Home / Planning Notes / onsite printing vs preordered merch
Onsite printing vs. pre-ordered merch: run the ops math.
The per-piece price is the only number where pre-orders win. Every other line item argues back.
On paper, a pallet of pre-printed shirts beats a live station on unit cost every time. The spreadsheet stops agreeing the moment you add the columns unit cost conveniently omits.
Column two: the waste rate
Pre-orders require guessing attendance and sizes weeks out. Industry-typical over-ordering runs 15 to 25 percent, and the size curve is always wrong in the same direction — a mountain of smalls, a famine of 2XLs. Onsite production prints what actual attendees actually pick. At the bank summit we ran in downtown LA, 600 attendees produced roughly 640 pieces and one leftover box; the equivalent pre-order plan penciled out at 750 units to hedge sizes.
Column three: logistics you pay for twice
Pallets need freight in, storage between delivery and event, hands to haul boxes to the hall, and something to do with leftovers — usually more storage, then quiet disposal. Each step is real labor billed to somebody's cost center. A live station's logistics are one van and one work order.
Column four: what the item is worth to its owner
This one is squishier but shows up in hard behavior: an item someone chose, sized, and watched being made gets worn; a tossed-in-a-bag shirt gets donated. If the merch exists to keep your logo circulating, keep-rate is the metric — and made-in-front-of-you wins it decisively.
When pre-orders genuinely win
Honesty clause: uniform programs with known rosters, mailed kits for remote teams, and sub-100-piece runs where a staffed station cannot amortize. For those, order ahead — we will say so on the scoping call rather than sell you a station you do not need.
The hybrid most ops teams land on
Pre-order the guaranteed items (staff uniforms, VIP kits) and run a station for the general population. Fixed needs get fixed inventory; variable crowds get variable production. That split is usually the cheapest total line on the spreadsheet — and the one we quote most often.
Open a service request.
Send the date, venue, headcount, and what you want printed. You get a scoped quote back within one business day — with power, footprint, and load-in specs already written in.