Kit Supplier for Academies, Schools & Universities
- Est. 2005 · Sialkot, Pakistan
- MOQ 20–25 pcs per design · no limit for brands
- Free 24h digital mockup
- Sample 5–7 days, credited on bulk
- Bulk 15–25 business days · express 7–12
- DHL/FedEx/UPS 5–10 days
- 🛡️ Free remake within 3 days
All pages in this section
One factory for PE kit, fixture kit and academy training wear
ZipaSports manufactures kit for sports academies, schools, colleges and universities at its own factory in Sialkot, Pakistan, from 20–25 pieces per design, with youth and adult sizes mixed inside that minimum. Founded in 2005, the factory cuts, sews, prints and embroiders in-house, so a PE polo, a first-team match shirt and an academy tracksuit come off the same production floor under the same crest.
The buyer on this page is not a club secretary with one squad. It is a head of PE, an academy manager or an athletic union officer who has to dress several age groups, hold a design constant for years, and satisfy parents, bursars and safeguarding leads at the same time. Each of those pressures gets its own section below.
Programme-specific guides sit underneath this hub: schools and colleges, universities and athletic unions, football academies, cricket academies, basketball, rugby, netball, hockey, swimming clubs, athletics, tennis, esports programmes, martial-arts academies and dojos and dance schools.
Grading one design across every age group
One approved design is graded across every size an academy needs, from the youngest age group to adult 5XL, and the whole run counts as a single design against the 20–25 piece minimum.
Grading is done on computerised pattern software rather than by shrinking the artwork. On sublimated kit the crest, sponsor panel and stripes are repositioned for each size so they sit in the same place on a youth small as on an adult large. On embroidered polos the crest keeps the same physical size across the range.
Standard ranges cover adult XS–5XL, women's XS–4XL and youth sizes, and a fully custom size chart is available where a school already has its own measurements. We recommend a size set, one of each size, charged at sample cost and credited against the bulk order, before the first large intake: a school measures once and then reorders the same chart for years.
| Group | How it is graded | Against the minimum |
|---|---|---|
| Youth squads and PE classes | Youth chart; crest scaled to the youth panel | All sizes of one artwork are one design |
| Senior, scholarship and performance squads | Adult chart in men's and women's cuts | Same design, same run |
| Coaches and staff | Adult chart, usually a different garment | Separate design if the garment differs |
What academies, schools and universities order
An academy or school order sheet usually splits into daily-wear PE kit, fixture kit and training or travel wear, and each group takes a different fabric weight because it is worn and washed on a different schedule.
| Garment | Fabric options and GSM | Decoration | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| PE polo | Polyester piqué 160–200 GSM or poly-cotton piqué 200–240 GSM | Embroidered crest | Daily lessons, house colours |
| PE tee, shorts, skort | Polyester interlock 140–180 GSM | Sublimation or screen print | Lessons, athletics, cross-country |
| Match shirts | Interlock, mesh or pin-dot mesh 140–180 GSM with moisture-wicking finish | Full sublimation, numbers included | Fixtures, tournaments |
| Tracksuit, quarter-zip | Performance poly fleece 240–300 GSM | Embroidery or sublimated panels | Travel, warm-up, touchline |
| Hoodie, joggers | Cotton-polyester fleece 280–350 GSM | Embroidery, screen or puff print | Leavers, squads, coaches |
| Kit bag, backpack, cap, socks | 600D polyester or 420D nylon; sublimated knit socks | Embroidery or sublimated panel | Travel and match day |
Discipline pages carry the full product range: football, rugby, cricket, netball, hockey, basketball, athletics and swimming, with combat wear for dojos and dance teamwear for dance schools.
Embroidered crest or sublimated print for daily wear?
For kit washed several times a week, an embroidered crest on a piqué polo and a fully sublimated print on a polyester match shirt both outlast the garment; the choice comes down to fabric, look and how many colours the design carries.
| Factor | Embroidered crest | Dye sublimation |
|---|---|---|
| Suits | Polos, fleece, jackets, caps, bags | 100% polyester tees, match kit, socks |
| Design freedom | Crest, text, house name; limited fine detail | All-over patterns, gradients, unlimited colours; names and numbers in the same print |
| Wash behaviour | Thread holds its shade; raised feel | Dye sits inside the fibre, so it does not fade, crack or peel |
| Cost driver | Stitch count of the crest | Print area, not colour count |
| Reorders | Digitised file kept on record | Print file and Pantone references kept on record |
A common school arrangement is an embroidered crest on polos, tracksuits and hoodies with sublimated fixture kit and PE tees. Screen printing and DTF cover cotton-rich hoodies and one-colour house tees. The trade-offs are expanded in sublimation vs DTF vs embroidery; both embroidery and sublimation are done in-house at ZipaSports in Sialkot.
