How to design a custom team jersey
Most custom jersey orders that go wrong do not go wrong at the printer. They go wrong two steps earlier — in the artwork file, or in the size list. Here is the order we would follow if we were kitting out our own team.
1. Start from the sport, not the picture in your head
Each sport has a base cut that exists for a reason: a football jersey is cut wide through the shoulders for pads, a soccer kit is cut lean for running, a baseball jersey has a full-button placket. Pick the base style for your sport first and then design into it. Choosing a style because a rendering looked good is how you end up with a jersey nobody wants to play in.
2. Get your artwork right before you design anything
Send vector if you have it — AI, EPS, PDF or SVG. Vector scales to any size with no loss, which matters when the same crest goes on a chest, a sleeve and a cap.
If you only have a raster file, send the largest version you own — ideally 1000px or wider on its shortest side, with a transparent background. A logo lifted off a website at 200px will look soft when it is 8 inches across on a chest, and no amount of upscaling fixes that.
One rule that saves everyone time: you must own the artwork or hold a licence for it. We cannot print professional league, club, college or national-team marks without documented authorisation. Your own crest in whatever colours you like is always fine.
3. Design for the back of the shirt, not the front
Spectators, parents and cameras spend most of the game looking at players' backs. Numbers should be large, high-contrast and in a font that reads at distance — a thin decorative typeface that looks sharp on your monitor can be unreadable from the far touchline. Two colours of high contrast beat five colours of nuance.
4. Collect sizes properly — this is the step people skip
Fit is the single most common reason a team reorders. Before you ask players for sizes, get the size chart for the exact style you have chosen, or ask us for a sizing kit. Sizes are not interchangeable between styles, and "I'm normally a large" is not size data.
Build a simple spreadsheet: player name, number, fit (men's / women's / youth / kids'), size. That one file is what we produce from.
5. Treat the mockup as your final check, not a formality
We send a free mockup proof within 24–48 hours. Read every name letter by letter, out loud if you can. Check every number against your roster. Check logo placement on both front and back.
Once you approve the mockup, the design is locked and production starts — so the proof is the last moment anything can change. Approved kits are delivered in 7–10 business days.
6. Order a little wider than your roster
Squads change. A player joins, someone's size was wrong, a keeper wants a spare. Because we have no minimum order you can always reorder a single piece later, and we keep your approved design on file so the second batch matches the first — but ordering one or two spares up front costs less than a second shipment.
A quick pre-flight list
- Base style chosen for the sport, not the render
- Vector artwork, or the largest raster you have, transparent background
- You own the artwork or hold a licence
- Numbers large, high-contrast, readable at distance
- Sizes collected against the chart for that exact style
- Roster spreadsheet: name, number, fit, size
- Mockup checked letter by letter before approval
- One or two spares ordered
Work through that list and the kit that arrives is the kit you designed. If you want a second pair of eyes on a design before you commit, send it over — we would rather spend ten minutes on a proof than remake a batch.
