Drawstring packs are ordered by the hundred from thumbnail photos and judged by teenagers with boots. These four checks close the gap.

Check the corners first

The cord is the straps, so the whole load lands where the cord exits at the bottom corners. Reinforced means a webbing patch, bartacks and a grommet; unreinforced means a punched hole and a countdown.

No supplier photographs the corners by accident. Ask for the shot.

Ask for the denier

Fabric weight is a number — 210D for everyday duty, 600D for heavy loads. Listings that say ‘premium polyester’ without a number are usually hiding a lampshade.

Hold any sample up to a window; daylight through the panel is your answer.

Feel the cord

Round braided cord cinches one-handed and spares the channel; flat shoestring cord jams, saws and digs. It is a two-second touch test on any sample.

Cord type should be a stated spec. Ours is.

Match the print to the artwork

Screen print for bold logos and type — redrawn to panel scale where crests need it. All-over sublimation for designs that own the whole bag — proofed on the die line so seams land where you chose.

One method per artwork, chosen on purpose.

Then think in programmes

Schools reorder by roster, charities by chapter, franchises by location — and all of it should run off a held file so batches match.

The bag is simple; buying it well is a spec sheet, and now you have one.