Ordering shirts for an event: a timeline that actually works

A backward timeline

Production and delivery times vary by product, so confirm them on the product page and add a buffer. The buffer is not optional on apparel: it is the space where the supplier tells you that the color you asked for is not made, or that the placement needs to move.

Decide who the shirts are for

This single decision changes every other one. Event shirts usually fall into three groups, and mixing them up is where budgets go wrong.

• Crew shirts, worn by people you know by name. Collect sizes individually, use a left chest mark so they read as staff, and order a couple of spares.
• Participant shirts, given to registered attendees. You have a list, so ask for size at registration.
• Giveaway shirts, handed to whoever turns up. Nobody's size is known, so weight the run to the middle and accept that some will not fit.

Only the third group needs a guessed distribution. For the first two, ask. The guide to size runs covers how to build the numbers and what to do when you cannot ask.

Ask for sizes with a deadline and a default

A size form without a deadline collects about half the sizes you need. A size form with a deadline and a stated default collects nearly all of them.

Write it in one line: reply with your size by Friday, and anyone who does not reply gets an L. Then add the fit note, because several garments in this range run slightly small and wearers between sizes are advised to size up. Custom T shirts, tank tops, long sleeve tees and V neck tees all carry a note of that kind.

Keep the responses as a list of names and sizes rather than a tally. Next year's event starts from that list.

Lock artwork at final size

Send print ready artwork at the largest size you want it printed. This is the instruction the catalogue gives for every product without a published template, and it is the one most often ignored, because a logo pulled from a website looks fine on a screen and terrible at 11 inches wide.

Two other artwork habits save events.

Decide what the garment color is doing. On a dark shirt, colored artwork needs a white underbase, which adds thickness and cost. Letting the shirt be one of your colors is cheaper and usually looks better. And avoid printing the date if you can, because an event that moves turns a shirt into landfill. A year alone ages better than a full date.

Expect two confirmations, not a proof

There is no human proof approval step on this site. What there is, on apparel and bags, is a decoration placement brief plus a supplier confirmation.

The order records your size run, your color, your placement and your decoration preference. For products without a published artwork template, and that includes hoodies, aprons and every cap, the decoration template is sent to you before production. The supplier confirms the size run and the color. On products with a confirmed color range, a color outside it is refused before payment rather than discovered afterwards.

Design studio output is an RGB visual concept, not a color proof. Plan for a shade of difference and do not schedule a photo shoot for the morning the shirts arrive.

Counting, sorting and handing out

The last mile is logistics, and it is worth ten minutes of planning.

• Count the delivery against your size run the day it arrives, not the morning of the event.
• Sort into labelled piles or bags by size, largest at the bottom of the table.
• Bag crew shirts by name, so nobody rummages.
• Keep a small reserve box off the table, for the spill and the late arrival.
• Photograph the finished shirt on a person. It is your reference for the reorder.

If shirts are being handed out at a table, put a size chart on the table and make one person responsible for it. Every event that runs out of L early did so because nobody was watching the piles.

After the event

Write down four numbers while they are fresh: how many of each size you ordered, how many were left, how many people asked for a size you had run out of, and how many asked to swap up. That is the whole brief for next year's run.

Event shirt checklist

• Work backward from event day and keep a real buffer.
• Decide whether shirts are crew, participant or giveaway.
• Collect sizes with a deadline and a stated default, and include the fit note.
• Approve artwork at final printed size, and skip the exact date.
• Expect a decoration template and a supplier confirmation, not a printed proof.
• Count and sort by size on delivery, and keep a reserve box.