diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 4475bc9b0..2de3ee595 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -59,7 +59,8 @@ deploy:
     user: anthrotype
     password:
       secure: Dz3x8kh4ergBV6qZUgcGVDOEzjoCEFzzQiO5WVw4Zfi04DD8+d1ghmMz2BY4UvoVKSsFrfKDuEB3MCWyqewJsf/zoZQczk/vnWVFjERROieyO1Ckzpz/WkCvbjtniIE0lxzB7zorSV+kGI9VigGAaRlXJyU7mCFojeAFqD6cjS4=
-    distributions: "sdist bdist_wheel"
+    skip_cleanup: true
+    distributions: pass
     on:
       tags: true
       repo: fonttools/fonttools
diff --git a/.travis/before_deploy.sh b/.travis/before_deploy.sh
index 9e983d7d7..1ded8f0f9 100755
--- a/.travis/before_deploy.sh
+++ b/.travis/before_deploy.sh
@@ -3,7 +3,13 @@
 set -e
 set -x
 
-if [[ $BUILD_DIST == true ]]; then
-	python -m pip install --upgrade wheel
-	python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
+# build sdist and wheel distribution packages in ./dist folder.
+# Travis runs the `before_deploy` stage before each deployment, but
+# we only want to build them once, as we want to use the same
+# files for both Github and PyPI
+if $(ls ./dist/fonttools*.zip > /dev/null 2>&1) && \
+		$(ls ./dist/fonttools*.whl > /dev/null 2>&1); then
+	echo "Distribution packages already exists; skipping"
+else
+	tox -e bdist
 fi
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e4d699eb1..a6e2e7867 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -239,6 +239,26 @@ class release(Command):
 		return u"".join(changes)
 
 
+class PassCommand(Command):
+	""" This is used with Travis `dpl` tool so that it skips creating sdist
+	and wheel packages, but simply uploads to PyPI the files found in ./dist
+	folder, that were previously built inside the tox 'bdist' environment.
+	This ensures that the same files are uploaded to Github Releases and PyPI.
+	"""
+
+	description = "do nothing"
+	user_options = []
+
+	def initialize_options(self):
+		pass
+
+	def finalize_options(self):
+		pass
+
+	def run(self):
+		pass
+
+
 setup(
 	name="fonttools",
 	version="3.4.1.dev0",
@@ -272,6 +292,7 @@ setup(
 	},
 	cmdclass={
 		"release": release,
+		'pass': PassCommand,
 	},
 	**classifiers
 )
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 0e8d76270..5ccdd2093 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -44,3 +44,23 @@ ignore_outcome = true
 commands =
     coverage combine
     codecov --env TOXENV
+
+[testenv:bdist]
+basepython = {env:TOXPYTHON:python3.5}
+deps =
+    setuptools
+    wheel
+skip_install = true
+install_command =
+    # make sure we use the latest setuptools and wheel
+    pip install --upgrade {opts} {packages}
+whitelist_externals =
+    rm
+commands =
+    # clean up build/ and dist/ folders
+    rm -rf {toxinidir}/dist
+    python setup.py clean --all
+    # build sdist
+    python setup.py sdist --dist-dir {toxinidir}/dist
+    # build wheel from sdist
+    pip wheel -v --no-deps --no-index --wheel-dir {toxinidir}/dist --find-links {toxinidir}/dist fonttools