4 April 2027 · Start CityLife, Milan
For sponsors, partners and companies that need technical shirts, runner kits, shoppers, bibs, finisher medals and branded materials to distribute to the Milano Marathon crowd — the running event that brings thousands of runners and spectators from across Italy and abroad into the streets of the Lombard capital.
Milano Marathon — commercially known as Wizz Air Milano Marathon under the airline’s title sponsorship — is Milan’s international marathon, run by RCS Sports & Events Srl and RCS Active Team. It takes place every year on the first Sunday of April on a course city route that starts at CityLife and runs through the main Milanese districts — CityLife, Porta Nuova, Duomo, Castello Sforzesco, Parco Sempione, Navigli, Isola, San Siro — and finishes in Piazza Castello, with thousands of Italian and international runners and a collateral calendar that includes the four-person Relay Marathon and the Stramilano 10 km, bringing further participants into the Milanese running calendar.
For brands running a merch programme around Milano Marathon — whether title sponsors, category sponsors, technical sponsors, product partners, sportswear brands, financial-services partners, automotive partners or food brands at the refreshment points — the planning calendar has to be closed well in advance because the event — usually on the first Sunday of April — often overlaps with Salone del Mobile (April) and Design Week (April), creating a wave of visitors, media and tourists that makes Milan’s logistics tighter than normal. That is why the production cycle has to be closed before the opening, not after, and the on-site delivery has to be coordinated with the CityLife Expo Village calendar, the courier loading slots and the reception window.
The Milano Marathon audience falls into clearly recognisable tiers and each receives a calibrated kit. Runners enrolled in the marathon and the relay need their team or sponsor’s official technical shirt (in recycled polyester OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 and Bluesign®), the branded bib, a recycled-nylon runner bag for the bag drop, and the finisher medal personalised with the brand’s logo. Corporate partners that enter employees for personal-life or social-cause races need a coordinated kit (technical shirt, bib, armband) with graphics aligned to the brand’s message. The operational staff (volunteers, relay staff, refreshment staff) receive a functional issue (branded T-shirt, cap, access badge). Spectators and accompanying visitors who attend the CityLife Expo Village — the public-reception area — receive branded shoppers, fan-zone giveaways, information material on the brand’s programmes.
For a merch programme around Milano Marathon, our Milan hub runs the full chain. We receive the brand’s master artwork (AI, EPS, PDF/X-4 with CMYK at 300 dpi, FOGRA39 colour profile) and adapt it to the different personalisation techniques: sublimation printing on recycled polyester for technical shirts, compact embroidery on technical textiles for branded bibs, water-based screen printing on GOTS-certified organic cotton for staff T-shirts and canvas shoppers, laser marking on Maniago stainless steel for keychains and small metal accessories, die-cast zinc alloy for finisher medals with laser-engraved logo. The physical pre-production sample with a Pantone colour map and a technical sheet runs through Italian districts (textile Como for technical fabrics, knit Bergamo, steel Maniago, zinc alloy Brescia, leather goods Scandicci for recycled-nylon bags) and the delivery lands at CityLife, the Expo Village, a central Milan hotel (Brera, Navigli, Porta Nuova) or a consolidation warehouse, on slots confirmed by the brand’s lead.
For programmes that serve multiple brands or multiple teams we separate into batches labelled by end client and by addressee, with distinct delivery addresses if the company has its operational seat downtown or in the hinterland. For clients subject to CSRD reporting (Italian D.Lgs. 125/2024, transposing Directive (EU) 2022/2464) we attach a per-order sustainability sheet with a Scope 3 CO₂e estimate under the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain on the Lombardy–Lombardy leg and on the manufacturing supply chains, with a per-material and per-leg breakdown useful for the client’s sustainability statement.
Most brands running a merch programme around Milano Marathon coordinate their Italian operations from Milan, with operational seats downtown, at CityLife, Porta Nuova or in the Milan hinterland. The Lombard hub — with consolidation warehouses in the Milan-Bicocca, Milan-Linate and Milan hinterland area — lets us receive the artwork files with the brand’s team, run the pre-production sample through the Italian supply chains (textile Como, knit Bergamo, steel Maniago, zinc alloy Brescia, leather goods Scandicci) and ship the batch to CityLife, the Expo Village or the delegation’s hotel within a 24-hour Lombardy courier window. For programmes that combine an Italian brand and an international partner we manage bilingual material (Italian and English at minimum) and, on request, full localisation in other languages with ISO 17100-aligned translations. For programmes that combine Milano Marathon with other Italian running events (Roma–Ostia, Firenze Marathon, Maratona di Ravenna, Maratona di Verona) we replicate the logistics on both dates with a single point of contact.
