"How much is branded workwear?" is the most common first question we get, and the honest answer is that it depends on about six things, most of which are under your control. That is not a dodge. It is the useful bit. If you know which six things move the number, you can build a budget that survives contact with reality, and you can spend where it matters instead of trimming the wrong corner and buying the whole lot again in eight months.

The five components of any workwear quote

Every branded workwear price, from anyone, breaks down into the same parts. Understanding them makes quotes comparable, which is most of the battle when you are weighing up two suppliers.

• The garment. The blank item itself, before anything is done to it. Usually the largest single share.
• The decoration. Embroidering or printing your logo onto it, charged per position.
• The setup. A one-off cost to turn your logo into something a machine can reproduce. Ours is free on orders over £150.
• The quantity. How the per-item cost changes with volume.
• Delivery. Free on UK orders over £250 with us, but worth checking on any quote you compare.

When two quotes look wildly different, it is almost always because one of these is being presented differently, not because one supplier is twice as good.

1. The garment is where the real range lives

The spread between the cheapest and dearest version of the same garment type is enormous, and it is bigger than the spread on decoration. A basic t-shirt and a heavyweight technical work polo are the same category and nothing like the same money.

What actually drives garment cost:

• Fabric weight and composition. Heavier fabrics and technical blends cost more and last longer. Our fabric guide covers the trade-off in detail.
• Construction. Reinforced knees, triple stitching, taped seams and proper pocket detailing all add cost and all add life.
• Certification. Anything protective, hi-vis, flame resistant, chemical resistant, carries the cost of the standard it is certified to. That is not a markup, it is testing and specification.
• Brand. Recognised workwear brands cost more than unbranded equivalents, sometimes for genuine quality reasons and sometimes for the name.

2. Decoration: embroidery vs print

The two methods price differently, and the cheaper one depends entirely on your quantity.

The practical version: embroidery for polos, fleeces, jackets and anything worn in front of customers. Print for large designs, big runs of t-shirts, and anywhere embroidery would be too heavy for the fabric. Our embroidery vs print comparison goes into which suits what.

The thing people miss is that each position is a separate decoration cost. A logo on the left chest and the company name on the back is two decorations, not one. That is often the single biggest surprise on a first quote, and it is worth deciding deliberately rather than by default. Our logo placement guide covers which positions actually earn their money.

3. Setup: a one-off, not a per-order cost

Before your logo can be embroidered, it has to be digitised: converted into stitch instructions for the machine. It is a skilled job and it is done once. After that, your setup sits on file and every future order uses it.

This matters more than it sounds, because it changes the maths on small reorders. The first order carries the setup. The tenth order, two years later, for one polo for a new starter, does not. We keep your setup on file for exactly this reason, and setup is free on orders over £150.

When comparing quotes, check whether setup is one-off or recurring, and whether a supplier will still hold your file in three years. A cheap first order with a setup charge every time is not cheap.

4. Quantity: the discount is real but not infinite

Price per item does come down with volume, mostly through decoration efficiency rather than the garments themselves. But there are two things worth knowing before you over-order to chase a break.

• The curve flattens. The saving from 5 to 25 is meaningful. The saving from 200 to 250 usually is not, and definitely does not justify buying 50 garments you do not need.
• Dead stock is the most expensive workwear there is. Buying 40 mediums because of a price break, when you needed 12, means you paid for 28 garments that will sit in a cupboard until the style changes.

With no minimum order, you do not have to over-buy to get started. Order what the team needs now, and add to it. That is usually cheaper in real terms than a big speculative first order.

5. The costs people forget to budget for

These are not hidden charges. They are just things that do not appear on the first quote because nobody asked about them.

• New starters. If you take on four people a year, that is four sets of kit annually on top of the initial order. Budget it as a running cost, not a one-off.
• Replacements. Things get torn, burnt, lost and ruined. A replacement allowance is more honest than pretending kit lasts forever.
• Sizes you did not anticipate. Guessing sizes across a team is where a lot of waste comes from. Free 48hr samples and our sizing guide exist to stop that.
• A second logo version. If your logo needs a reversed or single-colour version for dark garments, that is a small one-off job worth doing properly. Our colour guide explains when you need one.

Where to spend and where to save

If your budget is fixed, and it usually is, this is roughly how to allocate it.

Spend on

• Anything protective. Hi-vis, safety footwear, flame-resistant clothing, gloves. This is the category where the cheap option is a false economy in the most serious sense. Specify it from your risk assessment, not your budget.
• The layer worn most. Usually the jacket or fleece. It is on your team more days than anything else and it carries your branding in public. See fleeces and work jackets.
• The garment worn in front of customers. Whatever people see first is doing marketing work, and looking cheap costs you more than the garment saved.

Save on

• Back-of-house items nobody outside the business sees.
• Extra decoration positions that are not actually being read by anyone.
• Quantity you do not need yet. Buy for the team you have.

How to get a quote that is actually useful

Vague enquiries get vague answers. Give a supplier these five things and you will get a number you can budget against, first time:

• How many people, and roughly what sizes if you know them
• What garments, or just what the work involves if you are not sure
• Your logo file, ideally a vector version
• Where you want it on the garment, or ask for a recommendation
• When you need it

That last one matters more than people expect. A comfortable deadline gives you the full range to choose from. A tight one narrows it to whatever can be turned around fastest.

The short version

Garment choice moves the price more than anything else. Each decoration position is a separate cost, so choose them deliberately. Setup is one-off, so ask whether it stays on file. Quantity discounts are real but flatten out, and dead stock cancels them. Budget for new starters and replacements as running costs. And spend properly on protective kit and the layer your team wears every day, because those are the two places where saving money costs money.

Ready for a number rather than a range? Tell us the team, the work and the deadline, and we will put together a quote and send free 48hr samples so you can see what you are buying first.