Guide to Ordering Bulk USA-Made Hoodies for Company Merch

Hoodies are an incredible option for many different company merch purposes. For example, you can hand them out to your whole staff as a way to build team solidarity, rep the brand, and give everyone something to wear in the colder months. You can set some aside as rewards or incentives for reaching sales or project goals. You can make them part of a company store where employees can use reward points to buy them.

Whatever your purpose in ordering bulk hoodies, you want to make sure you're doing it right. To us, that means ethically produced, USA-made hoodies that have as little impact on the environment as possible, use ethical labor, and are manufactured as locally as can be to avoid the damage of international shipping.

If you want to make sure a bulk order of custom hoodies goes smoothly, you need to keep all of the details in mind. To help with that, we've outlined the process from start to finish, with everything you'll want to consider along the way.

Determine Numbers and Sizes of Hoodies

The first thing you need to do is get an idea of the basic details of your order.

How many hoodies, in general, will you need? You'll have different considerations depending on whether you're ordering a dozen for a company softball team, a few hundred for a larger organization's staff, or thousands for the employees of different branches across the country.

You also need to conduct a survey and figure out how many of each possible size you want to get. Hoodies are a fairly generic, one-size-fits-most piece of apparel, but that doesn't mean you should buy all XXL and hope it works out. Keep track of your numbers in a spreadsheet linking size with item count so you have it for later.

Note: You may want to do two surveys. One is a preliminary "If we produce a hoodie, do you want one? If so, would you prefer a pullover or zip-up?" survey that gives you a basic idea of how many you would need. Another, done later, can have a mockup of your finished design and ask for more details about sizing and style.

You'll also want to consider whether you're getting unisex or gendered hoodies. Female-tailored hoodies have a different fit and can be more comfortable and fashionable for certain employees, but keeping track of the extra data point can be tricky for a bulk order.

Finally, add on a few extras of each size, just to make sure you have spares in case of damage, loss, or a mistake in sizing. You want to make sure all of your recipients are satisfied with what they get.

Find a Great Supplier and Vet Their Statements

Before you can even consider the core details of your hoodie designs, you need to pick a supplier you want to work with. Not all suppliers will have all styles, fabric types, fits, colors, or other options available.

Take us, for example. We offer a variety of different kinds of sweatshirts and hoodies for customization and bulk orders. However, there are some fabrics we don't offer because their production isn't handled in an ethical manner, and we put our ethics ahead of our profits here at Ethix Merch.

Even different hoodies have different benefits and drawbacks. While all of our hoodies are made in the USA, some of them are union-made, and some are not. Some are more eco-friendly than others, as well. We strive to be as ethical and transparent as possible with every product we offer, so if we aren't confident in the status of the production of an item, we don't make claims about it. That said, you can always ask us directly; transparency is one of our core values, and we love to talk about the sourcing, production, and other aspects of our apparel and other items. Just drop us a line!

Once you've chosen a supplier, you can start picking the details of the hoodies you want produced.

Choose the Details of Your Hoodies

Picking out all of the details of your hoodie involves a series of relatively simple, but critical, decisions. There aren't too many specifics to choose, but you need to know what you're aiming for before you can produce a design you like.

Picking a hoodie style.

There are only a handful of styles of hoodies available, so you're basically picking between two: the classic pullover hoodie or the zip-up hoodie. Zip-ups tend to be a little thinner and less insulating but more fashionable and less baggy. Pullovers flip those qualities. Both can be good options as long as the other details match.

You might also want to decide if you want a pullover to have a kangaroo pocket or no pockets. This is a functional choice and can be fairly important because you can't print a design over the pocket, so if you want a larger front design, it might impede on your goals.

Picking the perfect hoodie fit.

The fit of the hoodie is more relevant for pullovers but can also be meaningful for zip-ups, so it's important to know as well.

There are generally three fits for hoodies.

• Slim fit. These are the tighter, sleeker kinds of hoodies that are more fashionable but need proper specific sizing to look great. They're also much less attractive to individuals who don't want something tight enough it could be uncomfortable, and they can be problematic for people in the "big & tall" category.
• Standard fit. This is your mid-rage, not too tight, not too baggy style of hoodie. They're looser and more comfortable in general, but they don't go all the way into baggy, formless shapes.
• Oversized fit. These are your baggy, loose hoodies that suit certain people more than others. They aren't as immediately fashionable but can still be quite charming in the right outfit.

Which you pick depends both on what is available from your supplier and what your employees are most likely to enjoy.

Choosing a great hoodie material.

