Picture a shelf three months after delivery. The style sold well - and yet a stack of pieces will not move. Almost every time, the stack is the same sizes: the two ends of the range. The style was not the problem. The size curve was, and it was decided in about four minutes when the order was placed.
The even split is the default, and it is wrong.
The most common way to build a wholesale size range is to divide the order by the number of sizes. An 800-piece order across six sizes becomes roughly 133 pieces each. It feels fair and it is easy to calculate. It also ignores everything anyone knows about how men buy clothes, which is that the middle of the range sells several times faster than the edges.
Work backwards from sell-through, not forwards from the order.
The practical method starts at the shelf, not at the factory. If you already sell menswear, pull your last two seasons of sales and look at one number: the share of units sold per size in a given category. Trousers concentrate harder around the middle than tees do. Hoodies spread wider than shirts. Your own history is the only curve that matters, because it already contains your customer, your price point and your market.
If you have no history - first season, new category - borrow a curve honestly. Ask the factory what their domestic wholesale customers reorder, which is the closest thing to a tested distribution. Then round conservatively toward the middle, not away from it.
The two ends are a purchasing decision, not a formality.
Small and extra-large sizes exist to complete the range and to serve real customers, and they should absolutely be offered. But ordering them in the same quantities as the core sizes converts them into the dead stock of three months later. The discipline is simple: the edges get a deliberate fraction of the core quantities, and the buyer accepts that some of those sizes may sell out rather than sit.
Selling out at the edge is the better outcome. A lost sale at 3XL costs one margin. Dead stock costs the margin plus the shelf space plus the discount it eventually sells at, which is usually below cost.
Plan the replenishment window before you order.
A size curve is not a one-time decision. The right question at order time is: if the middle sizes sell out in week three, can they be reordered inside the season? Factories keep patterns and grade rules, and a repeat of the same curve is the cheapest order either side will ever run. Buyers who plan the reorder path upfront can start with a tighter, more concentrated range and add the proven winners, instead of buying every size once and hoping.
The pre-order checklist.
- Pull sell-through by size for at least two past seasons, per category, not per style.
- Build the curve from that data; never split evenly across sizes.
- Order edge sizes at a deliberate fraction of the core sizes.
- Ask the factory which sizes they can fast-repeat, and note the lead time.
- Write the curve into the order confirmation - per size, per colour - so production cannot drift.
- Book a mid-season review date now, so the reorder decision happens in week three, not week nine.
A size range is a forecast, and forecasts improve with structure. The curve you write down before the order is worth more than the sales meeting you hold after the stock arrives. For what a first sample round actually costs before any of this, see the sample cost breakdown.
