Programmes · · 6 min read
Sizing a uniform programme without guessing
Size curves, fit samples and the reorder problem — how to order for a team you have not measured.
The hardest part of a uniform order is rarely the garment. It is answering how many mediums to make for four hundred people you have never measured.
Start with a curve, not a guess
A size curve is the distribution of sizes across a run. Guessing produces the classic failure: a stack of unworn extra-smalls and a waiting list for XL that arrives three weeks after the launch. Where headcount data exists, use it. Where it does not, run a size set first.
Fit samples earn their cost
A set of sealed samples in every size, circulated for a week before the run, is the cheapest insurance in the process. People try them on, pick their size, and the curve stops being a forecast and becomes a count.
It also catches the things a spec sheet cannot: a collar that sits badly under a lanyard, a sleeve that rides up when someone reaches, a fabric that reads differently under the actual lighting of the space.
Plan the reorder before the first delivery
Teams grow, garments get damaged, and someone always joins in week three. A programme that cannot be reordered identically is not a programme, it is a one-off.
- Keep every size on record against the approved sample, not against a description.
- Order a buffer of the two most common sizes rather than a spread across all of them.
- Fix the fabric and the label tier at the start so the second run matches the first.
Do that and the reorder in eight months is a phone call rather than a project.
