Buying blank hoodies in bulk is simpler than most first-time buyers expect. There is no complicated trade program and no factory lead time to navigate. You are buying cartons off a warehouse shelf. But there are five or six decisions to make in the right order, and getting them wrong is what leaves people with stock they cannot sell.
Here is the sequence.
Step 1: Decide what the hoodies are for
This determines everything downstream, so start here.
- Resale as blanks. You need color variety and a size scale matched to your customers.
- Screen printing or embroidery. You need consistent fleece weight, dependable color matching between reorders, and mostly black, heather grey and white.
- Uniforms or workwear. You need size availability at the top end and the ability to reorder the identical garment months later.
- A merch or clothing line. You need one garment you can commit to, because changing base blanks mid-run is visible to customers.
Step 2: Understand the case pack
Wholesale fleece ships by the carton, not the piece. The standard carton is 24 pieces, or two dozen. Youth outerwear often ships 12.
Twenty-four is a deliberate number. It is small enough that a single shop can carry several colors without a warehouse, and large enough to hold real per-piece pricing. The relevant question is not the carton size, it is the minimum order. Ask whether you can buy a single carton or whether there is a floor.
We ship single cartons. There is no minimum beyond one case.
Step 3: Choose assorted sizes or single size
Every carton comes one of two ways.
Assorted size scale means a spread across sizes in one carton, typically six small, six medium, six large and six extra large. It is the simple option and it works well for a first order when you do not yet know your customers.
Single size per carton means all 24 pieces are one size. This is the sharper tool once you know your sell-through, because it lets you build any scale you want instead of accepting an average. We cover this properly in hoodie size scales and case packs explained.
Step 4: Pick colors, one per case
Every carton we ship is a single color. That means you buy exactly what you intend to sell or print, rather than buying four colors to get the one you needed.
For a first order, weight it conservatively:
- Roughly half in black and heather grey. These never stop selling and they are the standard print bases.
- Roughly a quarter in white and light neutrals like oatmeal or tan. These double as your decorating canvas.
- The remainder in fashion colors. This is where impulse margin lives, and also where leftovers come from.
The full range is on the adult pullover hoodies page.
Step 5: Check the quality spec before the price
Three things on a listing actually change what you can sell:
- Fleece weight. Ounces per square yard. Most wholesale fleece runs 7.5 oz to 12 oz. Nine ounce is the workhorse: substantial enough to feel like value in a customer hand, light enough to sell in September and April rather than only in January.
- Blend. 80/20 cotton-poly is the safe middle. The cotton gives you hand and print surface, the polyester controls shrinkage and holds shape through washing. Higher polyester costs less, shrinks less, and takes ink differently.
- First quality. The spec people skim and the one that costs most when it is missing. First quality means the goods passed inspection, with no irregulars or mill flaws mixed into the carton.
Step 6: Work out your landed cost
The case price is not what the hoodies cost you. Add freight spread across the piece count, and if you are printing, add a spoilage allowance. A $192 carton with $30 of freight is $9.25 a piece before you account for anything else.
The full calculation is in what a case of blank hoodies really costs.
What a sensible first order looks like
For most buyers testing a new supplier, three to five cartons is enough to learn something without committing real money. A common opening order:
- Two cartons of black, assorted sizes
- One carton of heather grey
- One carton of white
- One carton of big and tall in your best-selling color
That is roughly 120 pieces and enough data to buy properly the second time.
Reordering is the part that matters
The supplier question that actually determines whether you make money is not price. It is whether you can get the identical garment, in the identical color, six weeks from now, inside a few days. If you cannot, you cannot take the repeat order, and repeat orders are where the margin is.
Ask directly: is this in your warehouse right now, and does it ship today? We hold stock in Old Bridge, New Jersey and ship same day across the continental U.S. More on how we operate is on why Jon Lauren.
Call 732-254-7400 and we will walk a first order through with you. Family run since 1981.