Custom Sun Shirts With Company Logo: Sublimated or Built
Custom sun shirts with company logo come two ways: sublimated or embroidered stock performance shirts in 7 to 10 business days from proof approval, or a shirt built from the fabric up in about 45 days. Neither path has a minimum.
Decorated. A stock polyester performance shirt with your logo sublimated or embroidered. 7 to 10 business days from proof approval.
Fully custom. Fabric, cut, colors, fit, an all over print and the label are yours. About 45 days door to door. For a Monday, March 1, 2027 hand out, sign off by about Friday, January 15, 2027.
Choose the path before you choose the shirt
The hand out date picks the path more often than the budget does. Shirts needed this month means decorated. A season to plan means you can build the shirt.
Search for this today and you get shirt builders and catalog grids. Fine for a dozen shirts. Useless for outfitting a crew that works outside from March to October in Arizona and reorders in May without the color drifting. A sun shirt program is a season, not a purchase.
Field crews need a shirt that survives a truck bed and a wash every night, and we have written about apparel for crews in the field for exactly that buyer.
Golf event staff and customer facing teams are judged on how the shirt looks at hour eight. For a course crew, read our take on whether a long sleeve golf polo earns its place, over at PILLAR, before you decide between a sun shirt and a polo.
The decorated path: a stock sun shirt with your logo
Decorated means we start from a stock long sleeve performance shirt and add your logo, and the order is ready 7 to 10 business days from proof approval.
Sublimation
Sublimation dyes the design into polyester fabric. Nothing sits on top, so nothing cracks or adds weight. The tradeoff is color: the dye colors the fabric, it does not cover it, so light base colors read best. That is the practical reason most sublimation on performance fabric starts from a light shirt.
Embroidery
Embroidery is the answer for a dark sun shirt or a logo that should feel permanent. Your logo is embroidered at the left chest, the sleeve or the back of the collar. Our embroidery pricing is published: standard embroidery up to 6,000 stitches runs $6.00 per shirt at 48 to 71 pieces, decoration only, with the garment quoted separately. A 60 shirt order is 60 x $6.00 = $360, plus the $35 one time setup for a new logo, for $395 in decoration.
Sublimation, DTF and screen print are priced per order on the quote. Every decorated order gets a proof showing placement, size and thread or ink colors, and the proof is the approval step. There is no sample on this path, so read the proof like a contract.
Want a bar for what a good performance knit feels like? Handle the performance pieces in our PILLAR line.
The fully custom path: built from the fabric up
Fully custom means the shirt itself is yours: the fabric, the cut, the colors and the fit. This is fully custom apparel built with our manufacturers, and it runs about 45 days door to door, with production alone taking 30 to 35 days.
The pattern is where a program stops looking like everyone else's: an original repeat pattern becomes an all over print. We wrote up how a company pattern becomes a print, and it works the same on a sun shirt. For one homebuilder client, that meant an all over pattern of tools and hard hats in the brand colors, printed onto custom cut panels, with the company monogram embroidered before the garments were sewn.
The logo is embroidered as a sleeve hit or a chest crest, so it holds up next to the print instead of fighting it. Add a woven neck label, a printed hang tag and branded packaging, packed by size and name, so the hand out is a table and a list.
You approve a pre production sample before the run starts, and that sample becomes the standard.
Decorated or fully custom, side by side
Decorated wins on speed. Fully custom wins on ownership.
| Decision | Decorated stock sun shirt | Fully custom sun shirt |
|---|---|---|
| Lead time | 7 to 10 business days from proof approval | About 45 days door to door (production 30 to 35 days) |
| Fabric | Stock polyester performance shirt | Chosen to your spec, cut and fit included |
| Pattern | Logo or sublimated design on a stock shirt | All over print from an original repeat pattern |
| Labels and packaging | Stock labels | Woven neck label, printed hang tag, branded packaging, packed by size and name |
| Minimum | None | None |
| Best for | A crew that needs shirts this month | A season long program with its own look |
If you are still weighing it, our page on fully custom versus decorated covers the same choice across polos, hats and shirts.
A program timeline for a March 1 hand out
Work back 45 days from Monday, March 1, 2027 and fully custom sign off lands on about Friday, January 15, 2027. The arithmetic: 16 days from January 15 to January 31, plus 28 days of February, plus 1 day to March 1, is 45 days.
The catch is the calendar before that. Christmas falls on Friday, December 25 and New Year's Day on Friday, January 1, both inside the design window. Start the first call in early December. These dates are targets, not promises, and the fully custom timeline is confirmed on the first call.
- Early December
First call: pattern and fabric direction.
- Mid December to early January
Proof and pre production sample rounds. Know what to check on the pre production sample before it arrives.
- Fri Jan 15, 2027
Final sign off. Production starts.
- Production, 30 to 35 days
Made with our manufacturers to the approved sample.
- Late February
Packed by size and name, then shipped.
- Mon Mar 1, 2027
Hand out.
The decorated path is far more forgiving. A decorated order approved on Friday, January 15, 2027 finishes about Tuesday, January 26 to Friday, January 29, 2027, counting 7 to 10 weekdays.
| Step | Owner | Clock |
|---|---|---|
| First call: pattern, fabric, headcount, date | You and us | Early December |
| Logo files, brand colors, size counts | You | Before the first proof |
| Proof and pre production sample | Us, you approve | Mid December to early January |
| Final sign off | You | Fri Jan 15, 2027 |
| Production | Us, with our manufacturers | 30 to 35 days |
| Pack by size and name, ship | Us | Late February |
| Hand out | You | Mon Mar 1, 2027 |
A sun shirt is only a uniform if people choose it at six in the morning. Fabric and fit decide that, not the logo.
What goes on the spec sheet, and how reorders match
The spec sheet is the contract for the shirt: fabric, sun protection rating, colors to brand standard, pattern scale, label and packaging.
Put the fabric's tested sun protection rating in the spec and ask for it in writing. For a primer, here is what a UPF rating actually means, over at PILLAR.
Name colors to your brand standard. Set pattern scale on the sample, because a repeat that looks right on screen can read as noise across a back. The label and tag go on the spec too, and our post on woven labels and hang tags covers what to decide there.
Reorder files are kept on record, so a decorated reorder starts from the same approved art. For fully custom, the approved sample is the standard, and the second run is held to it.
Custom sun shirt questions
Can you sublimate a logo onto a dark sun shirt?
Not well. Sublimation dyes the fabric rather than covering it, so it reads best on white and light base colors. For a dark sun shirt, the logo is usually embroidered or applied with another method, and the quote recommends which.
Is there a minimum order for custom sun shirts?
No. There are no minimums on decorated sun shirts or on fully custom sun shirts.
How long do custom sun shirts take?
Decorated stock sun shirts, sublimated or embroidered, take 7 to 10 business days from proof approval. Fully custom sun shirts built from the fabric up take about 45 days door to door, with production alone at 30 to 35 days, and that timeline is confirmed on the first call.
Can each person's shirt be packed by name?
Yes. Fully custom programs can be packed by size and name with name level kitting, so each bag is ready to hand to the person on the label.
What goes on the spec sheet for a sun shirt program?
The fabric, its tested sun protection rating in writing, the colors to your brand standard, the pattern scale, the neck label and hang tag, and the packaging.
Can we reorder next season and match the first run?
Yes. Reorder files are kept on record, so a decorated reorder starts from the same approved art. For fully custom, the approved pre production sample is the standard the reorder is held to.
Build the shirt your crew reaches for in July.
Bring the hand out date and the headcount, and we will tell you which path fits the calendar.
