What sets merchandise items apart from promotional giveaways
It comes down to a single question: will it be worn? A pen with a logo on it is a giveaway. A pair of socks, a cap or a hoodie in your own design is a product – something people put on of their own accord, because it looks good and because they belong to the brand printed on it.
That is exactly where the value lies. Giveaways are handed out once and then put aside. Good merchandise items are in use every day: in the studio, in the office, on the pitch, on holiday. You pay once and stay visible from then on, and in precisely the places where your audience already is.
For your selection that means: do not ask what is cheap to print, but what your people would actually use if there were no logo on it. Everything else ends up in a drawer – no matter how good the design is.
Cool merchandise items: ideas that make it into everyday life
After more than ten years of production we can say fairly precisely what works. These are the products we are asked for most often – and, more importantly, the ones reordered most often:
- Socks – our best-selling product. Cheap enough for large campaigns, good enough that they do not end up in a drawer. On request with a non-slip sole for studio, Pilates and yoga.
- Caps – snapback, baseball cap, trucker cap or full cap, entirely customisable. The classic for summer campaigns and trade fairs.
- Beanies – the hat that gets worn all winter long. With or without a pompom, in your colours.
- Furevoletten – our pool slides, entirely in your own design: strap, sole and branding freely customisable. For the changing room, fan shop, trade fair or as a gift for staff.
- Towels – printed across the whole surface, for sauna, sport and events.
- Hoodies, T-shirts and Jerseys – the basis of any team kit.
On top of that come products hardly anyone thinks of, which is exactly why they stick in the memory: Scarves, Bucket hats, our own trainers, LED logos and Flip-flops. That makes fourteen product groups in all – if you want to see everything at once, you will find it under all products.
A simple filter helps with the choice: summer or winter, indoors or outdoors, one-off campaign or permanent kit. Cool merchandise items are rarely the flashiest ones, but the ones that suit the season and the everyday life of the people receiving them.
The second filter is the occasion. An onboarding pack calls for different things than a trade fair: new staff are pleased with something they can use straight away – hoodie, towel, socks. At a trade fair what counts is what visitors take with them and keep, so more like a cap or a beanie. In the fan shop, in turn, it is resale value that decides, and there jerseys, scarves and Furevoletten lead the field. If you are unsure, start with one product and add to it later – reordering is possible at any time.
Having merchandise items printed – or better still: finished
“Printing” is often the worst of the possible answers in merchandise. For every product there is a technique that lasts longer and looks more valuable. An overview:
| Technique | Typical for | What makes it special |
|---|---|---|
| Woven in | Socks | The logo is part of the fabric, not of the surface – it cannot flake off and stays washable. |
| Embroidery and 3D embroidery | Caps, beanies | Three-dimensional and high-quality; 3D embroidery visibly lifts the logo out of the material. |
| All-over print | Towels | Uses the entire surface, multicoloured and strong on motif. |
| Stamped in | Furevoletten | The logo sits in the strap itself, the tab remains freely customisable. |
Embroidery is also possible on socks if a motif is very fine. In most cases we still recommend weaving it in: it survives the washing machine, and that is exactly what decides whether a product is still being worn six months later.
About the file: ideally send us your logo as a vector file, then every technique can be carried out without any loss of quality. If you do not have one, send whatever you have – our designers will tell you whether it is enough and get in touch if something is missing.
Which technique is right for your motif is settled fastest with a design. Send us your logo and you will see the result before you decide.
Sustainable merchandise items: what to look out for
Sustainability in merchandise is decided less by the material than by the question of how long a product gets used. A shirt made of organic cotton that lies faded in the wardrobe after three washes is not a sustainable product.
Four points that make the biggest difference in practice:
- Durable finishing. Woven or embroidered logos survive the wash. Printed motifs are often the reason an item is thrown out after a single season.
- The right quantity. Better to reorder 50 items twice than to order 500 once and put the rest into storage. We produce from 10 to 20 items – for exactly that reason.
- Suitable sizes. What does not fit does not get worn. Asking for sizes before ordering saves more material than any certificate.
- Ask for evidence. Ask your supplier for the factory’s certificates and for the origin of the goods. Anyone who cannot answer that clearly usually does not have it.
We produce in certified factories and have our own factory in Istanbul, where we handle the choice of materials and purchasing ourselves. Your contact will tell you which evidence is available for your specific product before you order.
Merchandise items for companies, brands and clubs
The occasions differ, the product often stays the same.
Companies use merchandise to kit out their staff, for trade fairs, for onboarding packs and as a Christmas gift. The advantage over the classic present: it shows belonging instead of merely claiming appreciation. Company merchandise items are therefore also an instrument in employer branding.
Brands use merchandise as campaign goods – for prize draws, campaigns, fan collections or major events such as a World Cup. We have produced exactly such products for brands like Milka, Bosch, Aldi, Lidl, CHECK24, Nestlé and the DFB academy. What matters here: you design in your own style, without any third-party licences.
Clubs kit out their teams, resell in the fan shop or give items to members. For many clubs merchandise is also a source of income – which is why we calculate reseller terms on request.
What all three have in common: an order rarely fails because of the design, but because of distribution. On request we ship directly to individual locations or private addresses. For clever fit we deliver to around 500 franchise studios, for the Elotrans brand by STADA directly to end customers.
What merchandise items cost – and what drives the price
Nobody can name a unit price responsibly without knowing the product. Four factors determine it:
- The product. Between a pair of socks and your own trainers lie worlds – not only in price, but in effort too.
- The quantity. The larger the run, the cheaper the individual item. Our brackets start at 10 to 20 items and go beyond 1,000.
- The finishing. A woven-in logo behaves differently in the calculation than an all-over print or 3D embroidery.
- Colours and special requests. Special colours, several motifs or individual packaging all have an effect.
You get the price brackets together with the design, before anything is binding. That way you can compare the best merchandise items for your budget in a single step instead of working your way through price lists.
From the idea to the finished product: how it works
The path is the same for every product and takes around four weeks in all from your approval:
- Send an enquiry. Product, rough quantity, your logo or a design idea. The form takes under a minute to fill in, and you do not need to register.
- Get a design. Our own designers visualise your product by hand and to scale – deliberately without AI, so that you see what will actually be on the product in the end. The answer comes within 24 hours, usually the same day.
- Decide. The design, price brackets and dates are in front of you before anything becomes binding. The design is free of charge.
- Production and dispatch. Around four weeks after your approval the goods are with you – on request delivered straight to the recipients.
You have one fixed contact throughout the whole project. That sounds obvious, but in this industry it is not.
Having merchandise items made: what matters in a partner
If you want to have merchandise items made, your partner decides more than just the price. Three questions are worth asking before any collaboration:
- Who actually produces? Many suppliers pass enquiries on to middlemen. We have our own factory in Istanbul and handle the choice of materials and purchasing ourselves.
- What is the minimum quantity? Minimum orders of several hundred items shut out small teams and departments. With us it starts at 10 to 20 items, and several thousand pieces are no problem at the other end.
- Who handles distribution? The most demanding part is rarely production, but shipping to many addresses. Settle beforehand who does that.
FUREVO has been making custom team products since 2015 and is the market leader in this field in the German-speaking world. From amateur clubs to DAX corporations – with the same standard for the product.