Freshers Week Merchandise: A Guide for Societies and Unions
By The Velocity Wear Team
Order freshers merchandise before the summer break, not after it. Production runs around 10–15 working days from artwork approval plus 2–5 working days tracked UK delivery, and the committee placing the order usually disperses for three months in the middle of that window.
The Structural Problem With Student Orders
Societies face a difficulty that most buyers do not: the people organising the order often hand over to a new committee partway through, and everyone is unavailable over summer. That means an order left until August is being placed by people who were not part of the original decisions, against a deadline that is now weeks away. The societies that consistently get this right place orders in the previous term with the outgoing committee's knowledge intact.
Working Backwards From Freshers
The date is fixed and known a year in advance, which is an advantage worth using. Count back: delivery of 2–5 working days, production of 10–15 working days from artwork approval, plus a realistic allowance for proofing and for collecting the design decisions that precede it. Add buffer, because student orders reliably encounter a delay in approving artwork when the person responsible is unreachable.
Getting the Size Spread Right
This is where societies most often lose money.
- Order across the full range with mixed sizes allowed inside the 20-piece minimum, rather than guessing a narrow spread.
- Weight towards the middle of the range, but do not omit the extremes — a member who cannot get their size will not buy at all.
- Collect sizes with an actual size guide available. People consistently guess low, and hoodies in particular are often worn oversized.
- Order a small buffer. New members join after freshers, and there is always someone who missed the deadline.
Design That Lasts the Year
A society hoodie is worn for a whole academic year, often longer, so a design tied tightly to one event dates quickly. Society name, crest and year generally outlast a joke that was funny in September. If names are printed on the back — a common and popular choice — check every spelling against a confirmed list before approving artwork, because a misspelled name on a garment someone paid for is the complaint that lasts.
“"The society hoodie gets worn for two years. The joke on it stops being funny in about four weeks."”
Budget and Bulk Discounts
Bulk discounts reach up to around 40% as quantities rise, which creates a strong argument for consolidation. Several societies ordering separately each pay their own setup and land lower on the discount curve; a union coordinating a combined order across societies achieves a materially better per-piece cost. Where that is not possible, at least consolidate a single society's whole membership into one run rather than ordering in waves.
Run your actual quantity through the free instant price calculator before setting the price you charge members, so you are not discovering a shortfall after collecting money.
Handing Over Properly
Record what was ordered — garment code, colour, logo size and placement, print colours — and pass it to the next committee. Societies reorder the same hoodie for years, and a written specification means next year's version matches rather than approximates. Preview designs in the free Design Studio before approving so placement and scale are confirmed rather than assumed.