School Sports Uniform & PE Kit Guide for Schools

What goes into a school PE kit range

A PE kit range should be planned in tiers, because not every pupil needs every garment and the school's minimum order is counted per design rather than per pupil. The core tier is what every pupil owns; the games tier is what fixture teams wear; the outer tier is weather-dependent; and the named tier is the small set of items where personalisation is allowed.

Decide the tiers first and the quantities follow. A school with one polo across every year group has one large design; a school that colours polos by house has several designs and should read the house-colour section below before fixing quantities. ZipaSports produces every tier from one factory in Sialkot, Pakistan, including the games kit for rugby, netball, football and hockey.

Fabric and GSM: what survives a weekly hot wash

PE kit is washed more often and less carefully than any other garment a school specifies, so the fabric decision should be made on shrinkage, opacity and drying time. Polyester holds its size through hot washes; cotton-rich fabric feels softer but shrinks more and takes longer to dry. Opacity matters most on white or pale shorts and on polos worn without a base layer, and it improves with weight, which is why school polos are specified heavier than club polos.

Ask for swatches with the mockup and put them through the school laundry a few times. Measurement tolerance on finished garments is ±1–1.5 cm against the size chart, and a fabric that shrinks beyond that after washing is a fabric choice problem, not a factory fault, so test before approval.

House colours without four separate designs

House colours are the most common source of an unexpectedly large design count. If each house has its own polo colour, the school has four polo designs, and each must reach the minimum on its own. Three approaches avoid that multiplication; most schools mix them.

1. One core kit, house colour on a secondary item. Every pupil wears the same polo and shorts; the house is shown by sublimated socks, a coloured tee for house events, or a bib. The polo becomes one large design.
2. One pattern, colour variants. On sublimated polyester garments, a house colour is a change to the print file rather than to the fabric, so the same pattern runs in four colourways from one approved layout. Confirm with the factory how colourways are counted against its minimum before fixing quantities; at ZipaSports the minimum is 20–25 pieces per design.
3. Trim-level house colour. A contrast collar, side panel or sleeve tip in the house colour on a shared polo pattern, which keeps the main fabric common across houses.

Whichever route you choose, record every house colour as a Pantone reference at the first order. Sublimation matches any Pantone reference, and reorders for new intakes are printed to the same references, so a house colour stays the same across years instead of drifting.

Crest decoration: embroidery or sublimation?

The crest decision follows the fabric decision. Embroidery works on any fabric and is the standard for piqué polos and fleece; sublimation only works on white or pale polyester, because the dye bonds to polyester fibre, so it suits games jerseys and polyester PE tees but not poly-cotton polos. DTF transfer covers the gap for a multi-colour crest on cotton-rich garments.

A crest is digitised for embroidery once and kept on file, so it looks the same on the first polo and on a reorder years later. Send the crest as a vector file (AI, EPS or PDF) and note any element that must not be simplified; the design studio produces a free digital mockup within 24 hours showing the crest at actual size. The embroidery and dye sublimation pages carry the detail for each method.

Sizing from the youngest year group to staff

School PE kit spans a wider size range than any club order, from the smallest children's sizes through to adult XS–5XL and women's XS–4XL for sixth form and staff, often in one design. The factory grades one pattern across that range by computer, so crest position, collar and hem proportions scale with the size.

Three sizing habits prevent most exchanges. Hold a try-on session at school with sample garments in the actual cut rather than relying on parents measuring at home; samples are charged at sample cost and credited against the bulk order. Decide a growth policy and apply it evenly: many schools size the youngest year groups one size up for the first year and size fixture squads to fit. Use the factory's size chart, and request a custom chart if the school's population differs from it; fully custom size charts and cuts for men, women and youth are standard at ZipaSports.

