Logo placement and size on a t-shirt: chest, back, sleeve

Logo placement and size on a t-shirt: chest, back, sleeve

On a custom t-shirt, the logo is most often placed on the left chest, 6 to 8 cm wide, or large on the back, 20 to 28 cm wide. The centre chest, the sleeve and the back of the neck complete the options: well chosen, they make a team t-shirt look like a brand garment.

The essentials in 4 points:

• The reference sizes: 6 to 8 cm wide on the left chest, 20 to 28 cm on the back, 6 to 8 cm on the sleeve.
• The garment has its say: a kangaroo pocket blocks the centre of a hoodie, a button placket that of a polo shirt.
• Each placement is a separately billed marking. Our advice: two placements at most, in the same technique.
• In embroidery, DTF and DTG, the price follows the size of the marking; in screen printing, it mostly follows the number of colours.

A logo that's too big, placed dead centre, a little too low: that's the placement that turns a nice merch t-shirt into an event-day-only top, the one you put on once and never wear again. The same logo, at the right size and in the right place, makes a garment people wear at weekends.

The good news is that these choices follow simple guidelines. Here are the possible placements, the sizes taken from the product pages and collections in our catalogue, and what each garment changes.

The 5 possible placements on a t-shirt

A logo can be placed in five spots on a t-shirt: on the left chest, centre chest, on the back, on the sleeve or under the back of the neck. Each one serves a purpose, and each one is a marking in its own right, counted and billed separately.

The sizes in this table come from our guide to preparing your logo and the real formats of our Inspirations collections, checked on 1 October 2026.

Left chest: the reference size

The left-chest logo sits on the left of the chest for the person wearing the t-shirt (so on the right when you face them), 6 to 8 cm wide. It's the most worn placement, because it's discreet and works everywhere, from the office to the weekend.

The exact format depends on the technique, and some collections deliberately step outside that range:

• Embroidered on a t-shirt or a polo shirt, the standard is 60 × 40 mm: a dense logo that survives the wash.
• Embroidered on a sweatshirt, the thicker fleece takes 70 × 50 mm without puckering.
• As micro-embroidery, our Tiny Mark collection goes below the range, to 30 × 30 mm: a tiny mark, noticed up close rather than from afar.
• As a DTF transfer, the Coordinates collection places an 80 × 40 mm design, wide enough for fine numbers.

The smaller the logo, the simpler it has to be. Below 5 mm high, printed text becomes unreadable (6 mm in embroidery): if your full logo is long, keep only its symbol for the chest. These readability thresholds, technique by technique, are detailed in the same preparation guide.

On the back: up to 28 cm wide

A logo on the back usually measures between 20 and 28 cm wide. Beyond that, you go past the technical ceiling for the marking, and this limit doesn't move, whether the t-shirt is fitted or very loose, as our guide to cuts explains.

Our Big Back collection shows the maximum format: a 280 × 300 mm design in one-colour screen printing, on an oversized t-shirt, so the back becomes a poster that can be seen from afar. In DTF and DTG, formats range from A6, for a chest logo, to A3, for a large back.

The upper back, just below the collar, takes a more modest format: a name, a city, a small logo. It's the placement that pairs well with a chest logo, for a set that's discreet at the front and readable at the back.

Centre chest, sleeve, back of the neck: the supporting placements

The centre chest carries lettering: on our collections, allow around 20 cm wide. The Local Club collection places a name and a postcode there at 200 × 100 mm in screen printing, and Heritage Arc an embroidered arc of 200 × 80 mm, in the spirit of college sweatshirts.

The sleeve takes a 6 to 8 cm marking: a symbol, a date, a reminder of the main logo. The back of the neck, under the collar, suits a small signature, like a label brought out of the garment.

These placements don't replace the chest or the back: they complement them. Used alone, they surprise; added to everything else, they clutter.

Hoodie, polo shirt, beanie: where to put the logo depending on the garment

The logo placement also depends on the garment: on a t-shirt, every placement is possible, but the hoodie, the polo shirt and the beanie have their constraints.

• The hoodie: the kangaroo pocket and the drawstrings limit the centre chest. Embroider on the left chest, the sleeve or the upper back instead. On a crewneck sweatshirt, by contrast, the whole front is free.
• The polo shirt: the button placket rules out any centre marking. The standard is a 60 × 40 mm chest embroidery; beyond 8 cm wide, move to the back instead. The other possible placements are both sleeves, the back of the neck under the collar and the upper back.
• The beanie: the logo is embroidered on the front, as on our Monogram collection, raised at 50 × 50 mm.

One last trap concerns colour rather than placement: on a dark garment, a dark logo disappears. Plan a light version of your logo, or play on contrast. Our article on logo types also shows why a logo benefits from two variants: a lighter one for the front, the complete one for the back.

How much does an extra placement cost?

Each placement is billed as a separate marking: a logo on the chest and a design on the back are two markings on the same order. The price shown on our product pages includes the garment and one placement; each additional placement is added to it.

That extra depends on the technique and the size. Here are our marking-only prices, excluding VAT, for 50 items, rounded and given as an indication (checked on 1 October 2026, they may change):

The rule to remember: in embroidery, the price follows the embroidered area; in DTF and DTG, it follows the format; in screen printing, it mostly follows the number of colours and the quantity, as our preparation guide details. For 50 items, a large design therefore costs about €14.50 as a 25 × 20 cm embroidery, against about €2.50 in one-colour screen printing.

Our advice, whatever the budget: two placements at most, in the same technique. Beyond that, the garment loses readability; and two different techniques on the same garment don't age at the same pace.

The 4 most common placement mistakes

1. A logo too big on the chest: beyond 8 cm wide, it leaves the chest and swallows the front. Choose: small on the chest, or large in the centre.
2. A large design in the centre of a hoodie: the kangaroo pocket cuts it in two. Keep the large format for the back.
3. Text too small: below 5 mm high, it becomes a smudge. Enlarge it or remove it from the chest version.
4. Three or four markings on one garment: each placement costs money, and the whole loses its elegance.

Set the placement and see the price straight away

In the online designer, you place the logo on the garment, set its placement, size and technique, and the preview and the price follow with each adjustment. The size shown is the real size of the marking; the full walkthrough, from logo to order, is in our guide to customising a t-shirt.

To start from a safe base, our Inspirations collections already have their technique, placement and format set: Tiny Mark for the discreet chest logo, Big Back for the large back, Tone on Tone for black-on-black embroidery. You drop your logo in, and the placement is already right.

And if you're still unsure, an old-school test nicely complements the preview: print your logo at real size on a sheet of paper, cut it out, place it on a t-shirt you're wearing and look in a mirror. In a few seconds, you'll know whether 6 cm is enough or whether your logo is asking for the back.

Key takeaways

• On the left chest, allow 6 to 8 cm wide; on the back, 20 to 28 cm; on the sleeve, 6 to 8 cm.
• The hoodie, the polo shirt and the beanie have their own constraints: the pocket, the button placket, the front.
• Each placement is paid for separately: two at most, in the same technique, and check the real size in the designer before ordering.