How Custom Name & Number Shirts Work (and What to Put on One)

Personalized gifts usually come with a catch. You email a shop, describe what you want, wait for a proof, send a note back, wait again, and hope the finished thing matches the picture in your head. It works, but it is slow, and the not-knowing is the stressful part.

We built our custom shirts to skip all of that. You type the name, and the preview on screen updates as you type, so what you see is exactly what gets printed. No back-and-forth, no guessing. Here is how it works and everything you can put on one.

How it works

For the typed designs, it is three steps and about two minutes:

1. Pick a design and type your text. A name, a number, a town, whatever the design takes.
2. Watch the live preview. The shirt on screen updates instantly, so you can see the spacing and the look before you commit.
3. Order, and we print it. Once you buy, the artwork renders at full print resolution and goes straight to our Canadian fulfilment partner, made to order.

Because the preview is the proof, there is no email thread and no waiting to approve a mockup. The one exception is the custom pet portrait, which is hand-drawn from a photo and so works differently: you upload the picture, a designer illustrates it, and you approve a proof before it prints.

What you can put on a shirt

There are six ways to make a shirt personal, each built for a different kind of gift:

• A pet's name under a sketch is the Custom Dog Name Tee ($28.99), a running dog sketch above your dog's name, exactly as you type it.
• A name and number, jersey-style is the Custom Hockey Name & Number Tee ($28.99), which reads like a real sweater, with the name across the back and the number below.
• A town and a founding year is the Custom City Tee ($28.99), your hometown set in a vintage collegiate crest with a maple leaf and the year you choose.
• Your kids' names is the Mama Bear Tee ($28.99), a mama bear and cubs with the kids' names underneath, the keepsake version of a mom gift.
• A name in flowing script is the Not Spoiled Tee ($28.99), pairing the "not spoiled, my husband just loves me" line with her name in cursive, and it also comes as a long sleeve ($43.99) and a hoodie ($43.99).
• A photo of your pet is the Custom Pet Portrait ($39.99), the hand-illustrated one, turning a photo of your dog or cat into original art on a tee.

The one rule: check the spelling

Because every personalized shirt is made to order just for you, the text you type is the text that prints. That is the whole appeal, and also the one thing to slow down on. Read the name twice before you order, since a typo cannot be reprinted for free after the fact. A short entry also sits best in most of these layouts, so a single name or word looks cleaner than a full sentence. The live preview is there to catch exactly this, so use it.

What it costs, and how fast it arrives

Here is the part people expect to get punished on and do not: personalized shirts cost the same as the equivalent non-custom item. There is no personalization surcharge. A custom tee is $28.99, the same as a regular graphic tee, and the Not Spoiled hoodie and long sleeve sit at the normal $43.99. The pet portrait is $39.99 because it is hand-drawn.

Everything prints and ships inside Canada, at a flat $9.99 with free shipping over $120 CAD, and no customs at the border. Because each one is made for a single person, give a gift a few business days of runway, and a little more for the pet portrait's proof step. Order the week before the occasion, not the night before.

Which one to give

Each design has a moment it is made for:

• Custom Dog Name for the new-puppy household or the dog person who has everything else.
• Custom Hockey Name & Number for the beer-leaguer, or a whole team with matching names and numbers.
• Custom City for the person who is proud of where they are from, or homesick for it.
• Mama Bear for Mother's Day, from the kids whose names are on it.
• Not Spoiled for a wife, girlfriend or bride-to-be, for Valentine's, an anniversary, or just because.
• Custom Pet Portrait when you want the gift nobody else will think of.

Start personalizing

Everything lives on the Personalize It hub, where you can pick a design, type your text, and see the live preview before you order. Pick the one that fits the person, get the spelling right, and you have a gift made for exactly one human.

Related reading

• Custom Pet Portrait Shirts in Canada: A Gift Guide
• Funny Mom Shirts: A Gift Guide for Every Kind of Mom
• Funny Hockey Gifts for the Beer-Leaguer