Comment spécifier un programme d'uniforme pour 50 à 500 employés : une liste d'approvisionnement

Decide who wears what, when, and how often

Before you pick a single garment, write down:

• Who’s wearing the uniform — all staff, customer-facing only, by department?
• Daily, occasional (events), or seasonal (winter only)?
• Indoor, outdoor, or both? Affects fabric weight selection.
• Is the uniform a "wear it or pay for it" policy, or optional?
• How often is it washed? Home machine, commercial laundry, or rotated?

This is non-negotiable input for the rest of the spec. A construction crew that washes weekly in industrial laundry needs different fabric and decoration than an office team that wears the uniform once a quarter to events.

Build the uniform set by role, not by garment type

The trap here is starting from the catalogue ("we need t-shirts and hoodies"). Start from the role and work backward.

Common pairings:

• Front-of-house staff: embroidered polo + branded apron.
• Back-of-house / kitchen: chef coat or branded tee + apron.
• Office / corporate: branded tee + hoodie for casual culture, polo for client-facing.
• Construction / trades: hi-vis tee + branded hoodie + embroidered cap.
• Sales / customer-visit roles: embroidered polo + jacket.

For each garment, lock one blank brand and one cut. Don’t mix "Bella+Canvas for the tee but Gildan for the hoodie" — the brand voice is fragmented and reorders get confusing.

One decoration method per garment type, one placement per logo

This is the #1 source of "the uniforms look inconsistent" complaints. The fix is mechanical: every garment of the same type gets the exact same decoration method, in the exact same placement, on the same color blank.

Decoration recommendations (see our decoration durability guide for the full rationale):

• Polos: embroidery, left chest, ~3.5" wide.
• Tees on cotton: DTG or screen print at scale, full chest or left chest depending on logo style.
• Tees on poly/blend: DTF, same placement rules.
• Hoodies: embroidery left chest (premium), or DTF/screen print for back-panel designs.
• Caps: embroidery front center.

Document the exact placement in the spec sheet ("3.5" wide, centered horizontally on left chest, top edge 2.5" below shoulder seam"). Your supplier should match this on every order, year after year.

Run one fitting day. Capture sizes. Refresh annually.

The most common uniform-program failure is "we ordered the sizes everyone said they were and 30% of the team can’t wear theirs because the cut runs small." The fix is a physical fitting kit.

Process:

1. Order a fitting kit from your supplier — one of every size in each garment type. We provide this on first orders for free.
2. Block one day during a regular work week. Everyone tries on their planned uniform.
3. Capture each person’s size in a spreadsheet (name, garment type, size). This is your roster.
4. For new hires, repeat the fitting at onboarding using the same kit (kept on-site).
5. Refresh the roster annually — people’s sizes change.

Your supplier should hold this roster on file. Reorders become a one-email transaction: "Add 4 new hires — here are their names and sizes." No re-quoting, no surprises.

Three reorder types — and a budget formula for each

Most uniform programs blow their budget because nobody planned for reorders. Three reorder categories you must account for:

• New-hire reorders: trickle in monthly. Budget at 12–18% of your initial order size annually (assumes ~15% staff turnover).
• Attrition / wear-out reorders: uniforms get damaged or replaced. Budget 5–10% per year depending on industry intensity (higher for construction, lower for office).
• Full program refresh: every 2–3 years, the program gets refreshed (new design, new blank, etc.). Plan this into the budget cycle.

Budget formula for year 1: initial order cost × 1.20. After that, ~10% of initial order annually for attrition + new hires.

What separates a real supplier from a print shop

When you’re comparing suppliers, ask the following. Cheap unit pricing is irrelevant if the program operations are bad.

• Do they take POs and offer Net 30 (or 50% deposit + Net 30 balance)? If not, they don’t serve B2B at the level you need.
• Do they hold your roster, design file, and decoration spec on file for reorders? If you need to re-quote every order from zero, the operational tax is enormous.
• Do they sample before production? Non-negotiable for uniform programs. The first run on a new design must be sample-approved.
• Do they have a named account manager? Or do you re-explain the program every time you email?
• Are they local to your region? Local Montreal pickup for last-minute orders is a real benefit that national suppliers can’t match.
• Can they show you wear data? Real numbers on how their decoration holds up after 50, 100, 200 wash cycles. We publish ours in the decoration durability guide.
• What’s their turnaround for reorders? Standard should be 5–7 business days for repeat orders on file. If they say "2–3 weeks" for a reorder, that’s a re-quote operation, not a program supplier.