Choosing a Wholesale Hoodie Supplier
By The Velocity Wear Team
Ask four things before you commit: what the minimum is and whether it is per design, what the fabric weight and composition actually are, what the lead time is measured from, and what is excluded from the quoted price. Our answers are 50 pieces per design, 280 to 450 GSM brushed-back fleece, 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval, and delivery quoted separately.
What should you ask before the first order?
Start with the minimum, and be specific about whether it applies per order or per design. Those are very different numbers when you want a staff hoodie and a member hoodie. Ours is per design, and sizes mix freely inside it, so 50 pieces can be six sizes but not two different prints.
Then ask what the lead time is counted from. A supplier quoting ten days from order and a supplier quoting fifteen from artwork approval may finish on the same day, because approval usually lands a week after the order. Ask for the measuring point, not the number, and note which one is in working days. A general list of questions worth putting to any maker is in questions worth asking a manufacturer.
How do you compare two quotes honestly?
Put both on the same specification before you look at the price. A hoodie at 280 GSM and a hoodie at 400 GSM are not the same product, and the cheaper number is often just a lighter garment. Fix the weight, the composition, the fit, the number of print positions and the colour count, then ask both suppliers to requote. Half the price gap usually disappears.
Next, check what is excluded. Screen setup, digitising, neck labels, swing tags, bagging and delivery are all real costs and they are not always in the headline figure. Ask for a landed cost per piece at the quantity you will actually order. Our from-price is $31 a piece at the 50-piece minimum, with the volume bands and the up to 35% reduction set out on the pricing page.
What does a sample tell you that a quote cannot?
Whether the fleece is as heavy as claimed. Whether the stitching is straight at the cuff. Whether the print is cured properly, which you find out by washing it. Whether the size chart matches the garment. A £150 sample, credited against the bulk order, buys you all of that, and it also tells you how a supplier behaves when you ask them a detailed question.
That last part is worth more than it sounds. The supplier who replies with a measurement is a different proposition from the one who replies that it will be fine. The full sampling checklist is in sampling hoodies before a bulk order.
Which answers should make you pause?
A refusal to state fabric weight in GSM. A lead time with no starting point. A sample offered at no charge, which usually means the cost is buried in the unit price or that what arrives is a stock blank rather than your garment. A quote that moves substantially after you ask a clarifying question. And a minimum that changes depending on how keen you sound.
Be equally wary of a price that is far below everything else you have been quoted on the same spec. Cut-and-sew costs what it costs, and a large gap on identical specifications usually means the specification is not identical. Price the work you actually want on the wholesale hoodies page and compare that.
