Trade show booth apparel.
Your team's apparel is the only branding that rides the escalator and stands in the coffee line. Plan it on an 8 to 10 week timeline back from move-in, order two tops per person per show day, and budget $157.15 a staffer at list for the full capsule.
Booth apparel is the most deadline-sensitive garment order you'll place. A late onboarding kit costs you a bad week, but late booth apparel leaves a team standing in an expensive booth in whatever was in their suitcases. For that reason we plan from the end, fixing the move-in date first and walking backwards from it.
The timeline, counted back from move-in
This is the schedule we run with event teams. The rows before approval move at your pace. From the approval row down the dates are fixed, so a late approval means a late delivery.
| When | Milestone | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| T−10 weeks | Brief and design | Put your logo and show goals into the Design Studio. You get back a capsule covering all eight products, which one of our designers then finishes at no charge. |
| T−9 weeks | Samples, if you want them | Optional and paid. A sample set takes about two weeks to arrive. Photograph the pieces under harsh light, because expo halls are lit like operating rooms. |
| T−7 weeks | Sizes locked, design approved | Collect sizes with the Studio share link (the sizing guide has the process) and add the buffer pieces now. Production starts the day you approve. |
| T−4 weeks | Production done | Every piece has been checked by hand and sleeved with a name. |
| T−2 weeks | Delivery | We ship within the US, and the boxes arrive a full week before the truck leaves. |
| T−1 week | Distribute or pack | Ship to staff homes if they fly direct, or pack with the booth freight. Never split one person's kit across both. |
| T−0 | Show | Everyone matches, and nobody is at the hotel gift shop buying a plain black tee. |
Skip the sample and the same plan fits eight weeks, with the buffer intact. A reorder skips the design stage as well, because the design is proven, your colorways and sizes are already on file, and approval is one email. Poly9 runs three fall expos on one July design sprint that way.
Design for 30 feet.
Office apparel is judged across a desk and booth apparel across an aisle, and the rules change with the distance.
- Pick one saturated color. At 30 feet nobody can read a logo, but everyone can see a block of color moving through a crowd. Put that color on every team member, and if your brand color is a common navy, let the pattern do the work.
- Pattern beats logo size. A bigger chest logo is the amateur move, and an all-over pattern drawn from the brand is the better one. Printed in DTF, it reads as designed from any distance. The tee takes that print up to about 10 in wide on the chest for $17.02 a piece and stays comfortable through a ten-hour day. The decoration guide covers the method.
- Let the silhouettes vary and hold the color. Staff in different pieces with matching color and pattern read as a team with a wardrobe rather than a uniform, and people can dress for the job, with demo staff in polos and booth builders in tees.
- Design the back. Your team spends half the show facing away from the aisle, at the demo screen or the counter. A back print up to about 12 in wide works while they do.
Quantities for a booth team
Halls are cold at 8 a.m. and tropical by 2 p.m., and demo staff sweat. Order:
- Two tops per person per show day. A three-day show is six tops per staffer, because nobody does well on day three in day one's shirt.
- One layer per person. A hoodie or zip hoodie in the show colorway covers mornings and load-out. The zip is worth having because it goes on and off over a headset.
- Caps for the floor team. The people in the aisles and the sessions are your mobile signage. A printed cap, $10.85, is visible in a seated crowd where a chest logo isn't.
- One buffer piece per four staff, in M to XL, for spills, late additions and the exec who decides to work the booth after all.
Our minimum is 15 pieces, which a four-person team at a two-day show clears on its own, since four tops a person plus a layer comes to 20. If your booth team is smaller than that, tell us what you have in mind. Ten people at a three-day show need eight pieces each, which is 80, plus three buffer pieces. That clears 50, so every line prices at 12% off. Put two shows on one order and 166 pieces clears 150 for 22% off, and the pricing guide has the full table.
The packing list for show week
- Each staffer's kit, packed per person and name-sleeved, which is how we pack by default. Handing out named kits takes five minutes, where sorting through size piles takes an hour.
- Buffer pieces in one labeled box in the booth freight.
- A garment steamer, because fold creases at hour zero undo a lot of design money. Piqué needs it least, which is one reason the polo is the booth default.
- For multi-city runs, a laundry plan. Use hotel laundry on the travel day, or ship the second city's set separately.
- The reorder contact, because when the apparel works, the first question at the debrief is whether you can get more before the next show.
What to do after the show
Two habits separate the teams that build on last year from the teams that start over. The first is to photograph everything, meaning staff at the booth, in sessions and at the airport, because those photos are next year's brief and this year's social content. The second is to debrief the apparel like any other booth asset: what people asked about, and what staff refused to wear. Reorder the winners and the events program gets cheaper each cycle.
The narrative version is on the blog, in The Booth Apparel Playbook.
Budgeting the per-staffer capsule
A full per-staffer capsule for a three-day show is six polos, one zip hoodie and one cap, each with one DTF print. At list the polos are $20.18 each, the zip hoodie $25.22 and the cap $10.85, which comes to $157.15 a staffer. Once the order is past 50 pieces it drops to $138.30, and past 150 to $122.57. A tonally embroidered polo mark gets its price within one business day. Next to the booth, the freight and the hotel rooms that's a small line, and it's the only one that starts conversations outside the booth's footprint. The polo runs true, and anyone between sizes should size down.
Questions we get.
How far ahead should I order trade show apparel?
Book 8 to 10 weeks before move-in: ten if you want a sample set in hand first, eight if you don't. About two of those weeks go to design and approval, at your pace. After you approve the design, the order spends three weeks in production and two in transit, which leaves a week of buffer before move-in.
What should booth staff wear?
A capsule works better than identical uniforms: one patterned piece that reads at 30 feet and one layer for cold halls, with caps for the floor team. Match the color and the pattern and let the silhouettes vary.
How many pieces per staffer?
Two tops per person per show day, one layer and one cap each, and one buffer piece per four staff in M to XL. For a ten-person team at a three-day show that comes to 83 pieces.
Should booth apparel differ from office apparel?
Yes. It's judged at 30 feet, so bolder pattern and stronger color blocking win. Many teams run a louder show colorway of their standard collection.