A new jersey. A new collection. A new season.
For football clubs, the season launch is one of the most important moments in merchandising. But there's often much more behind that one date than meets the eye.
Designs need to be agreed on, quantities planned, samples approved and delivery dates coordinated. There are different partners involved, internal decisions to make and sometimes last-minute changes to deal with.
And while the launch date is usually fixed, the road to getting there isn't always quite so clear.
At dekoGraphics, we spend a lot of time thinking about how we can better support football clubs with their merchandising.
And that doesn't always mean developing new products, introducing new technologies or offering additional services.
Sometimes, it's about something much simpler: How can we make everyday work easier for our customers?
That's exactly the thinking behind our PROJECT LAUNCHER.
Knowledge is valuable. Even more so when you can put it to use.
We've been working with football clubs for many years, helping them develop and deliver their merchandising projects.
Along the way, we've gained a lot of experience. Especially when it comes to season launches, we know which steps matter, where things can get tight and why certain decisions need to be made early.
Because it's often not the big challenges that make a launch complicated. It's all the small decisions that depend on each other.
A late design approval, for example, can delay the sampling process. Changes in quantities can affect production. And in the end, everyone involved needs to work towards the same launch date.
We regularly share this knowledge through conversations, workshops and project meetings.
But then we asked ourselves:
Why should a club have to speak to us first just to get some initial guidance on planning its season?
Why not make that knowledge available to everyone?
No meeting. No presentation. No complicated process.
Turning experience into a practical tool.
The idea behind our PROJECT LAUNCHER is deliberately simple.
- A club enters its planned launch date.
- The tool works backwards from that date, showing the key milestones along the way, when they should ideally happen and how much time is left.
- From initial planning and design to sampling, production, product decoration and the final launch.
Not just general advice, but a practical timeline built around the club's own season launch.
The timeline can also be saved as a PDF or added to a calendar.
Of course, every project is different. A new home jersey comes with different requirements than a small special-edition collection. Products, quantities and the partners involved all have an impact on planning.
That's why the PROJECT LAUNCHER isn't meant to replace detailed project planning.
It's a starting point. And sometimes, that's exactly what you need.
You don't need to have all the answers yet.
One thing was particularly important to us when developing the tool: keeping things simple.
No registration just to see how it works. No long list of required information. No complicated steps.
All you need to get started is a date.
Even if final quantities haven't been confirmed or some designs are still being discussed, it's worth looking at the timeline early.
Because the sooner a club understands what's coming next, the easier it becomes to prepare decisions and avoid potential bottlenecks.
We believe good tools shouldn't create more work.
They should make work easier.
And they should be useful even when you don't have all the information yet.
