The Most Common Mistakes Event Organizers Make When Ordering Awards (And How to Avoid Them)

We’ve seen it happen a hundred times. The race is booked, the track is prepped, the riders are signed up… and the awards are stuck in limbo. Or worse, they arrive, but they’re not what you expected. For a race director, this is the ultimate nightmare. You want that podium moment to be perfect, but a few small missteps weeks earlier can turn victory lane into a stress test.

Ordering awards seems straightforward: pick a trophy, send a logo, pay the invoice. But in reality, it’s a production process with moving parts, deadlines, and specific requirements. When you’re juggling permits, insurance, and track prep, it’s easy to overlook the details of the hardware. The good news? Almost every disaster is preventable.

This guide isn’t about shaming anyone; it’s about arming you with the knowledge to navigate the production process like a pro. We’re going to walk through the most common ordering trophies mistakes we see in the shop, explain why they happen, and show you exactly how to avoid them so your event goes off without a hitch.

Why Award Orders Go Wrong More Often Than People Expect

You might think ordering trophies is as simple as buying a pair of boots online. You click, you buy, it ships. But custom manufacturing doesn’t work that way. Most event awards problems stem from a disconnect between what the organizer assumes happens and what actually happens on the production floor.

Why Award Ordering Is More Complex Than It Looks

Every award we make is a custom project. Even our most basic plate awards require a specific sequence of events: file intake, design setup, digital proofing, material prep, printing, laser cutting, quality control, assembly, and packing. When you multiply that by 50 or 100 trophies for a race, the complexity scales up.

Understanding the trophy production process is key. We aren’t pulling finished trophies off a shelf and slapping a sticker on them. We are building them from raw materials. If one step in that sequence gets delayed—say, a logo file is corrupt or a proof sits in an inbox for three days—the entire assembly line for that order pauses. That pause ripples down the line, affecting the final delivery date.

How Tight Event Deadlines Magnify Small Mistakes

In a normal retail environment, a two-day delay is an annoyance. In the event world, a two-day delay is a catastrophe. Event deadlines for awards are immovable objects. The race doesn’t move because the trophies aren’t there.

This lack of flexibility means that small issues are magnified. A typo in a class name that takes 24 hours to clarify might mean missing the shipping window for ground freight, forcing you into expensive overnight shipping. Last minute trophies are stressful not just because of the rush, but because the margin for error effectively hits zero. When you have weeks, a mistake is a bump in the road. When you have days, a mistake is a wall.

Mistake #1: Waiting Too Long to Start the Order

This is the big one. It’s the grandfather of all ordering trophies mistakes. We know how it happens: you’re busy securing sponsors, managing volunteers, and dealing with track logistics. The awards feel like something you can “get to next week.” But “next week” turns into “two weeks before the race,” and suddenly you’re in the danger zone.

How Late Orders Limit Your Product Options

The biggest penalty for ordering late isn’t usually a rush fee; it’s a lack of choice. When you wait until the last minute, you drastically reduce your menu of options. You simply cannot order a complex, multi-layered custom trophy 10 days before an event. The physics of glue drying, machines cutting, and trucks driving don’t allow it.

Ordering trophies too late forces you into a corner. You might have envisioned a custom cut-out of a dirt bike rider with three layers of acrylic and a wood base. But if you order late, that vision has to be scrapped for something that can be produced in 48 hours. You end up with limited trophy options, usually standard shapes or simpler designs, rather than the unique hardware you wanted.

What Happens Inside Production When Orders Start Late

When a rush trophy order hits the floor, it disrupts the flow. Our team has to scramble to fit the design, proofing, and build into a compressed window. This increases the intensity for everyone involved. While we pride ourselves on speed and have built our business around fast turnaround awards, pushing the limits introduces risk.

Materials might not be in stock for a specific color you wanted. Machines might be booked with other jobs. By ordering late, you are betting that everything goes perfectly. If a machine needs maintenance or a shipment of acrylic is delayed by a day, a standard order can absorb that shock. A rush order cannot.

Mistake #2: Sending Incomplete or Poor-Quality Artwork

Your awards will only look as good as the files you send us. One of the most frequent causes of trophy production delays is artwork problems. You might have the best designer in the world, but if the file we receive is a tiny, pixelated JPEG pulled from a Facebook header, the final product will suffer.

Why Low-Resolution Logos Stop Production

We print digitally in high definition. That means we need high-resolution source files. The gold standard is a vector file (usually ending in .AI, .EPS, or .PDF). Vector files can be scaled to any size without losing quality.

When we receive a low resolution logo for printing, we have to stop. We can’t print a blurry logo on a crisp, professional award. Our design team then has to contact you, ask for a new file, and wait. Sometimes, organizers don’t have a better file, which means we have to try to recreate the logo from scratch—a time-consuming process that delays the proof and, ultimately, the production.

