I recently spoke to two graduates who had been members of university tennis squads at different institutions.

Their experiences with team kit were remarkably similar.

Squads were confirmed. Orders were placed with suppliers at the end of September.

The team kit arrived in February, sometimes even later. By then, much of the season had already been played.

Neither described it as an unusual one-off.

For them, late team kit had simply become part of the university sports experience. It shouldn't be.

And the issue isn't limited to universities.

For sports clubs and multi-site organisations, the same problem shows up whenever team kit is ordered around the availability of final details, rather than planned around the date the garments are actually needed.

Don't start with the order. Start with the calendar.

Most sports organisations have a surprisingly predictable annual cycle.

University teams have academic terms, training blocks, and competition schedules.

Sports clubs have league seasons, tournaments, membership programmes, and annual kit refreshes.

The exact requirements may still change.

Player numbers fluctuate. Individual sizes and personalisation may not be known until much closer to the season.

But the key dates are usually known well in advance, and that creates an opportunity.

Instead of waiting until every detail is confirmed before starting the process, the project can be planned around the calendar itself.

Designs get agreed. Colours get signed off. Samples get produced and approved. Quantities get estimated.

Then, once final requirements are confirmed, individual details, names, initials, and numbers get added to the order.

That is a manufacturing process designed around your calendar, rather than one that only starts after your calendar has already begun.

Good planning also leaves room to get things right.

A rushed process doesn't just create pressure around the delivery date, it removes the opportunity to catch and correct problems before they reach the full order.

For a premium club, where club kit is part of the member experience, that matters.

For a procurement team, it creates a clearer trail of decisions, approvals, and delivery expectations along the way.

I was reminded recently of what happens when that planning window disappears entirely.

We were asked to produce fully sublimated jerseys within ten days, for an event with a fixed date.

It wasn't realistic, and I said so plainly. We are not miracle workers, we can ask factories to accommodate urgent orders, however, 10 days deadline meant rushed order with no approved artwork equals disapponting result.

The more useful answer, in that moment, wasn't yes. It was: here are the options that actually exist within the time available.

Late club kit isn't an inevitable feature of club or university sport.

If your first competition is in October, that conversation shouldn't begin in September.

If a new site is opening in June, the club kit project should be planned around the opening date, not the date someone finally gets around to placing the order.

If you have a fixed launch date, a competition schedule, or a multi-site rollout coming up, what would change if you started that conversation today, even though it seems too far in advance?

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