Leavers Hoodies 2027: The Order Timeline That Works
By The Velocity Wear Team
Leavers hoodies are one of the biggest custom clothing searches in the UK, and one of the most stressful to organise. The hoodie itself is easy. The hard part is getting 90 teenagers to agree on a colour, submit a name spelled correctly, and pay on time. This is the timeline we'd use if we were running it ourselves.
Why leaving it late hurts
Production takes 10 to 15 working days after the artwork is approved. That sounds fine until you add the three weeks it takes to chase names, the week somebody's parent disputes the payment, and the fact that May and June are the busiest months of the year for every leavers supplier in the country. Start early and it's relaxed. Start late and it's a scramble.
The timeline
January: pick the organisers and the budget
Two or three students and one staff member is plenty. Agree a target price per hoodie early, because it decides fabric weight and how much decoration you can afford. Ask the school whether money can go through their payment system. It saves a lot of cash-in-envelopes chaos.
February: design and colour vote
Give the year group two or three designs and two or three colours, not a blank canvas. Open votes with forty options end in a stalemate. Popular choices right now are heavyweight black or navy, oversized fits, puff-printed year numbers and a back print with everybody's names.
March: collect names, nicknames and sizes
Use one online form. Ask for first name as it should appear, surname, size, and whether they're in or out. Share a size guide with actual measurements, because teenagers will guess, and an oversized fit makes guessing worse.
Early April: payment deadline
No payment, no hoodie. Be firm and be clear about it in writing. Then freeze the list.
Mid April: approve artwork and order
Check the name list against the proof line by line. Two people, separately. Once approved, production starts.
May: hoodies arrive with time to spare
That leaves room for a replacement if a size is badly wrong, and it gets the hoodies out while there are still school days left to wear them.
Design ideas that don't age badly
- Keep the year and school name big and the jokes small. Inside jokes feel less funny in ten years.
- A names list on the back is the thing people keep the hoodie for. Arrange it in a clean block, alphabetical.
- Leave the front simple. A crest or a short word ages better than a busy graphic.
- Check any school logo is allowed. Some schools are protective of their crest, and it's better to ask first.
Handling students who change their mind
Someone always wants to swap sizes or change their name after the deadline. Decide in advance how you'll handle it: a short grace week before artwork approval, then no changes. Once names are on the proof and production starts, changes mean reprinting. Put that in the order form so nobody is surprised, and keep a couple of spare hoodies in the most common sizes for genuine emergencies.
Our leavers hoodie terms, plainly
Minimum 20 per design, sizes mixed. Price drops at 50 and 100 pieces, which most year groups reach. Names on the back don't change the minimum. We can invoice in pounds, and the pricing calculator gives a quick estimate.
For the design side there's more in our general leavers hoodies guide, and you can mock something up in the design studio before your vote.
