Bands: Ordering Joggers in Bulk
By The Velocity Wear Team
Joggers are the top of a merch table price list, starting at $22 a pair at the fifty-piece minimum before you add your margin. They sell in far smaller numbers than tees, which makes them a considered item rather than a volume one. Carry a shallow run, keep the artwork free of tour dates, and the leftovers still sell at the next show.
How many pairs should a tour actually carry?
Start at the minimum. Fifty pairs across a run of dates is a realistic first attempt, because legwear converts at a fraction of the rate a tee does and every unsold pair is weight in a van. Bands that have run merch before can size the second order from real sell-through; bands that have not should resist the temptation to forecast optimistically. The wholesale joggers page has the fabric and fit options, and the bands and music pages cover the rest of a merch list.
Weight the sizes to the middle. Merch buyers cluster around M and L across almost every audience, and the extremes move slowly enough that a deep buy in them becomes dead stock rather than inventory.
What actually sells on a merch table?
Something the buyer would wear if they had never heard of you. That is the test. A restrained mark on a good jogger sells to someone walking past the table; a full-length tour itinerary printed down the leg sells to nobody after the last date on the list. Undated artwork is the single biggest lever on merch profitability, because it converts leftovers into next tour's stock.
Fabric matters more on a considered purchase. Brushed fleece has the soft hand that makes someone buy at the table; loopback is lighter and wears longer. For a merch item that people pick up and feel before deciding, fleece tends to win the transaction.
When does the order have to be placed?
- 1Artwork finalised and approved at least six weeks before the first date.
- 2Production runs 10 to 15 working days from that approval, not from the day the design was drawn.
- 3Delivery transit sits on top, and a tour crossing into the USA or Europe needs that leg planned separately.
- 4A sample at £150, credited against the bulk order, if the design is new and you want to see the print before fifty pairs exist.
Nothing about that timeline is negotiable once a tour is announced, which is why merch is the thing that should be ordered at the same meeting as the dates, not after the posters go up.
What does a limited run cost, and does exclusivity help?
The from-price is $22 a pair at fifty, falling by up to 35% against that price as the quantity climbs through the tiers. A genuinely limited run has to sit at the minimum to stay limited, which means paying the entry price — that is the cost of scarcity, and it is usually recovered in the margin because a scarce item does not get discounted.
If the band is building a merch line rather than a tour drop, private label changes the calculation. Woven neck labels, tear-out labels and swing tags turn a printed blank into something that reads as a brand, which supports a higher price. Custom joggers, sweatpants and tracksuit co-ords covers building a matching set, and customer retention for clothing brands applies directly to a fanbase that buys more than once.
