How Bulk Polo Shirts Are Packed
By The Velocity Wear Team
Bulk polo shirts arrive folded and bagged, packed into cartons that are labelled with their contents, on a pallet if the order is large enough. The two decisions worth making are whether each piece is individually bagged and whether cartons hold a single size or a size run. Both are set at order stage and both change how much work delivery day is.
What arrives, physically?
Each polo is folded, usually with a collar support to stop the rib creasing, and bagged. The bags go into cartons, the cartons carry a label stating the design, the sizes and the count inside, and the cartons go onto a pallet for anything much beyond a few hundred pieces. Smaller orders ship as loose cartons on a courier service instead.
A packing list travels with the shipment and should match what the cartons say. The first job on delivery is reconciling one against the other before anything is opened beyond a spot check, because a discrepancy found on the day is a straightforward conversation and one found three weeks later is not. What else to check at that point is covered in quality checks on bulk polo shirts.
Should every piece be individually bagged?
If the stock is going to be sold or posted, yes. An individually bagged polo can go straight from the carton into a mailer with nothing handled in between, which saves real time on a retail or promotional run and keeps the garment clean while it sits in storage. It also protects the decoration from rubbing against the piece next to it.
If the stock is being distributed to a known team on one day, it is less important, and some buyers prefer bulk-folded cartons to avoid the packaging. The garments still arrive protected, just not individually. Decide on the basis of what happens after delivery rather than on price, because the difference per piece is small and the difference in handling time is not.
Single-size cartons or size runs?
Single-size cartons suit a warehouse. Everything in a box is one size, the label says which, and picking against an order is fast. It is the default for retail stock and for anybody using a fulfilment operation.
Size-run cartons suit distribution. Each carton contains a proportional spread of sizes, so one box covers a site, a department or a tour date without anyone having to open six. For an order splitting across several addresses, size runs are what make that possible, and it is exactly how event and tour stock should arrive. Ordering polo shirts for trade show season goes into why that timing matters on the ground.
What should you specify before production?
Four things. Bagged or bulk. Single-size or size-run cartons. How many cartons go to which address. And what the carton labels need to say, because a warehouse with its own conventions will want them in its own format rather than yours. None of these can be changed after the order is packed without it being unpacked again.
Weight and carton count are worth asking about at quote stage too, especially on a heavier knit or an order going to the USA or across Europe, since both affect the freight line rather than the piece price. The quantity tiers, running 50–99 through to 1,000-plus with up to 35% off the fifty-piece price, move the piece price; packing choices move the handling cost. Garment options are listed on the wholesale polo shirts page, and packing terminology is defined on the glossary page.
