Custom varsity jackets

The chenille patch is what makes a varsity jacket a varsity jacket. It is a raised, looped-yarn letter or mascot, usually in the school's primary colour on a contrasting felt backing, and it is the element people recognize from across a room. Most orders put one large patch on the left chest and, where the program has one, a second on the back or the sleeve.

Everything else, names, graduating years, sport or role titles, runs in embroidery. Embroidered lettering sits flat, survives decades of wear, and can be personalized per jacket at no structural change to the order, so a run of fifty jackets can carry fifty different names. The convention is a name on the right chest opposite the patch and a year on a sleeve, though plenty of programs do it differently and we will lay out whatever you want in the mockup.

One piece of advice worth taking: keep the year smaller than feels natural. A jacket that shouts its year reads as a costume a decade later, while the same jacket with a discreet year still gets worn.

Varsity jackets are cut roomier than a hoodie because they are made to layer over one, and the ribbed hem sits at the natural waist rather than below it. Most people take their normal size; someone who wants to wear it over a thick hoodie should size up one. Because the body is a structured wool blend rather than a stretchy knit, a jacket that is too small does not simply feel snug, it does not close comfortably.

For a class or team order, collect sizes properly rather than estimating from a roster. A varsity jacket is expensive enough per piece that a wrong size is a real problem, and unlike a tee it cannot be handed to someone else and quietly replaced. Our group size calculator gives a starting distribution, and the size guide has the measurements to share before the order form goes out.

Names and years are locked at the point of embroidery, so collect those alongside sizes in the same form. Changing one after production has started means a new jacket, not an alteration.

Varsity jackets are the most expensive garment we make, and the reason is construction rather than decoration. A wool-blend melton body with contrast sleeves, ribbed knit trim, a lining, and snap hardware is a genuinely complex garment, and that cost does not taper much with volume the way a printed tee does.

Chenille patches are priced per patch by size, and embroidered personalization adds a per-jacket charge because each one is a separate stitch-out. Those are worth knowing as separate lines when you set a budget, because a program can control them independently of the jacket itself: one patch and a name costs meaningfully less per jacket than three patches, a name, a year, and a sport title.

For a school running a jacket program as a paid option rather than a funded one, this is the item where a pre-sale genuinely matters. Collect commitments before you order, because you cannot resell a jacket with someone else's name on it.

Most school varsity jacket programs run once a year against a deadline, usually tied to a senior season or a letter ceremony, and the deadline is the part that goes wrong. A jacket order takes longer than spirit wear, three to four weeks of production after approval, plus the time it takes to collect names and sizes, which is often the longer half. Start earlier than feels necessary.

Booster clubs frequently fund or subsidize these programs, and the mechanics of that are worth settling before you quote: whether the school issues a purchase order or the booster club pays directly changes the paperwork, not the price. Our booster club merch page covers how those orders are usually structured.

Student organizations and Greek chapters run the same programme on a smaller scale, often with chapter letters as the chenille patch and a member name and pledge year in embroidery. The student organization merch page covers the wider lineup those chapters order alongside jackets.

A varsity jacket is usually the top of a school program rather than the whole of it. Most orders that include jackets also include hoodies for the wider student body, which do the same identity job at a fraction of the price.

For a coaching or staff layer alongside a student jacket program, custom jackets are the more appropriate garment: lighter, functional outerwear rather than a keepsake.