The custom merchandise quote checklist

Most merchandise quotes are not comparable to each other. They use different units, include different things, and change price at different quantities. This is the shortest route to making them comparable.

Two terms first. A ladder price is the per-unit price at a published quantity step — 24, 48, 72, 144 and so on. It falls at each step rather than smoothly, which is why it is called a ladder. An all-in price is the ladder price plus any setup charge divided across your quantity, plus any per-unit decoration charge. Every rule below is aimed at getting you to a comparable all-in price.

Before you ask anyone for a price

Fix these first. If they vary between suppliers, nothing that comes back can be compared.

• —The artwork, at the finished size you want, in a fixed number of colours.
• —The quantity — and be ready to ask for the whole ladder rather than one number.
• —The decoration method: screen print, embroidery, laser engraving, transfer.
• —The destination, and whether the price should include duty and clearance or not.
• —Your deadline, expressed as the date the goods must be in the building, not the date they ship.

On price and quantity

• —Ask for the full ladder, not a single price. Published ladders commonly step at 24 / 48 / 72 / 144 / 288, and at case-pack quantities for drinkware. Some items are published with no ladder at all: one flat price from the minimum upward, so 50 units and 2,500 units cost exactly the same each.
• —Check where your quantity lands. An order of 120 pays the 72-unit price on a ladder that steps at 72 and 144: you pay the price of the last step you passed, not the next one.
• —Then check whether rounding up is worth it, item by item. Going from 120 caps to 144 costs about $108 more in total — roughly $4.50 for each extra cap against $10.50 each for the first 120 — and takes about $1.00 off every cap in the order. On a flat-priced item the same increase saves nothing at all, because there is no next step. It is worth doing on some items and pointless on others.
• —Compare all-in per unit, and only that. Ladder prices from two suppliers are not comparable, because they include different things.
• —Ask whether volume actually buys anything. Several published prices are flat across the entire range a normal buyer would consider.
• —Ask what the minimum actually is. Published minimums on items read for these articles ranged from 12 to 250 units. A supplier whose minimum is above your order is not a more expensive option — it is not an option.

On setup and decoration charges

• —Is setup included or extra, on this specific item? Setup is a fact about the item, not about the supplier: the same distributor charged $65 on one product and stated "No set-up charge on this item!" on another, on the same day.
• —Per colour, per location, or per order? A setup figure means nothing until you know what multiplies it.
• —Judge setup against your total order value, not your unit count. A $65 setup is about 16% of a 250-unit order of a $1.67 item and about 1.5% of a 250-unit order of a $17.35 item. Same quantity, same charge, ten times the impact.
• —"Price includes decoration" is not the same claim as "no setup charge." One supplier’s page carried "Free decoration in 1 color at 1 location" and "Logo Setup: $50.00" at the same time, and both statements were accurate.
• —Ask what your decoration method costs on your item. Where one supplier itemises it on a $7.99 towel, a one-colour logo added $1.16, a full-colour transfer $2.80 and embroidery $4.76. On another item from the same supplier, full colour cost nothing over one colour. There is no rate to assume.
• —What does an additional colour cost, and is it a fixed fee or per unit? One supplier charges a flat fee per colour, another charges per unit plus preparation fees; the structures can cross over at low quantities, so compute the colour cost at your actual quantity.
• —Stitch count, for embroidery, on your actual artwork. Trade sources commonly put a standard left-chest logo at 6,000–10,000 stitches and a cap front at 5,000–10,000.
• —The digitising or tape charge — how much, whether it is waived at a quantity, whether it is charged again on a reorder, and who owns the stitch file. A file you own moves with you to another supplier.

On any garment

• —Fabric weight in gsm — grams per square metre. If it is quoted in ounces, confirm it is per square yard. Per linear yard is a different measurement and, at the standard 60-inch fabric width for cotton jersey, reads about two-thirds too heavy.
• —Fibre content as percentages, for the specific colour you are ordering. Blends often differ between colours of the same product, at the same price.
• —Yarn type — ring-spun or open-end. This changes how a garment feels at identical weight.
• —Actual garment measurements for each size, not the size letters, which vary between manufacturers.
• —Who carries the size risk. For staff or team orders, whoever guesses the size curve carries the risk of the whole order — collect sizes rather than estimate them. For resale stock there is nobody to collect from: ask instead which sizes reorder individually, because an order that can only be repeated as a full curve leaves you overstocked in the sizes that did not sell.

Reference points, from trade fabric-weight guides: roughly 270–350 gsm covers most mid-weight hooded sweatshirts; 150–200 gsm most t-shirts.

On any bag

• —Fibre and denier together — "600D polyester", never "600D" alone. The fibre does more work than the number.
• —Weave type: plain, Oxford, ripstop, ballistic.
• —Finished fabric weight in gsm, which captures weave density in a way denier does not.
• —Zip brand and size. The trade treats the zip as a likely failure point — a convention, since measured failure data is not published — and a named brand is a real specification.
• —Reinforcing stitch blocks where straps and handles meet the body, and what the base is made of.

If you are buying to resell

Everything above still applies. These four questions decide whether the order is a good one.

• —What is your break-even sell-through? Divide your total outlay by your retail price. Twelve decorated caps at $14.99 is $179.88; against a $65 retail price that is three caps. (The $65 is a published US retail price converted to Canadian dollars, from a different brand — the arithmetic is the point, not the margin.) Work this out before you order, because it turns a minimum from a risk into a number.
• —What does the minimum do to your working capital, not just to your unit price? A lower unit price at a higher minimum is a larger amount of your money sitting on a shelf for longer.
• —Can you reorder the same item, and at what minimum? A first order at 12 units is only useful if the second one can also be small.
• —How long does a reorder take? Published production times on items read for these articles ranged from three business days to eleven. That range is the difference between restocking an item while it is still selling and missing the season it sells in.

Before you sign

• —A physical sample of the exact item, approved before the run.
• —A delivery date in writing, and confirmation of whether it is a dispatch date or a delivery date. Published lead times are usually production or dispatch times rather than delivery times — and some suppliers publish only a delivery estimate. Confirm which you are being given, and what it excludes.
• —What happens if the goods are wrong — who pays for the remake, and on what timescale.
• —Whether the quoted price includes duty and clearance, or whether you are importing the goods yourself.

The two-minute version

If you only do three things: get the specification in numbers rather than adjectives, compare all-in per unit at your real quantity, and hold a sample in your hand before the run. Merchandise that disappoints is typically bought on an adjective, a ladder price and a photograph.