Corporate Uniforms for Salons: samples
By The Velocity Wear Team
A salon uniform sample costs £150 and that amount is credited against the bulk order, so taking one is a timing decision rather than a spending one. For salon kit it is particularly worth doing, because the garment will be judged by chemicals and by a full shift on the floor, and neither of those can be assessed from a photograph. Samples are never free.
What is worth testing on a salon sample?
Three things, in this order. First, movement: a stylist raises their arms above shoulder height hundreds of times a day, and a garment that rides up or binds across the back will be abandoned within a fortnight regardless of how good the logo looks. Second, the wash. Run it through the cycle your salon actually uses, at the temperature you actually use, and look at what the fabric and the decoration do. Third, chemical contact — a deliberate, small test with what is on your shelf tells you more than any specification sheet.
Only after those does the branding question matter, and by then you will know whether the garment is worth branding at all. The wholesale uniforms page sets out the garment options if the first choice does not survive the test.
Who should wear the sample before you sign off?
The busiest person on the floor, not the manager. A senior stylist working a full colour day puts the garment through more in eight hours than an owner does in a week, and they will notice things nobody else will: a cuff that catches, a hem that rides, a neck label that irritates. Give them a shift in it and ask afterwards whether they would choose to wear it.
If the team spans a wide size range, a second sample in a different size is worth the extra £150 to check the grading rather than the design. Each sample is charged and each is credited against the bulk order. The salons and barbers page covers the full floor kit, including the towels that are quoted per job alongside the garments.
How does the £150 come back to you?
It is credited against the bulk order when you proceed, so it comes off the invoice rather than being refunded separately. If you take two samples, both are credited. If you decide not to order, the £150 has paid for a garment you keep and a decision you did not have to make with 50 pieces on the table.
Build the sample round into the schedule rather than alongside it. Production runs 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval before transit, and sampling sits in front of that window, so a salon working to a launch date should request the sample as early as the artwork allows. Once the first run has been approved from a sample, the restock cycle works from that approved specification instead of starting again.
One thing to agree before the sample is made: what happens to it afterwards. Most salons keep it as the reference garment and never put it into rotation, which means that when a restock arrives in eight months there is an untouched original to compare it against. A sample that has been worn for a season is no longer a reference; it is just another used garment, and the comparison it was bought for is gone. Label it with the order reference, hang it somewhere dry and leave it alone. The second habit worth forming is writing the approval down — garment, colourway, logo width, placement, labelling — so that what you approved exists as text and not only as an object in a cupboard.
