Getting your logo onto clothing properly
Most workwear that looks cheap is not cheap fabric — it is a logo that was never going to reproduce at nine centimetres. Here is what works, what does not, and how to tell before you pay.
What to send us
Vector, ideally
AI, EPS, PDF or SVG. These scale to any size without losing edge quality, and they are what a digitiser wants to work from.
A large PNG or JPG works
1,000 pixels wide or more, on a plain or transparent background. Usable for most straightforward logos.
A website screenshot does not
A 200-pixel logo lifted from a site has to be redrawn. We can do that — it is a one-off cost and yours to keep afterwards.
What survives, and what does not
Reproduces well
- ✅ Bold, solid shapes and clear letterforms
- ✅ Two to six flat colours
- ✅ Text above roughly 4mm tall once sized
- ✅ Strong contrast against the garment colour
- ✅ A single-colour version available for dark fabric
Causes problems
- ❌ Hairline strokes — they disappear or blob in thread
- ❌ Gradients and drop shadows — thread cannot fade
- ❌ Photographic detail in a stitched logo
- ❌ Small print, straplines and web addresses under 4mm
- ❌ White elements on a white garment
Sizes that actually work
| Position | Typical width | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Left chest | 8–10 cm | The default. Reads as professional in any setting. |
| Right chest | 8–10 cm | When the left is taken by a name or accreditation. |
| Sleeve | 5–7 cm | Secondary marks, accreditations, a second brand. |
| Back | 25–30 cm | Trade names and phone numbers — visible across a site. |
Below about 6 cm a chest logo loses its fine detail. Above 12 cm it stops reading as a badge and starts looking like a print.
Send it and we will check it — free
Email the file or describe it here and we will tell you honestly whether it will reproduce well, what it will cost to prepare, and whether it needs redrawing. Before you order anything.
Ask your designer for three versions
- • Full colour, vector
- • Single colour, for one-colour work
- • Reversed, for dark garments
That set covers nearly every situation you will meet, and it costs nothing extra at the time it is drawn.
Artwork questions
What is digitising?+
Turning your logo into a stitch file the embroidery machine reads. It is a manual job — someone decides stitch direction, order and density — and it is charged once, not per order.
Do I own the digitised file?+
Yes, and you should hold a copy. Ask us for the DST or EMB file so you are never locked to one supplier.
Can you match my brand colours exactly?+
Close, not exact. Thread comes in a fixed range, so we pick the nearest to your Pantone. If colour accuracy is critical, ask for a stitch-out first.
Why does my logo look different stitched?+
Thread cannot do gradients or hairlines, so a good digitiser interprets rather than copies. The best embroidered logos are slightly simplified versions of the print original.
Can you redraw my logo?+
Yes. It is usually a modest one-off cost and you get the improved files to use everywhere else too.
Where the money goes
Garment vs decoration in a typical kit
Most of what you pay is the clothing itself — decoration is the smaller half by some distance.
- Garments£41.76 70%
- Logo decoration£18.00 30%
How price falls with team size
The same kit, priced at each volume break.
Base price
7% below single-unit price
12% below single-unit price
12% below single-unit price
12% below single-unit price
About these figures: every number on this page is calculated from our own live catalogue — real supplier costs, real decoration rates and the volume breaks published on the site. They are not market estimates or projections. Prices shown are indicative for a reference kit; your own quote will reflect the garments and logo positions you actually choose.
Logo sorted?
Pick a bundle and the price on the page already includes putting it on.