Most businesses have a box of branded clothing tucked away somewhere - tees, hoodies or tote bags that seemed like a good idea at the time and now never leave the cupboard. Good merch is different. It gets worn to the gym, on the school run and down the pub, and every time it does, it puts your name in front of new people. Having just finished a merchandise range for CrossFit Grimsby, here are the five things that make branded clothing Grimsby businesses actually want to wear.
The first is that it's designed for the wearer, not just the logo.
A logo on the chest of a plain tee rarely gets anyone excited. People choose clothes that say something about them, so the best branded clothing speaks to the person wearing it - the effort they put in, the place they are from, the group they belong to. For CrossFit Grimsby, prints like "Built by Effort" and "The grind never stops" are about the members as much as the gym, which is exactly why they want to wear them. It is the difference between a uniform and a piece of kit someone pulls out of the drawer on purpose.
The second is giving it a character or a story.
A mascot or a strong idea gives a range personality and gives people something to talk about. The CrossFit Grimsby seagull - muscles, blue beanie, pipe and anchor tattoo - is a bit of fun with real local roots, nodding to the town's fishing heritage. Bespoke illustration like this is hard to copy and easy to remember, and it turns a piece of kit into something people feel part of. Local references tend to land hardest, because the people wearing them get the joke before anyone explains it.
The third is designing a range, not a one-off.
One design on one tee gets old quickly. A small family of designs - a main mark, a couple of slogan prints and a simple badge - lets you mix things up across tees, hoodies, totes, water bottles and patches while everything still feels connected. A range is also what separates the branded clothing Grimsby businesses reorder from a one-off print run nobody repeats. It gives you room to make something for a specific group, too, like the Lifting Club badge we made for CrossFit Grimsby's strength crowd, and it spreads the cost: the same seagull can go on a tee, a patch and a sticker without a new design fee each time.
The fourth is thinking about print from day one.
A design that looks great on screen can fall apart on fabric. Keeping artwork to one or two colours makes it cheaper to print and helps it work on light and dark garments alike, and checking it still reads when it is shrunk down to a sticker or a patch saves headaches later. Simple artwork also survives being scaled - a mark that works at 300mm across a back print should still hold up at 40mm on a chest embroidery or a cap. Getting this right at the design stage means fewer surprises, and fewer awkward conversations with your printer.
The fifth is that it still has to look like your brand.
Merch can be playful, but it should never feel like it belongs to someone else. The colours, type and tone need to tie back to your wider brand identity, so a tote bag on the high street and your shopfront or social feed clearly come from the same place. Get that right and the branded clothing Grimsby customers see on the street does the same job as your signage. If your brand is not pulling its weight yet, merch tends to show it - so it is often worth sorting the foundations first.
Tees, hoodies or something else?
The garment matters as much as the print. Most branded clothing Grimsby clubs and gyms order starts with hoodies, and for good reason - they get the most wear through a cold winter on the coast - though the roomier fit means artwork needs to sit higher than you would think. Heavyweight tees hold their shape and take a bold front print well.
Caps, beanies and tote bags are cheap ways to stretch a range without another full garment order. Polos and softshells are the ones to think hardest about, because they read as workwear: right for a trades team, less right for a club. Whatever you choose, order a sample in the real colour before you commit to a full run. Screen mock-ups and fabric swatches both lie.
Print or embroidery?
Screen printing is the cheapest way to put bold, flat colour on a tee or hoodie once you are ordering any quantity, and it is where most slogan prints end up. Embroidery costs more per piece and cannot hold fine detail, but it lasts longer, feels more considered and is usually the right call for polos, caps and anything a customer will see you wearing for years.
Direct-to-garment printing sits in between and suits short runs or designs with a lot of colours. A well-drawn mark holds up in all three, which is another argument for keeping it simple. When you are getting quotes for branded clothing Grimsby printers will usually ask for vector artwork, so ask to see a sample of your own design rather than their showreel - it tells you far more.
Branded clothing Grimsby businesses order usually falls into two camps: kit for the team, and kit for customers. The first needs to be comfortable enough to work in all day. The second needs to be good enough that someone would have paid for it.
None of this needs a huge budget. The branded clothing Grimsby businesses get the most out of is usually a small, well-designed range rather than a big order of tees nobody wants to wear.
If you are not sure where to start, listen to what your customers or members already talk about - the in-jokes, the local pride, the things that make your place different. That is usually where the best ideas come from.
You can see how this came together in our CrossFit Grimsby case study, from the seagull mascot to the finished tees, totes and bottles.
For gyms, clubs, teams and businesses across Grimsby and North East Lincolnshire, branded clothing is part of our graphic design work. If you are after branded clothing Grimsby customers will actually wear, get in touch for a chat.
One practical note if you are selling the clothing rather than giving it away: garments need the right fibre composition labelling under the Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations. Your printer will normally handle it, but it is worth asking before a big run.