Parents, names and safeguarding-friendly kit
Parent-funded kit is still one factory order: the school or academy collects sizes and any personalisation, sends us a single list, and receives one consignment to sort and hand out.
We do not run a parent-facing shop or post individual parcels to families. The order is placed by the institution, shipped to the institution's address, and internal distribution is yours. That keeps the size list under one person's control, which is also what makes the following year's reorder accurate.
Personalisation is optional per piece. Player names can be sublimated into a match shirt with no change to the process, or added as heat-transfer or DTF lettering on polos and hoodies; see names, numbers and sponsor logos. Many safeguarding policies discourage a child's full name on the outside of a garment, so academies often choose initials, a squad number or a plain outer with the name on an inside label or size tag. Tell us which rule your institution follows and the studio draws the mockup to match.
Plain designs also make hand-me-downs and second-hand kit sales practical, which matters to parents more than a new colourway each year.
Reordering next season without colour drift
Every approved order at ZipaSports is kept on file as a print file, Pantone references, a digitised embroidery file and an approved size specification, so a reorder two or three intakes later is produced from that record rather than from a photograph of last year's shirt.
Two things can still differ between runs and are worth knowing before a bursar asks. Sublimated polyester is printed to the Pantone reference every time, but minor shade tolerance between dye lots is normal and is not treated as a defect. Embroidery thread is matched by shade number, so a crest stitched in year one and year three should sit side by side without a visible step.
Top-ups for late joiners are possible on request below the 20–25 piece floor because the design already exists; a top-up follows the same 15–25 business day production window unless you ask for express. Academies with a rolling intake usually place one large order before the season and a smaller top-up after the first month, once the late signings are known.
If your academy or university sells kit under its own registered brand, ask about the no-MOQ-limit policy that applies to sportswear brands and companies.
Deadlines: counting back from term or season start
Allow around seven weeks from mockup approval to delivery on standard production, or roughly two to three weeks with express production, when planning kit for a term or season start.
| Stage | Time | Who acts |
|---|---|---|
| Brief sent: crest, colours, garment list, deadline | Day 0 | School or academy |
| Free digital mockup | Within 24 hours | ZipaSports studio |
| Revisions and approval | Unlimited and free; as long as you need | Both |
| Physical sample or size set (optional) | 5–7 days plus courier; charged at sample cost, credited against bulk | ZipaSports |
| Bulk production | 15–25 business days; express 7–12 days at additional cost | ZipaSports |
| Courier to UK, USA, Canada, Australia or Europe | 5–10 days by DHL, FedEx or UPS; sea freight 3–6 weeks for large orders | ZipaSports |
The slow stage is never the factory; it is size collection. Send the design brief before the size list is complete so the mockup and any sample run while forms come back, then release the size breakdown as the last step before production starts. Freight, duties and who pays them are covered in the shipping policy and the import duties guide.
Budgets without a price list: how quantity tiers work
ZipaSports does not publish prices because each order is quoted on its fabric, decoration, quantity and packaging; a full quotation follows the free mockup within 24 hours, and that is the figure a bursar or finance office can work with.
What a school controls is the tier. Unit cost per design falls as the quantity of that design rises, so the cheapest structure is usually fewer designs in larger runs: one PE polo across all houses with house-coloured tipping, rather than five separate polos. The levers, without numbers, are these.
| Lever | Effect on the quotation |
|---|---|
| Pieces per design | Largest single factor; consolidating designs moves the order up a tier |
| Fabric and GSM | Heavier fleece and gi fabrics cost more per piece than interlock |
| Decoration | Embroidery follows stitch count, sublimation follows print area, DTF follows transfer size |
| Personalisation | Names and numbers inside a sublimated print add nothing to the process; heat-applied names on polos are handled per piece |
| Packaging | Individually bagged and size-labelled pieces are available and included in the quotation |
| Freight | Courier for time-critical kit; sea freight for large orders when the term date allows |
Payment terms and a full quotation are confirmed with your enquiry — contact us on WhatsApp for a same-day quote.
