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Whether you are organizing a 5K charity run, a corporate conference, a music festival, a school homecoming, or a company retreat — custom apparel makes the event memorable. But ordering too late means rush fees, limited blank options, or worse, shirts arriving after the event.
Here is a practical timeline to ensure your event merch is perfect and on time.
What to do:
Key decisions:
What to do:
Design tips:
What to do:
This is the critical window. Standard screen printing production takes 7-14 business days after proof approval. Getting your order placed 4-6 weeks out gives comfortable buffer for any issues.
What to do:
Pro tip: Request delivery 1 week before your event. This gives you time to:
What to do:
| Phase | When | |-------|------| | Planning | 8-10 weeks out | | Design/quote | 6-8 weeks out | | Order placed | 5-6 weeks out | | Delivery | 1-2 weeks before event |
Tips: Get attendee sizes in advance through registration. Order 10% extra in popular sizes (L, XL) for walk-ins or sizing errors.
| Phase | When | |-------|------| | Planning | 10-12 weeks out | | Design/quote | 8-10 weeks out | | Order placed | 6-8 weeks out | | Delivery | 2 weeks before race day |
Tips: Sizes are collected during registration. Wait as long as possible for final size counts, but not past 6 weeks before the event. Include race distance and year in the design.
| Phase | When | |-------|------| | Planning | 6-8 weeks out | | Design/quote | 5-6 weeks out | | Order placed | 4-5 weeks out | | Delivery | 1 week before event |
Tips: Use a pre-order window (2 weeks) to collect sizes and payment from students. This eliminates guesswork and leftover inventory.
| Phase | When | |-------|------| | Planning | 10-12 weeks out | | Design/quote | 8-10 weeks out | | Order placed | 6-8 weeks out | | Delivery | 2-3 weeks before event |
Tips: Order heavy on M, L, XL. For multi-day festivals, offer different designs per day. Limited edition designs sell better than generic festival branding.
| Phase | When | |-------|------| | Planning | 6-8 weeks out | | Design/quote | 4-6 weeks out | | Order placed | 4 weeks out | | Delivery | 1 week before retreat |
Tips: Collect sizes when sending retreat details. Consider embroidered polos or jackets for executive retreats vs screen printed tees for casual team events.
If you cannot collect sizes in advance, use this general distribution for mixed adult groups:
| Size | Percentage | |------|-----------| | XS | 2-3% | | S | 10-12% | | M | 25-28% | | L | 28-30% | | XL | 18-20% | | 2XL | 8-10% | | 3XL | 2-4% |
For 100 shirts: 3 XS, 11 S, 27 M, 29 L, 19 XL, 9 2XL, 2 3XL.
Adjust based on your audience demographics. Youth events skew smaller. Construction industry events skew larger.
Still manageable with standard production. Place your order immediately and approve proofs within 24 hours.
Rush production territory. Expect 15-25% rush surcharge. Call your printer to confirm availability before placing the order.
Emergency rush. Expect 40-75% surcharge plus expedited shipping costs. Be flexible on blank garment options. Simplify the design to reduce setup time.
Call French Press Custom at (562) 758-5110 immediately. We have done same-week and even next-day orders, but availability depends on our current production schedule. DTG and DTF printing have the fastest turnaround for emergency orders.
If you are selling merch (not giving it away):
Planning an event? Contact French Press Custom early for the best pricing and most options. We handle events of all sizes — from 25-person company outings to 5,000-person festivals.
Call (562) 758-5110 or submit a quote request with your event date and we will work backward to create your timeline.
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