Two Quotes, Two Different Shirts

You cannot compare two apparel quotes. You can only compare two specs, which means the comparison starts with a document you write, not with the two numbers you were sent. A gap between those numbers is almost never a discount. It is a spec difference nobody wrote down: a different fiber, a different fit, a different mark, a different date, a different list of things included. Write one spec, send that same spec to both vendors, and read the numbers that come back. Then the lower number tells you something.

Write the spec before you read either number01

A quote answers a question. If the two vendors were asked different questions, the two numbers are not in the same units, and no amount of staring at them side by side will put them in the same units. One vendor heard polos for the sales team. The other heard a nylon polo in a classic athletic fit with a three inch left chest mark in two thread colors, delivered to one address. Both answered honestly. Only one of them answered your question.

So the first document in this process is yours. Name the garment, name the mark, name what the number has to cover, name the date. Then the two replies become comparable, because you controlled the question.

Quote B is not dishonest. It is unwritten, and an unwritten quote can be satisfied by whatever is cheapest to get hold of on the week it ships. If you want to see what a written spec turns into once somebody accepts it, this is the sequence an order runs through on our side, start to finish.

Name the garment, not the category02

Performance polo is a category. A garment is a fiber content, a fit name, a hem shape and a collar. The distinction sounds academic until you put two real shirts next to each other.

The PILLAR David Polo and the PILLAR Steven Polo are both $76. Both are a classic athletic fit. Both finish with a U cut hem. Both are pre shrunk, both are four way stretch, both are sweat wicking. The David is 84 percent nylon and 16 percent spandex with a firm collar that holds its shape. The Steven is 88 percent polyester and 12 percent spandex in a cooling textured knit. Same price, same fit name, same hem, and not the same shirt. If your spec says performance polo, both of those satisfy it, and so does anything else a vendor wants to put in the box.

A

PILLAR David Polo in White

White

$76

84 percent nylon, 16 percent spandex. Four way stretch, sweat wicking, classic athletic fit, firm collar that holds its shape, U cut hem, pre shrunk. Six sizes.

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B

The David Polo, Black

Black

$76

The same 84 percent nylon and 16 percent spandex build, the same firm collar, the same U cut hem. A colorway is a spec line too, so write it down.

Size Small Medium Large Extra Large XXL XXXL Add to Bag

Quantity and the size run are a separate decision and they do not belong in this argument, so we took them apart on their own page: how the size run gets built for a company polo order.

Read the fiber, not the adjective03

Breathable, premium and moisture wicking are adjectives. They describe how a shirt is sold. A fiber percentage is a spec. A fit name is a spec. A hem shape is a spec. If a quote names a pile of adjectives and no percentages, the number has nothing behind it, and the vendor can meet that number with whatever garment is cheapest to hand on the day.

Here is the test. Read the two quotes with a pen and underline every word that could be checked by a person holding the shirt. If nothing gets underlined, you do not have a quote, you have a figure.

C

Steven Polo, Brew print

Brew print

$76

88 percent polyester, 12 percent spandex. Cooling sweat wicking textured knit, four way stretch, classic athletic fit, U cut hem, pre shrunk. The Steven also comes in Zona, Floral, Texas and the PILLAR print. Same price as the David, different fabric, and the spec sheet is the only place that difference shows up.

Size Small Medium Large Extra Large XXL XXXL Add to Bag

Put the mark on the spec sheet too04

A logo is not a decision until somebody names four things: the file, the size in inches, the placement and the thread or ink colors. Two quotes decorating the chest can be decorating two entirely different things. One is three inches on the left chest in two thread colors. The other is five inches across the center in four. Those are different jobs at different prices, and the word chest hid the whole difference.

Write the mark the way you wrote the garment. If your company already has a brand standard, send it with the spec rather than describing it on the phone, and if you do not have one yet, here is our own piece on brand guidelines a production floor can follow.

Ask what the number includes05

A quote can be silent, and silence is where the two numbers separate after you sign. Freight. A sample before the run. An overage. A second ship to address for the branch office. Setup for a logo that has never been run before. None of those are required to appear on a quote. The vendor who left them off is not lying to you, he is quoting less, and you will meet the rest of it later.

Ask both vendors, in writing, which of those five their number covers. Where the money actually goes inside a single quote is worked out in full at what a run of custom company polos really costs, so you can read a quote line by line instead of guessing. Setup for a new logo is its own line, and it starts with the file: this is the form your logo file has to arrive in, and the setup figure sits on that same page.

Send one spec to both06

One document. Both vendors. The same words, unedited, in the same email. It sounds too plain to be the hard part, and it is the step that does all the work, because it moves the variable out of the quote and onto the vendor. The garment stops changing. Only the number and the date change, and now they mean something.

What to ask on the first call, before any of this is on paper, is already set out at the questions worth asking an apparel vendor up front. Ask those, then send the spec.

Count the date as part of the price07

Two clocks run in this category, and a number you are comparing is worth nothing if the two quotes are quoting different products. A logo added to garments already on the shelf runs 7 to 10 business days from proof approval. The garment exists before you order it, so the only production clock is the decoration clock, and it starts the day you approve the proof.

A garment whose fabric and color begin as a spec runs about 45 days door to door. That is a different product with a different clock, not a slower version of the first one. So make each quote say which of the two it is quoting. If one reply is 7 to 10 business days and the other is about 45 days, you are not looking at two prices for the same thing, you are looking at two prices for two things. And if your date already sits inside the lead time, what compresses and what refuses to is at what a rush order actually changes.

Pick the quote you can hold somebody to08

Specificity is the signal. A quote that names a garment, names a mark and names a date has a person behind it who intends to deliver that garment, that mark and that date, and who expects to be measured against all three. A quote built out of adjectives has nobody behind it, because nothing in it can be checked. Between a lower number on a category and a higher number on a named garment, take the named garment every time.

What we will not doPILLAR will not tell you what another vendor's number should be. PILLAR will not quote a date against a spec nobody has written down yet.

If you want to see what a named garment reads like before you write one of your own, start with the men's polo collection and read the fiber content on the David and the Steven. That is the level of detail your spec needs, and it is the level of detail you should demand in a reply.

Questions buyers ask with two quotes open