One Club, One Look: How to Design a Club Kit for GAA, LGFA and Camogie

Q: What is the minimum order for custom club gear?

It varies by supplier. At GRG Sports the minimum is ten pieces, and those can be spread across sizes.

Most Irish clubs no longer field one team. They field ten. Senior men, senior ladies, camogie, hurling, and a long line of underage sides. Every one of them needs gear. Every one of them should look like it belongs to the same club.

That is harder than it sounds. Kit gets ordered team by team. A ladies team picks a navy half zip. The hurlers order a black one. Two seasons later the club has six versions of the same crest and no one can say which is right.

This guide shows you how to fix that. It is written for club secretaries, kit officers and anyone who has ever chased sizes on a WhatsApp group at eleven at night.

Why Club Kit is Changing Right Now

The GAA, the LGFA and the Camogie Association agreed to merge into one organisation. The target date is 2027. Progress has been slower than planned, and some officials doubt the date will hold. The direction of travel is clear all the same.

At national level this is about governance. At club level it shows up in something simpler. One club. One crest. One look.

Many clubs are already there in spirit. The One Club model has been part of the integration work from the start. Kit is the most visible part of it. A parent standing on a sideline in Ballaghaderreen does not read a rulebook. They read the gear.

Start With a Design System, Not Just a Design

The mistake is treating each order as a fresh project. Do the opposite. Agree a small set of rules once, then apply them to everything.

Your system needs five things:

Two core colours and one accent. No more.
One crest file at high resolution, in every colour version you need.
A set fabric spec for playing gear and for leisurewear.
A fixed sponsor position on the front, back and sleeve.
A named person who signs off every order.

That last point matters more than the rest. Most kit drift comes from too many people approving too many small changes.

Once the system exists, a new team order takes an afternoon instead of a month. Our bespoke garment service works from exactly this kind of brief.

Get the Crest Right Across Every Code

Crests break in predictable ways. They get stretched. They get rebuilt by hand when the original file goes missing. They sit at three different sizes on three different tops.

Fix it once:

Find the best version of your crest. Ask your county board if the club file is poor.
Have it redrawn as a vector file. It will then scale to any size without going soft.
Save a full-colour version, a single-colour version and a reversed version for dark fabric.
Store all of them somewhere the whole committee can reach.

Decide how the crest is applied too. Embroidery suits heavier leisurewear. Sublimation suits playing jerseys, because the design is printed into the fabric rather than sitting on top of it. Both work. Mixing them at random does not. You can compare the options on our crest and logo page.

Fit is Part of the Identity

A club looks united when the gear fits. It does not look united when half the squad is swimming in a top.

Order women's-fit garments for women's teams. Sizing down a men's cut is not the same thing, and players notice. Camogie players can now choose shorts or skorts, so ask your squad what they want before you order rather than after.

Underage needs its own attention. Children grow between the order date and the delivery date. Build that in.

The simplest fix is a fitting day. Everyone tries on samples in the clubhouse in one evening. Sizes get written down once and they are right. We run these as a free fitting service for club orders.

Plan Kits Around the Club Calendar

Kit orders fail when they are rushed. A custom order takes weeks to produce, not days. Work backwards from when you actually need the gear.

A workable club year looks like this:

August to October. Club championship. Note what is worn out and what is missing.
November to December. Agree next season's range. Confirm the design.
January to February. Place the main order. Run a sizing day.
March. Gear lands before the league starts.
May and September. Short top-up windows for new members.

Two or three ordering windows a year beat a constant trickle. You get better pricing and far less admin.

Budget For the Whole Club, Not One Team

Senior teams tend to get new gear first. Underage teams inherit whatever is left. Over time that creates two clubs inside one club.

A better approach is to set a range that every team draws from. The senior squad and the under-12s wear the same design. The order size goes up, so the unit price comes down. Our teamwear packs are built for this.

Where the money comes from is a separate question, and a big one. We cover it in detail in our guide to funding club teamwear.

Five Mistakes Worth Avoiding

Changing the design every year. It dates old gear and annoys parents who just bought it.
Approving colours from a screen. Screens lie. Ask for physical fabric swatches.
Ordering without a sizing day. Returns and reorders cost more than the evening you saved.
Losing the artwork. Store the crest file where the next committee will find it.
Forgetting the sponsor. Confirm the logo and position before the design is signed off, not after.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Do our men's and ladies teams have to wear the same design?

No rule says they must. Most clubs choose to, because it signals one club. The playing jerseys can share a design while the fit differs by team.

Q2. How long does a custom club order take?

Plan for several weeks from sign-off to delivery for made-to-order gear. Ask your supplier for a written lead time before you commit, and add a buffer.