Teamwear & Jersey Manufacturer for Startup Kit Brands

How a startup kit brand works with a factory

A kit brand sells finished, branded teamwear to clubs, leagues, schools and esports organisations, and ZipaSports manufactures every one of those orders in Sialkot, Pakistan under the founder's own label. You own the customer, the design and the brand; the factory owns the cutting, printing, sewing and packing.

The arithmetic suits a first-year label. Each club order is one design, and the minimum for a design is 20–25 pieces, which is a single squad with substitutes. A founder can therefore land one club and place a production order the same week, without holding stock or guessing sizes in advance. Once the brand is established there is no MOQ limit, so a five-player esports roster or a top-up of three shirts can go into production on request.

Most founders begin in one sport and add the others as customers ask. The discipline pages for football, basketball, cricket, esports and cycling list the garments available in each, all produced on the same sublimation and sewing lines.

Jersey fabrics: interlock, mesh and pin-dot mesh at 140–180 GSM

Sublimated jerseys from ZipaSports are made in 100% polyester with a moisture-wicking finish, in a weight range of 140–180 GSM, and the knit structure is chosen per sport rather than per brand. A founder can specify one fabric across the whole range for a consistent hand-feel, or let each sport take the knit that suits it.

Weight decides more than comfort. A 160–180 GSM interlock hides undershirts and holds shape through a season of washing, which matters when a club compares your jersey with what they bought last year. The lighter end of the range suits hot-climate markets. GRS-certified recycled polyester is available on request for founders building a sustainability line into the brand.

Full sublimation: home, away, names, numbers and sponsors in one print

Full-garment dye sublimation is the default decoration for a kit brand because the entire jersey, including player names, numbers, club crest and sponsor logos, is printed in one pass before the fabric is cut. There is no per-colour charge, no per-logo charge and nothing applied on top of the fabric that can crack or peel.

A home and an away kit are two designs, so each carries its own 20–25 piece minimum; a reversible or a shared-template approach is not needed. Goalkeeper shirts in a different colourway count as a third design, and lower quantities for them are possible on request when they sit inside a club order.

Founders send the roster as a spreadsheet: shirt size, player name, number and, where relevant, captain or goalkeeper markings. The studio places each name and number in the approved font and position, so every shirt in the run is unique without any change to the production method. Names, numbers and sponsor logos explains file formats and placement zones.

Crests and sponsor marks can also be embroidered on the finished jersey if a club prefers a raised badge; ZipaSports runs multi-head embroidery in the same Sialkot factory, so the two methods combine on one garment.

Sizes, youth grading and mixed sizes within one design

Mixed sizes are allowed within one design, so a 22-piece club order can contain adult S to 3XL and youth sizes together and still count as one MOQ. Adult sizes run XS–5XL, women's cuts XS–4XL, and youth and children's sizes are available for academies and junior sections.

A kit brand needs its own size chart, not the factory's. ZipaSports uses computerised pattern making and grading, so a founder can supply a chart of chest, length and sleeve measurements for adult and youth ranges and have it held on file. Every subsequent club order is graded from that chart, which is what lets you publish one size guide on your website and trust that a 2027 order fits like a 2026 one.

If you have no chart yet, the factory supplies its standard men's, women's and youth blocks and adjusts them after a fit sample. A physical sample is charged at sample cost, arrives in 5–7 days and is credited against the bulk order, so a founder can approve fit on the first sport before committing to the range.

Your labels, your brand: private label on every kit

Every jersey leaves Sialkot carrying the founder's brand, not ZipaSports'. The private-label options available on runs from 20–25 pieces per design are:

• Woven neck labels with your logo, or a printed tagless neck label sublimated into the jersey itself
• Printed size tags and care and fibre-content labels worded for the UK, USA, Canada, Australia or EU market you sell into
• Hang tags with your branding and, if you sell online, a space for a QR code or SKU
• Branded polybags per garment, and outer cartons labelled by club, design and size for easy dispatch to customers

Label artwork goes through the same free design service as the kit: send a logo or a sketch and the studio returns the label mockup with the jersey mockup. Labels, tags and packaging lists formats and sizes, and private label explains how the factory produces a kit under your own brand rather than its own, which matters when a kit brand's whole value is its design language.

From first club to delivered kit: the timeline

The first order is the slowest because it includes design and a sample; a founder's tenth order skips both. The sequence below assumes a club has sent its colours and roster.

A founder quoting a club can therefore promise kit in roughly four to seven weeks from mockup approval on the standard route, or sooner on express, and should hold back the promise until the roster is in hand, because a missing size list is the most common reason a clock does not start.

Reorders, top-ups and keeping club files on record

Repeat business is where a kit brand earns its margin, and the factory side of that is record keeping. ZipaSports keeps each club's print files, Pantone references, crest artwork, font choices and size chart on file, so a reorder is placed by quoting the design reference and sending the new roster.

Colour consistency between seasons comes from sublimation itself: the same file, the same polyester base and the same calibrated print settings give the same result, with only normal dye-lot tolerance between fabric batches. Wash-fastness and colour-fastness checks are run on sublimated fabric before cutting.

Top-ups for new signings are common and small. For an established brand there is no MOQ limit, so three replacement shirts with new names and numbers can be produced on request; for a brand still on its first designs, lower quantities are possible on request rather than guaranteed, and the lead time is the standard 15–25 business days unless express is chosen. Founders who expect mid-season signings often order two or three blank-name shirts per size in the original run to cover them.

Shipping to the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Europe

Kit ships from Sialkot by DHL, FedEx or UPS and arrives in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia or Europe in 5–10 days, tracked, with the courier handling customs clearance. Sea freight at 3–6 weeks is available for a brand consolidating several club orders into one shipment.

Import VAT or GST and any duty are payable by the importer on arrival unless otherwise agreed with your quotation, so a founder should build that into the price quoted to a club. ZipaSports supplies the commercial invoice, packing list and certificate of origin with every consignment, which is what the courier and your accountant will ask for. The country pages for the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and EuropeIrelandNew ZealandUAESaudi Arabia cover who pays what and when for each market.

Cartons can be packed per club and per player size, so a founder receiving three club orders in one shipment can forward each on without repacking. Pre-shipment photos are available on request before the consignment leaves the factory.

What you need to send us, and the Quality Guarantee

A complete brief lets the studio return a mockup within 24 hours and lets production start the day the roster arrives. Nothing below needs to be a professional tech pack; a logo and a clear list is enough for a first order.

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 misprinted number, an open seam or a size cut wrong against the approved chart qualifies. Send photos and the order reference within 7 days of delivery; full terms are on the guarantee page. Made-to-order kit carrying a club's design cannot be returned for change of mind.