The Beginner's Guide to Ordering Custom Embroidered Work Uniforms

So you've decided it's time to get your team into proper uniforms. Good call. Branded workwear does a lot of heavy lifting for a business — it makes your team look professional, builds brand recognition, and honestly just makes everyone look like they actually belong there.

But if you've never ordered custom embroidered uniforms before, the process can feel a bit overwhelming. How many do you order? What garments? What goes where? How long does it take?

We've put together this guide to walk you through the whole thing, start to finish.

Step 1: Work Out What You Actually Need

Before you touch anything else, get clear on the basics:

• How many staff need uniforms? Count heads and sizes. Don't forget to order a few spares for new starters.
• What roles do you need to cater for? A front-of-house team might need polos and shirts, while a warehouse team might need something more durable. Different roles sometimes need different garments.
• How many pieces per person? Most businesses do two or three per staff member so there's always a clean one ready.
• Do you need consistency across locations? If you've got multiple sites, make sure you're ordering the same garments and colours so everyone matches.

Step 2: Choose the Right Garments

Garment choice matters a lot. The wrong fabric or fit for your environment and your uniforms will look tired within a few months, no matter how good the embroidery is.

Polos

The go-to for most business uniforms. Clean, professional, comfortable, and they sit perfectly with an embroidered chest logo. Great for retail, hospitality, trade businesses, and corporate environments. Look for pique cotton or moisture-wicking performance fabric depending on whether your team is in an office or out in the field.

T-Shirts

More casual but still totally sharp with embroidery. Great for trades, gyms, events, and businesses where the dress code is a bit more relaxed. Go for a heavier weight cotton if you want them to last — avoid anything too thin as it doesn't embroider as cleanly.

Hoodies and Fleece

Brilliant for outdoor teams, hospitality staff working in cooler environments, or anyone who just wants a practical layering piece that still looks branded. Embroidery on fleece looks absolutely premium.

Softshell and Work Jackets

If your team works outdoors or in cold environments, a good branded jacket is worth every cent. Embroidery on the chest and optionally the back gives these a really sharp, professional finish.

Caps

Often overlooked but genuinely one of the best items to embroider. A structured cap with a well-digitised logo looks incredible and is something your team will actually wear outside of work too — free walking billboard, cheers.

Step 3: Nail Your Logo Placement

The most common placements for workwear are:

• Left chest — the standard. Sits right over the heart and reads naturally to anyone you're talking to. Perfect for most logos.
• Right chest — less common but sometimes used for a name or secondary branding element alongside a left chest logo.
• Back — great for trade businesses, outdoor companies, or anywhere you want your brand visible from a distance. Often used with a larger version of the logo or the business name in bold.
• Sleeve — a subtle extra touch that works really well on jackets and hoodies.
• Cap front — dead centre on a structured cap. This is the classic placement and it almost always looks great.

You don't need to use every placement. One well-placed, properly digitised logo is more effective than five small ones crammed all over the garment.

Step 4: Sort Your Artwork

You'll need to provide us with your logo to get the embroidery digitised. The best formats are vector files (AI, EPS, SVG, or PDF). If you only have a PNG or JPG, that's okay — just make sure it's high resolution (300dpi or better).

If your logo is super detailed or has a lot of fine lines and tiny text, have a chat with us first. Embroidery has a minimum practical size for legibility and we'll give you an honest heads up if anything needs to be simplified.

Step 5: Get Your Quote

Head to wholesale.rkthreads.com, select your garments, enter your quantities, upload your logo, and note your placement preferences. We'll come back to you with a full itemised quote within one business day.

Pricing includes a one-off digitising fee for your logo (which you never pay again on re-orders) and a per-unit embroidery cost that gets more competitive as your quantity goes up.

Step 6: Approve Your Proof

Before a single stitch goes in, we'll send you a digital proof showing exactly how your logo will look — size, placement, thread colours. You approve it, then we go into production.

Don't skip reviewing your proof carefully. This is your last chance to catch anything before it goes onto your garments.

Step 7: Receive Your Order and Look Like a Proper Business

Your order ships within 10 business days of proof approval. Unbox it, hand out the uniforms, stand back and appreciate how much more professional your team looks. That's the RK Threads guarantee.

Ready to Get Started?

Get your uniform quote started today at wholesale.rkthreads.com. Whether it's 10 polos or 200 jackets, we'll sort you out.