Your club has a sponsor, and the design brief lands with the kit supplier. What happens next decides whether the sponsor renews next year.
Grassroots football clubs make the same five mistakes on kit design year after year and each one costs sponsor visibility, sponsor satisfaction, and sponsor renewal. The good news: every mistake is preventable if you know what to look for before the kit goes into production. If you are still working out the sponsorship deal itself before you get to design, our grassroots football sponsorship guide covers that groundwork first.
Here are the five mistakes and how to avoid them.
Mistake 1: sponsor logo too small
Sponsor logos on grassroots kit are often designed to fit around club crests, numbers, and manufacturer marks. The result is a logo the size of a matchbox – nobody at the ground sees, photos on social media don’t pick it up and the sponsor gets no visible return.
The fix is a sponsor logo goes across the front of the shirt at a size proportionate to the chest area. Minimum height for readability at a distance of ten metres is 6cm. Anything smaller reads as decorative rather than commercial.
Mistake 2: Christmas tree effect
Some clubs try to fit multiple sponsors on one shirt – front, back, sleeve, shorts, sock top. The result looks like a Christmas tree with logos, and no single sponsor stands out.
Instead, having just one primary sponsor on the front is the solution. A single secondary sponsor on the back if the deal is worth over £400. Sleeves reserved for the manufacturer and one training kit sponsor. Shorts and socks stay clean.
Fewer sponsors, larger logos, higher perceived value. Sponsors renew when their logo dominates and they receive the visibility they require. Sponsors leave when their logo competes with five others.
Mistake 3: colour clashes
A sponsor's brand colour can look great on their van but it may not fit with your club colours on a football shirt. Red logos on red shirts will disappear and white logos on light blue wash out under floodlights.
Therefore, you must test the sponsor logo against your shirt colour in three lighting conditions: daylight, floodlights, and phone camera video. If the logo does not read clearly in all three, adjust the colour version used on the shirt. Most sponsors have logo variants (colour, monochrome, reversed), already approved for use, which can be used if the stock logo doesn’t look right.
Mistake 4: no photography or streaming consideration
Match-day photos and video are how most sponsor visibility happens, so the sponsor logo needs to read on a phone photo taken from the touchline and on a live stream of the match.
Front-of-shirt logos read well in wide match action, but sleeve logos disappear the moment a player raises an arm and shorts logos rarely show in the frame at all.
Therefore, prioritise front-of-shirt placement for the primary sponsor. Additionally, reserve back-of-shirt for the secondary sponsor, since that logo shows in celebrations and team huddles. Skip sleeve and short logos for grassroots levels, where their visibility rarely justifies the cost.
Mistake 5: no back-of-shirt space for secondary sponsors
Some clubs design kit with player numbers filling the entire back panel. When a second sponsor comes along mid-season, there is no space for their logo and the club either turns down the money or crams the logo into an unattractive corner.
To solve this issue, design player numbers at 25 to 28cm height, not 35cm and keep a clean strip above the number reserved for a secondary sponsor logo. Empty for the first season is fine – available in year two is better than never available at all.
How My Club Group handles design
Kit Funder arrangements come with kit design managed by My Club Group. Every sponsor logo is proofed at production size against the shirt colour in three lighting conditions. Design decisions follow the sponsor visibility rules above by default, meaning your club avoids these five grassroots football kit design mistakes without needing to police them yourself.
The design proof goes to both club and sponsor for approval before production, with a turnaround of around five working days from kit design brief to approved proof. If you are at the step before this process, our guide on what to include in a grassroots football sponsorship agreement can help.
The commercial argument for good kit design
Sponsor renewal rates correlate directly with sponsor visibility. Sponsors who see their logo clearly on match photos, social media, and local press coverage renew year after year. Sponsors who cannot find their logo in the kit design tend not to.
Good kit design is not a vanity project, instead it is the difference between a one-season sponsor and a five-season sponsor. Get the design right and you rarely need to run the sponsorship search again.
Your Kit, Funded
Register your team free at kitfunder.ai/teams. The form takes under five minutes.
FAQ (5 questions)
Q: How big should the sponsor logo be on a grassroots football kit design?
A: Minimum height for readability at ten metres is 6cm. Front-of-shirt sponsor logos should span the chest area proportionately. Sponsor logos smaller than 6cm read as decorative rather than commercial.
Q: How many sponsors should a grassroots football shirt have?
A: One primary front-of-shirt sponsor. Optionally one secondary back-of-shirt sponsor for higher-value deals. Skip sleeve and short logos at grassroots level, where their visibility rarely justifies the cost.
Q: What colour should a sponsor logo be on a shirt?
A: Whichever colour variant of the sponsor's logo reads best against the shirt background in daylight, floodlights, and phone camera video. Test all three conditions before production.
Q: Should the sponsor approve the kit design?
A: Yes. Both club and sponsor should approve the design mockup before production. Sponsors reject designs where their logo is undersized, mispositioned, or off-brand. Approval by both sides protects the renewal conversation.
Q: Does Kit Funder handle kit design for grassroots sponsors?
A: Yes. Every Kit Funder arrangement includes kit design managed by My Club Group. Sponsor logos are proofed at production size against the shirt colour in three lighting conditions. Design proof goes to both club and sponsor for approval before production.
