Contact changes everything
Football: the only kit we make that has to survive being hit
Every other sport we make for asks a garment to move well. Football asks it to move well while being pulled, landed on, and worn over hard plastic. That single difference runs through the fabric weight, the seam construction and the way a number is applied.
What follows is how we build to that difference. The range itself, the league detail and the sizing charts live on the specialist site.
What contact does to a garment
A jersey fails at the grab points — shoulder, sleeve hem, the panel across the numbers. We use a heavier knit at those points and mesh where airflow matters, rather than one fabric throughout, because a uniform built entirely for durability is a uniform nobody can breathe in.
Pads are the second constraint, and they are why football sizing does not transfer from any other sport. A jersey has to sit over shoulder pads without pulling at the neck, which means the pattern is cut wider through the chest and shorter in the body than a soccer shirt of the same nominal size.
Numbering is where the two constraints meet. A large pressed number across a panel that gets grabbed is a number that lifts, which is why we sublimate wherever the design permits and reserve twill for the traditional looks that call for it.
What contact changes in the specification
Six places where a football garment is built differently, and the reason for each.
- Fabric weight
- Heavier through the body than any other sport we make for, with mesh in panels rather than throughout — a jersey built entirely for airflow does not survive being grabbed.
- Shoulder and sleeve
- Reinforced at the grab points. This is where a football jersey fails first and where the difference between makers shows soonest.
- Cut over pads
- Wider through the chest and shorter in the body than a soccer shirt of the same nominal size, because it has to sit over shoulder pads without pulling at the neck.
- Numbering
- Sublimated wherever the design allows. A large pressed number across a panel that gets grabbed is a number that lifts.
- Game pants
- Built to take pads, in the cuts each league expects. Sized separately from anything else in the range.
- Practice specification
- Lighter than game kit and reinforced in the same three places, because it takes the same contact four more times a week.
Why football sizing does not transfer
A player who is a large in every other garment they own is not necessarily a large in a football jersey, and the reason is geometric rather than a question of grading: the shirt has to fit over equipment. Pads add width at the shoulders and depth at the chest without changing the length of the body underneath.
That is why a squad measured against a general size chart produces a run that is too long in the body and too tight across the top, which is precisely the wrong pair of errors — a jersey that rides up over pads and pulls at the neck at the same time.
It also means measurements have to be taken in the equipment, or at least adjusted for it, which is the one place where the fast three-player method needs an extra step. The rest of the approach still holds and is set out in our guide to sizing a squad without measuring everybody.
What we make for football
Each of these is a cross-sport page — the same garment as we build it for every sport, with the football products listed inside it.
Team Uniform Packages
1 football products
Reversible Jerseys
1 football products
Practice & Training Gear
1 football products
Warm-Ups & Outerwear
3 football products
Team Shorts & Pants
1 football products
Socks & Accessories
2 football products
Team Jerseys
12 football products
Team Uniforms
6 football products
Football kit in other colourways
The same football garments made up in different colours. Yours is produced to your own design.
Product photographs from the ZEE Sports Wear range. Every order is made to the program's own colours and design.
Football questions
Do you make game pants as well as jerseys?
Yes, and they should be ordered together — pants and jersey produced in one run is the only reliable way to get a matched set.
Can you match an existing school design?
Send a physical jersey rather than a photograph. We measure and colour-match from the garment, which is far more accurate than working from a screen.
What about 7-on-7?
Different specification entirely — lighter, no pads to accommodate. The football site covers it as its own range.
Do you size football jerseys over shoulder pads?
Yes, and it changes the answer. A jersey has to clear pads at the shoulder and chest without gaining length in the body, so a squad measured against a general size chart usually ends up too long and too tight in the wrong places at once. Send us the pads you use, or measure over them.
What is the difference between your game and practice specification?
Practice kit is lighter, because it is worn four or five times a week rather than once. It carries the same reinforcement at the shoulder and sleeve, because it takes the same contact. Everything else — numbering method, colour matching, sizing — is identical, so the two sets look like one program.
Can you match a helmet or existing uniform colour?
We work to a supplied reference. A physical sample or a Pantone number both work; a colour picked off a photograph does not, because the photograph is already three colour conversions away from the object. Send the closest thing you have to the real item.
Are numbers sublimated or pressed?
Sublimated wherever the design allows, because a pressed number on a panel that gets grabbed is a number that lifts. Some designs — heavyweight twill lettering, for example — call for a different method, and we will say so rather than quietly substitute.
Do you make game pants as well as jerseys?
Yes, in the cuts leagues expect, built to take pads. They are sized separately from the jerseys, which is worth planning for: a squad's pant sizes and jersey sizes are not the same list.
How long does a football order take?
Production runs to the schedule we quote at order confirmation, and the number that moves it is approval speed on the artwork proof. Programs that come to us in spring get a different answer from programs that come in the last week of August.
What is the minimum order?
It is set per garment rather than site-wide, because a reversible jersey and a set of game pants are not comparable pieces of work. Tell us what the squad needs and we will give you the real number for that garment rather than a headline figure.
Can we add players mid-season?
Yes, and this is why we keep the specification on file — fabric batch, print calibration, pattern. A repeat of four jerseys made against a stored specification matches; four jerseys ordered fresh from a description do not reliably match.
Do you supply the practice and game sets together?
That is the cheaper way to do it. The setup cost that dominates a small order is paid once, and both sets come out of the same fabric batch, so they read as one program rather than two purchases.
Where do we actually order football uniforms?
Here we explain how they are built. The range, sizing charts and ordering live on texasfootballuniforms.com, which is our football site — this page exists so you know what is behind the garment.