Signing each other's shirts on the last day is one of the few school traditions that survives entirely by word of mouth. Nobody plans it, and that's usually the problem: a year group turns up with a dark navy leavers hoodie, one biro between forty of them, and a back print that covers every square inch of usable space.
If your school runs a signing tradition — or is thinking about starting one — a small amount of forethought at the ordering stage makes an enormous difference to what pupils end up taking home. Here's what actually matters.
Signing is a garment decision, not a last-day decision
The single biggest factor in whether a shirt signs well is what you ordered three months earlier. Once the garment arrives, the colour, the fabric and the print layout are fixed, and all three determine whether a marker will show up and whether there's anywhere to write.
Colour: go light, or don't bother
Permanent marker on a navy or black garment is close to invisible. Pupils then reach for metallic gel pens, which sit on top of the fibres, smudge under a sleeve, and flake off within weeks.
If signing matters to your year group, order white or a pale colour — light grey, pale blue, sand, ash. Black ink on white is legible from across the hall and stays legible. It's also usually the cheapest garment colour, which is a rare case of the right choice being the cheap one.
If your year group has already set their heart on a dark hoodie, the workable compromise is two garments: the dark hoodie as the keepsake they'll wear, and a cheap white t-shirt as the one they sign. Ordered together, the second garment costs far less than people expect.
Fabric: cotton takes ink, polyester repels it
A 100% cotton or cotton-rich jersey absorbs marker ink into the fibre and holds it. Polyester and performance fabrics sit smooth and slightly slick, so ink beads, spreads unpredictably and takes far longer to dry — which on a crowded last day means smudged sleeves and inky hands.
Ring-spun cotton around 180gsm is the sweet spot: soft enough to be worn, dense enough that ink doesn't bleed sideways into an illegible blur.
Leave somewhere to sign
This is the mistake schools make most often. A full-bleed back print with the entire year group's name list looks superb on the proof and leaves nowhere at all to write.
If the shirt is going to be signed, brief your supplier on that at the artwork stage. Practical layouts that work:
- Keep the back print high and tight. A name list compressed into a block across the shoulders leaves the whole mid and lower back clear.
- Move the year to the front. A large "2027" on the chest carries the design, so the back can stay largely blank.
- Print a deliberate frame. A thin outlined box or a shape on the back with white space inside it turns signing into part of the design rather than graffiti over it.
- Use light print colours where they overlap signing space. Marker over a pale print is still readable; marker over solid black is not.
Get the pens right
Ballpoint pens do not work on jersey. They snag, skip and tear at the fabric, and the line is too faint to read at arm's length. A biro shirt looks scruffy within a day.
Fabric markers are the right tool — they're formulated to bond to textile fibres, they dry quickly, and they survive a wash. A pack of black fabric markers costs very little spread across a year group, and one pen shared between four or five pupils is plenty for a signing session.
If you can only get standard permanent markers, they'll do the job for the day but expect noticeable fading. Whatever you use, warn pupils to put something inside the shirt before they write — a piece of card or a folded exercise book — or the ink bleeds straight through to the other side.
Run the signing session properly
Left to chance, signing happens in a corridor in the last fifteen minutes and half the year group misses out. A few things schools do that work:
- Give it a slot. Twenty minutes in the hall after the final assembly, with tables and pens laid out, beats a scramble.
- Have pupils sign a spare shirt, not the one they're wearing. Writing on someone's back while they stand still is slow and the handwriting is dreadful. Shirts laid flat on a table sign far better.
- Order two or three spares. There's always a pupil who's absent, one whose shirt goes missing, and one who wants a clean one to keep.
- Think about anyone who might be left out. A quiet word with form tutors beforehand costs nothing and matters a great deal to the pupil it affects.
Set the ground rules first
Every school that has run signing for a few years has a story about something written on a shirt that a parent then had to explain. Two minutes of expectation-setting before the pens come out prevents almost all of it: sign your name and a short message, keep it something you'd be happy for a parent to read, and don't write on anyone's shirt without asking.
Worth mentioning too: the shirt is a keepsake, not a canvas for in-jokes at someone else's expense. Most pupils are entirely sensible about this once it's said out loud.
Looking after a signed shirt
A shirt signed with proper fabric markers will survive a cool wash, inside out, without fabric conditioner. It will fade a little each time. Signed with a standard permanent marker, expect a significant fade on the first wash.
Either way, most pupils stop wearing a signed shirt fairly quickly and keep it instead. If a family wants to preserve it properly, folding it flat in a drawer out of sunlight does more good than any washing technique — direct light is what fades marker ink fastest.
Hoodie or t-shirt for signing?
A t-shirt wins on almost every practical measure. It's lighter, cheaper, usually available in white, and a flat single-layer back is far easier to write on than a hoodie's thick fleece with a hood bunched at the top. Marker on brushed-back fleece also feathers, so handwriting comes out furry rather than sharp.
The hoodie's advantage is that pupils genuinely wear it, so it works better as the garment that carries the year group's design. Plenty of schools order both and use each for what it's good at — see our comparison of leavers hoodies vs leavers t-shirts for the full breakdown.
FAQ
What colour shirt is best for signing?
White or a pale colour. Black marker on white is legible and stays legible; on navy or black it barely shows at all.
What pens should we use?
Fabric markers. Standard permanent markers work for the day but fade quickly, and ballpoint pens don't work on jersey at all.
Will the signatures come out in the wash?
Fabric marker largely survives a cool wash inside out. Permanent marker fades noticeably on the first wash. Treat a signed shirt as a keepsake rather than everyday clothing.
How do we stop ink bleeding through?
Put card or a folded book inside the shirt before signing.
Can we still have a printed design if pupils are signing it?
Yes — just tell your supplier at the artwork stage so the layout leaves clear space. A back print pushed high across the shoulders is the usual solution.
How many spares should we order?
Two or three per year group. Absences and lost shirts are guaranteed.
Planning a signing shirt for your year group?
Tell us your year group size, your colours and your last day of term, and we'll lay the design out so there's real space to sign. Browse our custom leavers t-shirts, compare with printed leavers hoodies, or request a quote.
