Group and team embroidery orders: collecting sizes and names without a spreadsheet

The fastest way to run a team or group embroidery order is to stop collecting sizes yourself. Give the group one link where each person picks their own size, types their own name, and pays for their own piece, then close it on a set date and stitch only what was paid for.

Everything that goes wrong with a group order comes from the opposite setup: one person texting you a list, a spreadsheet that changes after you ordered blanks, and a stack of people who said they'd pay at pickup.

Pick the product before anyone picks a size

Decide the design first, then the garment and its colors. Open the order only after that. If people start sending sizes while the hoodie is still a maybe, half of them will change their answer when it turns into a crewneck. Lock the style, then collect sizes.

Keep the choices small. When I run a school or club drop, I pick about three pieces, not a menu of everything I can stitch. Every extra choice is another question in your inbox and another blank you have to stock in every size.

Let each person enter their own size and name

The person organizing the group is not your order form. When an organizer collects twenty names in a text thread, you get nicknames, missing last names, and "Kaitlyn or Katelyn?" at 10 p.m. the night before you stitch.

Have each person type their own name, exactly as it should be stitched. It is their name, so they are the one most likely to spell it right. Put the spelling question in the same place they choose their size, so nobody has to come back to you later.

Give them a real size chart. Charts that show the measurements of the finished garment work better than charts based on body measurements, and a firm date gets far more answers than "as soon as you can" (Team Spirit Sports). Link the garment maker's own chart for the exact blank you are using, in inches (ooShirts, collecting sizes for group orders).

If someone asks how a sweatshirt fits, answer for the blank they are buying. Gildan Heavy Blend runs true to size with a relaxed, boxy fit, and Comfort Colors is boxy but close to true to size. I never tell anyone to size down.

Set one close date and keep it

A group order needs one date when it stops taking orders. Without it, the order is never finished. You end up buying blanks in two or three rounds.

Work backward from when the group needs the pieces. Plan for the open window, then the days it takes your blanks to arrive, then your stitching time, then a few days of cushion. One group order company suggests building in a two to three week buffer just for collecting and fixing orders, with a reminder three days before the deadline and a last one the day before (ooShirts).

When the date passes, the order is closed. The person who asks on day eight can be the first one in the next round.

Get paid when they order, not at pickup

Every person pays for their own piece when they place it. A spot is saved by paying, not by saying "count me in." This is the rule that keeps a group order from turning into a collections job, because "I'll pay you when I pick it up" means you bought and stitched a blank for someone who might never come.

There is one common exception: a coach, a company, or a parent group pays for the whole team. In that case the individual people still pick their own size and type their own name, but nobody pays at signup. You bill the organizer for the total. Treat that like any business account, with a deposit to start and the balance before delivery. I explain both setups in deposits and payment policies.

How to price a group order

Price each piece the way you would price one piece, and add the one-time costs once. There is no volume discount on stitching in my shop, because every piece still takes the same stitches and the same hooping. What a group does save is the one-time work.

My formula for a sweatshirt is the blank times two, plus $1.50 per thousand stitches, plus $5 per hooping, plus a $5 buffer for the back-and-forth. On a group order the buffer is charged once per product, not once per person, because twenty people buying the same crewneck is one conversation. A new logo carries a $30 digitizing fee, charged once for the whole group.

Here is a real example: a left chest logo of about 10,000 stitches on a Gildan Heavy Blend crewneck. A $9 blank doubled is $18. The stitches are $15 and one hooping is $5, so each piece is $38. For a group of 20, the one-time costs are the $30 digitizing and one $5 buffer, which is $35 spread across 20 people, or $1.75 each. That makes $39.75. I round group prices up to the next whole dollar, so it's $40 per person.

A name on the sleeve is its own placement. A five to seven letter name runs about 2,000 stitches, which is $3. The extra hooping is $5, so the sleeve name adds $8 to that person's piece. If you want help with the per-piece number, the embroidery pricing calculator runs the same math.

If the order is a fundraiser, add the group's share on top of your price instead of taking it out of your stitching. Your piece price stays your piece price.

Batch the stitching by garment, color, and size

Once the order closes, don't stitch in the order people signed up. Sort every paid piece by garment, then color, then size, so you hoop the same blank over and over without stopping to change thread or swap stabilizer.

Keep each line tied to a person's name. Bag each finished piece with the name on it as it comes off the machine, so handing them out is a matter of reading labels, not matching sizes from memory.

Before anything gets stitched, check every name against what the person typed. A team order is twenty chances to misspell a name. I cover who pays when one slips through in embroidery remakes and misspelled names.

Give the organizer a way to check without asking you

The organizer will want to know who has ordered. They will ask you every day unless they can see it for themselves. Give them a read-only view of who is in: names, items, and sizes. Leave out everyone's email and phone number, because the organizer doesn't need them to chase their own team.

Decide up front how the pieces get to people. Either everyone picks up from you, or the whole order ships to the organizer, who hands them out. Pick one per order and say it on the order page, so nobody asks.

How Broidry handles group orders

I built group orders into Broidry because I was tired of running them out of a spreadsheet. You turn one of your products into a group order, set the price per person, the close date, and whether pieces are picked up from you or shipped to the organizer, then share one link.

Each person opens that link, picks their size, fills in their own personalization, and pays to lock their spot. If the organizer is paying for everyone, you switch the group so nobody is charged at signup, and Broidry shows you the total to bill. You can set a dollar minimum and watch how close the group is to it. The order closes itself on the close date.

The organizer gets their own link that shows who is in, with names, items, and sizes and no contact information. When the order closes, the production sheet lists only the confirmed spots, sorted by garment, color, and size, with each person's name and stitched text on their line. If you're comparing this to running the same order on a form and a stack of invoices, I wrote up Broidry vs Google Forms and Broidry vs spreadsheets.

The short version

Lock the product first. Send one link where each person picks their own size, types their own name, and pays for their own piece. Close it on a set date. Price each piece the way you would price one, and charge digitizing and your buffer once for the whole group. Stitch in batches by garment, color, and size. Bag each piece by name. Let the organizer check the list for themselves.