How long custom apparel takes.
Custom apparel from us takes three weeks to produce once you approve the design and two more to ship within the US. With design time at the front and a week of buffer at the back, that comes to 8 to 10 weeks of planning. Put your show date in and the planner works back to the day you need to approve.
Work back from your show date
The show date is the only thing you have to know. You can change the design allowance, and the start date moves with it.
Your design needs to be approved by .
Tight on time? Ask us about expedited shipping.
| Stage | Allow | Date |
|---|
Start your enquiry by .
The five stages of an order
Every order moves through the same five stages. Only the first is in your hands, and it decides whether the rest fit.
- Design and approval, about two weeks. You send a logo, we design a collection and you review it, usually over two rounds. This stage runs at your pace, and nothing after it starts until you approve.
- A sample set, about two weeks, if you want one. It's paid, and it sits before approval, because the point is to hold the piece before you approve the run.
- Production, three weeks. The clock starts the day you approve the design, and our own production doesn't compress it.
- Shipping, two weeks. The count starts at the end of production, which is three weeks after you approve.
- Buffer, one week. The week between delivery and the show absorbs a size swap or a box that went to the wrong office. Plan for it, hope not to use it, and don't treat it as a fourth week of production after you approve.
Why the clock starts at approval
A seven-week gap looks safe next to a five-week figure. Then the design goes to your boss, then to legal, and two weeks are gone before anyone approves anything. The three weeks of production and two of shipping didn't move in that time, but your approval date did.
We publish an approval date instead of a single turnaround figure because approval is the one stage you control. After it the schedule is fixed arithmetic, with three weeks of production, two of shipping and a week in hand.
It also means the only way to bring a delivery date forward is to approve sooner.
A worked example for a 15 March show
Take a show on Monday 15 March 2027, with no sample and two weeks allowed for design, and the planner gives these dates.
| Stage | Allow | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your show | Mon 15 Mar 2027 | ||
| Delivered by | 1 week | Mon 8 Mar 2027 | buffer |
| Ships | 2 weeks | Mon 22 Feb 2027 | US shipping |
| Production starts (your approval) | 3 weeks | Mon 1 Feb 2027 | the clock starts here |
| Design and approval | ~2 weeks | Mon 18 Jan 2027 | depends on you |
| Start your enquiry by | Mon 18 Jan 2027 |
Approve on 1 February and the pieces arrive on 8 March, a clear week before the show. Approve on 8 February instead and the buffer is gone, because the three weeks of production and the two of shipping only start once you approve.
Tick the sample box and the start date moves to 4 January. A paid sample set takes about two weeks, and you'd approve the run after you've held it.
Working it out by hand in five steps
- Write down the show date, or the day the pieces need to be in someone's hands.
- Subtract one week of buffer to get your delivery date.
- Subtract two weeks of shipping to get the day the order ships.
- Subtract three weeks of production to reach the day you need to approve the design, because production starts when you approve.
- Subtract about two weeks for design and approval, plus two more if you want a paid sample first, and you have the day to start your enquiry.
The total is eight weeks without a sample and ten with one, and that's the 8 to 10 weeks we ask buyers to allow.
When the date doesn't fit.
If the start date the planner gives you has already passed, standard timing doesn't fit, and we'll tell you so. We don't sell a shorter production run, because a booth team in the wrong shirts is worse off than one that heard no early.
Design is the stage that can shrink, to less than two weeks if you approve on the first round. Shipping has a little give if you ask us about it, but nothing shortens the three weeks of production that follow your approval. Put the date in the quote form and we'll tell you within one business day whether it works.
Design moves at your pace.
Two weeks is the allowance most teams need. It's how long a marketing lead takes to get a collection in front of the people who sign off and back with a decision. If your approvals go through three people, put three or four weeks in the planner and see how much earlier the start date lands.
Start in the Design Studio tonight and the two weeks start tonight too. It asks for your email, a logo and a description of the team, then designs a collection on all eight products and saves it under your name. A designer on our team finishes the collection before you approve anything.
Planning for a booth team
Exhibitors use this page most. A booth team of four to ten people has a show date that doesn't move and needs a capsule from 15 pieces. The trade show apparel pages cover what to order and the booth apparel guide covers quantities. This page covers the timing, and the arithmetic is the same for a sales kickoff or a store opening.
Prices don't change with the date. A polo with one print is $20.18 and a printed tee $17.02 however close the show is, and the price table lists all eight.