The Milano Marathon window — usually the first Sunday of April — is tight but the merch programme has to be planned against a calendar that includes the Expo Village setup week, the Friday and Saturday bib-collection days, the Sunday race day, and the Monday and Tuesday breakdown days. For brands combining Milano Marathon with Salone del Mobile and Design Week — which traditionally open on the Monday of the same week — the pressure on hotels, couriers and consolidation warehouses is doubled, which is why planning has to close well in advance. Any object that has to be at the Expo Village, in the runner’s bag or at the delegation’s hotel on day one has to be closed and shipped at least one week before the race. We work backwards from that moment: the product list closes ten–twelve weeks before; the courier slot is booked for the Wednesday or Thursday of the preceding week; the addressee list is finalised together with the confirmation of the race and Expo Village calendar.
Running technical shirts in recycled polyester OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 and Bluesign®, racing singlets, branded bibs, relay bodysuits, sport caps in organic cotton and technical running socks. Split by size, role and race category.
Personalised kits for registered runners, recycled-nylon running bags, aluminium bottles, food supplements and branded sport giveaways.
Die-cast zinc alloy finisher medals, recognition plaques for partners, special medals for the relay teams and commemorative plates for corporate teams.
Sport shoppers in recycled polyester or FSC-certified paper, branded banners for the Expo Village, roll-ups for the village, backpacks for the public, sport trolleys for corporate teams.
Before kicking off production the master artwork files, sizes, runs per audience tier, packaging and nominative addressee have to be closed. The final delivery address is locked against the brand’s marketing director calendar or the partner’s logistics lead: the CityLife Expo Village, the delegation’s hotel (Brera, Navigli, Porta Nuova), the brand’s warehouse in the Bicocca or Milan hinterland area, or the operational office for storage material. The Expo Village access constraints and the courier loading slots condition the delivery windows, which is why most teams opt for early-morning or after-20:00 deliveries, when commercial vehicles are readmitted to the central areas.
For a Milan-routed programme deliveries are consolidated at the hub and shipped to CityLife with BRT, SDA, GLS or DHL Express Italia, on appointment for venues that require phone notice. For programmes above 1,000 pieces we propose appointment-based delivery with phone notice and, on request, on-site setup by our staff at the Expo Village stand or the reception area. For materials that need controlled environmental conditions (technical fabrics, small leather goods, Maniago steel, zinc alloy) we coordinate temperature-controlled transport with specialised partners. For kits destined to international delegations we handle multilingual labelling (Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian) and tamper-evident bagging with a bilingual packing list addressed to the addressee. For clients subject to CSRD reporting we attach a per-order sustainability sheet with a Scope 3 CO₂e estimate under the GHG Protocol on the Lombardy–Lombardy leg.
All Italian B2B orders are invoiced in EUR at the standard 22% VAT rate (with reduced rates of 4%, 5% and 10% applied where the product category allows: publishing, art objects, denomination-of-origin products) and routed through the Italian Revenue Agency’s Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) to the recipient code or the buyer’s PEC address. Corp-Merch.IT is an Italian VAT-registered entity, listed on VIES for intra-EU operations, and handles reverse charge, split payment and self-invoicing for the public administration under current Italian regulations.
Ten–twelve weeks is the safest window for recycled-polyester technical shirts, die-cast medals, personalised runner kits and sport shoppers. Six–eight weeks work when the product mix is simple, the brand artwork is already approved and the runs are already defined. For brands combining Milano Marathon with the Stramilano 10 km or the Relay Marathon we replicate the batches on both dates with a single point of contact.
Only after the Milano Marathon organisation confirms the loading window, the Expo Village access and the nominative addressee. Most teams combine CityLife with a central Milan hotel, the brand’s warehouse in the Bicocca area or a consolidation warehouse, to avoid the commercial-vehicle congestion during the Salone del Mobile and Design Week weeks.
Yes. Technical shirts for runners, running bags for the relay, shoppers for the Expo Village fan zone, finisher medals and VIP kits for sponsors can be packed and labelled as separate lots, with distinct delivery addresses if the brand has more than one location or more than one destination address. For programmes covering multiple brands or teams we replicate the lots per end client and consolidate into crates labelled per logistics node.
No. Corp-Merch.IT is an independent external B2B supplier that helps sponsors, partners and companies prepare their own merch around Milano Marathon. It does not organise, sponsor or represent RCS Sports & Events Srl, RCS Active Team, RCS MediaGroup or the relevant running federation.
Corp-Merch.IT is an independent external B2B supplier for the sponsors and companies participating in Milano Marathon. This page helps teams prepare their own merch around the running event. It does not represent RCS Sports & Events Srl, RCS Active Team, RCS MediaGroup or the Milano Marathon sponsors.