Choosing a Wholesale Polo Shirt Supplier
By The Velocity Wear Team
Comparing polo suppliers on price alone almost always compares two different shirts. Get every quote onto the same specification first: the same fabric and weight, the same decoration method in the same positions, the same labels, the same quantity, delivered to the same address. Then the cheaper number means something, and usually it turns out not to be the one you expected.
What should you ask before anything else?
- What is the minimum order, and is it per design or per order? Ours is 50 pieces per design.
- What is the lead time, and is it measured from enquiry or from artwork approval? Ours is 10 to 15 working days from approval.
- What does a sample cost and is it credited? Ours is £150, credited against the bulk order.
- How far does the volume discount go, and where are the bands? Ours reaches up to 35% across bands at 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1,000.
- Is delivery quoted separately, and to where?
Five questions, and the answers are comparable across any supplier. A quote that cannot answer all five is not yet a quote.
Which answers should make you cautious?
A sample given away at these quantities, because samples cost real money to produce and that cost has gone somewhere you cannot see. A turnaround promised in a couple of days, which is not how screen setup and embroidery digitising work. A single blended per-piece figure with no breakdown. And a lead time quoted from the day you enquire, which quietly moves every subsequent delay onto you rather than the schedule. None of these prove bad faith, but each of them is worth a follow-up question.
What should you look at on the physical shirt?
Order the sample and look at the parts that fail first. The collar: does it hold flat, and is the rib firm rather than floppy? The placket: are the buttons secured properly and does the fold sit straight? The side seams and the hem. Then the decoration — the edge of an embroidered mark should be clean and the fabric around it should not be pulling. Then wash it repeatedly and look again. What that test tells you about cloth is set out in choosing fabric for wholesale polo shirts.
What matters beyond the first order?
Whether they keep your files, whether they can match a colour to a previous run, and whether the same specification produces the same shirt eighteen months later. A supplier that is excellent once and unrepeatable is a problem for anyone running uniform or a retail line, because the second order is where consistency shows. Ask directly what is retained between runs and how a repeat is approved — the practicalities are in reordering wholesale polo shirts in colour.
How should you weigh price against everything else?
Price the order properly, then decide how much a failure would cost you. For a one-off event shirt, a cheaper supplier and a bit of risk is a reasonable trade. For staff uniform, a retail line, or anything with a fixed date attached, the cost of a late or wrong delivery dwarfs the difference between two quotes. Our figures and bands are on the pricing page and the specification behind them on the wholesale polo shirts page, so you can put us on the same sheet as anyone else.
