Throughout my years project managing large group orders, one of the most frustrating things for my customers can be tracking down the individuals in your group and getting them to choose which size they want to order (and any other relevant details). Fortunately, there are some things we can do to make it much less stressful. I will produce any required order-taking materials at no additional charge unless specified otherwise below.

First, make sure you have your garments selected and artwork finalized. For more details on that, click here.

All orders will be shipped to a single shipping address, and that point person will distribute the individual items to the group members. If you would like to set up a fulfilment situation (each person will have their selections shipped to a separate address), please see this post.

Set a deadline

Choose a deadline for taking orders, even if you don’t have an event date.
Some guidelines:

• Try to allow at least a week for people to place their orders. Two weeks is better.
• If your group has meetings, try to allow for two meetings before the deadline.
• If you have an event date, be sure to set the deadline for at least a week before your order needs to be finalized to meet your timeline.

The above guidelines have been set assuming some people will still miss the deadline, and so allows for a few days or a week for last minute changes or procrastination.

Select order-taking tools

There are a lot of different ways to take and organize orders, depending on how technological you want to get, how large your group is, and how complicated your order is. With all of these options, you can select prices that are higher than the cost of your order and any remainder can be kept or refunded as a fundraiser for your group.

Shopify Store

Setting up a Shopify store allows each group member to place and pay for their individual order online. The batch of orders will then be accessible so we can see the data and place the order according to the group’s selections.

Shopify does charge a fee, depending on the complexity of the store. Please enquire for a custom quote.

Google Forms

Google Forms allows for a survey page to be sent to each member of your group for free. Each person can send in their responses to questions we set up for them according to your project. The answers are accessible as a Google Sheets spreadsheet we can use to place the order with the decorator.

Individual payments will need to be taken by one person (you or another volunteer) who will then deposit them into an account, and pay for the cost of the order in a single payment (via check or online invoice).

Paper Forms

The paper form method works especially well for groups that have in person meetings regularly. I can create a custom form which can be printed out in your required quantity and filled out quickly during a meeting, or taken home at one meeting, filled out, and returned at the next meeting along with payment.

Individual payments will need to be taken by one person (you or another volunteer) who will then deposit them into an account, and pay for the cost of the order in a single payment (via check or online invoice).

Make several loud announcements

The only step remaining is to make sure everyone in the group knows about the deadline and order process! Write clear emails and send them out. If your group has meetings, combine this with announcements at as many meetings leading up to the deadline as possible. For schools or other groups involving children, send home a printed flyer with any details necessary (even if using a digital method of taking orders).

That’s it!

Wait for the orders to come in, and hold true to your deadlines. Check once the order deadline passes to make sure all group members are accounted for and follow up with any stragglers.

Choosing which merch to use for a group can be overwhelming. Over my years helping people with bulk projects like this, I’ve found ways to make it far less so! Check out the tips below to make the process go more smoothly, with much less stress for you.

Going with the default

There is always the “default” option, which is the standard, most cost effective, black tees or hoodies with a white screen print.

Another way to do the default is to give me any information you already have and let me do all of the work for you. Have one conversation with me (or a chat or a few emails) and I’ll come up with what I think would work best for your group without any extra effort from you.

If you’re looking for something more hands-on, or want a more detailed narrowing down of products manually, check out the tips below!

Allow enough time (don’t procrastinate)

It may go without saying, but starting early can save you a lot of hair pulling. If possible, allow two months for your project (one month to sort out product selection, finalize artwork, get the group’s opinion, make changes, order samples, etc., then one month for production). Things don’t always take that long but it’s better to get your order early than to run out of time and rush at the end!

Don’t ask your group’s opinion… yet.

I can’t tell you how many times there has been a “too many cooks” situation when ordering group apparel. Step number one should be to hold off on seeing what people want. Follow the steps below to narrow down the choices first, then ask them to help with the final decision, and potentially some smaller steps along the way. I promise this will save you a lot of stress.

Take note of prior experiences

If your group has ever had merch made before, take stock of the experience(s). Gather any information you can about what kinds of things the group got before, the more information the better. If the experience was a good one and the merch was well received, we can match the same products or find equivalents. If the experience was a bad one, we can steer clear of those products and use the feedback about them to go in a different direction.

