GoFlour: a polo for a bakery with a conscience
GoFlour calls itself Pakistan's first bakery with a conscience: an artisan bakery and café in Lahore, founded in 2019, that trains women from low-income backgrounds in baking and employs them in its kitchens and counters — at Gulberg, in the malls of DHA, and in the Mohalla Bakery inside Delhi Gate in the Walled City. The team's uniform is a black full-sleeve polo shirt we make in our own factory across town, in polyester mesh, with the GoFlour mark embroidered on the front and the back.
- 2019
- The year GoFlour opened
- 4
- Locations across Lahore
- Mesh
- Breathable polyester, oven-side
- Front + back
- Embroidered mark
Who they are
An artisan bakery — sourdough, croissants, cakes, breakfast and lunch — that exists to do two things at once: bake well, and give women who have had few chances a trade and a wage. The bakery trains them and then employs them, and the Mohalla Bakery in the Walled City adds a free community training kitchen to the model. Every counter is staffed by people the business taught. The uniform they wear is part of that: it is the same for the trainee on her first week and the head baker, and it has to look as considered as the bread.
The brief
One polo for kitchen and counter, in black, with the GoFlour mark on the front and again on the back. Full sleeves, for a bakery: ovens on one side, a customer on the other, and a garment that has to be worn buttoned and neat for a whole day in front of people. It had to be cool enough to work beside an oven in, wash every day without fading or shrinking, and carry an embroidered logo that would not crack the way a print would after a month of hot washes.
What was made
| Staff polo shirt | |
|---|---|
| Garment | Full-sleeve polo shirt, regular fit |
| Fabric | Polyester mesh knit |
| Collar and cuffs | Knitted collar and cuffs |
| Colour | Black |
| Decoration | Embroidered mark, front and back |
| What it had to survive | Oven heat, flour, daily washing, a customer's eye across the counter |
Why mesh, and why full sleeves
A bakery is a hot workplace with a public face. A cotton piqué polo — the classic uniform polo — is the right garment for an office or a hotel lobby, and the wrong one beside a deck oven: it holds heat, it shows flour, and daily hot washing takes the colour out of black cotton within a season. A polyester mesh knit breathes through the fabric itself, dries in an hour, keeps a true black through hot washing, and does not shrink, so the polo a baker is issued in March fits the same in September. A knitted collar and cuffs keep the polo looking like a polo — structured, buttoned, neat — rather than a tee.
Full sleeves rather than short: partly the look GoFlour wanted, closer to a chef's jacket than a café tee, and partly practical, for arms that go in and out of ovens all day. The mark is embroidered rather than printed, on the front and the back, because embroidery on a garment washed daily lasts the life of the garment and a print does not.
How it lives now
On the counter at Gulberg, in the kitchen at Delhi Gate, on the trainees and on the bakers — one polo, one colour, the same on everyone. When the next intake of trainees starts, the same polo is cut from the specification on file, with the embroidery file and the sizing already there. A uniform is a small part of what GoFlour does, but it is the part a customer sees first, and it should look like the rest of the business: deliberate.
Get this for your own café or bakery
Café and bakery staff uniforms — polos, tees, aprons, caps — from a uniform manufacturer in Lahore, Pakistan, for a single shop or a group. This is how the order runs.
Tell us the roles and the headcount
Which roles wear what, roughly how many people, and whether there are several branches. A colour-coded system needs about two minutes to describe and is most of the brief.
We propose garments, colours and decoration
Crewnecks, quarter-zips, polos, tees — from our own range of premium blanks or cut and sewn to your pattern, in stock colours or a colour of your own from a 300-piece dye lot. A digital mockup on the real garment comes back with the quote, usually within 24 hours.
Sample, then production
A pre-production sample is free with any production order once the deposit is received; nothing is cut before you approve it in writing. Decorated stock garments run as fast as 7–10 days; cut-and-sew 10–14 working days; a large programme is scheduled in batches by role.
Delivery, and every reorder after
Nationwide across Pakistan, and by air or sea to the UK, the US, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Australia and Germany with duties quoted up front. Your specification, embroidery files and size grading stay on file, so a new store or a new hire gets the same garment.
Café and bakery uniforms — questions this case study raises
- What is the best fabric for bakery and café staff polos?
- Polyester mesh for anyone who works beside heat: it breathes, dries fast, holds colour through daily hot washing and does not shrink. Cotton piqué for front-of-house roles with a gentler laundry.
- Can you make full-sleeve polo shirts?
- Yes — full-sleeve and short-sleeve polos, with a knitted collar and cuffs, in mesh, piqué or poly-cotton, cut and sewn in Lahore from 50 pieces.
- Is embroidery or printing better for a café uniform?
- Embroidery — it outlasts the garment under daily washing. Print is for large designs on garments washed less often.
- What is the minimum order for café uniforms?
- 50 pieces per design, mixed sizes freely, with 30 per stock colour. A single café with a small team can combine sizes within the 50.
- How long does a café uniform order take?
- As fast as 7–10 days for decorated stock garments and 10–14 working days for cut-and-sew pieces, from approved sample.
- Do you make uniforms for cafés outside Lahore?
- Yes — nationwide across Pakistan, and export to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the UK, the US, Canada and Australia with duties quoted up front.
What GoFlour used
Restaurant and café uniforms
The fabric and method choices for people who work in heat.
Uniforms for a café or bakery?
Tell us the roles, the headcount and how hot it gets. We will specify the fabric, show you the polo on a mockup, and make the sample before anything else is cut.
Get a quote