T-Shirts for Restaurants: lead time
By The Velocity Wear Team
Production takes 10–15 working days from artwork approval, with transit after it. For a restaurant the risk is that uniform is decided late, after the fit-out and the menu and the hiring, so the order gets placed at the point where there is no slack left. Put the shirt order in as soon as the brand identity is signed off, not as part of the final week of preparation.
How long does a restaurant t-shirt order take?
Count three stages. Specification and quote, which moves at the speed of your answers about fabric weight, fit and decoration. Artwork, which ends at your approval of the proof. Then the 10–15 working day production window, followed by delivery transit. Only the third is fixed. On a restaurant order the first two are usually where the weeks go, because uniform decisions get made by people who are simultaneously dealing with equipment and licensing.
A sample sits in front of all of that. On a garment washed as hard as hospitality kit, it is worth the days — you find out whether the print survives a commercial wash before fifty shirts exist rather than after. Build it into the calendar as its own stage rather than assuming it overlaps production.
How far ahead of an opening should you order?
Six to eight weeks is comfortable. Fifteen working days is three clear weeks of production alone, transit sits on top, and opening dates slip in both directions — which cuts both ways, because a date that moves earlier is just as awkward as one that moves later if the shirts are not made. The shirts are also one of the few things you can order before the building is finished, since they do not depend on anything else being complete.
Bring the decisions forward rather than the deadline back. Fabric weight, fit, decoration method and print position can all be settled from the brand guidelines alone. Our restaurants and hospitality page sets out the rest of the uniform, and ordering it all in one pass is both cheaper and easier to schedule than three separate runs. What restaurant t-shirts cost covers the budget side of that.
What if you need shirts for a soft launch?
Order the real thing early enough to cover both. The minimum is 50 pieces per design, so a small run of temporary shirts for a friends-and-family night is a full order in its own right, not a cheap stopgap. If the identity genuinely is not settled, plain garments for the soft launch and the branded run for opening week is a workable plan — but it is two purchases, and worth deciding deliberately rather than discovering.
What causes the delay in hospitality orders?
Artwork that only exists as a signage file or a small web image, and needs redrawing before it can print on fabric. Headcount that is still moving because hiring is not finished, which holds the size split open. And approval sitting with an owner who is dealing with twenty other things. Those three account for most of it. Fix the artwork first, order to a headcount with spares rather than waiting for a final list, and name one person who signs the proof. Size planning while hiring is still running is covered in hospitality size splits.
What can you lock in before the site is finished?
The entire specification, which is the useful thing about uniform: it does not depend on the building. Garment weight from the 150–240 GSM combed ring-spun cotton range, fit, colour, decoration method and print position can all be chosen from the brand guidelines alone, and they are set out on the wholesale t-shirts page. Settle them in the same week the identity is signed off, get a sample on order, and the uniform stops being one of the things competing for attention during the fortnight before you open the doors.
