Eight weeks out: the shape of it
Decide, do not exploreAt eight weeks you are not booking anything, you are deciding four things well enough that everything downstream can proceed.
Is a jersey the right garment? It needs a shared identity in the room — a team, a company, a cohort, a fandom. It needs a dress code that tolerates it. And it needs a window long enough that typing a name is not the bottleneck. If any of those is missing, a tee, a cap or a pressed patch item will serve you better, and it is far cheaper to change your mind now.
Who supplies the garments? If your organisation already owns kit, this is the moment to find out how much and in what sizes. Blanks are usually the largest per-unit line in a quote, so this single answer moves the budget more than anything else you will decide.
What is the real guest window? Not the venue booking. The block when guests are actually available. Write it down as a number of minutes; you will use it constantly.
Who owns artwork approval? One named person. Not a committee, not a distribution list. This is the cheapest insurance policy on the whole project.
Four weeks out: lock the mechanics
CommitArtwork final. Vector files, agreed layout, agreed print location. Fix the location for the whole event rather than making it a guest choice — it removes a decision from the tablet and the lane runs measurably faster.
Menu decided. Garment colours, size range, and a short set of design options. Short is the point: three good choices feel generous and move quickly; twelve create a debate at the front of the queue.
Venue answers in hand. Circuit count and location, whether power must be ordered in advance and by when, load-in window, dock and elevator, freight-handling rules, table provision, and where a queue may legally form.
Lane count agreed. Bring your window figure and your expected take rate; we come back with the lane count and put a throughput commitment in the scope.
Rosters, if you have them. For tournaments and league days, the roster spreadsheet — name, number, size, team — drives everything. Four weeks gives room to pre-produce the bulk and keep the live station for corrections and late registrations.
One week out: the awkward details
Confirm- Names policy. Do you want a filter on what guests can type? Do you want a company-mark option for people who would rather not use their name? Both are one-line settings and both prevent an awkward moment.
- Size caps set. Per-size inventory limits mean a sold-out size drops off the guest picker instead of being promised and withdrawn.
- Contacts exchanged. Your production lead and our crew lead should have each other's mobile numbers. Not email. Mobile.
- Run sheet updated. Load-in, build, station open, any quiet periods during remarks, station close, teardown. All of it on the same document everyone else is working from.
- Contingency named. Outdoors, that means weather and shade. Indoors, it means what happens if the promised circuits turn out to be occupied.
- Surplus plan. Decide now who takes the leftover blanks and where they go. They are useful; they should not be a loose end at 11pm.
On the day
What good looks likeCrew arrives with a couple of hours before doors. Build goes up, power is verified against what was promised, stock is staged sorted by size and colour within arm's reach of each operator, signage goes up explaining the three guest steps, and a test press is run before the first guest exists.
During service, the crew lead runs the queue board rather than pressing. That is deliberate. Somebody has to watch the whole station, spot the lane that is drifting behind and be findable when your production team needs an answer in ten seconds.
At close, teardown is quick, the floor is left as it was found, and leftover blanks are boxed and handed to your team. If you want a unit count for reporting, ask at teardown — every item came off a ticketed queue, so the number is measured rather than estimated.