How Long Do Bulk Polo Shirts Take to Make?
By The Velocity Wear Team
Bulk polo shirts take 10 to 15 working days to produce, counted from artwork approval rather than from the day you first get in touch. Delivery transit sits on top of that. The days before approval are not part of the quoted window, which is why two buyers who ordered on the same date can receive their shirts a fortnight apart.
What happens during those days?
Artwork is separated or digitised, screens are burned or an embroidery file is stitched out and checked on the actual fabric, garments are pulled and counted against your size split, the run is decorated position by position, and everything is finished, checked, folded and packed. Personalisation, private label and individual bagging each add their own handling pass. None of it is a queue you can jump by asking, but all of it starts sooner if your artwork is right the first time.
Why does the clock start at approval?
Because approval is the last point at which anything can change. A logo re-sent at a usable resolution, a size split that arrives a week late, a decision about whether the back print is happening — each of those pauses the schedule, and none of them is something a factory can absorb. Buyers who treat the enquiry date as day one are usually a week or more out. What we need in order to approve quickly is listed in artwork setup for custom polo shirts.
How do you work back from a fixed date?
- 1Take the date the shirts must be in hands, not the date of the event.
- 2Subtract transit to your delivery address.
- 3Subtract the 10 to 15 working days of production, using 15 rather than 10.
- 4Subtract a week for artwork rounds and your own internal approval.
- 5If you want a sample first, subtract another fortnight for the sample and your review of it.
That usually lands at five to six weeks before the date for a straightforward order, or seven to eight if a sample is in the plan. Anything tighter is possible but removes your own margin for error rather than ours.
Does a bigger order take longer?
Not proportionally. A run of five hundred does not take ten times as long as a run of fifty, because setup dominates the front of the job and the decorating itself is fast once it is running. What does extend a schedule is complexity: multiple colourways, several decoration positions, individual names across the whole order, or private label work that has to be finished before the garment can be packed. If the date is tight, cut complexity rather than quantity.
What about the sample?
A £150 sample, credited against the bulk order, is produced and sent before the bulk run begins, and the bulk clock starts once you approve it. Build it into the schedule rather than treating it as a parallel activity. For a repeat order of something already made, skip it — your spec is on file and a sample only adds time you may not have. Prices and what the sample covers are on the pricing page and the wholesale polo shirts page.
What should you do while production runs?
Sort out the things that always get left until the box arrives. Decide who is handing the shirts out and where they will be stored. Confirm the delivery address will have someone there to sign for a pallet, which a residential address or a closed office over a holiday will not. If the order is personalised, print the name and size list so the shirts can be distributed without anyone opening bags to check. None of this is glamorous, and all of it is the difference between shirts arriving and shirts being worn.
