How Long Do Bulk Jackets & Outerwear Take to Make?
By The Velocity Wear Team
Bulk jackets take 10 to 15 working days to make, counted from the moment you approve the artwork rather than from the day you first enquire. Delivery transit sits on top of that. For a 50-piece run of softshells or coach jackets, a sensible door-to-door plan is three to five weeks, and most of the variation comes from how quickly the artwork gets signed off.
Where do the 10 to 15 working days actually go?
Outerwear is a built garment, not a printed blank. The shell is cut, the panels are joined, zips and pockets go in, and only then does decoration happen. On an embroidered run the digitising and a stitch-out on the real fabric come before the production heads start. Screens, if you are printing, are burned once per colour per design. None of those steps take long on their own, but they are sequential, which is why the window is a range rather than a single number. Our wholesale jackets page sets out what is built to order and what is quoted per job.
When does the clock start on a jacket order?
At artwork approval. That is the single most useful thing to know about the schedule, because it puts the front half in your hands. A buyer who sends a clean vector file and replies to the proof the same day is weeks ahead of one who is still waiting on a committee. If your logo needs redrawing, or the colours need to be agreed with someone who is on leave, that time is added before the 10 to 15 days begin, not inside them. The general shape of an apparel schedule is covered in apparel production lead times explained.
Does a puffer take longer than a coach jacket?
Not in a way that breaks the window. A padded puffer has more construction in it than a single-layer coach jacket, and a varsity with contrast sleeves and ribbed trims has more parts again, but all of them sit inside the same 10 to 15 working day build. What moves the date is the decoration rather than the shell: a large multi-colour print across the back needs more press time than a left-chest logo, and heavy embroidery on a quilted panel runs slower than the same logo on a flat softshell.
How far ahead should you place the order?
Work backwards from the date the jackets need to be in hand and pad it twice. Take your delivery date, subtract transit to the UK, USA or Europe, subtract the 15 working day end of the build, then subtract a week for artwork and proofing. That lands most buyers six to eight weeks out. If the jackets exist for a specific event, order earlier than the maths suggests, because the one thing that cannot be recovered is a date that has passed. Changes made after sign-off are a separate problem, and can I change my order after approving artwork explains what is still possible once the clock has started.
What can you do to shorten it?
- Send print-ready artwork with the enquiry rather than after the quote.
- Name one person who can approve the proof without a meeting.
- Settle colours before the proof stage, not during it.
- Order a single design in one colourway first; each extra design is its own run of 50.
Quantity itself does not stretch the build much. A 250-piece run does not take five times as long as a 50-piece one, and it lands in a better price tier, so if the demand is genuinely there the larger order is usually the better use of the same schedule. The tiers are listed on the pricing page, running from 50 to 99 pieces up to 1,000 and over, with up to 35% off the 50-piece price at the top end.