Quality Guarantee and what to send us
Quality Guarantee: if any garment arrives with a manufacturing defect, we remake it free of charge — the remake goes into production within 3 days of your report.
A defect means a print or stitching fault, a wrong size against the approved specification, or the wrong garment or quantity. Send photos and the order reference within 7 days of delivery; we confirm within 24 hours in business hours and ship the remade pieces at no charge, or credit them. A size chosen wrongly by a parent is not a defect, which is why the size set matters. Full wording: Quality Guarantee and return policy.
| Send us | Format | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Crest or logo | Vector (AI, EPS, PDF) or a clear photo | Redrawn for the 24-hour mockup |
| Colours | Pantone references or a photo of existing kit | Matched and kept on file for reorders |
| Garment list | Item, fabric preference, decoration method | Fixes the specification and the quotation |
| Size breakdown | Quantity per size per design; names or numbers if used | Production cannot start without it |
| Deadline and address | Term or fixture date; delivery address and country | Sets standard or express and the courier route |
| Labelling | Your woven label or ours; size tags; bagged per size or loose | Packing for hand-out |
Email zipasports@gmail.com or WhatsApp +92 300 7019281.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can our academy order mixed youth and adult sizes in one order?
Yes, any mix of youth, women's and adult sizes counts as one design against the 20–25 piece minimum, provided the artwork is the same. ZipaSports grades the pattern for each size so the crest and panels sit in the same position from the youngest size to adult 5XL.
Do you make school PE kit with an embroidered crest?
Yes, ZipaSports makes school PE polos in polyester piqué 160–200 GSM or poly-cotton piqué 200–240 GSM with a multi-head embroidered crest, plus tees, shorts, skorts, tracksuits and hoodies to match. Embroidery, sublimation, screen printing and DTF are all done in-house at the Sialkot factory.
Can parents order directly from you, or do you ship to individual families?
No, the school or academy places one order and receives one consignment at its own address; we do not run a parent shop or post to individual homes. Collect sizes and any names on one list, send it to us, and distribute internally when the kit arrives.
How far ahead of term or season start should we order?
Send the brief around seven weeks before you need the kit on standard production: mockup within 24 hours, bulk production 15–25 business days after approval, then courier in 5–10 days. Express production of 7–12 days shortens that to roughly two to three weeks, at additional cost.
Will next year's reorder match this year's colours?
Yes, next year's reorder matches this year's colours within normal dye-lot tolerance. Pantone references, print files, the digitised crest and the approved size specification are kept on file, and reorders are produced from that record. Minor shade variation between dye lots is normal on sublimated polyester and is not treated as a defect.
Can we put student names on the kit, and what about safeguarding?
Yes, names, initials or squad numbers can be sublimated into match kit or heat-applied to polos and hoodies. Where a safeguarding policy discourages visible full names, academies choose initials or numbers on the outside and put the name on an inside label instead; tell us which rule applies and the mockup follows it.
Which fabric lasts for daily PE lessons and frequent washing?
Polyester piqué at 160–200 GSM for polos and polyester interlock at 140–180 GSM for tees and shorts are the usual choices for daily wear, because polyester holds its shape and colour through repeated washing. Sublimated colour is dyed into the fibre, so it does not fade, crack or peel.
Can a university order kit for several sports under one crest?
Yes, ZipaSports manufactures football, rugby, cricket, netball, hockey, basketball, athletics and swimming kit, plus combat wear, dance and fitness kit, from one factory in Sialkot, Pakistan, so an athletic union can put one crest, one colourway and one sponsor across every squad, with each sport counted as its own design.
What happens if some pieces arrive with a fault?
Quality guaranteed — defective pieces remade free, in production within 3 days. Send photos and the order reference within 7 days of delivery; we confirm within 24 hours in business hours and ship the remade pieces at no charge, or credit them if you prefer. A size chosen wrongly by a parent is not a defect.
Can we see a sample before the whole school commits?
Yes, after the free 24-hour mockup a physical sample or a full size set is produced in 5–7 days, charged at sample cost and credited against the bulk order. Schools usually keep the size set as the permanent try-on kit for future intakes, which removes most sizing errors.