Merch on demand in the event world

“Print on demand” has been one of the biggest buzz phrases for the last couple of years, and for good reason. It’s an opportunity to serve clients in a faster and more custom way than ever before. The technology is there, and industries across the gamut are embracing a more service-driven and instant-gratification approach. We are seeing a lot of this change in event production spaces, changing the way they connect with their audiences.

Consider your typical 5K or marathon. For a lot of runners, the merch is the trophy, and the better the merch, the more interested they’ll be in registering. Event managers would have to play a guessing game of how many pieces to order, what sizes they need, and hope they guess correctly. Eating the leftovers was okay when talking about a cheap, giveaway T-shirt, but the trend for races is now getting higher-end merch pieces that the runner will proudly wear for years to come.

That level of quality will destroy profit margins in a hurry if you’re left with a bunch of sizes that were guessed incorrectly. Print on demand becomes a great solution for minimizing risk and playing the guessing game. They order exactly what their audience ordered, and there’s a smaller window to really capitalize on late registrations.

Beyond the merch trophy, though, we have several clients who have curated a team culture around their races with merch. Runners can add on training gear that is then delivered to their door a week later. Suddenly, it’s not just about that one moment when they cross the finish line.

It’s taking selfies in your training gear and tagging the race on social media, it’s organizing group runs where everyone looks like a team with their matching branding, and it’s seeing someone wearing their gear and encouraging them on the trails. By incorporating print-on-demand services into their add-on merch, our clients are seizing the momentum of committing to the race. Their runners are investing in the experience, turning a solo athletic event into community building.

The culture concept doesn’t just apply to athletics either. Corporate events before print-on-demand had to do a lot more guesswork, and it usually ended with the wearer getting some ill-fitting shirt they never wear again. Now, we can easily develop a custom merch store with a variety of items inclusive to everyone’s body and preference. Everything is packaged individually, so there are fewer headaches for the organizers with distribution. The branding perception is immediately elevated because everyone looks cohesive while being comfortable, and the message goes further because the team will wear it more often. Best of all, there’s no corporate storage closet graveyard full of events past because they knew exactly what to order.

Bands can benefit too. No more old model of fronting money for a bulk order of T-shirts, hauling boxes on tour, and an expensive setup for a merch booth. Now bands can do limited runs and see what moves, scaling the winner. Or set up an online store so that if they don’t have a specific size or style, a fan can just scan a QR code, order it, and get it a week later. Artists could tailor designs specific to the city without cutting into the tour budget.

Moreover, exclusive limited drops for insiders become another way to curate an experience for the fan. An album release party with free merch is fun, but it can produce a lot of waste if the event manager doesn’t know the sizes of the attendees. Being able to send a specialty box in advance, completely branded and all the products the perfect size, becomes a viral moment on social media that extends to the event and beyond, an instant marketing success.

On-demand printing, as a general rule, is meant to cater to a world less interested in waiting than ever before. But even with events that are planned months in advance, it helps eliminate waste and guesswork, increases revenue possibilities and profitability, and helps the event managers with a smoother experience. Probably the most impactful way print on demand serves events, though, is through its ability to connect directly to the consumer and make them part of the story instead of just the recipient. Because that’s what we’re really doing here: we’re not selling shirts, we’re helping tell a story of a moment living on well beyond its time.