Girls' PE kit needs its own line on the size sheet where cuts differ: skorts, netball dresses, fitted polos. Record size, year group and garment on one sheet, one row per pupil; that sheet becomes the approved size specification. Wrong size against the specification is covered by the guarantee; a size chosen wrongly on the sheet is not. The size chart guide explains chest, length and tolerance.

Term-start deadlines: count back from the first PE lesson

Kit for a September start is ordered in the summer term, not the summer holidays. The reason is arithmetic: bulk production is 15–25 business days after approval, courier is 5–10 days, and the school's own steps sit before both of those.

Approve the mockup and size sheet no later than seven weeks before the first lesson if you want standard production, and earlier if parents order through the school and need time to pay. Express production shortens the factory stage to 7–12 days but cannot recover a size sheet that is still changing. For schools in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Europe the courier stage is the same 5–10 days; the shipping policy and import duties guide cover what arrives with the parcel and who pays duty.

How parents order, and how reorders work

A factory order is a single consolidated order delivered to one address, so the school decides how parents buy from it. Three routes are common. The school buys in bulk and sells kit through its own office or online shop, holding stock in the common sizes. A parents' association runs the pre-order, collects sizes and money, and hands the sheet to the school. Or a uniform retailer or kit supplier places the factory order and sells to parents, which suits schools that do not want to hold stock; kit suppliers work with ZipaSports on exactly this basis.

Whichever route applies, the first order should leave the factory holding the approved artwork, crest digitising, Pantone references and size specification on file. Reorders for new intakes are then cut to those files, and top-ups for a pupil who joins mid-year or grows out of a polo are accepted at lower quantities on request rather than at the full minimum. Woven neck labels with the school name, printed size tags and a polybag per pupil make a school-shop sale look finished and cut bagging work at term start.

Plan one main order for September and a smaller reorder for January, holding a buffer of common sizes between them. The school PE kit page lists the garments and sizes available.

Safeguarding-friendly design and sustainability

Safeguarding shapes what goes on the outside of a child's kit. The usual rules are no surnames on outer garments for younger pupils, initials or first names only where personalisation is offered, and any full name on the inside label. Numbers on fixture kit are fine and useful. Write the rule per year group on the size sheet and the factory applies it as written.

Design choices matter too. Pale shorts should be specified at the upper end of the interlock weight range for opacity; skorts and looser cuts should be available alongside fitted ones; and a girls' netball dress or fitted polo needs its own size line rather than a scaled-down adult pattern. Long-sleeve options and a plain midlayer let pupils cover up without a separate request.

On sustainability, the most useful request a school can make is for recycled polyester. GRS-certified recycled polyester is available on request at ZipaSports for polyester tees, jerseys and shorts, with certificate copies available on request; the fabric washes and sublimates like standard polyester. Durability is the other half of sustainability: a polo that lasts three years replaces fewer garments than one that pills after a term, so weight and fibre choice come before any label claim. Keep the design unchanged across years so outgrown kit can be passed down within the school.

The Quality Guarantee and what to send before a mockup

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. Defects are print faults, stitching faults, wrong size against the approved size specification, or wrong garment or quantity against the approved order. Claims go by WhatsApp or email with photos and the order reference within 7 days of delivery; ZipaSports confirms within 24 hours in business hours and ships replacements at no charge, or credits the pieces instead. Made-to-order kit carrying the school crest cannot be returned for change of mind. Full policy: Quality Guarantee.

Send the following in one message.

• School crest as a vector file (AI, EPS or PDF), plus any house crests.
• School and house colours as Pantone references, or a current-kit swatch.
• Garment list by tier and year group, with fixture colourways noted.
• Size sheet, or the date of the try-on session.
• Personalisation rule per year group.
• Label and packing choice: woven label, size tag, polybag per pupil.
• Delivery address, country and required delivery date.

This guide is published by ZipaSports, founded in 2005 in Sialkot, Pakistan, which makes PE and fixture kit for schools; the companion academy kit guide covers sports academies and the academies hub lists every sport.