Thanksgiving and Fall Shirts: A Seasonal Merch Plan
By The Velocity Wear Team
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Thanksgiving shirts get over eight thousand US searches a month in season, and fall shirts overall run from football season through the holidays. Boutiques, online shops, schools, churches and families all buy them. Seasonal merch is great when it's timed well and painful when it arrives the week of Thanksgiving.
Designs that sell in fall
- Warm, simple typography: Thankful, Grateful, Gather.
- Retro fall graphics: pumpkins, leaves, harvest scenes with a vintage feel.
- Football and tailgate themes with your town or school.
- Family Thanksgiving designs with a surname and year.
- Cozy-season humor, like a nap-after-dinner joke.
Colors of the season
Rust, burnt orange, mustard, olive, cream, brown and burgundy all feel like fall. Garment-dyed and washed tees suit the cozy look, as our garment-dyed tees guide explains. Crewnecks sell alongside tees once temperatures drop.
Timing is everything
Fall demand builds from late September. Thanksgiving-specific designs sell mostly in November. For stock in hand by early October, approve artwork by mid September. For Thanksgiving designs, approve by early October. Production takes 10 to 15 working days after approval, plus shipping.
Quantities
Thanksgiving-specific designs have a short selling window. Order conservatively. General fall designs without a holiday reference sell longer. Our minimum is 50 per design with sizes mixed, so test two or three designs in modest quantities.
Family Thanksgiving shirts
Big families sometimes order matching shirts for Thanksgiving dinner photos. If yours is 50 or more people, that fits our minimum. Collect sizes early, because November is busy for everyone.
Schools and churches
Fall festivals, Thanksgiving food drives and harvest events use shirts for volunteers. Bright fall colors with VOLUNTEER on the back make helpers easy to find.
Plan your holiday handoff
Fall collections flow straight into holiday gifting. Plan a winter or holiday design to follow, and consider bundles like a fall tee plus a crewneck to move remaining stock before December.
Selling fall shirts online
Photograph shirts outdoors in golden hour light with fall textures in the background: leaves, wood, knit blankets. Launch to your email list first and follow with social posts. Offer a bundle with a crewneck or a matching kids' size. Ship-by dates matter less for fall than for Christmas, but they still help nudge buyers to act.
Selling in store
Put fall tees near the entrance from late September, folded neatly with one styled on a mannequin or hanger. A shirt displayed with a flannel and a pumpkin sells more than the same shirt in a stack. Small shops often find fall tees are a strong impulse buy at the register.
Avoid year-specific leftovers
Leave the year off general fall designs so leftovers can sell next season. Save the year for family or event shirts where the keepsake value matters.
Football season tie-ins
Fall is football season. Local-team-color designs without official logos, like your town name and a football graphic, sell well at tailgates and school games.
Friendsgiving and family gatherings
Big Friendsgiving groups can order matching tees for the photo.
Order timing
Allow 10 to 15 working days of production plus shipping, and remember October is one of the busiest months for apparel.
Get started
Mock up designs in the design studio, price your run on the calculator, and see custom t-shirts. Holiday hoodies? Read our holiday hoodie timeline.
