Choosing a Wholesale Towel Supplier
By The Velocity Wear Team
Ask four things before you send artwork: what the minimum is, what the quote actually includes, how long production runs after approval, and what happens when you reorder. Towel quotes vary wildly because suppliers bundle different things into the number. Until you know what is inside each one, comparing two prices tells you nothing useful.
What should you ask before you send artwork?
- 1What is the minimum per design, and does a second colourway count as a second design?
- 2Is decoration setup inside the quoted price or billed separately?
- 3What is the production window, and does it start at order or at artwork approval?
- 4Is a sample available, what does it cost, and is that cost credited?
- 5Can you reorder the same spec later, and is the artwork held on file?
Our answers are on the record: 50 pieces per design with sizes and formats mixed freely, 10 to 15 working days from approval, a £150 sample credited against the bulk order, and artwork retained so repeats do not start from scratch. The full list of things worth asking any manufacturer is in questions worth asking a manufacturer before you order.
How do you compare two towel quotes fairly?
Put both on the same basis before you look at the totals. Same format, same quantity, same number of decoration positions, same delivery terms. A quote that looks 20% cheaper often turns out to be for a lighter cloth, one print position instead of two, or ex-works rather than delivered. Towels are quoted per job precisely because those variables move the number, so a headline price with no spec attached is not a quote at all. The volume steps behind our figures are on the pricing page.
What does a supplier need to tell you about repeats?
Whether they keep your artwork, whether the minimum applies again, and how close the colour will be on a new dye lot. A supplier who has not thought about repeats is fine for a one-off event and a liability for anything you stock. Ask specifically how they handle a colour that has drifted between runs, because the honest answer is that it drifts a little and the useful answer is how they manage it. Send a spec through the towels range and see how detailed the reply is.
Which answers should make you walk away?
A promise that colour will be an exact match to a Pantone chip on dyed towelling. A price quoted with no spec behind it. A production window that never seems to have a starting point. A sample given away at no charge on a custom product, which usually means the cost has been buried somewhere in the unit price. And any supplier who cannot tell you what their minimum counts — designs, colourways or pieces — because that single detail changes the cost of your second order entirely. Before committing, read sampling towels before a bulk order.
Pay attention to how the enquiry itself is handled, because it is a fair preview of how the order will be. A supplier who asks about your laundry regime, your distribution method and your deadline before quoting is a supplier who has run this kind of job before. One who sends back a number within the hour and asks nothing has quoted a generic towel, and you will find out which generic towel when it arrives.
Finally, test the relationship on something small before you commit the whole programme to it. One design, at the minimum, through the full process from artwork to delivery, tells you more than any amount of due diligence. You learn how they communicate when something needs deciding, how accurate the dates are and what the product is actually like. If all three hold up, scale the next order with some confidence.
