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Best Gift for Athletes - Design Original Jerseys

In this article you will learn why a customised jersey is the perfect gift for athletes and we will show you how you can easily and inexpensively create jerseys at Spized.

spized | Trivia

May 14, 2026 |

Close-up of female volleyball players holding balls

Whats’ on this page

1. Why a customized jersey?

1.1 Advantages of customized jerseys

2. A customised jersey as a gift for athletes is suitable for these occasions

2.1 Gift for a (former) teammate

2.2 Gift for coaches

2.3 Gift for a passionate sportsman

3. Suggestions for the jersey design

3.1 Shirt design ideas depending on the sport

4. Why sublimation printing gives the most freedom in design

5. This is how easy it is to design a jersey at Spized

Why a self-designed jersey is the best gift for athletes

Gifts are always a tricky thing: Basically, every athlete already has everything they need for their sport. Out of embarrassment, we then tend to give away unnecessary stuff. So it's no wonder that every year at Christmas, the majority of all gifts end up back in the shop and are exchanged. Not exactly sustainable ... But not giving anything as a gift is not really an option either! A gift for athletes should therefore fulfil a few characteristics:

Something that the recipient would not buy for him or herself
Should have a real benefit for the recipient
Should have a personal and individual touch
High-quality product, so that it doesn't fly right out again during the next spring cleaning
Best produced fairly and sustainably

Admittedly, that is quite ambitious. But a customised, self-designed jersey actually fulfils all these characteristics very well.

Advantages of customized jerseys

Pretty sure, the gifted athlete himself would not bother to design a funny or emotional jersey for himself. The emotional value is all the greater when he receives such a personal gift from his own team, a friend, or the coach.

Some athletes may already own a few jerseys, but you will always be able to please them with a classy and stylish jersey. High-quality jerseys can be relatively expensive. He may not have treated himself to so many of them yet. Ultimately, of course, it depends on where you buy the jersey and how you have it printed. There are significant differences in quality, price, flexibility and sustainability. But more on that later...

We don't need to explain the purpose of a jersey here. You probably know this well enough yourself: you have 2-3 favourite jerseys in your wardrobe that you wear week after week in training. If you wash them once too often, you won't find a matching jersey in your wardrobe. It certainly doesn't hurt to have one or two extra jerseys that you like to wear with pride.

Moreover, a leotard is suitable for almost every sport. Maybe not exactly in ballet, but in every ball and team sport, as well as in running and cycling, jerseys are worn in every training session.

Customised jerseys are not only trendy in football.

A customised jersey as a gift for athletes is suitable for these occasions

Whether it's Christmas, a birthday, a farewell or an upcoming sporting event - a self-designed jersey is suitable for almost any occasion. We have picked out a few typical occasions to give you an idea of what the whole thing can look like:

Gift for a (former) teammate

Especially in teams with a high proportion of pupils and students, the fluctuation is sometimes very high. You have grown together intensively as a team over several seasons and then it's time to say goodbye, because the colleague may be moving to another city to study or train. Of course, a proper farewell gift is not to be missed!

Other occasions could also be, for example:

The long-awaited team promotion
A special victory
The MVP nomination
Birthday of a player

Gift for coaches

There are a lot of reasons to give your coach a gift. He is the one who brings the team together, gets the best out of the athletes and motivates and cheers them on from the sidelines. He has more than earned a "thank you" for this. What could be more appropriate than an individual jersey of his team that he can wear with pride?

Occasions for a coach gift:

The long-awaited team promotion
A special victory
Farewell to the team / the club
End of season
Many years of work in the association
Birthday, Christmas, wedding, birth of a child

Gift for a passionate sportsman

A particularly sporty friend has a birthday, your godchild is running his first marathon or a colleague has just qualified for the Iron Man in Hawaii? If these aren't super inspirations to design a personal jersey. Jerseys are particularly suitable gifts for cyclists and runners.

Occasions for a gift for a sports lover:

An important sporting event is coming up (e.g. a marathon or triathlon).
An important sporting event was successfully mastered
Celebrate the end of the season
A sporty holiday is planned
Participation as a spectator at a major event (e.g. Tour de France)
Birthday, Christmas, wedding, birth of a child

Two athletes with a ball on the football field

Every athlete is happy about this: individually designed jerseys.

Suggestions for the jersey design

If you're thinking, "Oh my, I'm so uncreative!", let me tell you this: You don't have to be an artist to design a personal and appealing jersey. It's best to find a print provider with a particularly intuitive configurator, then nothing can really go wrong.

Take a look at the following video, for example, to see how easy it is to design a jersey with the 3D configurator from spized.

But of course we would also like to give you a few suggestions on which patterns, colours, sayings and quotes look particularly good on a jersey. Before we go into detail about the individual sports, you should first consider a few principles:

Pay attention to the occasion: Depending on the occasion for which you are planning a jersey, it is best to create the appropriate mood. For a farewell, it might be more in the direction of thanks and praise, while a birthday present can also have a joke.

