The Corporate Apparel Buying Guide

Team apparel fails in the same few ways. The box lands after the event, the navy turns out to be the wrong navy, or half the team never wears the tee because it feels like a giveaway. Each of those traces back to a decision that got skipped weeks before the order.

We walk every buyer through the decisions in the same sequence: name the job, set a per-person budget, plan back from the date, then pick pieces and decoration.

Name the job first.

"We need company shirts" doesn't tell a designer much, because the same piqué polo is the right answer to one job and the wrong answer to another. Start by deciding which of these four jobs the apparel is doing:

• Identification is for front-of-house staff who need to be recognizable across a lobby. It calls for one color, one placement, and a garment that survives a commercial wash, and it's common in hospitality and healthcare.
• Belonging covers offsite merch and onboarding kits, which have their own onboarding kit guide. The only metric is whether people wear it on a Saturday, so fit and fabric weight decide.
• Visibility means trade shows, where the apparel is signage and should be designed for recognition at 30 feet, as the booth apparel guide explains.
• Gifting is for clients and partners, a job where the box matters as much as the garment, and it's covered in the corporate gifting guide.

The job sets everything after it. Visibility pushes you toward a big DTF print across a tee, while identification pushes you toward a small embroidered mark on a polo or hoodie.

Three per-person budget tiers

Per-person spend is the number to plan with, because it's the number your team will feel, and almost every program we see falls into one of three tiers.

Tier	Per person, list	What it buys	Where it fits
Essential	$10.85 to $28.37	One piece: a $10.85 cap, $17.02 tee, $20.18 polo or $28.37 button-up shirt	Event staff and volunteer teams
Capsule	$27.87 to $51.83	Two or three pieces: tee and cap ($27.87), or a hoodie, a tee and a cap ($51.83)	Onboarding kits, booth teams, front of house
Collection	$72.01 to $100.38	Four or five pieces: polo, tee, hoodie and cap ($72.01), plus the shirt ($100.38)	Executive gifts and brand relaunches

Each price in the table includes one DTF print, and embroidery, the sweatshirt and the beanie are priced in one business day. Two things move the number, volume and mix, and the pricing guide runs the full math. On volume, 50 pieces takes 12% off the whole order and 150 takes 22% off, which puts a $20.18 polo at $17.76 at 50 and $15.74 at 150. On mix, anchoring a capsule on the tee instead of the hoodie saves $6.94 for each person, and the kit still feels like a kit.

A 10-week calendar, planned back from your date

Build the calendar backward from the day the pieces have to be on people. For a first order, count back 8 to 10 weeks from that day and work through these stages:

• 10 weeks out: brief and design. Enter your email and upload a logo to the Design Studio, which lays out a collection across all eight products and saves it under your name. A designer on our team finishes it, and there's no charge for the design.
• 9 weeks out: samples, if you want them. The sample set costs extra and takes about two weeks to reach you. Put it on two or three people who'll wear the pieces as well as the buyer. Skipping this stage brings the plan down to eight weeks.
• 7 weeks out: sizes and approval. Collect sizes through the share link (the sizing guide shows how), then approve the design for production.
• 6 weeks out: production starts on your approval. Making the order takes three weeks from the day you approve, in our own production, with each piece checked before it's packed.
• 3 weeks out: the order you approved ships. It's in transit for two weeks, and for now we only send orders to US addresses.
• 1 week out: buffer. Never plan for arrival on the day of the event.

A reorder skips the design and sample stages because your artwork and size history are already on file. Send the quantity, approve it, and only the production and shipping weeks remain.

Pick pieces for the wearers.

Match the garment to the day the person has. A field engineer at a July expo wants the 220 GSM tee, not fleece. A remote engineering team will live in the zip hoodie, $25.22 with a print, and never touch a polo. Hotel front-desk staff need a shirt that looks crisp at hour ten, which is what 200 GSM combed piqué does and jersey doesn't.

Fit matters as much as fabric, and every product page carries its own fit note. The hoodies are cut roomy, so size down for a closer fit. The polo runs true and relaxes half a size after two washes.

Then pick the decoration on purpose. We embroider, print with DTF or DTG and press vinyl, and screen printing is available if you ask us which garments suit it. Embroidery is for a mark that outlives the garment, while DTF is for a big graphic or a gradient and is rated for 50-plus washes. Vinyl suits names and numbers, or a one- or two-color mark, and polos take embroidery or a print. We offer sublimation too, but it only works on polyester and none of our eight garments is polyester. Other vendors will also quote puff print, which we don't offer, and the decoration methods guide says what each one is.

Five questions to ask a supplier

These five expose most of the difference between suppliers before any money moves:

1. "Can I see a sample before I commit?" If the answer is no, that's how the rest of the relationship will go. We say yes, with the paid sample set in the calendar above.
2. "What's the minimum, and what's the reorder minimum?" Fifteen pieces is our smallest published run, and for anything smaller you can tell us what you have in mind. Ask about reorders in particular, because teams grow one hire at a time and a 50-piece reorder minimum at another vendor turns every new employee into a procurement project.
3. "Who fixes a defect, and how fast?" Get the remake guarantee in writing. Ours says that if you report a defect within 30 days with a photo, we remake it free.
4. "What's in the price?" A supplier who can't say what the blank costs and what the decoration costs is hiding margin somewhere between the two.
5. "Can you match our Pantone on this fabric?" The right answer comes with a caveat about dye and fabric, which brand guidelines for merch explains, and a flat yes is a warning sign.

The one-page checklist

Poly9 and Halcyon Hotels run this loop every season. The first pass takes the full calendar, and each reorder after it is one email.

Questions we get.

How much should I budget per person for corporate apparel?

$10.85 to $28.37 for one piece, $27.87 to $51.83 for a two- or three-piece capsule, and $72.01 to $100.38 for a four- or five-piece collection, all at list with one DTF print on each piece. Embroidery, the sweatshirt and the beanie are priced in one business day. An order of 50 pieces takes 12% off everything in it, and 150 takes 22% off.

How far in advance should I order team apparel?

For a first order, start 8 to 10 weeks ahead of the date. That covers about two weeks of design and approval at your pace, three weeks of production once you approve, two weeks of shipping and a week of buffer, with two more weeks added if you want a paid sample set first. A reorder skips the design stage, which leaves only the production and shipping weeks after you approve it.

What minimum order quantities are typical for custom apparel?

Traditional swag vendors set first-order minimums anywhere from 24 to 144 pieces. We start at 15 pieces, and for a smaller run you can describe what you need and we'll say whether we can do it.

Should I order samples before a bulk apparel order?

Yes, when the calendar allows, because you can't judge fabric weight or fit from a photo. We make a paid sample set before the bulk run if you ask, and it adds about two weeks.