Softshell vs Fleece for Teams: Which Layer Should You Buy?
By The Velocity Wear Team
Fleece is the warmer and cheaper option, and it takes embroidery perfectly. Softshell is windproof and showerproof, looks smarter, and is what you want for anyone outdoors for hours. The catch is that heavy embroidery on a membrane softshell perforates the very layer you paid for, which changes how you decorate it.
They Are Solving Two Different Problems
Fleece traps air. It is superb at holding warmth against the body and it breathes freely, which is why it feels comfortable indoors and during activity. It also does nothing at all against wind. A breeze cuts straight through a fleece and the warmth is gone in seconds. Anyone who has stood on a touchline in one knows this.
Softshell is a bonded fabric: a woven outer face, usually a membrane or tight weave in the middle, and a thin fleece backing. It blocks wind, sheds light rain, and holds a structured shape. It is not as warm as a good fleece of similar weight because there is less loft, and it is not a waterproof jacket either. It handles a shower and a damp walk to the van, not an hour in steady rain.
The Embroidery Problem Nobody Mentions Until Afterwards
Every stitch is a hole. On a fleece that is irrelevant. On a softshell with a waterproof membrane, a dense embroidered logo puts thousands of perforations through the barrier, and while a small left-chest mark is generally accepted, a large filled back design is not a good idea on anything you are relying on to keep water out.
There are sensible ways round it. Keep the embroidery small and low in stitch count, use an outlined rather than filled design, or switch to a heat-applied transfer, which sits on the surface without piercing anything. If a large logo on the back is non-negotiable and the jacket must stay weatherproof, a transfer is the better method even though embroidery would look more premium.
Cost and What You Get for It
A fleece is a simple garment. One fabric, a zip, sometimes pockets. A softshell is bonded from multiple layers, cut with more panels, and usually finished with taped or bound seams and better hardware, so it costs meaningfully more per unit. For a large team where everyone needs a layer, that gap multiplies fast.
The honest question is how many of your people are actually outside. Kitting out an entire office in softshells because six field staff need them is an expensive way to look consistent.
- Fleece wins for indoor and mixed-use staff, cold stockrooms and workshops, clubs and volunteer groups on a budget, and anywhere you want a large embroidered logo with no compromise.
- Softshell wins for field engineers, site staff, delivery drivers, event crews, coaches and anyone who stands outside in wind, and for kit that needs to look smart in front of customers.
- Fleece downsides: no wind resistance, soaks up rain, pills and bobbles with wear, and can look scruffy quickly in light colours.
- Softshell downsides: higher cost, less warm than it looks, not a substitute for genuine waterproofs, and restricted decoration on membrane versions.
- The layered answer: fleece underneath, softshell over the top, both carrying the same logo. Cheaper per person than buying everyone a heavy jacket and warmer in real conditions.
How Each One Ages on a Working Team
Fleece pills. Under a rucksack strap, on the forearms, wherever it rubs, the surface bobbles up and the garment starts looking old before it is worn out. Dark fleece hides this better than heather grey. Softshell resists that but is vulnerable elsewhere: the durable water repellent finish on the face fabric wears off with washing and abrasion, so after a year or two the rain stops beading and starts soaking in. That is normal and can often be revived, not a fault.
“"A softshell is a windbreak with a fleece lining. Ask it to be a raincoat and it will disappoint you politely."”
Colour and Branding Considerations
Softshell takes brand colour well and holds a crisp silhouette, which is why it photographs so much better than fleece on a team lineup. Fleece diffuses the edges of everything, including your logo. If the kit will appear in photographs, on a stand, or anywhere the team is being presented rather than just kept warm, that visual difference is worth the extra spend on a smaller number of garments.
What to Buy for the Typical Team
For most teams the answer is fleece for everyone and softshells for the people who work outdoors. It is cheaper than a blanket softshell order, it puts the right garment on the right person, and it still looks unified if you keep the colour and logo consistent across both. Go softshell-only when the entire group is customer-facing or outdoors, or when the kit doubles as a presentation piece. Minimum order is 20 pieces per order with sizes mixed freely, so a split order of both garments still counts as one order and one lot of bulk pricing. Preview the logo at the size you intend on both fabrics in the free Design Studio before approving, because a mark sized for a fleece often needs shrinking on a softshell.