from twenty pieces to a hundred, or when a design drops from three colours to one. The free Design Studio lets you lay the artwork out on the garment and check the placement before you commit to anything. Walk into the comparison with a baseline and you are measuring quotes against reality rather than only against each other.