Reordering Wholesale Towels in Colour
By The Velocity Wear Team
A repeat run of branded towels will be close to your first batch but rarely identical. Dyed towelling shifts slightly between dye lots, and a deep pile shows that shift more than a flat woven fabric does. Keep a retained piece from the original run, quote the job number, and the second batch lands close enough that nobody notices unless the two are folded side by side.
Will a repeat run match the towels you already have?
Close, not exact. The variation comes from the dye lot, and it is more visible on saturated colours than on white, cream or grey. A navy gym towel reordered eight months later can read a shade warmer or cooler under strip lighting even though both were dyed to the same reference. If the two batches will be used in the same room at the same time, plan for that rather than being surprised by it. The underlying reason is set out in colour matching and why your Pantone never looks quite right.
What should you keep from the first order?
- One unused piece from every colourway, bagged and kept out of sunlight.
- The original job or order number, which pulls up the full spec.
- The approved artwork proof, including the digitised stitch file if you embroidered.
- A note of the format split you ordered and which format ran out first.
The retained piece is the important one. A physical reference beats any code, because it carries the finished colour after dyeing, decoration and the first wash. Everything else can be rebuilt from our records, and the general case for repeat orders is covered in can I reorder the same design later.
Is it cheaper to order the reorder now or later?
Almost always now, combined. Two runs of 100 sit in the 100–249 tier twice; one run of 200 sits in the same tier once with better freight and a single setup. The discount reaches up to 35% at the top volume tier, and every step up you skip by splitting the order is money left behind. Against that, holding stock costs space and ties up cash, so the honest answer depends on how confident you are in the second batch selling. The steps are on the pricing page.
How long does a repeat take?
The same 10 to 15 working days of production, plus transit. A repeat does not jump the queue, but it does skip most of the setup conversation: the artwork is approved, the spec is on file and the only decision is quantity. In practice that saves days at the front end rather than in the factory. Send the reorder through the towels page with the job number and the quantity, and remember the 50-piece minimum per design still applies to a repeat exactly as it did to the first order.
The practical consequence is that you should place a repeat well before you run out. Buyers tend to reorder when the shelf looks empty, which puts a three-week gap between the last towel going out and the new ones arriving. If the towels are working stock in a gym or a hotel, that gap is a service problem rather than an inconvenience. Set a reorder trigger at a stock level that covers the full production and delivery window with room to spare.
It is also worth deciding in advance what you will do when the two lots meet. Some buyers rotate the old stock out entirely and move it to a back-of-house role; others mix the batches deliberately from day one so no one ever sees a clean divide between them. Either approach works. What does not work is discovering the difference on the day the new delivery is unpacked and having no plan for it.
