Every football season, retailers run into the same wall: a customer needs a size 15 or 16, and the shelf stops at 13. Big-foot sizes aren't a niche problem — offensive and defensive linemen, plus a growing number of basketball-to-football crossover athletes, need cleats in the 13.5–18 range every year. The issue isn't demand. It's supply.
Most manufacturers print a handful of large sizes per production run and move on. Retailers trying to cover 13.5 through 18 end up piecing it together from scattered listings at retail prices, with no guarantee the next batch matches. That gap is exactly where a wholesale prepack earns its keep — if you know how to buy one correctly. Here's how to evaluate a large-size football cleat prepack, what's actually inside Cleat Warehouse's mix, and the margin math that makes the category worth stocking.
Why Large Sizes Are So Hard to Find
Cleat manufacturers build around a bell curve. Sizes 9 through 12 cover most of the market, so that's where production runs concentrate. Sizes above 13 get a short tail of the run — enough to list, not enough to restock reliably mid-season.
That scarcity shows up twice for a retailer. First, sourcing: a single-brand, single-size order for an 18 rarely meets a supplier's minimum, so buyers end up hunting across marketplaces and paying near-retail for stock they can't reorder. Second, timing: once a brand's large-size run sells out, it's typically gone until the next product cycle, not the next shipment.
A mixed prepack sidesteps both problems. Instead of chasing one brand's large-size allocation, you're buying a box built specifically around the sizes manufacturers under-produce — multiple brands pulled together into one order that actually meets a minimum. For a retailer, that turns a hard-to-fill request ("do you have a 16?") into a stocked answer instead of a special order.
Inside the Large-Size Prepack
Cleat Warehouse's Large-Size Football Cleats Prepack is built around exactly this gap — a 20-pair box split into two size bands instead of one flat run.
| Detail | Spec |
|---|---|
| Sizes | 13.5–16 ("Heavy") and 17–18 ("Very Light") |
| Brands | Nike, Adidas, Under Armour (mixed, styles not pre-selected) |
| Style | Molded, adult |
| Pairs per box | 20 |
| Wholesale price | $240.00 ($12.00/pair) |
| Retail (MSRP) range | $30–$150 per pair |
The heavy/light split matters more than it looks. A 13.5 and an 18 don't fit the same foot shape, so a box labeled simply "large sizes" with no breakdown is one you can't merchandise properly. Separating 13.5–16 from 17–18 lets you set expectations with buyers up front — and lets you price the rarer 17s and 18s differently from the more common 13.5s and 14s if you choose to.
It's also a SKU the existing wholesale football guide only touches on in passing, since that post is written to move volume across the full football range. This one is for the retailer whose actual problem is the top of the size chart.
How to Evaluate a Large-Size Prepack Before You Order
Not every "large-size mix" is worth the box price. Before you order, check:
Size breakdown, not just a range. "13.5–18" sounds complete, but ask how many pairs land in each size. A box skewed toward 13.5–14 won't solve a 17/18 shortage.
Brand mix. A mixed-brand box spreads your risk across styles buyers actually recognize, versus a single off-brand run that's harder to resell at a markup.
Condition and season. Confirm whether you're buying current-season stock or deadstock from a prior run — both can be profitable, but you price and market them differently.
MOQ versus your actual demand. A 20-pair box moves differently in a big-and-tall specialty shop than it does in a general sporting goods store ordering one box to test the category.
Landed cost. Freight on a 20-pair box is a bigger share of your per-pair cost than it is on a larger standard mix, so confirm shipping before you lock in a resale price.
If a supplier can't answer the size breakdown by brand, that's the question to ask before you order — not after the box arrives.
Who Should Be Stocking These
Three types of buyers get the most out of this category:
Team and league equipment managers. Rosters always include at least one or two players who need a 14+, and a manager who already has stock on hand closes that request same-day instead of placing a special order.
Big-and-tall specialty retailers. This is the core customer already walking into a big-and-tall footwear store — large-size cleats are a natural extension of a business built around hard-to-find sizes.
Online resellers. Marketplace sellers built around hard-to-find athletic sizes can price large sizes well above standard-size resale, since the buyer has fewer alternatives to compare against.
For a general sporting goods retailer, one box is a low-risk way to test whether large-size demand shows up in your market before committing to a full size run across every brand you carry.
The Margin Math
The numbers work even pricing conservatively. At $12.00/pair wholesale, a 20-pair box costs $240.00 before freight. Here's what that looks like sold at three points inside the stated $30–$150 MSRP range:
| Sell price/pair | Revenue (20 pairs) | Profit | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30 (MSRP floor) | $600 | $360 | 60% |
| $45 (conservative mid) | $900 | $660 | 73% |
| $75 (half of MSRP ceiling) | $1,500 | $1,260 | 84% |
Even at the bottom of the MSRP range — the price point you'd use to move inventory fast — the box still returns 60% margin before freight. Scarcity is doing the pricing work here: a buyer who can't find a 17 anywhere else isn't comparing you against a dozen other listings the way they would for a size 10.
Ready to Order?
The Large-Size Football Cleats Prepack ships 20 pairs per box, sizes 13.5–18, for $240.00. Order it here, or contact us to confirm stock before you commit — large-size runs sell out faster than standard sizes and don't always get restocked the same season.
Looking to cover the rest of your football lineup too? See the full wholesale football cleats guide for the standard-size prepacks.