T-Shirts for Sports Clubs: reordering
By The Velocity Wear Team
A club reorder is a new production run on an existing specification: 50 pieces per design, 10-15 working days from artwork approval, plus transit. If the original job reference, garment colour and artwork files are on record, the repeat needs almost no decision-making. If they are not, the committee spends a fortnight rebuilding information it already paid for once.
How do you match a mid-season reorder to the first run?
Quote the original job so we cut and decorate from the same specification rather than interpreting a fresh brief. Garment colour is the one to watch: dyed cotton shifts slightly between dye lots, which is standard across apparel manufacturing. On a dark club colour it is invisible in use. On a mid-tone, two shirts hung side by side can differ enough for someone to notice, though nobody spots it on a pitch at thirty metres. If exactness matters for a photo or a presentation set, order that set in one run.
What should the club keep on file?
- 1The job reference and the date of the original order.
- 2Fabric weight in GSM, the fit, and the garment colour reference.
- 3Every ink and thread colour used, for the crest and for any sponsor mark.
- 4The artwork files, including the sponsor vector, stored somewhere that survives a change of secretary.
- 5One unwashed shirt from the first run, bagged and labelled as the reference garment.
Clubs lose this information more often than businesses do, because the person who placed the order is a volunteer who stands down at the AGM. Putting the file in a shared club drive rather than one person's inbox is a five-minute job that saves the next committee a month.
How many spares are worth ordering up front?
Enough to cover a season of new members and replacements, held in the middle of your size range. The arithmetic favours it: the minimum is 50 per design on every run, so a club that needs 38 shirts is ordering 50 regardless, and the 12 spares cost nothing extra in minimum terms. Ordering a larger single run also sits further up the discount ladder, where the saving reaches up to 35% from the 50-piece price - club t-shirt cost sets out the tiers.
Does the reorder still need 50 pieces?
Yes, on every run including repeats. Clubs sometimes want six shirts for late joiners, and that is not an order we can produce. The practical answers are to build the buffer into the first run, or to hold the reorder until enough demand accumulates and treat it as next season's stock. A change of colourway counts as its own design with its own 50, so a club adding an away colour is starting a second run rather than topping up the first - see the wholesale t-shirts page for what the from-price covers.
When is the right moment to place it?
Before the box is empty, and before the season turns. Count unissued stock rather than total stock, and start the reorder when it falls below roughly two months of expected demand - 10-15 working days plus transit plus committee approval time is a month in practice. If the design is changing rather than repeating, order a sample first; the club sample post covers what the £150 tests. The sports clubs page is the place to start when the committee has agreed the quantity.
