Ordering Jackets & Outerwear for Black Friday
By The Velocity Wear Team
Black Friday stock has to be in hand before the week starts, which for jackets means ordering in early October. Production runs 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval and transit follows it, so a late October order is already tight. Unlike a made-to-order drop, a promo week has a fixed date and no way to apologise your way past it.
When does stock need to be in hand?
A week before the promotion opens, at the latest. That buffer is not decorative: it covers counting the delivery, photographing the product properly, listing it, and dealing with whatever arrived slightly different from expected. Working back from there through transit, the fifteen working day production ceiling and the artwork approval stage puts the order in the first half of October. Anyone shipping into the USA or across Europe should add more, because November freight is congested everywhere.
How much should you commit before the promo?
More than a test and less than a bet. The minimum is 50 pieces per design, which is a reasonable first commitment on a style you have not sold before, and the discount bands reward going deeper if you have prior evidence of demand. The ladder runs from 50 to 99 pieces up to 1,000 and over, taking as much as 35% off the 50-piece price at the top. The thing to avoid is splitting a known requirement into two nervous orders, since the second one cannot be delivered inside the promo week anyway.
Which jacket sells through a promo week?
The one that is obviously worth its discounted price at a glance. Outerwear does well in a November promotion precisely because it is the season for it, and a padded jacket or a substantial softshell carries perceived value in a way a light layer does not. Keep the size range tight rather than complete: the extremes sell slowest and are the pieces you will still be holding in January. There is a fuller treatment of the curve in size splits for a bulk jacket order.
What happens to the leftovers?
Plan for them before you order rather than after. Jackets have the advantage of a long selling season, so unsold stock in December is still sellable in January and February, which is not true of a dated or event-specific garment. Avoid putting a year on the design for that reason. If the run does clear, a repeat can be placed immediately and the artwork files are already held, though the build window applies again from the new approval date. Details of the range are on the wholesale jackets page.
Is it worth sampling before a promo order?
For anything you are selling rather than giving away, yes. A customer who paid a discounted price still judges the garment on its zip, its lining and its stitching, and a complaint in the week after a promotion is expensive in refunds and reviews. A sample at £150, credited against the bulk order, buys you that check in September, which is exactly when there is still time to change the specification. The samples page covers how it works, and ordering jackets for Christmas sets out the next deadline after this one.
