Custom Apparel for Restaurants
Aprons, chef coats, and staff shirts that keep front- and back-of-house looking sharp and consistent.
What Restaurants Need From Branded Apparel
Short answer: apparel that survives kitchen conditions and frequent washing, while giving front-of-house a polished, consistent look guests notice.
Kitchen apparel gets heat, grease, and constant washing; front-of-house apparel needs to look sharp for every table. We treat these as two different problems, recommending garments and decoration methods suited to each.
Recommended Decoration Methods
- Embroidery — for polos, chef coats, and aprons — durable through commercial-kitchen laundering.
- Screen printing — cost-effective for staff tees and back-of-house shirts at higher headcounts.
Popular Garments
- Chef coats and aprons
- Front-of-house polos
- Back-of-house staff tees
Common Mistakes Restaurants Make With Branded Apparel
- Using the same apparel plan for front- and back-of-house. Kitchen apparel needs to survive heat, grease, and daily industrial laundering; front-of-house apparel is about presentation. Treating them as one order usually under-serves one side.
- Not budgeting for staff turnover. Restaurants have higher-than-average staff turnover — keeping the logo digitized and on file means new hires get branded apparel fast without repeating setup costs.
Who Approves This Purchase
Usually the owner or general manager — apparel decisions at most independent restaurants don't go through a formal purchasing process. What matters to that person: front-of-house apparel needs to survive the visual scrutiny of every guest interaction, back-of-house apparel needs to survive heat and grease, and neither should require re-approving artwork every time a server or line cook turns over.
Reorder Workflow for Staff Turnover
Restaurant staff turnover is higher than most industries — once your logo is digitized and on file, replacing a single departed employee's shirt or apron is a quick reorder, not a new project. Send us garment, size, and quantity; small reorders move faster than a full initial order since there's no digitizing step to repeat.