Schools · decorated in-house
School Uniforms in Auckland
A school uniform gets worn four days a week and washed hard for years, and it has to look the same on next January’s new entrants as it does on this year’s. We stitch your crest onto school uniforms in Glenfield — polos, PE gear, hoodies and caps — keep your setup on record so every intake matches the last, and courier the order to the school office.
Decorated in Glenfield, couriered to the school — Mon–Fri 8:30am–5:30pm.
Before you ask
- What we do
- We decorate uniforms for schools — a branding workshop, not a uniform shop. There is no retail counter and no store for parents.
- Who we deal with
- The school, the PTA or whoever runs your uniform. One contact, one quote, one delivery.
- Methods
- Crests stitched in-house on our own machine; names, numbers and full-colour artwork pressed in-house on our own press.
- Reorders
- Your setup stays on record, so next year’s intake matches this year’s and never pays setup again.
What we supply
The garments a school actually orders
Six garments cover almost every school order we quote. We decorate them — we do not manufacture them, so you can supply your own stock or we will source the blanks with the rest of the job.
Which method a garment takes is decided by what it goes through rather than by preference. Both methods run on school gear, and the embroidery and printing pages explain each one in full.
Why schools are different
What a school uniform has to survive
School gear is the hardest-worked uniform we decorate. Four of the differences below change what we recommend, not just what we charge.
It is washed more than anything else we do
A hospitality polo gets a hot wash after a shift. A school polo gets one twice a week for four years, often on a cycle nobody is supervising. Thread copes with that; a surface print on a garment washed that hard will not, and we will say so before you order rather than after.
The crest has to match, year after year
A crest that drifts a few millimetres between orders is obvious once two year groups stand next to each other. Your artwork becomes a stitch file once, and every run after that is the same file at the same size in the same place — that is the whole reason we keep it.
Reorders arrive in waves, not in a trickle
Most of a school year’s uniform lands in one January order, with top-ups for new starters through the year. The setup is already done by then, so a reorder is a re-run rather than a new job — which is what makes the wave manageable.
Sizes run from new entrant to Year 13
One order can span a size 4 and an adult XL. The crest size usually stays the same across the run so the uniform reads consistently, but on the smallest sizes there is genuinely less panel to work with, and we will flag it rather than shrink the crest without asking.
Two ways to start
Ready to sort next year’s uniform?
Most quotes go back the same business day. There is no obligation and no minimum order.
Or call 021 082 12843 — Mon–Fri 8:30am–5:30pm.
What happens next
- 1. You send rough numbers and what the team does.
- 2. We come back with garment options and a price per garment, decoration included, usually the same business day.
- 3. Once you go ahead, we confirm logo size and placement in writing before anything is decorated.
How it works
How a school order runs
Three steps, and nothing is decorated until somebody at the school has approved a proof.
Step 1
Send the crest and the list
Your crest artwork, which garments you want it on, and rough numbers by size. Rough is genuinely fine at this stage — we will come back with what we would change.
Step 2
We quote it
Garment options and one price per garment with the decoration already in it, per size run, usually back the same business day. Not a garment cost and a branding cost for you to add together.
Step 3
Proof, decorate, courier
You approve a digital proof and we confirm crest size and placement in writing. Then the order is stitched or pressed here in Glenfield and couriered to the school.
Embroidery carries a one-off setup if we have not already set your crest up at that size — that is the step where your artwork becomes machine instructions, and the exact stitch count and price are only known once it is done. One setup covers your garments at the same crest size, so polos, PE tops and hoodies share it; caps stitch differently and need their own, because a crown is curved and seamed and stitching laid out flat puckers on it. Your crest stays yours, the stitch file we build from it is ours, and we keep it on record so next year’s order never pays setup again.
Managed supply
However your uniform shop runs, we fit behind it
Some schools run a uniform shop on site, some hand it to a PTA volunteer for two weeks in January, and some point parents at an online store. Our part is the same either way: we decorate to your spec and deliver to the school.
Your crest, kept on record
Set up once, then stored with the size and placement we agreed. Every later order runs from it, so consistency is not something anyone has to remember.
One delivery, however you distribute it
Sorted by garment and size and couriered to the school in one go. What happens after that — a shop, a hall table, a pickup window — is yours to run.
Top-ups through the year
New starters do not arrive in January only. A handful of polos mid-term is a normal order, and the setup is long since paid.
What we do not do is sell to parents directly. There is no retail counter, no online store for families, and we do not hold consignment stock on a school’s behalf — everything is quoted to the school, decorated in Glenfield and couriered. If what your board actually wants is somebody to run the whole parent-facing shop for you, we are not that supplier, and it is worth knowing that now rather than three emails in.
Questions
Questions schools ask before they order
If yours is not here, ask when you request a quote and you will get a straight answer.
Do parents order from you, or does the school?
The school. We quote and invoice the school, the PTA, or whoever holds the uniform contract, and we deliver the finished order to you in one go. We do not take individual orders from families and we do not run a parent-facing store, so if a parent contacts us we will point them back to the school. Schools order school uniforms from us in bulk and distribute them however they already do.
How much do school uniforms cost?
Every job is quoted. The garment, the decoration method and the quantity all move the number, so a stitched crest on 300 polos and a pressed house number on 40 PE tops are different jobs. You get one price per garment with the decoration already in it, given per size run, rather than a garment cost and a branding cost to add together. Send the crest and rough numbers and the quote usually comes back the same business day.
Can you match the crest we already use?
Yes. Send whatever artwork you have — a vector file is ideal, but a clean image works and we will tell you if it does not. If you want the placement to match what your current supplier does, post us one existing garment and we will measure the crest off it rather than guess. That way the first order off our machine sits where the ones already in the wardrobe sit.
Is there a minimum order?
No. A whole school or a box of twenty. Larger runs price better per unit because the setup is spread further, but there is no minimum quantity. A very small order does carry a handling charge, for the same reason the per-unit price moves: setting the machine up and running it takes much the same work for ten garments as for a hundred. The charge is on your quote before you commit to anything.
Should the crest be embroidered or printed?
Embroidered for anything worn daily — polos, hoodies, jackets. Thread survives the wash cycle a school uniform actually goes through, and a stitched crest normally outlasts the garment. Print is the better answer for PE gear with names and numbers on it, for house colours, and for artwork with more colour in it than thread can sensibly carry. Caps and sun hats are embroidered only: a flat heat press cannot sit evenly on a curved, seamed crown, and we do not have a cap press yet. We press every transfer here on our own heat press; the transfers themselves are printed for us by a trusted partner.
How long does a school order take?
Typically 5–21 working days from artwork approval — quick for a repeat run off a file we already hold, longer for a new crest that has to be set up first. The honest advice is not to start the January order in January. A crest set up in October is a re-run in January instead of a new job, and that is the single biggest thing a school can do to make the wave land on time.
Can we add new starters mid-year?
Yes, and it is a normal order rather than a favour. Once your crest is set up, a top-up run uses the same setup at the same size, so a dozen polos in June match the three hundred from January. There is no repeat setup fee on a reorder of the same gear — the handling charge on a very small run still applies, and it is shown on the quote.
Can someone from the school come in and collect the order?
No. We are a service-area business — the workshop is in Glenfield and there is no counter, so there are no walk-ins and nothing is collected in person. Orders start with a message or a phone call, artwork comes over email, and the finished uniforms are couriered to the school, anywhere in the country.
Send us the crest and the numbers
Usually same-business-day replies, Mon–Fri. Getting it set up early is the whole trick.