How Missing Sponsors and Late Branding Changes Cause Delays

Another common artwork issue is the “dribble effect.” An organizer sends the order but says, “I’m still waiting on two sponsor logos.” We can’t start the layout until we have all the pieces.

Sponsor logo trophies are tricky because you are often at the mercy of the sponsors sending you their files. If a sponsor sends the wrong file or changes their branding at the last minute, it forces artwork revisions. Every round of revisions resets the clock on proof approval. If you go back and forth three times on logo placement, you’ve likely added three to five days to your timeline.

Mistake #3: Not Approving Proofs Quickly Enough

This is the silent killer of timelines. You place the order, you send the files, and you think the ball is in our court. Meanwhile, our design team has sent you a digital proof, and it’s sitting in your spam folder or buried under 500 emails about rider registration.

Why Proof Approval Is the Biggest Hidden Bottleneck

Production does not start until the proof is approved. Period. We cannot cut material or print graphics until you give us the green light. This is for your protection, to ensure spelling and design are correct. However, many organizers treat the proof email as “informational” rather than “actionable.”

Slow proof approval is the single most common reason for production delays. We often see orders sit in the “waiting for approval” stage for days, sometimes weeks. The clock is ticking on your event date, but the production clock hasn’t even started yet.

How One Day of Delay Can Push the Entire Schedule

Our production schedule is a tightly choreographed dance. We batch similar jobs together to maximize efficiency. If your approval misses the cutoff for the day’s production run, your order doesn’t just get pushed by an hour; it often gets pushed to the next day or the next open slot.

If you delay approval by two days, and that pushes your shipping date from a Thursday to a Friday, you might run into the weekend gap. Carriers don’t typically move standard ground freight as fast over the weekend. That two-day delay in clicking “Approve” can result in a four-day delay in delivery.

Mistake #4: Ordering the Wrong Type of Award for the Timeline

We love ambition. We love when race directors want to create something massive and intricate. But ambition has to align with reality. A major mistake is trying to force a custom trophy lead time into a plate award timeline.

Why Fully Custom Awards Fail on Short Timelines

Fully custom awards—those with multiple layers, unique materials, and complex assembly—are labor-intensive. They require glue to cure, edges to be polished, and multiple passes on the machines. This process cannot be rushed without compromising quality.

If you try to order a fully custom award two weeks before a race, you are setting yourself up for failure. Even if we accept the order, any small hiccup (a material shortage, a shipping delay) will cause you to miss the deadline. The stress isn’t worth it.

When Plate or Semi-Custom Awards Are the Smarter Choice

If you are on a tight timeline, be smart. Shift your strategy to Plate Awards or Semi-Custom Awards. These are engineered for speed.

Plate awards are single-layer, fast-cutting, and quick to assemble. They look fantastic, professional, and can be fully branded. Semi-custom awards offer a bit more depth but utilize pre-set production methods that save time. Choosing the right vehicle for your timeline is the mark of an experienced organizer. Don’t let your ego demand a custom award if the calendar says you need a fast turnaround trophy.

Mistake #5: Ordering the Wrong Quantities

Math is hard, especially when race classes are fluctuating until the morning of the event. But guessing on quantities is a dangerous game that leads to either wasted money or awkward podium moments.

How Class Changes and No-Shows Create Quantity Problems

A common scenario: You order trophies based on last year’s attendance. But this year, the 50cc class exploded, and the Vet class is empty. Now you have 10 extra trophies for one class and are short 5 trophies for another.

Race awards quantities need to be based on current registration data, not historical guesses. While you can’t predict everything, waiting until you have a solid idea of pre-entries helps. However, don’t wait too long (see Mistake #1). It’s a balance.

Why Overordering and Underordering Both Cost Money

Ordering too few trophies means you have to place a last-minute trophy reorder. This is expensive because you are paying for a new setup, potentially rush shipping, and the unit cost is higher for a small run.

Ordering too many is just burning cash. Those extra trophies usually can’t be reused if they have the date printed on them. The sweet spot is to order exactly what you need plus a tiny buffer for broken items or unexpected entries, but getting the class breakdown right is critical.

Mistake #6: Underestimating Shipping Time

You might think that because we finished the trophies on Tuesday, you’ll have them on Wednesday. But unless you’re local or paying for overnight air, that’s rarely the case. Shipping delays trophies just as often as production issues do.

Why Production Finish Date Is Not the Delivery Date

There is a difference between “Ship Date” and “In-Hand Date.” The ship date is when it leaves our dock. The in-hand date is when the driver drops it at your door. Many organizers plan their timeline around the ship date, forgetting to add the 3-5 days for ground transit.

If your event is on Saturday, you don’t want the trophies arriving on Friday afternoon. That’s too close for comfort. You want them on Tuesday or Wednesday so you can inspect them.

How Weather, Weekends, and Carriers Affect Arrival

FedEx and UPS are reliable, but they aren’t magic. Storms happen. Trucks break down. Packages get misrouted. If you leave zero buffer for shipping, you are gambling with your event.

