Wholesale Denim Jackets for Bands
By The Velocity Wear Team
A custom denim jacket costs $38 a piece from fifty, and on a merch table it sits at the top of the range where the margin is. Denim is also the item fans keep and wear for years, which does more for a band than another black tee. The danger is the same as with any high-value merch line: fifty unsold jackets is a lot of money sitting in a van.
How many denim jackets should a band press for a tour?
Start at the minimum and judge it on sell-through rather than optimism. Fifty pieces is the floor for a design, and across a run of shows that is a modest number if the audience is right for it. Work out roughly what proportion of a crowd buys merch at all, then what fraction of those buyers reach for the most expensive item, and you will usually land near fifty rather than five hundred. If the first run clears, the second is a straightforward repeat and lands in a better price band, since the piece rate falls by up to 35% against the fifty-piece figure at the largest tier. The builds are listed on our denim jackets page, and how music acts structure merch is on the bands and music page.
What artwork works on the back of a tour jacket?
Something that reads as a garment rather than as a poster. A large back graphic is the point of the jacket, so give it the whole panel and keep the front to a small chest mark. Embroidery suits bold shapes and type; patches suit detailed or multi-coloured artwork and allow a heavier, more collectable look. Tour dates printed down a sleeve or across the back date the garment to a specific run, which raises its value to a fan and kills any chance of selling the leftovers next year. Decide which of those two things you want before the artwork is drawn.
How do you price a denim jacket at the merch table?
Take the tier price, add venue commission where it applies, and set a round number that fits alongside your tee and hoodie rather than sitting oddly above them. A jacket priced as the obvious top of the range sells to the fans who were always going to buy the expensive thing. Card payment matters more on this item than any other, because it is the one purchase somebody will not have the cash on them for. What happens after the show, when a buyer becomes somebody who buys again, is the subject of getting customers to buy again.
When should the order go in?
Well before rehearsals, because merch is always the last thing anybody thinks about and the first thing that is late. Production is 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval, then transit, then somebody has to physically get the boxes into the van. Six weeks before the first date is comfortable and four is tight. A £150 sample, credited against the bulk order, is worth taking if the artwork is complicated, because a back graphic that looks right on screen can sit badly on a real panel.
Count the stock at the end of every night and write the number down. Merch on tour disappears through a mixture of genuine sales, guest list generosity and ordinary chaos, and a nightly count is the only way to tell which. It also shows which cities buy outerwear, which is exactly the information needed when deciding whether the second run is fifty pieces or two hundred. Ten minutes with a pen beats a guess in a rehearsal room three months later.
