Small equipment is where a strength range wins or loses the shelf. Bands, loops, sliders and compact training sets take up very little space, turn quickly, and are often picked up by a shopper who came into the aisle for something else. That combination rewards a planogram built on measurements rather than mood: a fixed footprint, a readable hang-card hierarchy, a colour system that survives a crowded pegboard, and a replenishment routine that keeps the peg full without overstocking the back room.
Measure the fixture before anyone draws artwork
Ask the retail buyer for the fixture specification in writing: pegboard hole pitch (commonly 25 mm), usable peg length, shelf depth, clear height between shelves, and the load a single peg is rated for. A card that stands 160 mm tall on a peg with 120 mm of clear height will be crushed on the first restock, and a set heavier than the peg rating will sag the board and pull neighbouring items out of alignment.
Translate those numbers into a facing plan: single loops hang two or three deep on one peg, sliders sit in a shallow tray at the shelf edge, and multi-piece band sets need a wider card on a shelf rather than a peg. Keep the total footprint of the category fixed across stores so the planogram can be repeated without redrawing it for every door.
Hang card size, slot position and header hierarchy
Sizes worth standardising: a 90 x 160 mm card for a single loop or mini band, a 120 x 210 mm card for a three-band set, and a 150 x 250 mm card where the pack includes a door anchor or handles. Put a 40 mm euro slot at the top centre, reinforced with a 6 mm board patch, and leave at least 12 mm of clear space below the slot so the header text is not hidden by the hook.
The front of the card should read in three layers. The top 40 mm carries the brand and the product name. The middle carries the decision information: resistance level in both kgf and lb, the length and width of the band, and one line on use, such as hip thrusts, lateral walks or hamstring curls. The bottom third carries the barcode, country of origin, material, care symbols and the importer block. Print on 350 to 400 gsm board, matt laminated on the front face only, so the back stays printable for store stickers.
Colour coding that reads at two metres
Build the range on four or five levels and choose hue families that sit far apart: yellow, red, green, blue and black covers most of what a shopper can separate at a glance, while three neighbouring blues cannot be told apart under warm store lighting. Resist giving every SKU its own colour. Colour belongs to the resistance level, not to the product, so a loop, a long band and a figure-eight band at the same level share one colour and one number.
Colour alone is not enough. Print the level number and the tension value on the band itself and repeat both on the card, so a shopper who cannot separate red from green still has a number to follow. Keep a printed level chart at the end of the run and check, before the first carton ships, that the chart, the band print and the card all agree.
Facings, fill lines and replenishment
Give the core levels at least two facings each and the tail one, then set a restock trigger: when a peg falls below roughly forty percent of its planogrammed depth, the store or distributor replenishes it. A visible fill line printed inside the tray insert lets staff see the gap without counting units.
Review space productivity on a fixed cycle and count units sold per linear metre per week rather than total units, so a narrow, fast-turning peg is not compared unfairly with a wide, slow one. Drop or re-tier any SKU that misses the threshold for two consecutive cycles, and rebuild the planogram twice a year, ahead of the January and September resets rather than after them.
Packaging that survives handling, and labels that pass
Where a retailer wants the range to move from carton to shelf without repacking, specify a shelf-ready tray with a clean tear line, a front panel that does not hide the product, and a footprint that matches the shelf depth. The test is simple: one person, no knife, under a minute to open and set a tray.
Labelling is where ranges are most often rejected. Every unit needs a scannable barcode tied to a GTIN, and the number must match the carton and the advance shipping notice. Confirm the barcode and the data structure against the GS1 standards before print, then add country of origin, material composition, care and safety text in the languages the destination market requires, and the importer or responsible person block.
Ranges that get this right are easier to extend: a new level, a new width or a new pack size slots into an existing colour and an existing card layout instead of starting a design cycle. Our customisation process starts from those fixed points, and the blog covers the packaging and testing questions that come up after a first order.
Frequently asked questions
What packaging counts as shelf ready?
A pack is shelf ready when it moves from carton to shelf in one motion. It protects the product in transit, opens along a clean tear line without a knife, presents the band or loop so the front panel does not cover the level print, carries the barcode and the level information where a shopper can read them without lifting it, and collapses flat for disposal. A printed hang card on its own is not shelf ready unless the outer tray is designed to be opened and set down as the display.
How should price tiers be displayed?
Group by tier, not by product type. Build three visible blocks on the fixture, entry, core and premium, and keep each block in the same position in every store so a shopper learns the layout once. Put the core tier at eye level, entry below it and premium above. Let the retailer set the numbers; the packaging carries the tier cues instead, through board weight, print finish, the number of pieces in the pack and the amount of accessory content.
Which labels does a retailer require?
As a baseline: a scannable GTIN barcode on the unit and on the carton, country of origin, material composition, the importer or responsible person, care and safety text in the languages of the market, and any market-specific mark named in the buyer's vendor manual. Ask for that list in writing and check the artwork against it before plates are made, because a missing line usually means a rejected delivery rather than a sticker applied later.
How do I keep colour levels consistent as the range grows?
Fix the palette to the number of levels first and document each colour as a Pantone and a print reference. Then treat colour as a property of the level inside the SKU master data, so any new loop, band or slider inherits both the colour and the level number from its level rather than from the designer's file. That single rule prevents the most common failure in a growing range, which is two products at the same tension shipped in two different colours.