Also, remember that “3 Days” usually means “3 Business Days.” If it ships Thursday, Day 1 is Friday, Day 2 is Monday, Day 3 is Tuesday. Weekend days often don’t count for standard transit. Always look at the calendar and count business days when calculating your shipping timeline.

Mistake #7: Making Last-Minute Changes After Production Starts

“Hey, can we change the sponsor logo?”
“Actually, can we make the 1st place trophies bigger?”

If you ask these questions after you’ve approved the proof, you are entering dangerous territory.

What Can and Cannot Be Changed Once Production Begins

Once production lock happens—meaning the files are ripped to the printer or the lasers are running—you cannot change the design without starting over. If we have already printed the acrylic, we can’t “erase” the ink. We have to scrap the material and print again.

Modifying trophy orders mid-stream is costly and causes massive delays. It stops the momentum of the job and requires re-proofing and re-queueing the work.

How Late Changes Create Errors and Delays

When you change an order that is already in motion, the risk of human error skyrockets. The production team is working off the original work order. A frantic email change might get missed by the person operating the laser cutter.

Late changes break the rhythm of the shop. To ensure accuracy, your order needs to be final before you say “Go.” If you have to make a change, understand that it will likely delay your order and may incur additional costs.

How to Avoid These Mistakes Without Overcomplicating the Process

We’ve covered the horror stories. Now let’s talk about the solution. Ordering awards doesn’t have to be a minefield. It just requires a bit of process.

What Experienced Race Directors Do Differently

The best race directors we work with do one thing differently: They treat awards as a Phase 1 task, not a Phase 3 task. They start the conversation months out. They get their sponsor logos vector-ready before they even ask for a quote.

They also delegate. They assign one person to handle the awards, rather than trying to do it themselves while also flagging the track. This person is responsible for checking emails, approving proofs, and tracking the shipment.

How to Build Awards Into Your Event Planning Timeline

Work backward from your event date.

• Event Date minus 1 week: Trophies should be in hand.
• Event Date minus 2 weeks: Trophies should be shipping.
• Event Date minus 3 weeks: Production should be starting (Proofs approved).
• Event Date minus 4-5 weeks: Order placed and artwork submitted.
• Event Date minus 8 weeks: Initial quote and design concepts discussed.

If you follow this awards planning timeline, you will never pay a rush fee, and you will never stress about shipping.

A Simple Pre-Order Checklist for Event Organizers

Before you type that email or hit “order,” run through this quick checklist. It will save you hours of back-and-forth.

What Should Be Final Before You Ever Request a Quote

• Event Date: Confirmed.
• In-Hand Date: The date you need them, not the race date.
• Quantities: A solid estimate broken down by class and placement (1st-3rd, etc.).
• Budget: A rough idea of what you can spend per award.
• Logos: A folder on your computer with vector (.AI or .EPS) files of your event logo and sponsor logos.

What to Confirm Before You Approve the Proof

• Spelling: Check every class name, event name, and date.
• Logos: Are the correct sponsors in the correct spots?
• Shapes: Does the cut line look right?
• Quantity: Does the proof match the number of awards you ordered?

Final Advice: How to Make Sure Your Awards Arrive On Time and Correct

We are in the business of making you look good. We want your awards to be the talk of the pits. We want your winners to post them on Instagram. But we need your help to make that happen.

The One Rule That Prevents Most Award Disasters

The golden rule is: Communication matches preparation.

If you are prepared with good files and clear quantities, communication is fast and easy. If you are unprepared, communication becomes slow and confusing. Be the organizer who prepares. Start early, respond to proofs immediately, and trust the process.

If you do that, ordering trophies will be the easiest part of your event planning. And when you see those riders hoisting your custom hardware on the podium, you’ll know you did it right.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ordering Event Awards

What is the most common mistake when ordering trophies?

The most common mistake is simply waiting too long. Late orders compress the timeline, limit your design options, and increase the risk of shipping delays. Starting 4-6 weeks out is the best way to ensure a smooth process.

How late is too late to order event awards?

Technically, we can help with last minute trophies up to about 10 days before an event using our fast-turnaround Plate Awards. However, anything under two weeks is considered a “rush” and leaves very little room for error. We recommend ordering at least 3 weeks in advance to be safe.

What file format should I send for award artwork?

For the best printing results, always send Vector files. These usually have file extensions like .AI, .EPS, or .PDF. These files allow us to scale your logo to any size without it becoming blurry or pixelated. Avoid sending JPEGs or PNGs unless they are extremely high resolution.

What happens if I need to change my order after approval?

If you need to change your order after approving the proof, you must contact us immediately. If production has not started, we can usually make the change with a slight delay. If production has already begun (materials printed or cut), you may have to pay for the materials used and start that portion of the order over. This is why careful proofing is essential.