Actifwear Ltd supplies school uniforms to primary and secondary schools across the UK. From our factory in Market Harborough, we have long-standing relationships with a great many schools in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire but also with schools as far apart as Aberdeen and Plymouth.
Typical Uniform Items
The typical uniform items vary depending on the age of the kids and the requirements of the specific school.
- Primary Schools: T-shirts, Polo shirts, Sweatshirts, Cardigans, and Bookbags
- Secondary Schools: Shirts, Blazers, Trousers/Skirts and Ties
Common Decorations/Personalisation required by schools
The majority of school uniforms (and related items like book bags) are 'simply' (* see note below) embroidered with the school crest or logo. If the garment/item isn't suitable for logo embroidery then the logo will be printed using the most effective print technology (the most commonly used options are Screen Printing and Transfer Printing).
In some cases, personalisation is also requested on the garments - but this is much more common on orders for garments to be worn for extra-curricular activities than for core uniform items.
So, for example; hoodies, t-shirts, sweatshirts and polo shirts to be worn on school ski trips, geography field trips, sports tours, and overseas language/culture visits are frequently personalised with either name or nickname, sometimes both.
School Procurement / Buying Processes
In most cases, the schools buy the uniforms and sell them to the pupils. There are various methods of dealing with uniforms when the school is doing the buying.
Probably the most common is the School's Uniform Shop. Here the school keeps stock of all the uniform items within the school. When stocks are running low the school will order in bulk various garments and sizes. One significant benefit of this approach is that the students can try it on for size before they buy.
Another approach we see often is where the school collates the requirements for the pupils for the coming year and orders all of them at one time. This is particularly popular when personalisation is required because we can pack uniforms into named packs which makes it easier for the organiser to distribute on delivery.
However, some schools prefer to avoid any involvement in the administration of the actual purchase of uniforms and recommend that parents deal directly with Actifwear Ltd. In this case, the school will specify the garments and colours which are to be made available, provide the crest/logo to be added to the garments and agree on the bulk buy price with Actifwear. Actifwear then creates an online uniform shop specific to the school where the parents can select the garment(s) and sizes and specify the personalisation required (if any) and pay Actifwear directly.
Items such as Bookbags, Gym Sacs etc (where everything is the same size) are generally bought in bulk by the school.
*'Simply' Embroidered
We say 'simply' embroidered - however, the garment embroidery process isn't that simple.
The starting point is a digital representation of the logo or crest. Then we use a piece of specialist software which calculates how the embroidery can best be performed and counts the stitches necessary to achieve a high-quality crest or logo. Once finalised the software 'sends' the program to the embroidery machines.
The embroidery machines we utilise allow for up to 15 needles. That means up to 15 different coloured threads can be used. A crest with 15 threads is a rarity. Typically, we find 5 or 6 to be the maximum.
A frame/hoop is placed on each garment to be embroidered (with a piece of bio-degradable backing material behind it) and clamped underneath the needles. The hoop is centred on the middle of the decoration to be embroidered.
The embroidery is performed by the sewing machine, (a bit fancier than Grandma's old singer!), and Bob's your uncle!
Simple - probably not, but effective, good looking and long-lasting!