How Corporate Procurement Teams Should Structure a Branded Apparel Program
Large enterprises running branded apparel programs often overpay and undermanage their supply chains. Here's how to structure a direct manufacturing relationship that controls cost and enforces brand standards.
Most large companies manage their branded apparel the same way: reactively. Marketing needs shirts for an event — they call a promo company. HR wants welcome kits — they call a different vendor. Sales needs branded polos — a third vendor. Each transaction is a one-off, each quote is full retail, and there’s no consistency in how the brand looks across the outputs.
At the volume most large enterprises generate when you aggregate these programs, this approach costs significantly more than it should and produces inconsistent results.
Here’s how to do it better.
Start with Aggregate Volume
The first step is understanding what you’re actually buying. Pull together all the branded apparel and decorated merchandise spend across your organization for the past 12 months. Include:
- Marketing event merchandise
- Employee welcome kits and onboarding gear
- Uniform and workwear programs
- Sales team branded apparel
- Customer gifting programs
- Conference and trade show giveaways
Most companies are surprised by how large the aggregate number is. Organizations that thought they were “small buyers” often discover they’re ordering 80,000–150,000 pieces per year — just fragmented across departments and vendors.
That aggregate volume is your leverage in building a direct manufacturing relationship.
Standardize Specifications
The second step is creating a controlled specification for each program type. This means:
Approved garment styles: Select specific styles (by brand, style number, and fabric weight) for each use case — an event tee, a premium polo, a quarter-zip fleece. Locking styles eliminates per-order sourcing decisions and enables bulk inventory planning.
Pantone-matched colors: Document your brand colors in Pantone format for every decoration application. This is what ensures the orange on your t-shirt matches the orange on your hoodie matches the orange in your trade show booth.
Approved artwork files: Maintain a controlled library of production-ready artwork files. The approved version of every logo, in every size, in the correct file format. Don’t let each department submit their own “version” of the logo.
Decoration placement specs: Left chest, specific dimensions, specific distance from seams. Written down, not assumed.
With locked specs, every run produces the same output. Without them, “close enough” creep degrades brand consistency over time.
Structure the Manufacturing Relationship
Once you know your aggregate volume and have standardized specs, you’re ready to build a direct relationship with a manufacturer.
Annual volume commitment: Rather than one-off purchase orders, commit to an annual volume range. This is what earns you program pricing — the manufacturer can plan production capacity around predictable demand rather than reacting to unpredictable spot orders.
Scheduled production windows: Work with the manufacturer to establish production windows that align with your distribution calendar. Corporate apparel programs typically have predictable peaks (Q1 onboarding, fall conference season, Q4 holiday gifting). Building those into a production schedule eliminates rush charges and late deliveries.
Blanket artwork and spec approval: Approve your artwork and garment specs once, at program setup, rather than re-approving on every order. This dramatically reduces lead time on individual orders once the program is running.
Fulfillment Options
How goods reach employees or end recipients is worth planning explicitly.
Bulk to central warehouse: The manufacturer ships completed goods to a company warehouse or third-party logistics (3PL) provider, which handles distribution. Best for programs with centralized distribution.
Direct-to-employee: The manufacturer (or a fulfillment partner) ships individual orders to employees or recipients. Best for on-demand company stores or global distribution.
Drop shipment to locations: Goods shipped directly to office locations, retail sites, or event venues. Requires coordination but eliminates intermediate handling.
For large enterprises, the right model often involves a combination: bulk production runs flowing to a 3PL that handles individual fulfillment.
Building the Internal Business Case
Finance needs a number. Here’s how to build it:
- Total your current annual branded apparel spend across all programs and vendors
- Estimate the average distributor margin in that spend (40–50% is a reasonable assumption)
- That margin, recovered through direct manufacturing, is the savings opportunity
- Subtract the administrative overhead of managing a direct vendor relationship (likely one person’s partial attention)
- The net is your business case
For most enterprises spending $500,000+ annually on decorated apparel, the savings from direct manufacturing is a meaningful budget recovery — often $150,000–$250,000 or more.
Merch Factory Direct works with corporate procurement teams to structure direct manufacturing programs for 100,000+ unit annual volumes. See how we serve corporate and enterprise programs, or contact us to discuss your program.