Custom hoodies and sweatshirts with your logo, embroidered or printed from 10 pieces

Hoodie or sweatshirt: which one suits your team?

Both are cut from the same family of fabric, a knitted sweat fabric that is often brushed soft on the inside, so an embroidered or printed logo wears the same way on either. The difference is the front. A crew-neck sweatshirt leaves the whole chest clear; a pullover hoodie has a kangaroo pocket and drawcords, and a zip-up hoodie or sweatshirt is split down the middle by the zip. That decides where the logo can sit.

Hoodies are a familiar sight in offices, software teams, sports clubs and event crews; a crew-neck sweatshirt sits more neatly under a jacket, which suits warehouse and technical service teams. For outdoor crews in cold weather, the same logo can also go on a fleece vest or a softshell jacket; our page on custom clothing from Istanbul lists the garments we source.

Where does the logo go on a hoodie: chest, sleeve, back or hood?

The left chest is the classic position: the logo is usually 7.5–10 cm wide, with its centre about 7.5–12.5 cm to the side of the centre front. On a hoodie, it also stays outside the drawcords, so they don’t swing across it.

A centre-chest logo can be larger, but on a pullover hoodie it must finish a few centimetres above the top seam of the kangaroo pocket: if the hoop catches the pocket, two layers of fabric are stretched together and the logo ripples. The back is the largest area; a back logo is usually 25–30 cm wide and reads from a distance. A sleeve logo sits above the elbow, away from the ribbed cuff, which does not lie flat in the hoop.

The hood itself can be embroidered with a small, simple logo or a short word, but a sewn hood is hard to hoop, so we decide it on the sample. These are common ranges in the trade; the exact size is fixed on the sample.

Embroidered or printed hoodies: which is better for your logo?

Both are done in our workshop. Embroidery stitches the logo into the fabric with thread: it has texture, it does not crack or peel, and heavy sweat fabric carries a dense fill that would pucker a thin T-shirt. A printed logo suits photos, gradients and full-back designs in many colours; we print with DTF, which presses a thin, flexible film onto the fabric and stays bright on black and navy thanks to its white base layer.

The two can be combined: an embroidered logo on the chest and a large printed design on the back of the same hoodie. Printed items are ready on average 3–5 days after you approve the order; embroidery follows its own timetable after sample approval, and the timing of a combined order is set in the quote. How DTF compares with screen printing, transfer and sublimation is explained on our page about T-shirt printing in Istanbul.

How does embroidery behave on thick, brushed sweat fabric?

Sweat fabric is knitted, so it stretches. A permanent cut-away backing stays behind the embroidery and holds the logo in shape through washing; a tear-away backing, which suits woven fabrics, would let the edges wave after a few washes. Heavier three-thread fabric, usually brushed on the inside, carries large filled logos best; lighter two-thread fabric is fine for small emblems and lettering.

When the outer surface is fluffy, a water-soluble film goes on top so the stitches do not sink into the pile; it dissolves in the first wash. Fine lettering gets lost more easily on a soft surface, so we thicken it during digitizing: letters should stay above about 5 mm in height. On grey marl, mid-tone thread blends into the mixed fibres, so we choose a thread clearly lighter or darker than the fabric.

We stitch on Tajima and Barudan multi-head machines with Madeira polyester thread. On textiles that are washed often and hot, or treated with bleach, the durability comes from the polyester fibre, and for that kind of work we use polyester thread.

Your own hoodies, or shall we source them?

If your hoodies or sweatshirts are ready, send them and tell us whether they are pullover or zip-up, and whether the fabric is two-thread or three-thread, brushed or flat: the backing and the stitch density are chosen before the first sample.

If you would rather leave the sourcing to us, tell us the model, the colour and the quantity per size. If you leave the sourcing to us, you can choose a crew neck or a zip-up sweatshirt. For hoodies, say whether you want a pullover with a kangaroo pocket or a zip-up. When we source the products, the model, colour and size options are agreed with you in the quote, and the time needed to obtain them is added to the lead time. The sample is embroidered on the model chosen for the run, because the pocket, the drawcords and the zip only show their exact position on the garment itself.

Which colours can we source?

When we source the hoodies and sweatshirts, the colours ordered most often are black, grey, navy, red, green, white, burgundy, khaki and royal blue; whether another colour or shade is available is settled at the quote stage. The thread is chosen against the fabric: white or a light tone on black, navy, burgundy and green; a dark, saturated colour on white and light grey.

A tone-on-tone logo, black on black or navy on navy, looks understated and is read by its texture when light falls on it; it is a good choice for a fashion-minded team, less so for warehouse and field staff who need to be recognised from a few steps away. Corporate colours given as Pantone references are matched to the nearest thread shade and shown on the sample.

How does a hoodie order run, and what do we need for a quote?

We digitize your logo, embroider a sample on one of the hoodies or sweatshirts in your order, and start the run once you approve it. For orders of 10–500 pieces, the typical time after sample approval is 3–5 working days; when we source the garments, the time needed to obtain them is added. Printed work is ready on average 3–5 days after you approve the order; if we source the products, the time needed to obtain them is added.

The price depends on the stitch count, the number of colours, the number of logo positions, the quantity and the product; we give you the quote in writing. A large back logo adds a second hooping and most of the stitches; a full-back design in many colours usually moves to print. For a quote in one round, please send:

• your logo file, vector if you have it, with any Pantone references
• hoodie or sweatshirt, pullover or zip-up, and whether you send them or we source them
• the colours and the quantity per size
• the positions (chest, back, sleeve, hood) and roughly how big each logo should be
• a list of names or departments, if pieces carry different ones
• the delivery city and country, and the date you need them by