Nearly one-third of new hires quit within their first six months, according to SHRM. The welcome kit is a small part of that first stretch. But it is the part your vendor controls, and a weak vendor shows up there first, as a kit that lands a week after the start date or a hoodie in the wrong size.
We already wrote about what goes in a kit people actually keep. This post is about the step before that: picking who makes it.
The short answer
For employee onboarding kits, the best custom apparel and promotional products partner is one that does the decoration and the shipping under one roof. Every handoff between vendors adds a delay and a new place for mistakes. Compare vendors on four things: merchandise quality, fulfillment, ordering flexibility, and how they handle remote and hybrid hires.
The checklist
1. Trust the expert's picks
Ask the vendor which blanks and which decoration they would put in your kit, and why. A shop that decorates apparel every day knows which shirts keep their shape, which hoodies shrink, and which print method survives the wash on which fabric. A photo on a product page tells you none of that. A good vendor names specific garments and brands and explains the trade-offs at your budget. If the answer is "pick whatever you like from the catalog," they are handing the hard part back to you.
Branded merchandise only pays off if people keep it, and people keep what they use. In the ASI 2026 Ad Impressions Study, 78% of U.S. consumers said they would keep a promo item because it's useful. A thin tee that shrinks a size goes in a drawer, and your logo goes with it.
2. Find out who does the decoration
Some vendors take the order and send the printing out to someone else. Ask which methods they run in their own building and which they send out. If the embroidery goes to one shop and the tumblers to another, quality and timing are out of their hands, and out of yours.
3. Ask how fulfillment works after the first run
New hires show up a few at a time. A good vendor builds the kits once, keeps them as standing inventory, and ships one when you send a name and address. Ask where the kits are stored, how you see stock levels, and who plans the next run before the shelf is empty.
4. Test their ordering flexibility
Hiring plans change. Check the order minimum, any setup fees, and what a reorder of a few kits costs. Ask how sizes get collected. If the answer is "you email us a spreadsheet," someone on your team will be chasing sizes every month.
5. Make them explain remote and hybrid shipping
For most companies we work with, the kit goes to a home address, timed to a start date. Ask how they handle one shipment per person, tracking, and a confirmation when the kit leaves. Ask about hires outside the U.S. too. Usefulness travels: ASI's international results found 74% of consumers outside the U.S. would keep a promo item because it's useful.
Questions to ask a vendor
- Which decoration methods do you run in-house?
- Which blanks would you pick for our kit, and why?
- What is your order minimum, and are there setup fees?
- Where are finished kits stored, and how do I see stock levels?
- How fast does one kit ship after I send an address?
- How do new hires choose their sizes?
- Do I get tracking and a ship confirmation for each kit?
- Can you ship to a new hire in another country?
Red flags
- They can't tell you which building your items get decorated in.
- Every kit is a new production run, so each new hire waits on a full turnaround.
- No proof before production.
- Size changes and reorders of a few kits carry a rush fee.
- Shipping only to one office address.
How The Swan Brothers answers that list
Since 2009 we've run screen printing, embroidery, digital printing and laser engraving in-house at our Pittsfield, MA facility, and nothing is outsourced. The same building holds the warehouse and the fulfillment center. We carry over 20 major apparel brands and are one of only 80 authorized New Balance wholesale distributors in North America, so the corporate apparel in your kit can be a garment people want to wear.
Volume pricing starts at 12 units. There are no setup fees for decoration, production-ready artwork setup is included, and each design goes out as a proof before production. New hires pick their own sizes in an online swag store, which is free to set up.
Finished new hire welcome kits sit as standing inventory in Pittsfield. When you send a name and address, the kit ships to the new hire's home with tracking, in as few as 5 business days, and you get a confirmation when it leaves. Pre-built kits ship at standard rates with no rush charge. The Swan Brothers also ships internationally, so a remote hire abroad gets the same kit. The whole program is laid out on our employee onboarding page.
Next step
Take the vendor questions above to every promotional products partner on your list, including us. Then book a free 15-minute call with The Swan Brothers, bring your hiring forecast and your logo files, and we'll answer each question for your program.