Hoodies for Schools: size splits
By The Velocity Wear Team
Split a school hoodie order by asking the cohort, not by applying a standard curve. Sizes mix freely inside the 50-piece minimum, so there is no penalty for an unusual spread. The two things that decide the shape of the split are whether the hoodie is a classic or oversized fit, and whether pupils expect to wear it over uniform.
How should a year group be split across sizes?
Collect actual sizes from actual pupils. A form with the sizes listed and a sample garment available to try on beats a spreadsheet built from last year, because cohorts differ and fits differ between garments. Where a school genuinely cannot collect, the safe approach is to weight towards the middle and upward, since a hoodie that is slightly large is worn and one that is tight is not.
Run the collection once, with a deadline, and publish the deadline in the same letter that explains the price. Reopening it later is what breaks the timeline. The schools and leavers page covers what we need alongside the split, and the garment specifications on the wholesale hoodies page tell you which fits are available in each weight.
Does the fit change the split?
Completely. An oversized cut already carries extra room across the body and in the sleeve, so pupils who wear a medium in a classic fit often take a small in an oversized one. If you offer both fits in the same order, treat them as two separate collections rather than applying one set of numbers to both, or half the order will be wrong.
Weight matters too. A 280 GSM fleece sits closer to the body than a 450 GSM one, and the heavier garment feels a size bigger on the shoulder even when the measurements match. Say which weight the cohort is buying before you ask them to choose a size. Apparel sizing and fit goes through the measurement logic in more detail.
What about staff and spares?
Staff copies are usually a small block at the larger end, and they are worth ordering inside the same run rather than as an afterthought, because a separate order of staff hoodies is its own 50 pieces at the entry price band. Ask the tutor team for sizes in the same collection you run for pupils.
- Add two or three spares in the most common sizes rather than one of everything.
- Hold a couple of extra large pieces, which are the hardest to substitute if someone is missed.
- Note which pupils joined after the deadline, so next year the deadline can be set later.
- Record the final split in the school file, since it is the best predictor of the following cohort.
How do you avoid dead stock at the end?
Order the count you collected plus a small margin, and resist rounding up to a neat number. A year group of 118 does not need 150 hoodies, and the difference is not cheap stock, it is a box in a cupboard. If the count sits just under a discount band, the honest decision is whether the extra pieces have a use, not whether the unit price looks better.
Where a school does end up with leftovers, they are usually sold at a leavers event or kept as replacements for pupils who lose theirs. Neither is a disaster, but planning for it beats discovering it. A run that ends with three spare hoodies was sized properly, and that is the target.
