Ask most UK hockey clubs how kit gets sorted and you will hear a version of the same story: someone on the committee volunteers in June, discovers in August that the sizes are wrong and half the squad has not paid, and the first fixture is played in a mixture of last season's shirts and a borrowed set of bibs.
It does not have to go that way. The clubs that get kit right treat it as a season-long piece of admin rather than a one-off purchase. This guide sets out what a hockey club actually needs, what tends to get forgotten, and when to start.
Work backwards from the season, not forwards from the shirt
The outdoor club season in England broadly runs from September through to March or April, with indoor hockey squeezed into the winter and summer leagues and tournaments filling the gaps. That gives you a hard deadline — the first league fixture — and the whole kit process should be planned backwards from it.
A workable timeline for a September start looks something like this:
- April–May: agree the design direction and budget at committee level. Confirm whether you are refreshing the strip or just topping up.
- May–June: get artwork approved and sponsors confirmed. Sponsors are the single most common cause of delay because their logo files rarely arrive on time.
- June: run a sizing session. Order sample sets in advance so people can try garments on rather than guess.
- Late June–July: place the order. Bespoke sublimated kit needs several weeks in production, and every club in the country is ordering in the same window.
- August: kit arrives, gets checked against the order, and gets distributed at pre-season training.
Leave it until August and you are not choosing between suppliers — you are taking whoever can still hit the date.
The core playing kit
Playing shirts
The playing shirt is where most of the budget and all of the identity sits. Fully sublimated shirts — where the design is printed into the fabric before the garment is made — are now the standard for club kit, because the colour goes right to the seam and there is nothing to crack or peel off in the wash. Panels, hoops, gradients and sponsor blocks cost the same as a plain shirt, so there is little reason to design conservatively. Decide early whether you want short sleeve, long sleeve or both.
Skorts, shorts and socks
Give people options. Many clubs offer a skort and a shorts option in the same colourway so players can choose, and add playing leggings or base layers for winter. If your club runs men's, ladies' and junior sides off one design, check the bottoms are available in all the cuts you need before you sign off the shirt. And order more pairs of socks than you have players — nothing else in the kit bag goes missing at the same rate.
Goalkeeping kit: the bit clubs forget
Almost every club budgets carefully for outfield kit and then realises their keeper is playing in a shirt three sizes too small stretched over their pads. Goalkeepers need a smock or overlayer cut to go over protective equipment, in a colour that clearly distinguishes them from both outfield sides.
Order it as part of the main run, in your club design, and order two if you have two keepers. It is a small line on the invoice and it is the difference between a club that looks organised and one that does not.
Clash kit and why it is worth the money
Leagues expect the two teams on the pitch to be clearly distinguishable, and it is usually the home side that gets asked to change. If your first colour is a common one — navy, black, red — you will meet a clash several times a season.
A single alternative shirt in a genuinely contrasting colour solves it permanently. It costs a fraction of what a forfeited or rearranged fixture costs, and it saves your captain a phone call the night before every away game. Check your own league's regulations for the exact wording, then cost a clash strip in from the start rather than bolting it on in November.
Training and travel wear
Match kit gets the photographs, but training wear is what the squad actually lives in. A typical club range covers training tees, base layers for cold astro sessions, quarter-zips for warm-ups, tracksuits and rain jackets for travel, and branded kit and stick bags.
Training and travel wear also happens to be the easiest range to sell to parents, social members and supporters, which is often what makes the whole kit order affordable. See our custom training wear and club tracksuits range for what this usually looks like in practice.
Numbering, names and sponsors
Three decisions before artwork is signed off. Numbers: decide whether they are fixed to a player or fixed to a shirt — fixed-to-shirt is far more practical for clubs with turnover, because the shirt goes back in the kit bag and gets reissued. Names: personalised names look excellent but make every shirt unrepeatable, so if your club recycles kit between seasons, skip them or offer them as a paid extra. Sponsors: get logo files in a usable vector format early, agree exactly where each sponsor sits, and get written approval on the mock-up — sponsors who see their logo for the first time on a delivered shirt are the ones who ask for it to be changed.
Sizing a whole squad without getting it wrong
Sizing is where kit orders go wrong most often, and it is entirely avoidable.
- Get sample sets in. Hockey shirts fit differently to a high-street t-shirt, and people are bad at guessing in an unfamiliar cut.
- Run one sizing session and record it centrally. A shared spreadsheet with name, garment and size beats fifteen WhatsApp messages.
- Order spares. A few extra shirts in the middle sizes cover new joiners at main-run prices instead of top-up prices.
- Check junior sizing separately. Junior charts are not simply smaller adult charts, and a Year 8 squad spans a wider range than you expect.
Budgeting: club-funded, player-funded, or both
Most UK clubs land on a hybrid. Playing shirts are club-owned and issued for the season; players buy their own skorts or shorts, socks and any training wear they want. That keeps the club's up-front outlay predictable and means the strip stays with the club when a player moves on.
Two things make the budget work. Sponsorship — a single sponsor covering the playing shirts often funds the whole match-kit order, and offering sleeve and back positions as separate, cheaper packages brings in local businesses who cannot afford the front. And a wider range — once your design exists, adding hoodies, caps, bags and supporters' tees costs nothing extra in setup and gives you a small revenue line all season.
FAQs
How long does custom hockey kit take to make?
Fully bespoke sublimated kit generally needs several weeks from final artwork approval, and longer during the pre-season rush. Stock garments with embroidery or print are much quicker. If you are up against a deadline, say so at the enquiry stage — there is usually a route that works.
Can we reorder single shirts mid-season?
Yes, provided your supplier keeps your artwork and specification on file. Expect a higher unit price on small top-ups, which is exactly why ordering a handful of spare sizes with the main run is worth doing.
How often should a club change its strip?
Most clubs run a design for three to five seasons. Changing more often frustrates members who have just bought in; leaving it much longer means you are patching together several generations of shirt.
Getting started
If you are pricing up a season's kit, send your club crest, your squad numbers and a rough list of what you need. We will put a design mock-up and a per-player price in front of your committee before you have to commit to anything.
Take a look at our custom hockey kit range, or browse the wider sports teamwear and club kit offering to see what else we can add to your club's range.
