T-Shirts for Schools: lead time
By The Velocity Wear Team
Production runs 10–15 working days from artwork approval, with transit after it. A school order has two things in front of that window which nobody else has: a name list that must be final and a crest that must be approved by someone senior. Count backwards from the last day of term, add transit, add the production window, then add three to four weeks for those two approvals.
How far ahead of the last day of term should you order?
Half a term is the comfortable answer and a month is the tight one. Fifteen working days is three clear weeks before you have added a single day of transit, and school calendars are full of things that eat working days: half term, inset days, bank holidays. A leavers order placed after the Easter break for a July date is fine. One placed in late June is not, and it is the most common version of this conversation.
The date that matters is the date shirts are in pupils hands, not the date they arrive at reception. Build in a few days for unpacking, sorting and dealing with whatever went wrong on the size sheet. If the shirts are for a specific event — a leavers assembly, a sports day — that date is immovable, which is exactly why the order date has to move earlier.
What does the 10 to 15 working days actually cover?
Production only: the blanks being decorated, checked and packed. It starts the moment you approve the proof and ends when the order ships. Everything before approval — quoting, artwork, the name list, the head teacher looking at it — sits outside the window and is the part a school controls. Everything after it is transit to the UK, the USA or Europe. Treat the published figure as one of three stages rather than the whole journey.
If you are taking a sample, that sequence runs in front of the production window, not alongside it. On a leavers shirt it is usually worth the days; what a school sample answers covers what to check while you have it.
What holds a school order up?
The name list, nearly always. A back print of a year group is artwork, so every spelling correction and every late addition is a change to the design. A list that is still receiving amendments cannot be approved, and an unapproved design has not started the clock. The second culprit is the crest: often the only version anyone can find is a small image from the school website, which needs redrawing before it can print at any size. Ask for the original file early, because that search can take a fortnight on its own.
What if the list is still not final?
Set a hard cut-off and publish it, with a stated consequence: names received after the date are not on the shirt. Schools that do this get their lists closed; schools that leave it open receive amendments until the day they miss the deadline. If a handful of pupils genuinely join late, a plain version without the list is a separate design and a separate 50-piece minimum, so it is better to hold one cut-off than to plan for two runs. Budget the whole thing alongside what school t-shirts cost, and our schools and leavers page covers the rest of the end-of-year kit.
What can a school settle before the list is ready?
More than most schools realise, and doing it early takes real time out of the schedule. The garment weight, the fit, the decoration method and the chest crest can all be finalised while the name list is still collecting, because none of them depend on it. The wholesale t-shirts page sets out the fabric range and the options to choose from. Get the crest redrawn and approved in that window and the only thing left waiting on the list is one back print, which is a much smaller problem than a whole order standing still.
