Bulk Team Uniform Ordering — MOQs, Pricing and Lead Times

Ordering uniforms for one person is a purchase. Ordering for a squad is a small project with a budget, a deadline and a set of constraints that are not obvious until you hit them. This guide covers the three that catch people out: minimum order quantities, how volume changes unit price, and how long the whole thing actually takes. Minimum order quantities An MOQ is the smallest number of units of a given product we can run. It exists because custom production has fixed setup costs — creating the print file, setting up the press or sublimation run, matching colors — that do not shrink with order size. Below a certain volume, the setup cost per unit becomes larger than the garment. Two things to know: MOQ is per product, not per order. You are not required to order 25 of everything. If a jersey has an MOQ of 25 and a cap has a different one, those are separate thresholds. Check the individual product page — the MOQ is listed there, and it varies by product. MOQ counts units, not designs. Ordering 25 jerseys with 25 different names and numbers is still 25 units of one product. Personalization does not fragment the run. What does fragment it is ordering the same jersey in two genuinely different base designs — that is two runs. If you are close to but under an MOQ, the usual answer is to add the buffer stock you were going to need anyway. Ordering 22 and then reordering 3 in six weeks costs substantially more than ordering 25 now. How bulk pricing works Unit price falls as volume rises, in tiers. The mechanics are straightforward: the fixed setup cost is spread across more units, and material is bought in larger lots. What this means in practice: - The jump from just-under to just-over a tier boundary is often free money. If a tier starts at 50 units and you need 46, pricing 50 is worth checking — the total can be close to identical, and you get four spare units. - Tiers apply per product. Splitting an order across three products means three separate volume calculations, none of which reach the tier a single consolidated product would. - Price shown on a product page is the entry price. The per-unit figure on the catalogue is the starting point; your actual price depends on quantity, decoration and options. For anything beyond a single product at base quantity, request a quote. Quotes account for the full order — volume, decoration method, options — and quoted pricing is held for 7 days from the date of the quote. Lead times, realistically The number people plan around is production time. The number that matters is total time from "I have decided" to "the box is here", and it has more steps than most people expect. A realistic sequence: 1. Design and approval. Highly variable and entirely within your control. This is where most delay comes from — not production. A committee approving a design takes longer than manufacturing it. 2. Sizing collection. See the sizing guide. Budget a week if you are chasing 25 people, less if you send one clear message. 3. Production. Orders ship from production within 10-15 business days. Complex or large team orders sit at the upper end. 4. Transit. Standard and express delivery are available within the US. Check the shipping policy for current delivery windows and rates. Put together: 10-15 business days in production, plus 3-7 in transit — so most orders arrive within 15-20 business days of confirmation. Larger and more complex team orders sit at the upper end. If your date is tight, say so when you request a quote rather than planning against the optimistic end of the range. Work backwards from the date you need them, not forwards from today. If the first match is in eight weeks, the design needs to be locked well before week six. A worked timeline Abstract advice about lead times is easy to nod at and hard to act on. Here is what eight weeks actually looks like for a squad order, working backwards from a fixed first fixture. Week 8 — the fixture. This date is not movable. Everything else is. Week 7 — kit in hand, distribution. You want the uniforms a full week before they are needed, not the day before. This week absorbs the problems: a misfit that needs swapping from buffer stock, a player who joined late, a delivery that slipped by two days. Teams that plan delivery for the week of the fixture discover their buffer exists for a reason at the worst possible moment. Weeks 4-7 — production and transit. Orders ship from production within 10-15 business days, which is two to three calendar weeks, plus transit. Larger and more complex team orders sit at the upper end. This block is not compressible without a rush fee, and it is the one part of the timeline you do not control. Week 3 — order placed. Sizes confirmed, design locked, payment arranged. Week 2 — sizing collected. With a hard deadline. Sizing is genuinely fast if you send one clear question; it is genuinely slow if you send a form and wait for stragglers. See the sizing guide for the message that gets replies. Weeks 1-2 — design and approval. Running in parallel with nothing, because it is the step that blocks everything else. If a committee or an athletic director signs off, this is where your schedule will slip. Notice the shape of it. Roughly half the calendar is production and transit, which you cannot speed up, and half is design approval and sizing, which is entirely within your control and is where nearly all real-world delay originates. Teams that miss their date almost never miss it because manufacturing was slow. Common ways a bulk order goes wrong Each of these is ordinary, avoidable, and expensive in a way that is not obvious until it happens. Collecting sizes before the design is approved. The order looks ready, then the design changes, then a month has passed and the size data is stale because two players left. Approval first, always. Ordering the exact roster count. A 25-player squad ordering exactly 25 units has no margin for a misfit, a mid-season addition, or damage. The buffer is not optional; it is the difference between a swap and a second production run at low volume and full setup cost. Splitting one order across two rounds. Two orders of 25 cost more than one order of 50 — two setups, two approval cycles, two shipments, and neither reaches the tier a consolidated order would. The second round also lands when you have least time for it. Treating personalization as reversible. The moment a garment carries a name and number it is personalized, and personalized items cannot be returned or exchanged unless there is a manufacturing defect. Confirm the roster before it goes to production, not after. Planning against the optimistic end of the range. Production is 10-15 business days, and larger or more complex team orders sit at the upper end — which is most team orders. Building a schedule on 10 days when your order is the kind that takes 15 leaves you no margin at all. Forgetting that approval involves people who are not you. The most common single cause of a missed date is a design sitting in someone's inbox. Send it with a deadline attached. Budgeting a team order Most bulk orders are funded from a fixed pot — an activity fee, a club