Custom Jerseys for Social Clubs: Start With the Size Ladder

If you are ordering custom jerseys for social clubs or a mixed soccer and futsal side, pick the jersey body by its size ladder before you pick it by colour, brand or price. A social squad carries a far wider spread of body shapes than an academy team, and a shirt that starts at S or stops at 2XL will leave someone stuck in a kit that does not fit. Colours can be swapped. Numbers can be reassigned. Logo placement can be argued about over a beer. Sizing is the one decision you cannot undo once the order is placed.

That sounds obvious. It is also the single most common reason a club kit order ends up half worn.

Why social club kit orders go sideways, and it is rarely the design

Football is enormous in this country. The Australian Sports Commission puts it at roughly 1.27 million people aged 15 and over playing at least once in 2025, plus another 690,000 kids. A large slice of that is social: workplace teams, Sunday sides, futsal comps that run in eight week blocks, mates who reformed a club after a decade off.

Those squads behave nothing like a graded club. Three things go wrong again and again.

• The sizing spread is brutal. A social side might genuinely need XS through to 3XL. A competitive under 18s squad usually sits inside three sizes.
• The roster moves. Two players leave in round four, someone's cousin joins, and a named shirt becomes a very expensive rag.
• Nobody gets measured. Everyone self reports a size from memory, then half the order is wrong.

The size ladders you can actually order right now

Here is the part most kit guides skip. Match shirt bodies do not share a size range, and the gaps are meaningful. This is the live picture across the Nike and Adidas jerseys we stock, all genuine product supplied through accredited vendors.

Jersey body	Size range	Colours	From
Adidas Tabela 23	XS to 3XL	8	$39.00
Nike Park 8, Men's	XS to 2XL	7	$39.98
Nike Park 8, Women's	XS to 2XL	4	$39.98
Adidas Entrada 26, Men's	S to 2XL	4	$34.95
Nike Academy 2, Men's	S to 2XL	5	$49.98
Nike Park 8, Youth	XS to 2XL	9	$34.00

Read that table as a shortlist, not a ranking. If your squad has smaller players or anyone above 2XL, the Tabela 23 is doing something the others cannot. If your side sits comfortably in the middle sizes and you want the cheapest genuine branded shirt, Entrada 26 wins on price. Browse the full men's jerseys and women's jerseys ranges to see current colourways.

One more thing worth saying plainly: if you have women in the squad, order the women's body for them. It is the same jersey family, the same colour, and it sits properly. Teams that force everyone into one cut to keep the order tidy always regret it by round three.

The undershirt rule almost every social team breaks

This is the bit that catches people out. Under the Laws of the Game, an undershirt has to be a single colour matching the main colour of your jersey sleeve, or a pattern that exactly replicates it. Undershorts and tights have to match the main colour of the shorts, and every player on the team has to wear the same colour.

In winter comps, that rule bites. Half the side turns up in whatever thermal they own, and a referee within their rights can send them off to change. If your club plays through a Melbourne or Canberra winter, decide the base layer colour when you decide the kit colour, not in round one. Sock tape falls under the same principle: anything applied over the sock has to match the part of the sock it covers.

Local social comps often relax this. Graded and registered competitions usually do not. Check your competition rules before you spend money.

Names, numbers and the roster churn problem

Here is an opinion, and it will not be popular with the player who wants their surname across the back.

For a social squad, number the shirts by size, not by player. Give the 3XL number 15 and the XS number 2, write it on a spreadsheet, and let numbers follow the shirt through the club. When someone leaves, the shirt goes back in the bag and fits the next person who takes that size. When you print names, you have permanently welded a garment to one human being who may not be there in eight weeks.

Names earn their place in two situations: a milestone season you want to remember, or an end of season gift order where the shirt is the keepsake, not the working kit. Both are worth doing properly. Just do them on purpose rather than by default.

