Samples Before Bulk: A Guide for Societies
By The Velocity Wear Team
A sample is £150 and the fee is credited against the bulk order, so a society that proceeds effectively pays it once and recovers it. For a committee the value is twofold: it confirms the garment and the artwork before 50 pieces exist, and it gives the sign-up stall something members can touch, which does more for a list than any poster will.
Who pays for the sample in a society budget?
Usually the committee float or the union grant, and it should be recorded as a line rather than absorbed quietly, because the credit against the bulk order needs to be tracked back to whoever funded it. Where budgets are tight, some committees add a small amount to the member price to cover the sample and refund nothing, which is honest as long as members are told. Treat the £150 as part of the order rather than as a separate purchase. The student and leavers pages cover the kit most societies sample first.
What should the committee check when the sample lands?
Three things, in this order. Whether the crest is reproduced accurately, particularly any fine linework that had to be redrawn. Whether the colour matches what the committee approved on screen, which it often does not quite, and is easier to accept on a garment than in an argument. And whether the fit is what members will expect, which means having several people try it on rather than one. Then wash it once, because a society hoodie that shrinks in length will be complained about all year.
Can a sample be shown at a sign-up event?
That is the best use of it. A garment hanging on a rail at a freshers stall converts sign-ups at a rate a mockup on a screen does not come close to, because people are buying a physical object and want to see it. Committees that sample early and open their list with the piece in hand tend to clear the 50-piece minimum comfortably. Our comparison of renders and real samples explains what a digital image genuinely cannot show, and the mechanics of the minimum are in our note on society minimum orders.
How does the sample affect the final deadline?
It sits before the production window rather than inside it, so a committee planning for freshers should treat the sample as its own block in the calendar, then add the 10 to 15 working days of production and the transit afterwards. A sample ordered in June for a September launch is comfortable. A sample ordered in late August is a reason the kit arrives in week four. Look across the full range early so the sampled item is the one you actually intend to buy.
Keep the sampled garment afterwards. It becomes the reference piece for next year committee, the item shown at the following sign-up, and the physical proof of what was approved when somebody disputes a shade.
A sample is also the most persuasive thing a committee can carry into a funding meeting. A union officer looking at a physical garment with a crest on it is being asked to fund something that visibly exists, which is a different conversation from approving a line in a spreadsheet. If you intend to apply for support, order the sample before the application rather than after it, and bring the quotation along so the numbers and the object arrive together. It is a small piece of theatre and it reliably works.
Do not let the sample travel. Committee members take it home to show a friend and it reappears in March, creased, with the sign-up stall long finished. Keep it in one place, with one named person responsible for it, and it stays useful for the whole year.
