Adding Your Club Sponsor's Logo to a Custom Jersey: A Design Checklist

Your club has landed a sponsor, and now someone has to get that logo onto the team kit without it looking like an afterthought. Designing custom jerseys with sponsor logos is one of the most common requests we see, and also one of the easiest to get wrong if the artwork is the wrong size, the wrong file type, or dropped onto the design at the last minute. This checklist walks through what to have ready before you open the customiser, and the placement and sizing mistakes worth avoiding so the sponsor's branding prints crisp, sits where it should, and survives all the way from your smallest junior size to your largest adult size.

Why Sponsor Logo Placement Deserves Its Own Checklist

A sponsor logo is different to a team crest or a player name. It usually arrives late in the design process, often as a file the sponsor's marketing team sent over rather than something built for a jersey. It also has to compete for space with the club logo, the number, and any existing panels or colour blocking in the kit design. Treat it as its own step in the process, not something you drag onto the jersey in the last five minutes before checkout, and you avoid the two most common outcomes we see with rushed sponsor placement: a blurry logo, or a logo that overlaps the numbers by the time it reaches size 3XL.

Before You Upload: The File Checklist

Get the sponsor's artwork into the right shape before you go anywhere near the design tool. Our image help guidelines set out exactly what the customiser expects, and it is worth sending this list straight to whoever is emailing you the logo:

• File type. JPG or PNG only. PNG is almost always the better choice for a sponsor logo because it supports a transparent background, so the logo sits cleanly on the jersey without a visible white box around it. JPG cannot do transparency, which becomes obvious the moment the logo lands on a coloured panel.
• Resolution. At least 150 DPI, and at least 1000px along the shortest edge, for example 1000px by 1500px. If the sponsor only has a small logo pulled off their website, typing a bigger number into the file's resolution field will not fix it. A low-resolution source file needs to be recreated at a larger size, not stretched.
• File size. Up to 10mb, which is generous enough for a high quality logo without needing to compress it down.
• Background. Remove it. A logo uploaded with its background still attached will show a hard rectangular edge once it is placed on the jersey, which looks like a mistake even when the rest of the design is sharp.
• No gradients or semi-transparent elements. Sublimation printing does not reproduce soft transparency or colour gradients well. If the sponsor's brand guidelines lean on a gradient, ask for a flat colour version, or simulate the effect with halftone dots rather than opacity sliders.

Getting the Size Right

Sponsor logos are usually the smallest element on the jersey, which is exactly why sizing mistakes are so common. Two things to keep in mind:

Your artwork stays a fixed physical size across every garment size you order. The customiser's 3D model renders your design on the smallest size in the range, a Size XS for adult garments and a Size Y6 for youth garments, so that every element is guaranteed to be visible. If you scale the sponsor logo out so it is touching the edge of that 3D model, it will look fine on the preview but run off the edge, or crowd into a seam, once the same file is printed on a 2XL or 3XL. Leave a visible margin around the sponsor logo on the smallest preview size and it will sit correctly across the whole size run.

Small does not mean low quality. A sponsor logo placed at 4cm on a sleeve still needs the same 150 DPI, 1000px minimum file behind it as a large front-of-jersey crest. Scaling a logo down in the customiser does not fix a low-resolution source image, it just makes the blur less obvious until it is printed and the fabric shows every soft edge.

Placement Mistakes to Avoid

• Overlapping the number or name. Sponsor logos are frequently added after the main design is finished, and the fastest way to end up with a support ticket is placing one directly over or too close to the back number. Check the design at both the smallest and largest size in your order before confirming.
• Fighting with the club crest for the same real estate. Chest space is limited. If the club crest already sits centre chest, a sponsor logo usually works best on the opposite chest panel, the sleeve, or the lower hem rather than stacked behind or beside the crest.
• Ignoring seams and panels. Reversible jerseys, colour-blocked panels and side inserts all have their own boundaries. A logo that straddles a panel seam can end up distorted or partially hidden depending on the garment's construction.
• Setting and forgetting. If your sponsor's branding is updated part way through the season, or a second sponsor joins later, revisit the layout rather than squeezing the new logo into whatever gap is left.

Multiple Sponsors: Sharing the Space

Plenty of clubs are carrying more than one sponsor logo these days, and the customiser gives you sleeve, chest, and hem placements to spread them across rather than cramming two logos into one panel. A sensible hierarchy is usually the major sponsor on the chest, secondary sponsors on the sleeves, and any smaller supporter logos on the hem. Keep each one legible on its own rather than treating the jersey as a single collage. If you are not sure how much space you actually have to work with once numbers, names and the club crest are in, our team on the customiser's share feature can take a look at your saved design before you check out.

Uploading Through the Online Customiser

The how to guide walks through the four steps of building a kit from scratch, and adding a sponsor logo fits into the same flow once your base design, colours and panels are set:

1. Build the base kit first. Choose the garment, colours and panel layout before adding logos, so you know exactly how much clear space is available for the sponsor's branding. 2. Add your own team logo, names and numbers. Get the elements that appear on every jersey locked in first. 3. Upload the sponsor's artwork last, once you can see where it needs to fit around everything else. Place it, check the preview at the smallest size in your order, and adjust the scale so it sits with a clear margin rather than crowding the edge of the 3D model. 4. Use the SHARE button to send the saved design link to the club committee, the sponsor, or whoever needs to sign off, before the order goes to production. It is far cheaper to fix a placement issue in the customiser than after the order has shipped.

Trademarks and Approvals

Sponsor logos generally sail through review without issue because they are legitimate business branding the sponsor wants displayed. Where clubs run into trouble is mixing sponsor artwork with other trademarked or copyrighted material, such as pulling a professional sports league logo or a well-known brand mark into the same design without permission. Designs using known trademarked logos and images without permission get disapproved and the order cancelled, which means resubmitting and losing time against your ship date. If there is any doubt about whether a piece of artwork is cleared for use, it is worth checking with the sponsor directly, or getting in touch before you place the order.

Final Checklist Before You Order

Run through this before you click through to checkout:

• Sponsor logo is a PNG with a transparent background, at least 1000px along the shortest edge and 150 DPI
• No gradients or semi-transparent elements in the file
• Logo has a clear margin around it on the smallest size preview, not touching the edge of the 3D model
• Logo does not overlap the number, name, or club crest
• Multiple sponsor logos are spread across chest, sleeve and hem rather than stacked in one spot
• Nobody in the design has used a trademarked logo without permission
• The saved design link has been shared with the committee or sponsor for sign off

Getting sponsor artwork right the first time comes down to sorting the file before you open the design tool, giving the logo room to breathe at every size in your order, and getting a second set of eyes on the saved design before it goes to production. Do that, and your club's custom jerseys with sponsor logos will look as sharp on the smallest junior size as they do on the largest adult one.