Ordering Jackets & Outerwear for Tour Season
By The Velocity Wear Team
Tour outerwear should be ordered around six weeks before the opening night. The build itself is 10 to 15 working days after artwork approval, but a tour adds two things a normal order does not: artwork that is still being argued over, and a delivery address that has to be somewhere stable rather than a venue. Fix both early and the jackets are on the table for show one.
How far ahead of the first date should the order go in?
Six weeks is a comfortable number and four is tight but workable. Inside that, the fixed block is production: 10 to 15 working days from approved artwork, not from the enquiry. Everything before approval is variable and is where tours lose time, because tour artwork usually needs a sign-off from more than one person. Everything after production is transit, which depends on whether the stock is going to a UK, US or European address. Our bulk jackets page covers the styles, and if the design is still unsettled a sample at £150, credited against the bulk order, lets the decision-makers hold one before the run is committed.
Which outerwear sells off a merch table?
Coach jackets are the obvious answer: loose, unlined, cheap to ship and forgiving on sizing, with a back panel that takes a full-width design. Varsity is the premium end and works when the artwork is a badge rather than a print. Puffer is a winter-run decision and adds bulk to every carton, which matters when stock travels in a van. Softshell is the least likely of the four on a merch table, though it earns its keep as crew kit. A split between one crew style and one audience style is a common shape for a tour order.
What happens if the routing changes after the order is placed?
Routing changes do not touch production, but they do touch delivery. Ship to a warehouse, a manager office or a home address rather than a venue, because a venue will not hold pallets and nobody signs for them. Once the stock is yours, moving it is your own logistics problem rather than a supplier deadline. Plan the split in advance: which cartons travel and which stay for online orders. How the cartons arrive, and what a size run per box actually means, is covered in how bulk jackets are packed.
How do you cover sizes you cannot predict?
A merch table has no size forms. You are guessing, so guess with weight in the middle of the run and accept that the ends will sell slowly. The minimum is 50 pieces per design and sizes inside it mix freely, which means one design can cover a full size curve. Two designs means two lots of 50. If the budget only supports one outerwear piece, put it into the style with the widest fit tolerance and let the t-shirts carry the variety. Style differences between softshell, puffer, coach and varsity are compared in the custom jackets buyer guide.
Budget outerwear separately from the rest of the merch line rather than lumping it in. It is the highest unit cost on the table and the slowest to sell through, so it behaves differently from tees and caps in every respect: it ties up more cash, occupies more space in the van and rewards a wider price gap at the point of sale. Decide before the order whether the jackets are there to make money or to look like the top of the range, because the two answers lead to different quantities. Invoicing is available in seven currencies, which matters if the tour crosses borders and the merch takings do not all arrive in one.
