Restaurant and Hospitality Uniform: Aprons, Polos and Staff Kit
By The Velocity Wear Team
For restaurant and hospitality uniform, embroidery on aprons, polos and shirts is the standard specification — it withstands hot, frequent washing without cracking or fading the way print does. Velocity Wear produces hospitality kit from a 20-piece minimum with mixed sizes, delivered on a tracked UK service, with bulk discounts reaching up to around 40% as quantities rise.
Why Hospitality Is Harder on Garments
Few sectors treat clothing as roughly as hospitality. Kit is worn through long shifts, exposed to heat, oil and spills, and then washed hot and often. A printed logo that would last years on a hoodie worn occasionally can start cracking within months on a polo washed at 60 degrees twice a week. That is the single reason embroidery dominates the sector.
Building the Range
Most venues need three or four pieces working together rather than one.
- Aprons: the most visible branded item in most venues and the cheapest to replace. Bib aprons for front of house, waist aprons for bar and service.
- Polos or shirts: the base layer of the uniform. Choose a fabric with some polyester content for shape retention and faster drying.
- Outer layers: a branded sweatshirt or softshell for staff working near doors, terraces or deliveries.
- Caps or headwear: often required for kitchen roles and a simple place to carry branding consistently.
Handling Staff Turnover
Hospitality turnover is high, which makes reordering a recurring cost rather than a one-off. Two things reduce it. First, order a wider size spread than your current team needs, so a new starter can be kitted out from stock rather than triggering a fresh run. Second, record the exact garment codes, colours, logo dimensions, position and thread references from your first order, so a reorder in a year reproduces the uniform rather than approximating it. A polo that is nearly the right shade of green is more noticeable than no uniform at all.
“"In a dining room, mismatched uniform reads as carelessness long before a customer could tell you why."”
Minimums and Cost Control
Orders start at 20 pieces with mixed sizes inside the run, which usually covers a small venue's whole team plus spares. Bulk discounts reach up to around 40% as quantities rise, so a group with several sites is substantially better off ordering centrally than site by site. The free instant price calculator lets you compare one consolidated run against separate smaller ones before deciding.
Lead Times
Embroidered kit typically takes around 10–15 working days from artwork approval, plus 2–5 working days tracked UK delivery. For an opening date, that means briefing several weeks ahead — and openings slip in one direction only, so ordering early is the safer error.
Artwork for Embroidery
Hospitality logos often carry fine script or small detail that does not stitch cleanly and needs simplifying. Supply vector artwork, confirm exact brand colours so thread can be matched as closely as the palette allows, and check the logo at actual size — a mark that reads well on a menu can become illegible at 7cm on a chest. Preview placement in the free Design Studio before ordering.