Setting Up a Size Collection Process People Actually Complete
By The Velocity Wear Team
Collect sizes against the specific garment you are ordering, publish a default for anyone who does not reply, and run the whole thing through one form with one owner and one deadline. Asking people what size they are produces guesses based on whatever they last bought on the high street, and chasing the final stragglers is what turns a two-day job into a three-week one.
Why the Obvious Question Is the Wrong One
People know their size in the brands they buy. They do not know their size in your supplier's polo, which may run slimmer, longer or shorter in the sleeve. A generic form collecting S through 3XL gets you a list of letters that feels like data and produces a pile of exchanges when the boxes arrive.
Those exchanges then arrive one at a time over several weeks, which means small reorders, extra admin and replacement garments that may not sit perfectly against the original run. The cost of a sloppy size collection is almost never in the first order. It is in everything that follows it.
Collect Against the Actual Garment
Give people the manufacturer's measurements for the exact garment code you are ordering: chest width laid flat, body length, sleeve length. Ask them to measure a shirt they already own and like the fit of, and match it against the chart. Two minutes per person, and most of the guesswork disappears.
If you are offering both a fitted women's cut and a straight unisex cut, ask which one each person wants as a separate question. Do not infer it. Getting this wrong is the most common cause of a garment being technically the right size and completely unwearable.
Publish a Default and a Deadline
This is the change that fixes completion rates. State clearly that anyone who has not responded by the deadline will be issued a specified default size. The people who were going to reply eventually reply now, because the alternative is having the decision made for them.
Pick the default from your existing size curve rather than an assumption. Say what it is, say when the cut-off is, then actually apply it. Extend the deadline once and you have taught everyone that the next deadline is negotiable too.
Send a Sizing Set Round Each Site
For a first rollout, or any garment with an unfamiliar fit, order a small set of sample sizes and circulate them site by site. One box, a week per site, a sign-up sheet on the wall. It is unglamorous and it beats every digital sizing tool, because people can put the thing on.
Since Velocity Wear operates online with a 20-piece minimum per order and sizes mixed freely within a run, a sizing set can be part of an early order rather than a separate exercise. Those garments do not go to waste either, because they drop into buffer stock afterwards.
“"Every size you guess on someone else's behalf comes back as a returns email eventually."”
One Form, One Owner, One Deadline
Fragmented collection is what kills the timeline. Managers gathering sizes on paper and emailing them in different formats guarantees a week of reconciliation nobody budgeted for. Keep it centralised.
- One form for the whole organisation, with site and department as fields rather than as separate forms.
- One named owner who chases, not a shared inbox where responsibility quietly evaporates.
- Sizing captured garment by garment, because someone can be a medium polo and a large fleece and both answers are correct.
- A free-text notes field for genuine outliers, which is where you catch the person needing a tall fit before it becomes a problem.
- A stated cut-off date and the default size that applies after it.
Catching Fit Problems Before They Become Reorders
Read the notes field before you order. If three people at one site mention sleeve length, you may have chosen a garment that does not suit that workforce, and finding out before the run is worth the ten minutes it takes. Small signals in free text are the cheapest quality control available to you.
Store Sizes Where They Survive Turnover
A size list living in one person's spreadsheet is a size list you will collect again in eighteen months. Put it wherever your organisation keeps employee records, alongside the garment codes it refers to. Record the date it was captured, because a size collected four years ago is a starting point rather than a fact.
Dealing With the Last Few Names
There will always be a handful of people who do not respond: absent, on leave, or simply not engaged with it. Apply the published default, place the order, and handle them as individual exchanges afterwards. Holding a 300-piece run for four unanswered forms is the wrong trade, and it is the decision that most often blows an implementation date.