How Bands Buy Hoodies Wholesale
By The Velocity Wear Team
Bands buy hoodies wholesale at 50 pieces per design, from $31 a piece, made in 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval. That makes a hoodie the highest-cost item most bands put on a merch table, and the one where getting the quantity wrong hurts most, because unsold stock travels with you for the rest of the tour.
What should a band charge for a hoodie?
Start from the landed cost, which is the per-piece price plus decoration plus shipping divided across the run, then set a price that survives a bad night. Hoodies carry a higher margin in cash terms than t-shirts and they are the item people buy when they are cold and the venue is emptying out. Round to a note rather than to an awkward figure, because merch is sold in the dark by someone doing sums in their head. If you are running card payments, factor the fee in before you set the price rather than absorbing it afterwards.
How many should a first run be?
Fifty, because that is the minimum, and there is no benefit in buying more before you know how a design sells. Split the sizes with more medium and large than anything else, keep a few of the smallest and largest, and resist the urge to order a second colour. Two colourways are two runs of 50 and doubling the commitment on an untested design is how bands end up with boxes in a lock-up. When the design proves itself, a reorder at 100 or 250 pieces steps into a better tier, and the discount runs up to 35% off the 50-piece rate at the top of the scale. The fabric weights and fits available for that first run are set out on the wholesale hoodies page.
Does a limited run actually help?
It helps if it is genuinely limited and you say so honestly. A tour-dated back print is limited by definition, since it is unsellable after the last night, and that is the trade-off: it drives the decision at the table and it destroys any leftover stock. An undated design carries over to the next run and to the online store. A reasonable compromise is an undated main design plus the dates printed small on the sleeve, which reads as a tour item without making the whole garment expire. Never claim a run is limited when it is not.
Size availability does some of the same work without any of the risk. Hoodies sell out at medium and large long before the ends of the range go, so a table that is down to two sizes by the third night looks scarce because it genuinely is. Restocking the middle sizes in the next run rather than widening the range is usually the better call for a band with limited cash tied up in merch.
When does the order have to be placed?
Before the first date, obviously, but count properly: 10 to 15 working days of production, plus transit, plus the time it takes to get a finished artwork file out of a designer who is also doing the album cover. Six weeks ahead of the first show is sensible. Prices and the tier steps are on the pricing page, and the range detail a band needs when planning merch is on the bands and music page. If you want the per-piece arithmetic set out in full before you commit, how much custom hoodies cost has the breakdown.
