Wholesale Polo Shirts for Societies
By The Velocity Wear Team
Society polos start at $18 a piece at our 50-piece minimum, and the fifty can be any mix of sizes. For most committees the hard part is not the price, it is the calendar: production takes 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval, so a shirt meant for freshers week has to be signed off before the term it is being sold into begins.
When does a committee need to place the order?
Work backwards from the first event the kit appears at. Ten to fifteen working days of production, then transit, then a few days for the committee to sort and hand out fifty shirts between lectures. That is three to four weeks of real time before anyone wears one. Freshers orders therefore want to be approved over the summer, which means the outgoing committee usually places them for the incoming one. Sports and social kit for the spring runs on the same arithmetic, just with less pressure. The timeline in detail is in how long do bulk polo shirts take to make.
How do you collect sizes without chasing people?
Open a form, set a hard closing date, and say plainly that the order goes in on that date whether or not everyone has replied. Committees that leave it open lose two weeks. Ask for a size, not a chest measurement, and publish the garment measurements so people can check against a shirt they own. Then pad the order: add a handful of mediums and larges beyond the confirmed list, because people join a society after the form closes and a spare shirt sells itself at the first social.
What does the budget look like from a committee's side?
Fifty at $18 is the entry point, and the per-piece price drops through the bands at 100, 250, 500 and 1,000 pieces, up to 35% below the fifty-piece figure. Societies that sell kit to members usually set a member price a little above cost and use the margin to fund the event the shirts are worn at. If several societies under one union order together, the union places one order and the combined quantity sets the band, which is the single biggest saving available to a small society. Figures per band are on the pricing page and the garment options on the wholesale polo shirts page.
What should go on the shirt?
A society crest embroidered on the left chest, the society name across the back yoke, and — the part people actually pay for — initials or a nickname on the sleeve. Personalisation is added shirt by shirt at the decoration stage, so send the list with the size split rather than after. Keep the crest simple enough to embroider: thin outlines and small lettering close up when stitched. The same setup works for school and college leavers kit, which we cover on our schools and leavers page.
Should the committee order a sample first?
If the crest is new or the colour is being matched to an existing kit, yes. A sample is £150 and credited against the bulk order, so a committee that goes ahead pays nothing extra for it. If you are reordering last year's shirt with a new year on the sleeve, skip it — the spec is already on file and a sample only adds a fortnight.
What should be handed over to next year's committee?
Write it down while you still remember it. The garment body and colour, the thread colours, the crest file in the format we were sent, the size split you ordered and the split you wished you had ordered, and the date the order was placed against the date the shirts arrived. That one page saves the next committee a month of rediscovery, and it stops a society redrawing its own crest every September because nobody could find the original file.
