How Does Order Quantity Affect the Cost of Custom Uniforms?

Why factories set minimum orders

Most of the cost of a uniform order is decided before the first garment is sewn. Fabric comes from a mill lot with a minimum metreage; a marker and cut plan have to be laid for the size ratio; the logo has to be digitised and the embroidery machine set up; labels and trims are bought against the order. These are fixed costs — roughly the same whether the run is one hundred pieces or one thousand. The more garments they are spread across, the lower the cost per piece. That arithmetic, not a desire to turn away small buyers, is what a minimum order quantity is.

Small batch versus large batch

The same cost drivers behave differently at different quantities. None of these is a penalty on small orders — they are the same fixed costs carried by a different number of garments.

Cost driver	Small batch (around 100–300 pcs)	Large batch (1,000+ pcs)
Fabric	Stock colours in standard qualities keep the run reachable; a custom dye lot’s mill minimum can exceed what a small order needs	A custom dye lot is easily justified, because the run’s metreage meets the mill minimum
Cutting	Marker and cut plan are set once and spread over few garments, so setup weighs more per piece	The same planning is spread over many garments, and a detailed size ratio improves marker efficiency
Branding	The logo is digitised once and the machine set up once, carried by a short run	The same digitised file runs longer, so the setup cost per piece falls
Freight per piece	A few cartons travel by courier or air, so shipping sits heavily on each garment	A larger consignment can move by sea, which lowers the freight carried by each piece

Prices themselves are quoted per project; the table shows where quantity moves the number, not by how much.

Why 100 pcs per style is the practical floor

Minimum order starts at 100 pcs per style; the exact MOQ is quoted per project. Below that point the fabric lot, cut plan and branding setup are spread over so few garments that the per-piece price stops making sense for both sides.

Inside the 100, sizes mix freely — a run can be ten small, forty medium and the rest large without affecting the minimum. Colours are the exception: each colour is cut from its own fabric lot, so a per-colour minimum may apply even when the style total is met. The same structure governs school uniform MOQs and lead times.

Making a small first order work

Three choices keep a first order near the floor:

• Use stock colours. Standard colours in regular qualities — polycotton twill, piqué, poplin — avoid mill minimums and dyeing time. A custom colour is matched by lab dip and carries its own minimum, which can outweigh a small run; the two routes are compared under fabric sourcing.
• Fewer styles, more depth. Two styles at 100 pcs each are two setups; one style at 200 pcs is one. Concentrating the first order on the garments staff wear most keeps the unit cost down.
• Plan the re-order at the same time. Mention expected staff turnover when placing the first order — reserving fabric from that run makes later top-ups easier.

Large programmes and repeat orders

At programme scale the question shifts from what the first batch costs to what it costs over years. Staff turnover means uniforms are re-ordered in small quantities long after the first delivery, so the first order should be planned for how cleanly it repeats.

We record the mill, quality and dye lot for every order, and each new batch of bulk fabric is compared with the approved lab dip before cutting. Where a phased delivery can be cut from one dye lot, it is; where a new lot is unavoidable, any difference is reported before cutting. Top-ups for new staff are made against the sealed sample and the retained patterns and embroidery files, so a re-order matches the garments already in use, subject to minimums quoted per project. This is the discipline described under bulk production; it is what makes a programme cheaper to run than a series of disconnected orders.