Club logo, sponsor and number are a different story. Those stay relevant for as long as the club does, which is exactly why they are the parts worth investing in.

What do custom jerseys for social clubs cost in Australia

Two separate numbers, and mixing them up is where budgets blow out.

The first is the blank jersey, which for the bodies above runs from $29.95 for a youth Adidas Entrada 26 up to $49.98 for a Nike Academy 2. That price is fixed and visible on the product page.

The second is personalisation, and it genuinely varies. Cost moves with the size of the logo, the decoration method (embroidery, print or sublimation), how many colours are in the artwork, and whether you are adding sponsor blocks and player numbers as well as a crest. A single colour crest on 14 shirts is a different job to a four colour front sponsor plus front and back numbers. Send us the artwork and squad numbers and we will quote it properly rather than guess. You can see the range of decorated bodies in the custom apparel collection.

Worth knowing on the fabric side: most of these match shirts are built from recycled polyester. If a supplier makes a specific recycled content claim, it should be backed by third party certification. The Global Recycled Standard requires at least 50 percent certified content for consumer facing labelling, which is a useful benchmark when someone tells you a shirt is sustainable.

Build the rest of the kit around the jersey, not before it

Pick the shirt, then everything else falls into place. Adidas Entrada 26 shorts from $30 match the Entrada jersey family, and there is a women's shorts range in the same colours. Our guide to custom soccer shorts fit, fabric and printing covers the decisions there in detail.

Socks are the exception. Grip socks and compression socks are sold as they come and are not a customisation surface, so treat them as a kit colour decision rather than a branding one. If you are unsure which your side needs, we went through what the research actually says about grip socks. For the sideline layer, the team jacket guide is the companion piece to this one. Junior clubs can start at the junior teamwear range.

Lead times and the Australian season calendar

Winter season clubs should be ordering December through February. Summer futsal comps should be ordering in September and October. If you are chasing a specific colourway across a full size run, earlier is better, because colours sell down unevenly and the 2XL in your chosen shade is usually the first to go.

A workable sequence: confirm the squad list, get everyone to try a sample size rather than guess, lock the body and colour, then send artwork. The 2026 World Cup year is already pulling demand forward, and Nike and Adidas teamwear in popular colours moves faster than usual.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum order for custom jerseys for social clubs?

There is no fixed squad size that makes an order viable. Small runs are common in social football, and we regularly decorate for sides of ten to fifteen. Per unit personalisation is usually more efficient on larger runs, so it is worth asking about the difference before you split an order across two batches.

Can we mix men's, women's and youth jerseys in one team order?

Yes, and you should. The Park 8 family runs across men's, women's and youth bodies in overlapping colours, so a mixed squad can share one look while each player wears a cut that fits. Confirm the exact colour name across all three, since not every shade exists in every body.

Do we need to match undershirt colours in social competitions?

Under the Laws of the Game, yes. Undershirts must match the main colour of the jersey sleeve and undershorts must match the shorts, with the whole team wearing the same colour. Many casual comps do not enforce it, but graded and registered competitions generally do, so check your competition rules first.

Are Empulse's Nike and Adidas jerseys genuine?

Yes. All branded teamwear we sell is genuine product supplied through accredited vendors. We then apply club logos, numbers and names as a separate in house service. We are not an official partner of any brand and we do not manufacture branded product.

Should we print player names on social club jerseys?

Usually not on working match kit, because roster turnover means a named shirt has a short useful life. Names are worth it on keepsake or end of season orders. For match kit, club crest and number will serve you for several seasons.

Ready to sort your squad out

Start with the size ladder, choose the body that covers your whole squad, then talk to us about decoration. Send through your artwork, squad list and sizes and we will come back with a quote and realistic timing. Browse the jersey range to shortlist a body first.

Empulse has supplied custom teamwear to Australian soccer, futsal and social clubs since 2021, combining genuine Nike and Adidas product from accredited vendors with in house logo, name and number personalisation.