Patagonia group orders: what to confirm before company embroidery

Does Patagonia offer group orders?

It does. Patagonia runs a Group Sales program for US orders and you get in by filling out an application. What that application won't tell you is whether the vest you picked can be ordered for your team, or whether your logo can go on it. Those are separate answers, and you want both in writing before anybody on staff hears the word "Patagonia."

Picture the bad version. Somebody in HR tells forty people they're getting a Patagonia vest for the holidays, sizes get collected, and then it's November and nobody has checked if the order is possible. You can skip that. Here's the order I'd do things in.

What the form actually asks for

The Group Sales application is short. Company details, your budget, how many items, your dates, a bit about the project. There are also boxes for Certified B Corporation and 1% for the Planet membership, and the form says to leave those blank if they don't apply to you. I wouldn't read anything into that either way. I don't know how Patagonia weighs it and I'm not going to guess.

The page says new applications get processed in one to three business days. That's the application. Not the jackets. If that number lands in a planning email as "Patagonia takes three days," you've got a Friday handout promised on a Tuesday.

One thing to be straight about: Austin Print Co is not a Patagonia dealer and I can't promise we can get Patagonia for you. I'm pointing you at their program because it's the right first stop. The product and the branding both have to be confirmed for your specific order.

When you write to them, keep it plain. Something like: "We're looking at 24 navy vests for staff, company name embroidered left chest. Is that product and that decoration available for our order?" Link the exact garment, attach the art, give your real date and delivery address. No sizes yet? Say so. It's better than making them up.

Don't buy the retail stock first

It's tempting. The vest is online, it's in stock, and thirty of them on a company card would feel like progress. But if the logo part turns out to be the whole problem, you own a box of very nice jackets with nothing on them.

Get the sourcing and decoration answer first. Then ask for a proof on the real style, not a generic vest outline. Chest pockets and zippers eat the spot where you assumed the logo would go, and you only find that out when you see the actual garment. Have the size of the embroidery written on the proof in inches. "Small logo" means something different to everybody who reads it.

Fleece is thick and fuzzy, and small letters sink into it. If your logo has a tagline underneath, this is probably the piece to leave it off. The other option is blowing the whole logo up until the tagline is readable, and then it's a big logo on a vest nobody wants to wear to dinner. Decide that before production, not after.

For garments we accept for decoration, we do the embroidery in-house in Cedar Park. DTF is its own conversation because it depends on the fabric, and changing the method doesn't get you around whatever terms the supplier set. Screen printing we send out. We don't run it here.

Try the vest over a work shirt

Get a sample if you can and wear it the way your people will. Over a button-down, sitting at a desk, reaching for a keyboard. A vest that fits great over a T-shirt in a fitting room can pull across the shoulders at work.

Then hand it to three or four of the people who'll be getting one. You'll learn more in ten minutes than from any brand comparison. Office folks usually like a vest. Anyone who's outside half the day will ask where the sleeves are. And please use the size chart for that style. Last year's polo sizes are not outerwear sizes, and exchanges on a decorated piece are a headache for everybody.

If it has to be Patagonia, tell the supplier that up front. If another brand would be fine, look at the actual alternative, the fit, fabric, size range, and where a logo can sit on it. Our company apparel service is where we'd talk through those options with you. It isn't a promise that any one brand or style is in stock.

Price the staff order before adding spares

Back to the 24 vests, which is a made-up number for the example. Quote the 24 in the sizes you know. Put extras on a separate line. Spares are handy when you have new hires coming and a decent guess at their sizes. Six mediums "just in case" is how a closet fills up.

Don't assume the price drops because you added a few. Ask what the difference is and look at the number.

And compare whole orders, not garment prices. Vests, decoration, delivery, any individual packing, any boxes going to remote employees. The retail tag on a blank vest isn't the finished cost. While you're at it, decide what happens if somebody's size is out: wait for it, switch the style for everyone, or offer that person something else they've agreed to.

Dates trip people up more than anything. If the handout is Friday morning, the box probably has to be in your Austin office Thursday, and that's the date to give us. Put both dates in the first email.

Can it be rushed? Depends on the product, the quantity, the artwork, what's in stock, and what's already on the production schedule that week. Supplier confirmation, samples, and art approval all happen before a single stitch. Local pickup helps at the end. It does nothing for a garment that isn't available.

Related questions

Does Patagonia offer group orders?

Yes. Patagonia takes US Group Sales applications, and that's where to start, but the product and any decoration still have to be confirmed for your order.

Can I put a company logo on a shirt?

If it's your logo, or art you have permission to use, yes in general. Have the decorator check the shirt you picked and any branding requirements before production starts.

Is Patagonia nicer than North Face?

Depends on the piece and who's wearing it. I'd put the two garments in front of a few people on your team and go with the fit and fabric they like.

Which is better, Columbia or Patagonia?

Neither one wins across the board. For a staff order, pick a specific style that's available, that suits how your people will use it, and compare the full decorated price.

Request a custom quote and send us the garment you have in mind, the quantity, sizes if you have them, your art, and the handout date. Tell us if you'd consider another brand, because that changes what we check first.