Personalised sweatshirts can be a great way to bring a team together, make people feel valued and get your brand noticed. Whether you’re looking to create a branded uniform for staff, offer personalised gifts to customers, or get your branding into the public eye, a personalised sweatshirt can help.

Discover how to create personalised sweatshirts and expand your brand with this guide from Adobe Express.

How to make personalised sweatshirts: A step-by-step guide.

Making personalised sweatshirts is simple with free tools from Adobe Express. All you need to do is decide what you want to say, and how you want it to look. Once you have your basic idea, you can adapt your design and add your logo using simple online tools.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Brainstorm your design ideas.

The first step is to brainstorm your design ideas. Get the creatives in your team together and create a board of ideas, including text, images and anything else you can think of. You’ll also want to do some market research and competitor analysis to see what your target demographic is most likely to respond to.

Free Adobe Express templates can help you get started if you need some inspiration. At this stage, there is no such thing as a bad idea – get everyone to fire out as many suggestions as possible before you start designing.

2. Start designing.

Once you have multiple ideas to work with, start honing them in terms of visuals. Which ideas work best in your brand’s colour palette? Which ideas will be the most cost-effective without compromising on quality? How can you combine several disparate ideas into one design without making things look too complicated?

From photo collages to image editing tools, Adobe Express is here to help you create the personalised sweatshirt design of your dreams.

3. Choose your products and supplier.

Once your designs are finalised, all you need are the raw materials to make your personalised sweatshirts. Whether that’s bulk-buying ready-made sweatshirts and adding your design yourself, or looking for a printer partner, will depend on your contacts, budget and ideas.

Adobe Express offers an all-in-one design and print service, where you can create your sweatshirts and order them – all on the same platform.

4. Market your sweatshirts.

Once your personalised sweatshirts are ready, it’s time to market them to the right people. Social media is a great resource for this. You can use the free Adobe Express social media content scheduler to get your posts out frequently and to the right audience. There are also free tools to help you create exciting social media posts – the ones that will have people clicking through in a flash.

5. Sell and send!

Once your customers are interested, all you need to do is sell and send! Be sure to have enough personalised sweatshirts in stock to meet initial demand. And also be prepared to have more made if demand proves higher than anticipated. Be realistic about delivery times, and take the opportunity to chat with new customers when they have queries. Being responsive is crucial to building brand loyalty and keeping people engaged.

10 personalised sweatshirt design ideas.

Your team knows your products and services best, so they’re a great resource for coming up with design ideas for personalised sweatshirts. However, it never hurts to have a few initial ideas for inspiration.

We’ve listed some of our favourite personalised sweatshirt design ideas for you to use as a jumping-off point.

1. Jokes and quotes.

Everyone loves to laugh. A good joke can inspire people to want to wear your clothing and make other people laugh as they go about their day. Similarly, famous or inspirational quotes can resonate with your audience or everyday life stick in the mind.

2. Personalised photos.

A personalised photo on a sweatshirt can be a real draw – whether people want images of their pets, kids, or just a beautiful scene from one of their favourite places. Offering custom sweatshirts that people can add their own photos to makes a great gift idea for holidays and birthdays.

3. Creative collages.

Sometimes there are just too many great ideas to be able to pick one. For this, a creative collage could be a good idea. If your design team is on fire, add all their ideas to a collage instead of selecting only a few. They also work well for family photo collections.

4. Funny images and memes.

Just as with jokes, everyone loves something that makes them laugh. Memes and funny images are not restricted to online use – you can add them to personalised sweatshirts too. Create memorable products that people will not only love, but will tell their friends about.

5. Beloved pets.

Those who have pets know that we often love our furry friends as much as we love our family. Memorialising those most beloved faces on personalised embroidered sweatshirts is something most pet owners will appreciate.

6. Simple patterns and shapes.

As Occam’s Razor suggests, often the simplest solution is the best. Many people are drawn to simple patterns and shapes, perhaps in bold colours that reflect your brand. This can be a great idea for a staff uniform that people will recognise and remember.

7. Your business or brand logo.

Your logo and brand are some of the best ways you can help people remember your business when looking for the products or services you sell. By adding these to personalised employee sweatshirts, or to your public products, you can help boost your brand and make those images unforgettable.

8. Something festive.

Christmas jumper day is one of the UK’s favourite festive days, when people get to wear the brightest, silliest creations in their wardrobe to work. Selling personalised Christmas sweatshirts in the run-up to the holiday season taps into that tradition. It also helps you be remembered as the brand that helped employees win the best jumper competition in their office.

9. Food pictures and puns.

“Thyme is money”, “O range you glad I’m swearing this jumper?”, “G ouda luck” – a food pun is one that everyone can get on board with. Pair these with some bright cartoon images and you’re onto a winner for personalised sweatshirt designs that people will want to buy.

10. Classic florals.

If you’re just looking for something simple that people will want in their wardrobes, a classic floral design is always a winner. Choose colours that represent your brand or hide a logo somewhere in the design.

How can Adobe Express help you design your own personalised sweatshirts?

Adobe Express has a multitude of free tools that can help you design personalised sweatshirts – whether that’s for sale, for uniforms or to give away to good customers as a bonus. You can start with a free template and then work from there, or utilise editing tools, social media support and more.

1. Make the most of free templates.

Free templates are the perfect way to get started on your personalised sweatshirt design journey. Start with a template and then get your creatives to add their own ideas.

2. Utilise image editing tools to create a hi-res design.

Whatever images you choose to add to your personalised sweatshirts, there are free online tools available to help you produce those images in high resolution. Access free online image editing tools with Adobe Express.

3. Design a website and start selling your designs.

If you’re launching a new line of personalised sweatshirts, you’ll need a web page dedicated to selling them. With Adobe tools, creating a new web page is simple. Design a professional quality web page for your new sideline in minutes with a free website builder.

4. Create eye-catching social media posts.

With the free social media post maker from Adobe Express, you can start marketing your personalised sweatshirts online in a flash. Get connected with your customers and show them what you have to offer.

5. Use AI tools to create quick designs.

With AI design tools you can start getting creative even without a designer. Let artificial intelligence inspire you, and generate stunning images without any artistic background required.

Personalise your sweatshirt designs with the AI text effect generator.

Looking to elevate your sweatshirt designs? Use the free AI text effect generator from Adobe Express to create a striking design for the front, back or sleeves of your sweatshirt. Forget simple text – the AI text effect generator offers a range of textures, colours and visuals to make the words on your design really pop.

Whether you want to add a nickname, brand slogan or favourite quote, simply type in your text and the style you want it to appear in – then the generator tool will turn your prompt into a unique design. Sign into Adobe Express to start using the tool today.

Try Adobe Express for free now

Good to know.

What software can I use to design personalised sweatshirts?

Adobe Express has multiple free software tools that can help you design your own range of personalised sweatshirts, from AI image generation to branding and logos. There is also a varied library of free templates to help get you started.

What should I put on a personalised children’s sweatshirt?

If you’re branching out into personalised children’s sweatshirts, offer customers the option to customise each order with their child’s name or favourite animal, for example. Kids love to see their name in print, and parents will find it incredibly cute.

What type of material is best for personalised sweatshirts?

100% cotton is very breathable and soft, but it can shrink in the wash – a cotton/polyester blend is often the best choice. It’s a good idea to do your research and shop around to find the best option for you and your business.

Is Adobe Express free?

Yes, our free plan offers many core features including thousands of templates, photo editing and effects, animation, and 5 GB of storage. See our pricing page for details and to compare plans.