Choosing a Wholesale T-Shirt Supplier
By The Velocity Wear Team
Judge a wholesale t-shirt supplier on four answers: the minimum, the fabric specification, the lead time from artwork approval, and what a sample costs. Ours are 50 pieces per design, 150 to 240 GSM combed ring-spun cotton, 10 to 15 working days, and £150 credited against the bulk order. A supplier who is vague about any of those is telling you something.
What should you ask before anything else?
Ask for the minimum in pieces per design, not per order, because the two are very different numbers. Ask for the fabric by weight and yarn rather than by adjective, since soft and premium mean nothing and 240 GSM combed ring-spun cotton means something specific. Ask when the lead time starts, because a supplier quoting from artwork approval and one quoting from enquiry are describing different things. And ask what the sample costs and whether it is credited. Our answers are on the wholesale t-shirts page and the pricing page.
How do you compare two quotes fairly?
Normalise them before you look at the totals. Same garment weight, same fit, same number of decoration positions, same number of print colours, same labels, same quantity, same delivery point. Most quote gaps disappear once both sides are describing the same shirt. The ones that remain are usually a lighter blank or a single print position against two. Then compare the landed per-piece figure at the quantity you will actually order, not at the quantity that produces the best headline number. There is more on the components in what wholesale t-shirts cost.
What does a sample tell you about the supplier?
More than the garment. How quickly it arrives, whether the print position matches the millimetre figure you specified, whether anybody flagged the problem with the fine type before producing it: those tell you how the bulk run will go. A supplier who produces exactly what you sent, including the mistake in it, will do the same at 500 pieces. A £150 sample that is credited against the order is a cheap way to run that test before committing. What to check on a sample sets out the specifics.
What are the warning signs?
A price with no stated quantity attached to it. A turnaround promise that sounds impossible for a decorated garment made to order. A refusal to name the fabric weight. A sample offered at no cost, which usually means it is priced into the run or is not your artwork on your garment. And an unwillingness to put the specification in writing, since the specification is the only thing you can hold anyone to once production starts.
What should the final confirmation contain?
Garment, colour and weight between 150 and 240 GSM. Fit, regular or boxy. Size split, piece by piece. Decoration method, position measured from the shoulder seam, and print width in centimetres. Ink or thread colour references. Private label and packaging. Quantity and the tier it falls in, with volume discounts reaching up to 35% at the largest runs. Delivery address and currency. If all of that is written down before approval, the 10 to 15 working day production window is the only variable left.
How do you test a supplier without risking everything?
Start with one design at the 50-piece minimum rather than the whole year in one go. It costs more per piece, since 50 is the highest tier, but it buys you a complete run through the process: quoting, artwork preparation, proofing, production, packing and delivery. What you learn is whether the dates held, whether the print matched the measurements you gave and whether anybody told you about a problem before it was manufactured. If all three hold, the second order can be the big one, and it will land in a better tier with the artwork already set up.