Avoid looking through a catalog

There’s a concept called the “paradox of choice”. It’s the idea that while having a lot of choices allows you the potential to get exactly what you want, too many choices can actually make the decision process exhausting, to the point of decision fatigue and “analysis paralysis”.

The fix for this is to narrow down your options first, to get a good idea of what kind of thing you’re looking for.

Start with your group’s needs

This is the step that will narrow down the bulk of your choices. What will your group be doing with the merch? If they’ll be selling it, you’ll want something very different than if they plan to wear it while playing a sport. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Who are your group members? Are they kids, adults, or both? What kinds of sizes will you need? There is no “standard” bell curve as every demographic and activity group has a different size range.
• What activities will be done in (or with) the merch? Sports games, standing for long periods of time at events, going out dancing, sitting in meetings, or going to the beach will all demand different things from the items you choose.
• What will the weather be like (or will they be worn primarily inside)?

Take into account your group’s values

If your group has any values, those can often be factored in as well. A good example of this is sustainability. Recycled and organic fabrics can be more expensive than traditional options, but for groups who find limiting their environmental impact important, it may be worth the increased cost. Consider if your group values being “weird” or “out there”. In this case, you may want to look at items outside the usual tee shirts or hoodies, and find something uniquely “them” to offer.

Consider the question of color

A lot of groups have specific brand colors they need to follow. For example, schools often have “brand guidelines” to follow which specify colors and fonts, as well as logo structure and placement. All of this can be important to keep in mind, not only for the print color, but the garment color as well. If your design is required to go on a white or navy background, it wouldn’t be good to select a garment that only comes in black and cream!

Choosing the right decoration method

Certain decoration methods can only work with specific kinds of artwork. Be sure to have me look it over to see if any methods are automatically ruled out. For example if your design won’t work with embroidery, we can rule out beanies and certain hats from the beginning.

Ordering samples

With all of that done, your choices should be significantly narrowed down. Look through the options and choose your top 2-4 to order samples of. This is where you should ask your group for their opinion! Find more details about the sample ordering process here.

Next steps

Once you’ve chosen your blank items, you’ll want to look at your decoration method, artwork, and taking orders from your group members. Check out those links for more details!

Sometimes ordering blank samples isn’t enough for your group, and they want to see a decorated sample, or even a few! Checking the decoration quality can be an important step, especially for some products or decoration methods.

In some cases I may suggest ordering a sample if I’m unsure of how the decoration will look or hold up on a certain material or fabric texture. Ordering decorated samples is always your choice, and if you choose not to, I may recommend switching to a more common method/fabric combination to be safe. Quality and customer satisfaction are my top priorities!

This post only refers to decorated samples. If you want to check the quality of the blank garments, check out the post here.

Stock samples to check decorator quality

If you would like to see the decoration quality of the decorator(s) I use, they have many stock samples available. These are test prints of designs they’re already running, sew outs of embroidered designs they’ve done in the past, and presses of vinyl onto scrap fabric. These are usually free and can be mailed to you directly within a couple of business days.

Custom samples

Ordering custom decorated samples is not common, and is usually only done if there is a question about how a specific decoration method/fabric combination will turn out, or if your design is on the edge of what may not look good when embroidered. In some cases though, specific groups will want to see a full sample of their design on their selected garment.

Turn time

The time it takes to produce a custom sample depends on the decoration method, but is usually the same amount of time that it takes to produce a full order (because the decorator has to process, set up, and produce the single item the same way they would a full order). Typically this is 2-3 weeks (quicker turns are available for additional “rush” fees).

Cost

The cost to produce custom samples varies according to your specific project and will need to be quoted. They are usually very expensive however. The most expensive would be multi-color screen printed designs, because of the massive amount of set up cost attributed to a single item.

Custom embroidery sew-outs

Embroidery sew-outs are a kind of middle ground option if you want to see how your design will look embroidered. Your design would be embroidered on a scrap of fabric. This can be twill (similar to a hat), cotton (tee shirt scrap), or fleece (hoodie scrap). They cost ~$20-$30 depending on your design and shipping is free via USPS. Turn time is usually around one week from payment to delivery, depending on the decorator’s availability.