Sublimated Club Kits: What Does Your Club Need to Know Before Ordering?

Sublimated Club Kits: What Does Your Club Need to Know Before Ordering?

If you've been asked to sort the kit for your club, you've probably seen the word sublimated on every supplier's website and wondered whether it matters. It does. It's the difference between a kit that looks the same in season three as it did on day one, and one where the sponsor's logo is peeling off by Christmas.

This guide answers the questions clubs ask us most, in the order they usually ask them.

What is a sublimated kit?

A sublimated kit is one where the design is printed into the fabric rather than onto it.

The artwork is printed onto transfer paper with special inks, then pressed against the polyester fabric under heat. The ink turns to gas, bonds with the polyester fibres, and becomes part of the cloth. There's no layer sitting on top — the colour is the fabric.

That's why a sublimated shirt feels the same across the print as it does on the plain parts, and why you can't pick at the edge of a design with a fingernail. There is no edge.

Why do clubs choose sublimation over screen printing or vinyl?

Three reasons, and they're all practical.

It doesn't crack, peel or fade. Screen-printed and heat-transferred logos sit on the surface. They stretch when the shirt stretches, crack where they fold, and fade in the wash. Sublimated colour is in the fibre, so it lasts as long as the shirt does.

The whole shirt is the canvas. Hoops, sashes, gradients, pinstripes, a pattern across the back — none of that costs extra with sublimation, because it's all one print. With screen printing, every colour and every placement is a separate charge.

Every size matches. Because the design is scaled to each pattern piece before printing, the hoops line up on a small exactly as they do on an XXL. With cut-and-sew stripes that takes real skill and still isn't always right.

The one thing sublimation can't do is cotton. It only works on polyester, which is why sublimated kit is always a performance fabric — and for playing sport, that's what you want anyway.

Which sports can be sublimated?

Any sport where the kit is polyester, which is nearly all of them:

• Football — shirts, shorts and socks, home and away
• Rugby — match shirts and training tops, including hooped designs that would be impossible to knit at small numbers
• Cricket — coloured kit for T20 and league, and whites with sublimated trim
• Basketball — vests and shorts, with the numbers printed in rather than stitched on
• Netball — dresses and bibs
• Hockey, lacrosse, athletics, cycling — anything with a shirt or vest

The construction varies by sport (a rugby shirt is cut and sewn differently from a football shirt), but the printing process is the same.

How many kits does a club need to order?

With us, 30 pieces per style. A style is one design in one colour — so a home shirt is a style, and the away shirt is another.

Thirty is the number because that's where the fabric and set-up costs spread far enough to make each shirt sensibly priced. For most clubs it works out neatly: two squads of fifteen, or a first team plus spares and a youth side. If you're a single team of eleven, it's worth thinking about whether a second squad or next season's replacements make up the balance, because splitting a 30 into two sizes of order doesn't make it cheaper.

Sizes can be mixed freely within the 30 — ten small, twelve medium, eight large is fine.

Can we have names, numbers and sponsor logos printed in?

Yes, and this is where sublimation earns its keep.

Names and numbers are part of the artwork, so they're printed into the shirt at the same time as everything else. No heat-pressed letters that lift at the corners. The same goes for sponsor logos, league badges and your club crest — they're all one print.

The only thing to plan for is that each named shirt is a unique piece of artwork. Send us a list of names and numbers against sizes and we'll handle the rest.

What if the club doesn't have a crest?

Send us the club name and anything you'd like the crest to take after — a colour, a shape, a kit you've admired — and we'll design one for £30. You'll own it and can use it on everything else the club produces.

If you have a crest but only as a photo or a low-quality image, we'll redraw it into a clean file at no charge.

How long does a sublimated kit take to make?

Two stages.

Sample: 2–3 weeks from the day the artwork is signed off. You get one finished shirt to check the fit, the colours and the print before anything else is made.

Bulk: 4–6 weeks after you approve the sample.

