Wholesale hats, gloves, scarves

November 20, 2014 7:18 AM

I need to purchase multiple sets of hats, gloves, and scarves. Not a business but this is for a volunteer effort on behalf of a business. Where do I start?

It'd be simpler if the three articles were together but not necessary. We can take care of that. I am not a business, although this is for a volunteer effort on behalf of the company I work for. I'm in the US, in the Midwest. My cohort is covering K-Mart, Target, and Walmart. Are there any other venues that I should be looking for? Typing in 'wholesale hats gloves scarves' into Google brings me a lot of bad feelings.

This is going to be for an effort to give them to needy families and while there's no way we can buy enough for all the people this organization can reach, I'd obviously like to be as cost effective as possible. I volunteered to spearhead this but I have no idea where to start.

posted by trogdole to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (13 answers total)

Just to clarify - the situation is that you represent [Business], and [Business] wants to buy up a whole crapton of hats, gloves, and scarves and donate them somewhere?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:35 AM on November 20, 2014

Dollar stores! I pick up very serviceable stretchy knit beanie hats at my local dollar store for $1.09. They also have cheap gloves and scarves. I usually by three or four hats in different colours. Different stores will have different qualities though so you may have to visit several.
posted by carter at 7:38 AM on November 20, 2014

blankshirts.com might be a good option. Their prices go down as you order a greater volume, and I see hates, gloves, and scarves in their "Headwear & Accessories" section.
posted by Area Man at 8:03 AM on November 20, 2014

Is this some kind of holiday-season "coats for kids" type of deal? Are you working with a recognized charitable nonprofit? A decent number of businesses of all sizes will donate goods to your drive (even through you) if you can say "they're going to NonprofitX to be distributed to kids in our community". (NonprofitX might even be small, like a PTO.)

Otherwise, honestly, purchasing in bulk at Walmart or Old Navy is likely your best bet.
posted by anastasiav at 8:28 AM on November 20, 2014

We just had an event at a zoo and gave away 500 glove / hat combos. My staff just go around to every single dollar store and buy them out.
posted by bleucube at 8:55 AM on November 20, 2014

Would something like this work? I've never used that site but you might see others, I searched for "hat scarf glove gift set bulk".
posted by cabingirl at 8:57 AM on November 20, 2014

Or this from Dollar Tree, where you could buy a case of assorted items and put them together in sets, although they may not all match...
posted by cabingirl at 9:00 AM on November 20, 2014

You mentioned cost effective but can I also suggest maybe not buying the absolute cheapest possible things and and definitely not those crappy "magic gloves"? I know it's a trade off with helping as many people as possible (also accommodating different sizes of heads and hands, etc etc), but it might be nice for your recipients to get something that's not obviously DOLLAR STORE HANDOUT.
posted by yeahlikethat at 9:17 AM on November 20, 2014 [9 favorites]

i dont know about this particular source, but i know that army surplus gloves like these are the best cheap gloves i've ever had.
posted by thug unicorn at 10:56 AM on November 20, 2014

When you say your cohort is "covering K-Mart, Target, and Walmart", do you mean "driving around and buying what's on the shelves" or "calling their corporate giving office or store manager and explaining that you plan to purchase in bulk for a charitable project"? The latter option (calling the office) is likely to yield better results than driving around, buying up lots of items individually. For one thing, it's probably cheaper for you; for another, you may end up with access to more stock than they have readily available to consumers.

In addition to trying K-Mart, Target, and Walmart, you might also call management at department stores (Kohl's, Macy's, TJ Maxx). Explain that your business is looking to purchase 100 hat/glove/scarf sets to donate as part of a corporate charity event. You might get a steep discount in exchange for acknowledging the generosity of the store, depending on the marketing profile of your company and of the giving event.
posted by crush-onastick at 12:10 PM on November 20, 2014

Response by poster: Yes, business wants to purchase multiple items to donate to a charity. We could look into asking business to donate but I believe that would not fly per our corporate office. The Dollar Tree option looks good.

Crush, yes my cohort is calling, explaining situation, and asking for the best deals and options for this situation.

Yeahlikethat, I actually clicked on the magic gloves before rereading your comment. Are they that terrible? I haven't purchased those for myself at all.

Thanks for all the help so far!
posted by trogdole at 12:35 PM on November 20, 2014

Magic gloves fit children and adults with small hands. Large women's hands and medium to large men's hands don't fit in them very well.
posted by cabingirl at 1:07 PM on November 20, 2014

Those really cheapo thin gloves don't really provide any warmth.
posted by bleep at 5:35 PM on November 20, 2014