Why team merchandise is more than advertising
Merchandise for the team is often treated like a giveaway: order it once, hand it out, tick it off. Yet the purpose is a different one. A giveaway is meant to be seen, team merchandise is meant to be worn – and that is decided long before the order.
Two things matter here above all. First, identification: clothing everyone wears makes belonging visible. Second, quality: an item that is faded after three washes says the same thing about your team as a jersey with a flaking number.
This sports merchandise checklist goes through the seven steps where orders come unstuck in practice – and what you should settle beforehand in each case.
Step 1: work out what you need – who wears what?
Before you choose products, work out the groups. Active team, coaching staff, committee, members, fans, employees, customers – every group needs something different, and not every group needs everything.
For clubs that usually means: kit for the players, goods to sell in the fan shop, a present for helpers. For companies: staff kit, trade fair goods, customer gifts.
On quantities the rule is: better to calculate tightly and reorder. We produce from 10 to 20 items – so you do not have to put anything into storage on the off chance. Anyone who orders 300 items and hands out 120 does not have a merchandise project, they have a storage problem.
Step 2: choose products – from head to toe
The classics work because they get worn in everyday life: Hoodies, T-shirts, Caps and Beanies – and if needed even our own trainers.
Often more interesting are the products nobody thinks of. Our Furevoletten, pool slides entirely in your own design, have been our classic in the changing room and the fan shop for years. Socks with a woven-in logo are our best-selling product: cheap enough for large campaigns, good enough that they do not end up in a drawer. On top of that Towels, Scarves and Bucket hats.
| Product | Suits | What makes it special |
|---|---|---|
| Socks | Large campaigns, members, employees | Logo woven in, which keeps it washable; on request with a non-slip sole |
| Caps | Summer, trade fair, fan shop | Snapback, baseball cap, trucker cap or full cap, finished with embroidery |
| Beanies | Winter, home matches | With or without a pompom, in your colours |
| Furevoletten | Changing room, fan shop, staff gift | Strap, sole and tab customisable separately |
| Hoodies and T-shirts | Coaching staff, workforce, resale | The basis of any kit |
| Towels | Sport, sauna, events | Printed across the whole surface |
A rule of thumb for choosing: a product your people would buy even without a logo is the right one.
Step 3: design and branding without compromise
Settle three questions before the design: which colours are fixed? Where should the logo sit? And are there sponsors or partners who have to go on the product as well?
After that it moves quickly. You send us your logo – ideally as a vector file (AI, EPS, PDF or SVG), though a good PNG or JPG will do as well. If no design exists yet, we will develop it together with you.
The design is drawn by our own in-house designers, by hand and to scale, deliberately without AI. The difference from an online configurator is not only visual: you can ask questions, and someone will tell you if an idea does not work on a particular material.
Step 4: check quality and sustainability
In merchandise, sustainability is decided less by the label than by durability. Four points that really count:
- Finishing that lasts. Woven or embroidered logos survive the wash, printed ones often do not. On jerseys, sublimation printing makes sure the colour sits in the fibre.
- Origin and factory. Ask where production happens. With us it is almost entirely in Europe, with our own certified factory in Istanbul at the core – there we control the choice of materials and purchasing ourselves and are regularly on site.
- Quantity rather than stock. Reordering small runs is more sustainable than putting a large run into storage.
- Fit. What does not fit does not get worn – the biggest waste of material happens in the wardrobe.
Step 5: make sure of fit and sizes
The most common mistake with team orders is a size list based on guesswork. Three things prevent it:
- Ask for sizes, do not estimate them. A list in the team chat takes ten minutes and saves half the returns.
- Request samples. We send you samples to try on in advance. One round in the changing room tells you more than any chart.
- Think of everyone. There are standard sizes from XS to 5XL for men and S1 to S10 for women, plus intermediate sizes such as M/L as well as made-to-measure sizes. Children’s, women’s, men’s and special sizes are available from 10 items.
There is more about this in our size guide.
Step 6: settle the schedule and logistics
Count back from the date the goods need to be there:
- Design: within 24 hours, usually the same day.
- Coordination within the team: in our experience this is the longest item – allow a week if several people decide.
- Production and delivery: around four weeks from your approval.
Settle early where delivery goes, too. On request we ship directly to individual locations or private addresses instead of sending everything to one address. For clever fit we deliver this way to around 500 franchise studios, for the Elotrans brand by STADA directly to end customers.
The four most common mistakes when buying team merchandise
Four patterns keep repeating in the enquiries that reach us:
- Started too late. Two weeks before the tournament is not an order, it is an emergency. Four weeks of production plus coordination is the realistic frame.
- Sizes estimated. Draw up the list before you order. Anything else ends with items nobody wears.
- Too much at once. A large run ties up money and space. Start smaller and reorder – from 10 to 20 items that is possible.
- Distribution forgotten. Anyone who has 200 items delivered to one address then spends evenings sorting. Direct dispatch to the individual recipients costs you no extra effort.
Anyone buying team merchandise who keeps these four points in mind usually gets through without a single query.
Step 7: the checklist to take away
The complete sports merchandise checklist on one page, to print out and pass on – so that you do not have to explain everything individually at the club or in the team.
Download the checklist as a PDF
If you would rather get straight to it: send us your logo and you will get a free design within 24 hours – and can then work through the checklist using your own product.
In summary: merchandise that brings people together
Team merchandise rarely fails on taste and almost always on preparation: wrong quantity, wrong sizes, too little lead time, no distribution planned. Anyone who goes through this sports merchandise checklist once has ruled out the four most common mistakes before they happen.
And the rest is the enjoyable part: seeing what your own idea looks like as a product. The design for that is free of charge.