Hoodies can come in a variety of different materials. The material determines many properties of the hoodie, including how stretchy it is, how insulative and warm it is, how well it takes to certain kinds of printing for your designs, whether or not it might shrink in the initial wash, and more.

Some of the most common materials include:

• Cotton blends. These are a good middle ground for warmth, comfort, and ease of care.
• Fleece. Fleece hoodies are very warm and are thicker and heavier, but they might not be ideal if you live in a warmer climate where they wouldn't be used often.
• Terry. A French Terry is a smoother kind of cotton weave that can provide an interesting texture contrast.
• Polyester. A synthetic, polyesters are moisture-wicking and are better for thinner hoodies, the kind used as autumn-style active-wear, but aren't going to be ideal for true winter conditions.

There may also be specific kinds of fabrics and blends you can get from your chosen supplier, so check out what they have on offer.

Create Your Design

Once you know the base style you've chosen, you can start to put together a design. Most hoodies can offer anything from a small breast logo to a full-front or full-back design. Some more detailed printers can also add designs to pockets, sleeves, and hoods themselves. This all depends on your supplier.

Choose a base color to go with your design.

What color do you want your hoodie to be? These days, the base fabric can be just about any color you could want.

You'll want to pick something that suits your brand, conveys the right emotions with color psychology, and won't distract from the rest of your design. If you want a design in a stark, dark blue, don't pick a middle-blue or black hoodie base color, or it won't really be readable, for example.

Pick a placement for your design.

As mentioned, the design you go with can be placed in several different locations and with different sizes. Where you put it can depend on your aesthetics, your branding, the kind of logo, and even the goal of the apparel.

Something small, simple, and understated may be more likely to be worn by your employees casually, while something more bright, bold, and obvious might be packed away as something they're almost embarrassed to wear in public. On the other hand, if your goal is to provide a comfortable uniform for events, those considerations don't matter as much.

Choose between printing and embroidery.

There are several different styles of printing that can transfer a design to a hoodie. We discuss five different kinds of printing in this post if you want an evaluation of the environmental impact and ethics of those methods.

Embroidery is also an option, though it's best used for single-color designs. It's by far the longest-lived but also the most expensive, and not all suppliers will offer it. Remember that certain design methods will impact the texture and care of the finished product, as well.

Work with a designer on staff with your vendor.

You are, of course, free to develop a design on your own with in-house graphic designers.

You may want to hire someone or work with a freelancer who has specialized in apparel designs to make sure they know the details, pitfalls, and possible mistakes to avoid wasting time and money on a design that doesn't work. Alternatively, you can do something like hire our graphic design services, so you know you have direct access and expertise. The choice is yours.

Order a Trial Hoodie

At this point, you have everything you need to get started. But before you pull the trigger on a bulk order, you need a test print to make sure everything meets your needs. Order one (or two, or three, if you're getting different styles and sizes) and inspect them.

What should you look for?

• If there's text, is it muddled or crisp?
• If there are multiple colors, are they layered properly?
• If it's embroidered, is it well-done?
• Is the design centered?
• Is the size as advertised, or does it run larger or smaller?
• Is the apparel itself well-done, high-quality, and well-made?
• If you wash it, does it shrink, and does the design hold up?

Sometimes, you'll work with a company that has everything polished and well-done right up until the product arrives, and it turns out they outsourced it to a much cheaper and less detailed company to produce it. Sometimes, mistakes or miscommunications lead to issues. Sometimes, the end result just doesn't look as good as you hoped, and you need to start over. It's much, much better to have a single test hoodie to discard than a whole bulk order of mistakes.

Make Your Full Order

Once you've gotten a test that passes your inspection, it's time to make your final order.

We find that it helps most to have a simple spreadsheet of your needs. Something like:

Size	Gender	Quantity
S	Unisex	5
S	Female	2
M	Unisex	7
M	Female	8
L	Unisex	11
L	Female	10

You get the idea.

If you haven't already done a final survey to get this information, make sure you get it. You'll want to know what you need before you make your order, and you want to present the data to your supplier in the clearest way possible, so things don't get mixed up along the way.

Once you have the final quantities, you can pull the trigger on the final order. Then it's just a matter of waiting for it to be fulfilled and delivered, distributed, and enjoyed by your employees.

If you're interested in custom hoodies, other apparel like jackets, t-shirts, bandanas, or socks, or even non-apparel products like glassware, stationary, and totes, why not check out our store? There's something for everyone, and we have full records of the ethics, production, and labor that goes into each and every one. Just drop us a line if you have any questions!