Your First Bulk Jacket Order, Step by Step
By The Velocity Wear Team
A bulk jacket order runs through six stages: enquiry, quote, artwork, optional sample, production and delivery. Production is fixed at 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval. Everything before it moves at the speed you move, and everything after it depends on where the goods are going. The minimum is 50 pieces per design, with sizes mixed freely inside that fifty.
What happens between enquiry and quote?
You describe the job and we price it. Jackets are quoted per job rather than from a fixed list, because a coach jacket and a lined varsity are not comparable products, so the quote depends on the style, the fabric, the quantity, the decoration and the finishing. The more of that you can state at the enquiry, the closer the first number is to the final one. Quantity matters most: discounts run up to 35% off the 50-piece price as the order climbs through the tiers at 50 to 99, 100 to 249, 250 to 499, 500 to 999 and 1,000 plus. The range is on the wholesale jackets page and the tier structure on the pricing page.
How does artwork approval work?
You send files, we return a proof showing the mark on the garment with placement measurements and colours, and you approve it. That approval is the starting gun for production: it is the point at which screens are made or the embroidery file is digitised, and the 10 to 15 working days count from there rather than from your deposit. Changes after approval are a new setup, so read the proof properly, check the spelling of every word on it, and confirm that the logo file is the current one rather than an old version someone had on a laptop.
Is a sample worth ordering first?
On a first order with an unfamiliar style, usually yes. A sample is £150 and the fee is credited against the bulk order, so if the order proceeds it costs nothing extra, and if it does not you have paid for the information. A sample settles fit, fabric hand and decoration appearance in a way a proof cannot. It does add its own turnaround to the front of the timeline, so factor that in rather than discovering it late. The errors a sample most often prevents are catalogued in first order mistakes.
What do production and delivery look like?
Fabric is cut, garments are made, decoration is applied, labels are sewn in, pieces are inspected, bagged and boxed. Then the cartons ship to your address in the UK, the USA or Europe, and invoicing is available in seven currencies. Transit time sits on top of the build window, which is the single most common misreading of a lead time. If you want the first quote to be accurate rather than indicative, the information to send is listed in briefing a supplier for jackets.
The second order is much faster than the first, and it is worth knowing that while the first one feels slow. Once the artwork exists as a screen or a digitised file, once the fabric and the fit are settled and once you have a size breakdown that reflects the real team, a repeat becomes a quantity and a date. Most of the effort in a first jacket order is decision-making rather than manufacturing, and that effort is reusable.
