Company merch splits cleanly into two categories: the piece people quietly fight over when a coworker leaves, and the box of size-large tees that lives under the reception desk until an office move forces the question. Having run a few hundred corporate orders, we can tell you the difference is five decisions — all made before the order, none of them about budget.
First: order a physical proof, always. Every Foundry bulk order at 50 pieces and up includes one free, and the companies that skip it to save three days are the ones who discover their brand's navy reads purple on cotton. A proof in hand also settles internal debates in one meeting that swatch PDFs drag out for three.
Second: collect sizes, don't guess them. A one-question form to your team beats any distribution formula we could give you — and if you can't collect sizes, skew two sizes wider than instinct and pick a relaxed cut. Nobody complains that the company tee is slightly roomy; the too-small ones never leave the drawer.
Third: put the design decision where the wear decision happens. The logo-across-the-chest layout gets worn at the company picnic; the small-mark, good-blank version gets worn on weekends. If the goal is walking billboards, respect that people only become one voluntarily — subtle prints on garments people would have bought anyway outperform loud ones on cheap blanks every time we've seen it tested.
Fourth and fifth belong together: split-ship and calendar padding. If your team is remote, have us ship to homes instead of playing office-forwarding logistics — our 250+ tier includes it. And whatever event the merch is for, set your deadline a week before the real one. Not because we plan to miss ours — the on-time rates are published on the fulfillment page — but because the version of you who has a buffer gets to treat a carrier delay as trivia instead of a crisis.