Restocking Branded Kit for Events

Event kit can be reordered at any time on the same 10 to 15 working day build, with the same 50-piece minimum per design. What a second run will not guarantee is an exact dye lot match with the first. For a season with several dates, that usually argues for one larger order at the start rather than two smaller ones.

Can you reorder mid-season?

Yes, provided the calendar allows it. Six weeks from enquiry to kit in hand is the realistic figure, and a festival season rarely leaves six clear weeks between dates. Check the gap before you rely on a restock. The events and festivals page covers what tends to run out first, and the wholesale page sets out how a repeat is quoted.

Artwork already on file removes most of the preparation, so a restock moves faster at the front end. It is the production window and transit that cannot be compressed, and those are the bulk of the six weeks.

Will a second run match the first on colour?

It will be very close. Fabric is dyed in batches, and two batches of the same reference can differ by a shade that is invisible on its own and noticeable side by side. On a crew standing in a line at a gate, side by side is exactly how people see it.

Where matching matters, the options are to order the whole season at once, to give the newer batch to a distinct group such as the bar team, or to accept the variation on a garment where nobody is looking closely. Our post on reordering the same design later explains which parts of a specification carry forward exactly and which do not.

What is worth keeping on file between events?

Whatever you will not remember in eleven months, which is more than you think.

• The garment reference and colour name, not just the word you used in conversation.
• Decoration method, artwork dimensions in millimetres and the exact print position.
• Ink or thread references, which are the difference between close and identical on the branding.
• The final size split and, separately, what actually sold or got issued.
• One unworn piece from the run, kept as a physical reference for the next order.

Is it better to overorder once or restock twice?

For anything recurring, one larger order usually wins. It arrives in a single dye lot, it takes one round of administration instead of two, and it reaches a better tier on the discount curve, which steps at 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1,000 pieces and tops out at 35% off the entry rate.

The argument for restocking is cash flow and uncertainty. If you genuinely do not know whether the second date will happen, buying stock for it is a risk rather than a saving. The honest test is whether the surplus has a use if the event does not recur, and for crew kit with a plain mark, it generally does.

Keep the design free of dates and years to protect that flexibility. Dated merch cannot be carried forward at all, which forces a restock decision every single edition and guarantees that anything unsold is a write-off. Our sizing guide for events covers how to size that first run so the surplus lands in the sizes you will actually use.

Store what is left over properly. Garments that spend the winter in a damp portacabin come out creased and unsellable, which turns carried-forward stock into a write-off after all. Boxed by size, kept dry and logged on one sheet, the same stock opens the next edition with the stall already half full. That sheet is also the quickest way to work out what the following order actually needs.