Keeping a Uniform Specification Document That Prevents Drift
By The Velocity Wear Team
A uniform specification document records exactly what gets made, in enough detail that any competent supplier could reproduce it without asking you a question. That means garment code and fabric weight, colourway, decoration method, logo dimensions in millimetres, placement measured from a named seam, Pantone and thread references, and the size spread. Anything described in words rather than numbers will drift.
What the Document Is Actually For
It exists to survive people leaving. The person who set up your uniform knows why the logo sits where it does. When they move on, that knowledge goes with them, and the next reorder is placed from a photograph and a rough memory.
It also exists to make switching supplier a routine task rather than a rebuild. A good specification is the thing you send with a tender pack, and it is why quotes come back comparable.
Identify the Garment Precisely
Not "navy polo". The manufacturer, the style code, the fabric composition and the fabric weight in GSM, plus the exact colourway name as the manufacturer writes it. Navy, French navy and oxford navy are three different garments and they will not sit next to each other happily.
Record the cut options too, because a unisex and a fitted version of the same style code are different products with different size charts. If your programme offers both, both belong in the document.
Specify the Logo in Millimetres
Give the finished width in millimetres, and state whether height is proportional or fixed. "Roughly 8cm wide" will be interpreted differently by different people, and a logo that shrinks by a centimetre between orders is genuinely noticeable when two staff members stand together.
Specify the size per placement rather than once for the whole garment. A left-chest embroidery, a back print and a sleeve badge are three different dimensions and each needs its own line.
Measure Placement From a Fixed Seam
This is the single most valuable habit in the whole document. Never write "centred on the left chest". Write the distance from the shoulder seam down to the top of the logo, and the distance from the placket or centre front across to the edge of the logo, both in millimetres.
The reason is that a chest is not a fixed reference. What counts as centred on a small is not centred on a 2XL, so a logo positioned by eye migrates across the size range. Positioned from a seam, it lands in the same relative place on every garment in the run, which is what makes a team look uniform rather than approximately uniform.
“"A specification document is just your order written down. Its whole value shows up two years later."”
Colour References and Their Honest Limits
Record Pantone references for print and thread numbers for embroidery. Then note in the document what the tolerance is, because the reference is a target rather than a guarantee. Ink behaves differently on a dark garment than a light one, and the same ink reads differently on cotton and polyester.
For anything where colour really matters, record what was actually approved on a physical sample and keep that sample. A thread number plus an approved sewn-out is far stronger than a colour name.
Everything the Document Must Contain
If you build the sheet once, per garment, it should cover all of this.
- Garment identity: manufacturer, style code, fabric composition, fabric weight in GSM, exact colourway name, and available cuts.
- Decoration method per placement: screen print, DTF, DTG, embroidery, sublimation or vinyl, with the reason it was chosen recorded briefly.
- Logo dimensions in millimetres for each placement, whether height is proportional or fixed, and the position measured from a named seam both vertically and horizontally.
- Colour references: Pantone for print, thread numbers for embroidery, plus a note of any approved physical sample and its date.
- Programme detail: the size spread ordered, the standard issue per role, and the replacement cycle applied to that garment.
Version It and Give It an Owner
Put a version number, a date and a named owner on the front. Every change gets a new version and a one-line note explaining what changed and why. This sounds bureaucratic until the first time somebody asks whether the sleeve badge was always that size.
Keep it somewhere the whole team can read but only the owner can edit. A specification that three people can quietly amend is not a specification.
Review It Once a Year, Not Constantly
Annual review is enough for most programmes: check garment codes are still available, confirm the size spread still matches the workforce, and remove garments nobody issues any more. Resist tinkering with logo dimensions or placement in between. Every small adjustment creates a visible boundary between the people issued before the change and the people issued after it, and that boundary lasts as long as the replacement cycle does.