Ordering Jackets & Outerwear for Summer Events
By The Velocity Wear Team
For jackets delivered in May or June, order in March. Production takes 10 to 15 working days once artwork is approved, transit is added afterwards, and the approval stage usually eats a week. March leaves a genuine buffer, which matters more for events than for anything else, because an event date does not move and there is no second chance at it.
When do you order for a May or June delivery?
Count back from the first day crews are on site rather than from the public opening, since staff kit is needed during the build days. From that date, allow a week for distribution, then transit, then the full fifteen working days, then five days for artwork and proofing. That lands in March for a May event and in late March or early April for June. If you are sampling first, add the round trip on top, which pushes the start into February. The order structure is on the wholesale jackets page.
Which outerwear earns its place at a summer event?
Light, packable and visible. A coach jacket is the natural summer choice: unlined, easy to print large, and the sort of thing a crew member can tie round their waist for eight hours. An unlined softshell suits a crew working outdoors through a British June, where the weather does not consult the calendar. Heavy padded styles are the wrong call for this season, whatever the discount looks like, because they will not be worn and they cost the most to ship. The weight question is covered in midweight versus heavyweight on jackets.
How do you budget a summer run?
Decide first whether the jackets are crew kit or merchandise, because that changes everything else. Crew kit is counted to the headcount with a handful of spares, decorated simply, and judged on whether it lasts the season. Merchandise is a stock buy and needs a size curve weighted to the middle. Either way the minimum is 50 pieces per design, sizes mixed as you like, with the discount growing to a ceiling of 35% off the 50-piece price as quantity rises through the bands on the pricing page.
What goes wrong with a late summer order?
The same three things every time. Artwork arrives as a low-resolution image and needs rebuilding, which costs days nobody had. A second colourway is added after approval and starts its own build, arriving after the event. Or the jackets ship to a venue rather than an office and nobody is there to sign for them. All three are avoidable at the front of the process and none of them are fixable at the end of it. Booking the order in March rather than April is what buys the room to absorb any of them.
Is it worth sampling for an event?
If the jackets are being sold to attendees, yes. A sample is £150 and is credited against the bulk order, and the samples page explains how that works. It tells you how the shell actually feels and whether the print sits properly, which is the difference between a garment people keep and one they leave behind. For repeat events where the style has been used before, a reorder from the held files is usually enough, and reordering wholesale jackets in colour covers what to watch between batches.
