A production calendar for branded merchandise and corporate gifts, counted backwards from the day you hand them out.
Every December splits companies into two camps. One is unpacking a gift set they signed off in September. The other is on the phone on the 5th, asking what's left in stock. The gap between them isn't budget, it's the calendar. Branded merchandise takes anywhere from six weeks to three months to get from a brief to a box on somebody's desk, and that clock runs on factory time, not on good intentions. Here's where the weeks go, what you can still order at each stage of the season, and how to save the plan if it's already November.
December isn't a production month. It's a delivery month. Anything you start in December is a stock item with a logo on it, and you'll pay a premium to get it moved fast.
Why ordering late costs more than it looks
Factories are full. Every company in Europe wants the same four weeks. Your order joins the queue, and the queue doesn't care that your party is on the 19th.
The good blanks sell out. Textile gets hit hardest. The hoodie you picked is still available in M and XXL, and your team is mostly L. Nobody can conjure stock that's already gone.
Prices climb. The same item quoted in early autumn costs more in December, and express freight piles its own surcharge on top. The product didn't change. The calendar did.
Samples quietly disappear. With time, you approve a physical sample. Without it, you approve a render and meet the real thing when the boxes land.
The calendar, counted both ways
|
When you start |
Weeks before handover |
What's actually possible |
|
August to September |
12 weeks and up |
Everything. Custom production from scratch, new tooling, physical samples, a set built around one idea |
|
Late September to October |
8 to 12 weeks |
Branded items on shapes that already exist. No new molds. One round of samples |
|
October to early November |
5 to 8 weeks |
Branding catalog items inside the EU, comfortably. Packaging made to size. Assembly and addressed delivery |
|
November |
4 to 5 weeks |
EU catalogue branding, but tight. One decoration method, no second sample, sizes locked on day one |
|
December |
Under 4 weeks |
Stock items, express freight, and whatever colour is left on the shelf |
Two numbers drive the whole table. Custom production from scratch runs roughly 2-3 months from brief to delivery. Branding a catalogue item inside the EU takes about 4-5 weeks. The rest is arithmetic around those two.
Where the weeks actually go
Most people assume the time depends only on production. Most of it doesn't.
Concept and artwork. Picking the item, fitting the logo to the print area, nailing the colours. The quickest stage on paper, and the one that balloons when approvals bounce between three people.
Sampling and sign-off. The first thing teams cut and the thing they regret most. A sample catches the wrong shade of lime before it’s produced two thousand times over.
Production: two weeks, minimum. That's for anything, even a single-colour print. Complex builds and new molds take a lot longer.
Transit. Goods made inside the EU reach you without customs clearance. Anything coming from China, Turkey or Serbia spends weeks in transit and then needs clearing on arrival, and that clearance belongs in your schedule, not in your surprises.
Assembly and delivery. Packing sets, writing cards, sending every parcel to its own address. Looks small on a plan, eats real days.
Fast is possible when fast is planned. For Playrix we turned out more than two thousand items across fifteen categories in a month, from raincoats packed inside souvenir balls to kites, with production split across five countries and boxes landing in three cities. That month was engineered. It wasn't improvised.
If it's already November
Don't rush the complicated idea. Shrink it. A simple thing done properly beats an ambitious thing done at speed, and nobody opening the box can see the version you had in mind.
Brand what exists. Catalog items with a strong print are the entire November playbook.
Drop the all-over pattern. One decoration method, one placement. Every extra technique adds a step, and every step can slip.
Produce inside the EU. That single decision deletes the customs stage and the transit weeks.
Lock sizes before anything else. Textile stock vanishes by size, not by item.
Put the time you saved into packaging. A box cut to the product turns three ordinary things into one gift. For A-Players we assembled fleeces and bottles into packed holiday sets and delivered them ready to hand over.
Four habits that save your deadline
Lock the artwork before you shop. Approvals are the slowest part of any project and the only part entirely in your hands.
Settle the recipient list early. Head count, sizes, addresses. That's what stalls orders in week one.
Pick one hero item, not five. Five items means five production lines, five sample rounds, five chances to slip.
Need it before December?
Overhood produces branded merchandise and corporate gift sets across Europe: concept, sourcing, production, packaging made to size, assembly, and addressed delivery to every recipient from our warehouse in the EU. Send us your handover date, your head count and your budget, and we'll tell you straight away what's still doable and what we'd change to get you there.
Related reading
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Holiday Merchandise and New Year Swag Packs for your team
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Love, Overhood
