Ordering Jackets & Outerwear for Trade Show Season
By The Velocity Wear Team
Trade show jackets should be in your hands a full week before the stand goes up, which puts the order roughly six weeks out. Production is 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval and transit follows it. The extra week at the end is not padding: it is the buffer that lets you check the delivery, sort it by person and replace anything wrong before the van is loaded.
What is the latest date stand outerwear can be ordered?
Take the show date, subtract a week for handling, subtract transit, then subtract 10 to 15 working days for the build. Whatever remains is your artwork window, and that is the part to protect. Marketing teams routinely spend three weeks deciding on a logo lockup and then ask whether production can be rushed, when the fixed block was never the problem. Approving artwork early and leaving the quantity open for a few more days is the more useful trade. The styles and decoration options are on the wholesale jackets page.
Which jacket reads best across an exhibition hall?
Visibility beats subtlety on a stand. A solid, saturated body colour identifies your team from three aisles away, and a logo that is legible at that distance has to be simpler than the one on your website. Softshell is the workhorse here because halls are cold in the morning and warm by eleven, and a softshell can come off without anyone looking untidy underneath. Coach jackets suit a looser brand. Puffer is too warm for an indoor hall in most cases, and varsity reads as merchandise rather than staff kit. Embroidery on the left chest with a larger back placement is the combination that survives being photographed.
How many should be ordered for a stand team?
The order is 50 pieces per design as a minimum, which is almost always more than the number of people standing on the stand. That is not wasted. The surplus covers next year, covers staff who join between shows, and covers the people back at the office who never get kit. Sizes inside the 50 mix freely, so build the run around the team you have and fill the rest with the middle sizes. If you plan to use the same jackets for more than one event, that also removes the whole question from next year.
What should be confirmed before artwork is approved?
Confirm the colour reference, the exact logo file, the placement and the size of each decoration, and the delivery address. Approval is the trigger for screens or digitising, so a change afterwards means starting the build window again. If the brand colour is precise, say so at the enquiry rather than at the proof, because matching a shell fabric to a reference is a conversation, not a switch. What to include so the first quote is accurate is set out in briefing a supplier for jackets, and a sample at £150, credited against the bulk order, is worth it if this kit will be reused for several seasons.
Think about storage between events as part of the decision. Stand kit typically lives in a cupboard for eleven months of the year, and jackets take up considerably more room than the banners do. Keep them bagged, keep them labelled by size, and note in the same place what was handed out and what came back, so the next show starts with a count rather than a search. That record also tells you whether the second order needs to be larger, which is the question everybody asks a week before the deadline and nobody can answer.
