How to Design a Club Shirt for Padel or Pickleball

1. Choose the garment

Start with how members will wear the kit. Each garment in the designer suits a different use:

• Classic tee: 100% cotton, with a few colours in a cotton blend. Good for socials, club nights and spectators.
• Sports jersey: breathable polyester mesh. The best choice for playing, league teams and tournaments.
• Hoodie: cotton-rich fleece. Good for warm-ups, coaches and cold outdoor courts.
• Crewneck: cotton-rich fleece, without a hood. A smarter layer for members and staff.

Many clubs choose two: a jersey to play in and a hoodie or tee to wear around the club. Each garment has its own range of colours, so choose the garment first and the colour second.

2. Use your logo or a ready-made design

There are two ways to design the front.

Your club logo and name

Upload your logo and type your club name. The logo goes on the left chest with the name under it. Use this when your club already has a logo that members know.

A ready-made design

When your club has no logo, start from one of four designs. Each one has a padel version and a pickleball version, with the right racket or paddle and court markings:

• Social club: a classic club crest. It can use your own logo in place of the sport icon.
• Chest badge: a small sporting emblem.
• Court outline: your sport, drawn simply.
• Retro sport: bold lettering and warm colours.

All four take your club name and an optional location line, such as your town or venue. Social club and Retro sport can also show the year the club was founded, as "EST." and the year.

3. Prepare your logo

The logo prints in its own colours, exactly as the file shows it. Three things make the biggest difference:

• Use a transparent background. Save the logo as a PNG with no background. A JPG always has a background, usually white, and it prints as a box around the logo.
• Use a large file. The designer keeps up to 1200 pixels on the longest side. On a chest print about 4 inches wide, that is about 300 pixels per inch, which prints sharp. A small logo from a website or social profile can print soft.
• Avoid fine detail. At chest size, very thin lines and small text become hard to read. A simple version of your logo works better.

The designer accepts PNG, JPG and WebP files smaller than 8 MB.

4. Club name and font

Keep the name short. The designer fits up to 32 characters on up to 3 lines, with about 14 characters on each line. A single word longer than 14 characters still prints, but smaller. For a long name, use the short form that members already use, such as "PBC" for Pickleball Club.

Choose from six fonts: Satoshi, Montserrat, Oswald, Anton, Archivo Black and Playfair Display. Bold, simple fonts read best from across a court. Capital letters make a short name look stronger, and the designer has an all-caps option.

5. Shirt colour and ink colour

Contrast matters more than any other choice. Use light ink on a dark shirt and dark ink on a light shirt.

For the logo and name design, the designer chooses light or dark ink for the club name from the shirt colour. The ready-made designs have eight ink colours. The designer suggests one for the shirt colour, and you can choose a different one.

Your club colours do not have to be the shirt colour. A navy shirt with a cream print can say more about a club than a shirt in a bright club colour with a weak print.

6. Place the chest print

The usual place for a club logo is the left chest, about 3 inches below the neckline. The designer starts the logo and name there, at about 4 inches wide. Player initials start on the other side of the chest, at the same height.

You can drag the logo block and the initials on the preview to move them. Keep both at about the same height, so the shirt looks balanced. Reset position puts them back where they started. The ready-made designs have a fixed layout.

The designer prints on the front. The preview shows the back too, so you can see the whole garment.

7. Add player initials

Initials make club kit personal and stop shirts getting mixed up in the changing room. Each item can have up to 3 letters, or none.

Type initials in the designer to see how they look. The initials that print are chosen for each item when it goes in the basket. One club design can then go on every member's shirt, each with their own initials. Different initials or sizes go on separate lines.

8. Check the design before you order

The live preview is for designing. Before you order, click See realistic photos. It makes photos of the real garment from the same print file that would be printed. It takes about 10 seconds.

Check these points on the photos:

• The logo has no box around it.
• The club name and initials are easy to read.
• The print looks right on the shirt colour.
• The logo and initials sit at the same height.

Then save the design. You can email yourself a link and a picture, copy the link, download the picture or share it with your club. The link opens the same design again.

9. Sizes for a whole club

Collecting sizes and initials from every member is the slowest part of club kit. A club shop removes that step. Save the design to your club, and each member orders their own size and initials from your club page.

Each item is printed when it is ordered, so there is no stock and no minimum order. A design with a small Powered by NextArena mark under your club identity costs less. Read more about padel club shirts, pickleball club shirts and tournament shirts.

Frequently asked questions