We worked with Bob, from Play It Again Sports in Crystal Lake, on Junior Wolves 3rd grade travel basketball uniforms. With new options in printing, especially with fully customizable sublimation, we have been able to create some design options that go way beyond the catalog and online uniform builders.

This uniform is called Juice Infused Gear, in Street style. It has a reversible shirt and reversible jersey along with a shooting shirt. So far, we have been able to do this customization for minimal to no extra cost to the team on uniforms. Bob explained to us that there are two reasonable options for youth uniforms: being screen-printed or sublimated. To put this as simply as possible, in screen printing the dye sits on top of the shirt. In sublimation, the dye becomes a gas and is actually absorbed into the polyester.

The most affordable option for a uniform is to have one pair of shorts with a reversible jersey using one color screen-print and minimal screens. So for example, no player name on the back would save ten screens having to be made. We also included a shooting shirt which is not necessary. The basic screen-print option is less than half of what we paid but we presented this information to the team parents with samples and offered an individual fundraiser to pay for a player’s uniform.

Since we decided on the fully sublimated custom uniform, we wanted to make the most of the custom options. We generally give the coaches options based on their specifications and we build the uniforms together from there. These uniforms are from a local company, Champro Sports, located in Wheeling, Illinois. Pictured below is “Bibs” who got his nickname in baseball from eating sunflower seeds and drooling all over his uniform.

Name font is “Demonized” in Champro font size 2 , Number font is “Varsity” in font size 8

We sized down the shooting shirts to make sure the sleeve length was correct. We sized up the wolf logo to take up the entire shirt. We provided Champro with art files and mock-ups of this design.

Bob helped us to know that with children, you have to be careful with the font size so that the uniform number doesn’t get tucked into the shorts or take up the entire front of the shirt. The number 5 on the shirt front is in Varsity font in Champro font size 6 and “Ridge” is in Serpentine ProNarrow font in Champro font size 2.

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