Running a Staff Kit Programme
By The Velocity Wear Team
A staff kit programme is the difference between ordering uniform once and managing it as an ongoing thing. It needs three components: a sizing record that survives staff turnover, a buffer of stock for new starters, and a reorder rhythm tied to a date in the calendar rather than to somebody noticing the cupboard is empty. Everything else is detail.
What does a staff kit programme have to cover?
Four situations, and most organisations only plan for the first. A new starter arriving on a Monday. A garment that has been damaged or worn out. A staff member whose size has changed. And the annual refresh where everyone gets new kit at once. The annual refresh is the easy one because it is predictable; the other three are what generate the emergency phone calls, and they are all solved by holding a modest buffer of the common sizes rather than ordering reactively. Corporate uniforms start at $20 a piece at the 50-piece minimum, and the range is on the corporate page.
Decide what the kit is, in writing, before you order any of it. Which garments each role gets, how many of each, who pays if it is lost, and what happens to it when somebody leaves. A programme without those rules turns into a stockroom nobody manages.
How do you handle new starters between runs?
With a buffer, because the alternative does not work. Production is 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval plus transit, and the minimum is 50 pieces per design, so you cannot order three polos for three new people in March. Work out your expected turnover across a year, add a margin, and carry that as spare stock in the middle sizes where most new starters land. A buffer that covers six months of arrivals is usually the right size, and it costs less per piece than it looks because it rides on the tier of the main order.
Which sizing records are worth keeping?
A live list of names against sizes, kept wherever your HR records live rather than in one person's inbox. Record the size in the specific garment, because sizing is not transferable between products or suppliers — somebody who takes a large polo may take a medium in a fitted jacket. Note the date it was measured, and refresh the list before each annual order rather than assuming it is still accurate. Building that list into an order is straightforward once it exists, and building a size curve for a bulk order sets out how to turn it into a run.
Keep a reference garment from each run as well. Kit issued a year apart should look like the same uniform, and a stored reference is what makes that possible. The mechanics of that are in restocking without colour drift.
How often should the programme reorder?
Once a year for most organisations, with the date fixed in advance and working backwards from when the kit is needed. One larger annual order beats four small ones on every measure: fewer setups, a better price tier — the per-piece figure falls by up to 35% against the 50-piece price as quantity rises — fewer dye lots in circulation, and far less administrative time. Consolidate across sites and departments if you have them, because a single order of 400 is priced very differently from four orders of 100. The garment options and current starting prices are on the wholesale page.
Put the reorder date in a calendar with a reminder six weeks earlier, when the sizing list needs refreshing. Programmes fail at that step far more often than they fail at the ordering step.
