Ordering Hoodies for Freshers
By The Velocity Wear Team
For hoodies on a stand in freshers week, order in July. Production takes 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval, delivery sits on top, and August is when committees are hardest to reach for a proof approval. Placing the order before the summer break leaves room for one revision round without touching the September date.
Why is July the deadline for a September arrival?
The build alone is up to three calendar weeks. Add transit, add the week or two it takes a committee to agree on a design, and add the fact that whoever holds the artwork file is probably away. Count those backwards from the first week of term and you land in July, not in late August.
There is a handover problem on top of the calendar. Committees change over the summer, so the person who starts the order is often not the person who receives it. Write down the garment weight, the fit, the colour reference and the size curve in one place before the handover, and the incoming committee can pick it up without starting again.
How do you take sizes from people who have not arrived yet?
You mostly do not, which is the central problem with a freshers order. New students are not on your list in July, so the first run is bought on judgement rather than on confirmed names.
The workable approach is to order a curve weighted to the middle for the stand, sell from stock in week one, and take names for a second run from the people who miss out. That second run goes in during October and arrives well inside the first term. Splitting it that way also avoids the classic outcome where a society buys deep in sizes nobody wanted. Practical curve-building is covered in apparel sizing and fit.
What design lasts beyond the first week?
The hoodies that still get worn in February have a society or course name and very little else. A design tied to a single year or a single event is worn once for a photograph. If you want the year on it, put it somewhere small.
Weight matters more than committees expect. A 280 GSM midweight is wearable indoors through the autumn, which is where most of the wearing happens. A 450 GSM heavyweight looks better on a stand and gets left in a room by November. Both sit in the 280 to 450 GSM brushed-back fleece range, and both start from $31 a piece at the 50-piece minimum.
How do you fund it without guessing?
Take pre-orders from returning members in June, before anyone leaves. That gives you a confirmed floor to build the July order around, and it means the stand is selling surplus rather than the whole run. The 50-piece minimum is per design, so one design across the whole society is far cheaper per piece than three variants.
Use the volume bands deliberately. They run from 50–99 upwards with a reduction of up to 35% at the highest quantities, listed on the pricing page, so a combined order across several societies beats several separate ones. Build the quote on the wholesale hoodies page, and if the committee wants to see and feel the garment before committing, the £150 sample credited against the bulk order is explained on the samples page.
