TeamGear.ca is ours — 779 products, made in Canada, no minimum order. Most people offering branded apparel are marking up someone else’s catalogue, which is why so many quotes come back with conditions attached. Here is what actually governs a custom order.
Minimums, and why they exist
The standard minimum of twenty-five to fifty units is not a manufacturing constraint most of the time — it is a margin constraint. A reseller buying through a supplier needs volume for the numbers to work, so the minimum protects them rather than serving you.
It matters because real orders are frequently small. A company softball team is nine people. A staff order is a dozen. A tournament needs four teams kitted, not fifty. If your supplier treats those as exceptions, you will pay for it.
Decoration methods
| Method | Best for | Cost behaviour | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sublimation | Full-colour jerseys, all-over designs | Flat per unit | Polyester only |
| Screen print | Large runs, few colours | Cheap at volume, setup fee per colour | Poor for small orders |
| Embroidery | Hats, polos, premium feel | Priced by stitch count | Fine detail and thin text disappear |
| Heat transfer / vinyl | Names and numbers, small runs | Flat per unit | Less durable over many washes |
The decoration method should be chosen after the design, not before. A logo with a thin serif typeface and six colours is fine sublimated and a genuine problem embroidered.
Where orders actually go wrong
Sizing
This causes more reorders than everything else combined. Athletic cuts run smaller than retail sizing, and people order the size they buy at a store. Get a size kit, or order against a published chart with real measurements rather than S/M/L. On a team order, one person guessing for everybody guarantees problems.
Artwork
A logo pulled off a website is 72 dpi and will look exactly as bad on fabric as it does enlarged on screen. You need vector artwork — .ai, .eps or .svg. If you do not have it, that needs recreating before production, and it is better to find that out now than three days before an event.
Lead time
Custom apparel is manufactured, not picked off a shelf. Two to four weeks is normal for production, plus shipping, plus a round for proof approval. Rush is usually possible and always costs more.
The one that saves the most hassle
For any group over about ten people, use a team store rather than collecting sizes yourself. Everyone orders and pays for their own kit in their own size, and you stop being the person chasing thirty people for money and measurements by text. It is the single biggest improvement available to a team order.
A realistic timeline
- ✓Week 1 — confirm design and supply vector artwork
- ✓Week 2 — proof approval and size collection, or open the team store
- ✓Weeks 3–5 — production
- ✓Week 6 — delivery
Work backwards from the date you actually need it in hand, not the date of the event. If it is for a tournament, allow a week of slack — apparel arriving the morning of is a story people tell for years, and not fondly.