Tracksuits for Retailers, Ordered Properly
By The Velocity Wear Team
For resale, the tracksuit maths is landed cost against sell-through rather than unit price alone. Sets start at $53 at the minimum of 50 and fall by up to 35% as quantity rises, but a deeper buy only pays if the size curve is right. A co-ord that sits in the stockroom at a 35% discount is still dead money.
Which quantity tier is actually worth reaching?
The tiers are 50-99, 100-249, 250-499, 500-999 and 1,000 or more. Stepping up one tier is sensible when you have sold a comparable garment before and know the rate. Stepping up two tiers on a new design is a bet on demand you have not measured. Our full product list sits under wholesale, with the tracksuit detail on the wholesale tracksuits page.
Work it as cash tied up per week of cover rather than as a percentage saved. A buy that takes nine months to clear has cost you the season in between, whatever the invoice said.
What size curve sells through?
Weight the middle heavily and the extremes lightly, then adjust to whatever your own till data says, because a menswear independent and a university-town shop do not sell the same spread. Co-ords sell slightly larger than fitted garments because customers wear them loose. Apparel sizing and fit covers the detail, including what a bad curve does to returns.
The curve matters more on a set than on a single piece, because you cannot break a co-ord to save a sale. A small top with a large jogger is two orphans, not one sale.
How should a restock be timed?
Reorder when cover falls to roughly the lead time plus your safety margin, not when the shelf looks empty. Production is 10-15 working days from artwork approval, and a repeat run needs no new artwork, then add transit. Reordering stock: the rhythm that gets a brand to year two covers the cadence in practice.
Colour continuity between runs is the thing to watch on a repeat. Dye lots move, and a restocked navy that sits next to the original navy on the same rail will be compared.
What does the margin have to carry?
The set price, decoration, labelling, freight, and the markdowns at the end of the season. Price from landed cost rather than from the invoice line, and keep enough headroom that a mid-season promotion does not take you under water. Invoicing is available in seven currencies, and delivery covers the UK, the USA and Europe, so a multi-territory retailer can avoid shipping stock twice.
How should a co-ord be presented on the floor?
Hang the top and fold the jogger beneath it, or hang both together on a single hanger, but show both halves. A set displayed as a top alone sells as a top, and the customer never learns that the price covers two garments.
Swing tags earn their place here. A tag that states plainly what is in the bag removes the most common objection at the till, which is a shopper assuming the price is for the hooded top on its own.
Keep the full size run on the floor rather than in the back. Co-ords cannot be split to rescue a sale, so a missing size on the rail is a lost sale rather than a compromise.
Online, shoot both halves separately as well as together. Customers scrolling on a phone frequently miss that a listing is a two-piece, and the return rate on a misunderstood purchase costs more than the extra photographs ever will.