budget, a sponsor contribution — which changes the problem. You are not minimizing cost; you are maximizing what the fixed total buys. Work out the true per-player cost, not the per-unit cost. A player typically needs more than a jersey. Jersey plus shorts plus a training top is three products, three MOQ checks and three volume calculations. Budgeting from the jersey price alone understates the total by a wide margin. Consolidate across teams where you can. A school ordering for three teams in one run reaches volume tiers that three separate orders never will. Same design, different numbers, one production run. For multi-team programs this is usually the single largest available saving. Decide what is program property and what belongs to the player. A jersey with a name on it belongs to the player. A numbered-only jersey can be returned at the end of the season and reissued next year. For a program on a tight multi-year budget, that decision changes the cost of the next three seasons more than any discount will. Check the tier boundary before you finalize. If you need 46 units and a tier starts at 50, price both. The total is frequently close to identical and you gain four spare units — which is your buffer, funded by arithmetic rather than by budget. Account for shipping. Free shipping applies over $100, which most team orders clear comfortably, but confirm rates for international delivery in the shipping policy. Rush orders Rush production may be available depending on the current production schedule. Rush fees apply and vary with timeline and order complexity. This is a genuine "contact us as early as possible" situation — the earlier a rush request comes in, the more likely the schedule can absorb it. Samples before a large run Samples are available for bulk orders at additional cost, and the sample cost is typically deducted from your final order if you proceed. For a first order with a new supplier, or any order above a few dozen units, this is the cheapest insurance available. You are confirming fabric hand, color accuracy and fit before committing the whole run. Planning a season order A few things that separate a smooth season from a scrambling one: Order buffer stock up front. Two or three extra units in your common sizes. Mid-season additions, replacements after damage, and the player who joins in week four all come out of the buffer instead of a second production run at low volume. Consolidate products. One order of 50 jerseys prices better than two orders of 25 six weeks apart, and it removes a second round of setup, approval and shipping. Lock the design before collecting sizes. Sizing is fast; design approval is slow. Running them in parallel means you finish sizing and then wait. Decide on names and numbers early. Personalization is what makes an item non-returnable. Confirm the roster before it goes to production. Payment and terms Standard orders are charged when shipped. Custom orders require 50% payment upfront with the balance due before shipping. Checkout is handled securely through Stripe, and all major cards are accepted. For qualified businesses we offer business accounts with special pricing, extended payment terms and dedicated support. If you are ordering for an organization rather than a club, that is worth setting up before your first order rather than after. Why "before" matters. Business accounts support purchase orders and multi-step internal approval, which is how most schools, corporates and larger clubs actually authorize spending. Setting that up mid-order means pausing a live order while procurement catches up — and the production slot does not wait. Setting it up first means your first order runs through the process your organization already uses. This also solves a problem that catches organizational buyers repeatedly: the person choosing the uniform is frequently not the person who can approve the payment. A coach picks the design, an athletic director approves the budget, and a finance office issues the PO. If those are three different people, the approval chain is part of your timeline and belongs in the plan alongside design sign-off. Quoted pricing is held for 7 days, which is usually enough to get one approval through — but not three sequential ones started late. Reordering and second seasons The first order is the hard one. Everything after it is easier, provided you keep three things. The size list. Name, size, and the measurement it came from. Most of an adult roster does not change year to year, so a second-season sizing exercise means confirming the returning players and measuring only the new ones. The artwork, in vector form. AI, EPS or PDF. Vector scales without degrading, so the same files reproduce at any size on any future garment. If your design was built from a raster file at a fixed resolution, a future order at a different size starts from scratch. The order record. Product, quantities, decoration method, and what the final unit price was. This is what makes the next quote fast and what tells you whether a tier is within reach if you consolidate. Mid-season reorders are the case worth avoiding rather than planning for. A small reorder pays setup cost again on a handful of units, which is why the per-unit price is so much worse — and it arrives on production lead time, not immediately. Buffer stock ordered up front is almost always cheaper than the reorder it prevents. If a design element is likely to change between seasons — a sponsor, a badge, a year — keep it separable from the base design rather than integrated into the artwork. See how to design a team uniform for what dates a kit fastest. Choosing bulk over per-item production Bulk is not automatically right. It wins when you know the exact quantity and size split, when unit cost is the binding constraint, when everyone needs the kit on the same date, and when consistency across the run matters — every unit from one production run comes from the same material lot and is decorated in the same session, which is visible in a team photograph. It is the wrong choice when demand is unknown, when sizes are unpredictable because you are selling to the public, or when the design is not settled. In those cases per-item production costs more per unit and saves you from stock you cannot sell. Most organizations end up needing both — uniforms in bulk, supporter merchandise on demand. Print on demand vs bulk manufacturing covers the trade in full. Getting started - Browse the catalogue to check MOQs and entry pricing per product - Design in 3D to lock the look before you collect sizes - Request a quote with your quantities for tiered pricing and a lead-time commitment against your date One thing to get right if you get nothing else If a single habit separates orders that go smoothly from orders that do not, it is this: decide the date you need the kit in hand, then work backwards through every step before assuming you have time. Production is the only block you cannot compress, and it is rarely what makes teams late. Design approval sitting with someone else, and sizing that never quite closes, are what cost you the fixture. Both are within your control, and both need a deadline attached the day you start.