For those who are in bands that sell merch, or just have decent knowledge of the metal scene and merch.
Which size shirts do you think (or know from experience) sell the most at metal shows? (preferably in the American market)

My band is going to be printing 100 t-shirts, and we're trying to decide on the perfect break down for S/M/L/XL/2XL (American Sizes)
Thanks.

Honestly there's no telling. depends on where you are touring the most and knowing the sizes of people in that area and then breakding down that percentage to who would be at your show.

in my experience in selling shirts I normally got all the same amount. some tours or various out of town shows over a few months we would sell all the larger sizes... so we restocked with more of those and then we sold pretty much nothing but the small and mediums and had a glut of larger sizes.


if it was me I'd probably get more M, L, XL something like 15 small, 20M 25L 25XL 15 2XL

but that's more so of what I normally get for the art shows and the shirts I print up for that. it's cause you really never know who's going to come up and approach and I know the body size is more in the middle section there where I'm at.

What genre of music? If it's black metal it will be mostly small and medium, but if it's slam death it will be mostly like 2XL.

Believe it or not, even the particular shirt design affects which sizes sell the most. Your genre/fanbase, and the color of the shirt are also factors.

However, a good rule of thumb, based on my experience is L>M>XL>S>XXL

I don't know which ones sell the MOST, exaclty, but the ones that sell out first seem to be the mediums. There always seems to be a pile of XL and XXL languishing, a few smalls, and a handful of larges left. I'm basically between M and L, so .. I dunno, maybe there should be an XM.

I usually end up with more S's than anything. like with each run of shirts, it's always the smalls that hang on longer than the most. 2XL 3XL are behind it when I order more than 5-6.

tonight's show it was Mediums and XL.

I think I've sold more larges and mediums than anything else.

To get a better idea it would probably be better to ask other bands in your area within the same genre what their shirt sales are like and then ordering according to that.

This is pretty accurate.