Consider the relationship with the recipient: Of course, your relationship with the recipient also plays a big role in how personal the jersey print should be. Don't overdo it: Since you want the recipient to wear the jersey, you should probably not overdo it with the slogans. A funny saying is good, but it shouldn't be too embarrassing.

Use club colours: Of course, this is not a rule of thumb. But especially within a team, this naturally creates the greatest recognition value and thus an emotional component.

Use quotes: Whether it's a quote from a famous athlete or a saying from the coach that's been repeated over and over again. There is no limit to your creativity.

Immortalise yourself as a team: A very emotional gesture is also to immortalise yourself as a team in the form of signatures on the jersey (printing is also possible here).

Sport

Ideas

Sayings/quotes

Soccer

Print nickname

List of greatest successes

Shirt of the favourite team imitate

Comparison with a famous player

Design a warm-up shirt

Kick, Pass, Goal, Repeat!

Real life begins at the kick-off!

No winner believes in coincidence.

"I had a good feeling from the feeling" (Andreas Möller)

"The round has to go into the square" (Helmut Schulte)

Handball

Print nickname

List of greatest successes

Imitate the jersey of your favourite team

Comparison with a famous player

Design a warm-up shirt

Many play football, but only the best play handball.

Only handball is tougher than Chuck Norris.

Handball strengthens the body's defences.

"If these referees have a conscience, it is a bad one." (Heiner Brand)

Basketball

Print nickname

List of greatest successes

Imitate the jersey of your favourite team

Comparison with a famous player

Design a warm-up shirt

It's time for basketball.

Basketball legend.

"Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game." (Michael Jordan)

"We are selfless and trust each other." (Tim Duncan)

Cycling

Jersey to match the bike

Imitate the jersey of your favourite team

Retro style jersey

No mercy for the calf.

Whoever brakes loses.

Headwinds shape character.

Push yourself, because no one is going to do it for you.

"Quality comes from torment." (Felix Magath)

Running

Jersey to match the running shoes

Mimic the jersey of a favourite runner

No Pain, no gain.

No matter how slow you run, you beat everyone who stays at home!

Life runs when you let it run.

"If you want to move the world, you should first move yourself." (Sokrates)

Coaches

Typical trainer sayings

Club logo

List of all players

List of greatest successes

Acknowledgements

My team thinks I am a fantastic coach of a wonderful team.

I am a coach - of course I am crazy!

I am always right, I am a coach!

"We don't compete here with full trousers. I have checked again." (Jürgen Klopp)

Why sublimation printing gives the most freedom in design

Maybe you haven't heard of sublimation printing yet - but then it's high time! Because in contrast to all other printing techniques, you have much more freedom in designing your jersey:

Free choice of colours and patterns when designing your own jersey
Use of infinite colours
No limit to the number of logos and lettering
Filigree imprints (e.g. signatures) are also possible

The reason for this: While flock, flex or screen printing is done afterwards on a blank jersey, everything happens in one production step with sublimation printing. This not only gives you much more extensive design options, but also saves you a good deal of money. Because the printing costs are usually included in the purchase of a jersey.

With ordinary printing methods, the price goes up with each logo and each additional colour. With sublimation printing, the use of several colours and logos is possible free of charge. The optimal prerequisite to really let off steam.

Instead of saving on the quality of the jerseys, it is better to have high-quality jerseys printed at a low price.

This is how easy it is to design a jersey at Spized

Are you on fire now and want to start designing straight away? Then take a look at how easy and flexible you can design a jersey at Spized:

1. Select a suitable jersey

In the first step, you choose the sport for which you want the gift jersey. Depending on the sport, we have several products on offer (e.g. long-sleeved or short-sleeved jerseys). Of course, you also have the option of giving a pair of shorts or socks to match the jersey. Once you have selected a product, you will be redirected to our 3D configurator.

2. Design jersey with the intuitive 3D configurator

Here we get down to the nitty gritty! Below is a list of things you can modify on the jersey:

Determine basic design
Customise colours and patterns as desired
Add numbers and names as desired
Formulating lettering and texts
Add logos, crests or graphics

You can also find a detailed description of our ordering process here.

3. Let the team vote

One function that only very few providers offer is the voting function for teams. If the jersey is to be a gift for the coach, for example, then your teammates will certainly want to have a say in what goes on the jersey. Because if everyone contributes their best ideas, the most original jersey can be created. You can easily vote by saving different designs in your customer account and letting your teammates decide with an integrated voting system.

4. Waiting for the result

Once your team has decided on a design, you can order it with just one click and we will do our job. Within a very short time, you will have the perfect gift for athletes in your hands.

You can read about all the advantages of spized here.