So from a signed-off design to kit in your hands is roughly 8–10 weeks. If your season starts in September, the design needs to be settled by June. Most clubs leave this later than they should.

What does sublimated kit cost?

Less than most clubs expect once it's compared like for like, because there are no per-colour or per-placement charges.

The things that move the price are:

• Which pieces — shirt only, shirt and shorts, or the full set with socks
• The fabric — a lightweight match-day polyester is the baseline; a heavier interlock or a textured fabric costs more
• Construction details — a rugby shirt with a collar and reinforced seams costs more to make than a crew-neck football shirt
• Quantity — 30 is the minimum and 50 or 60 brings the per-shirt price down

What doesn't change the price: how many colours are in your design, how complicated the pattern is, or whether every shirt has a different name on the back. Delivery to your club is included in whatever we quote.

Send us your design and quantities and we'll come back with a price for the sample and for the pieces.

What does the manufacturer need from the club?

Less than you'd think. To quote:

1. Your artwork — the crest and any sponsor logos as files. Vector (SVG, AI, PDF) is best; a decent image is fine to start
2. Your colours — Pantone references if you have them, or just a photo of something in the right colour
3. Which pieces and roughly how many

To go to sample, we'll also need the design settled — either your own artwork or a brief for us to work from — and the names, numbers and sizes.

You do not need a tech pack, a pattern or any technical drawings. That's our job.

What's the process from first email to kit on the pitch?

1. Enquiry — you tell us what you're after, we tell you what it'll cost
2. Design — you send artwork, or we design it; we send you a visual to sign off
3. Sample — one finished shirt, 2–3 weeks. You check fit, colour and print
4. Approval — any changes go into the pattern and artwork before bulk
5. Production — 4–6 weeks for the full order
6. Delivery — included, to one address

Payment is in two halves: 50% to start production and 50% before shipping. The sample is paid for up front.

Can we get home and away kits?

Yes — but each is its own 30-piece minimum, because they're different designs on different coloured fabric. Most clubs start with the home kit, get it right, and add the away kit the following season once they know their numbers.

A cheaper route to a second look is a reversible training vest or a set of bibs, which don't need a full second order.

Why order club kit from a manufacturer rather than a kit website?

The online kit builders are convenient, and for a one-off order of generic kit they're fine. Where they fall down is anything outside the template: a design that isn't in their configurator, a fabric they don't stock, a construction detail you've seen on a professional shirt and want copied.

Working with a manufacturer means your design is made as drawn, not fitted to a template. It means a sample in your hands before 30 are made. And it means someone to ring when the sponsor changes their logo in July.

AKFA is a UK company with our own factory — you deal with us here, and the kit is made by people we employ. We make sublimated kit for clubs from 30 pieces per style, alongside the rest of a club's range: training tees, drill tops, hoodies, tracksuits and leisurewear.

Ready to get a price? Send us your design and quantities and we'll come back within 24 hours with a quote for the sample and the pieces.

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Frequently asked questions

Does sublimation work on dark colours? Yes, but the design is printed onto white fabric and the dark colour is part of the print. A black kit with a white logo is printed as black ink around a white gap, not white ink on black. The result looks identical; it just means the fabric starts white.

Will the colours match our existing kit? Close, but not guaranteed to be identical — different fabrics take ink differently. If matching is important, send us a shirt from the current kit and we'll match to the cloth rather than to a screen.

Can we reorder a few shirts later for new players? Yes. Because the design is stored, top-ups are quicker than the first order. There's still a minimum run, so it's worth ordering a handful of spares in the common sizes with the main order.

How do we wash sublimated kit? Cold or 30°C, inside out, no tumble dryer. The print won't fade, but polyester holds its shape better out of the heat.

Do you make goalkeeper kits? Yes — as a separate style, since it's a different colour. Clubs usually order the goalkeeper shirts in the away kit run or add them to a top-up order to avoid a 30-piece minimum for two keepers.