Wholesale T-Shirts for Sports Clubs
By The Velocity Wear Team
Sports clubs order t-shirts from 50 pieces per design, from $13 each, sizes mixed freely. The two club-specific decisions are sponsor placement, which determines how much of the shirt is spoken for before the club badge gets a look in, and numbering, which turns a single design into a per-garment job and needs agreeing early rather than assumed.
How do sponsor logos change the artwork?
A club shirt often carries a badge, a main sponsor and sometimes a secondary sponsor on the sleeve or back. Each of those is a separate decoration position with its own cost, and each colour in a screen-printed logo adds a setup. Sponsors also supply artwork in whatever state they happen to have it, which is usually a low-resolution file pulled off a website. Ask for vector artwork and a Pantone reference at the point you agree the sponsorship, not three days before the order. Put the placements on a single diagram and circulate it to every sponsor before anything is approved.
Can one order cover seniors and juniors?
If it is the same design, yes — sizes mix freely inside the 50, and a junior size costs the same as an adult one. What splits the order is a design difference: a junior shirt with a different sponsor, or a different colourway requiring its own screens, is a second order of 50. Many clubs keep one design across the whole club specifically to stay in one order and reach a better quantity tier, since the per-piece price falls as volume rises, up to 35% off the 50-piece figure.
What about squad numbers and names?
Numbering makes every shirt individual, so it is a materially different job from printing one design 60 times. Agree it up front, get the number list signed off by a coach rather than assembled from a group chat, and freeze it on a named date. Clubs that leave numbering open until the squad is settled end up approving artwork weeks later than planned, which pushes the whole schedule past the season start.
When does a club need to order?
Production takes 10 to 15 working days from artwork approval, and delivery sits on top of that. Work backwards from the first fixture, and remember that the slow part of a club order is not production but the committee: collecting sizes from players, getting sponsor sign-off, and agreeing who is paying. Start that a month before you expect to place the order. The full timeline picture is in apparel production lead times explained, and if the club is extending into hoodies and training kit, club hoodies for UK sports clubs covers that side.
A £150 sample, credited against the bulk order, is worth ordering when a sponsor colour is critical. Current weights and from-prices are on the wholesale t-shirts page, and the sports clubs page sets out the wider kit range.
What weight should a club shirt be?
It depends what the shirt is for, and clubs frequently buy one weight for two jobs. A training tee is worn hard and washed after every session, so it belongs at the heavier end of the 150 to 240 GSM combed ring-spun cotton range, where the body keeps its shape and the print has a firmer base. A supporter or presentation shirt is worn occasionally and bought partly for the look, so a lighter, softer garment is often the better commercial choice and leaves more room in the price. If the club needs both, decide honestly whether that is two designs and two minimums of 50, or one compromise garment that does neither job perfectly but costs half as much to commit to.
Whichever you pick, publish the flat chest measurement alongside the size names when you collect orders from players and parents. Junior sizing in particular is guessed far more often than it is measured, and a shirt handed to a child that does not fit is a complaint the committee will hear about for the rest of the season.
