Softshell, fleece or puffer jacket: which jacket should you choose for a team?

Softshell, fleece or puffer jacket: which jacket should you choose for a team?

For a team that moves around outdoors, the softshell blocks wind and drizzle without restricting movement. Fleece gives a lot of warmth for its weight but lets the wind through. The puffer jacket, a winter jacket, keeps warmth in thanks to the air trapped in its filling. All three can be embroidered with the team's logo.

The essentials before you choose:

• Wind and showers: the softshell handles wind and drizzle, not a whole day in the rain; fleece does not stop the wind; a synthetic puffer still insulates when damp, according to our jacket pages.
• Warmth: fleece gives a lot of warmth for its weight, the puffer insulates through the air in its filling, and a three-layer softshell adds a microfleece lining.
• Movement: the woven face of a softshell stretches, unlike a windbreaker's, which leaves movements free.
• At tknp.io: on the six jacket pages we checked on 29 October 2026, a softshell or a fleece embroidered on the chest costs €16.62 to €32.78 excl. VAT each for 25 items, and an embroidered puffer jacket (8 × 10 cm) €31.38 to €45.69 excl. VAT, depending on the model, as an indication.

A team jacket is worn for months, often every day of the winter. Chosen well, it becomes the jacket everyone also keeps for the weekend, and your logo goes out with it. The right choice depends less on the jacket itself than on your team: outdoors or indoors, standing still or on the move, in drizzle or in dry cold.

Softshell, fleece, puffer: the comparison in one table

Softshell, fleece and puffer jackets do not answer the same cold. This table sums up what our jacket pages, the product pages read on 29 October 2026 and, for wet fleece, Wikipedia's English article say; each row is covered below.

None of the three wins everywhere: each one answers a situation, and it is your team's situation that decides.

What a softshell does, and for which team

The softshell is the jacket for teams on the move in cool weather: it blocks the wind, lets drizzle bead off and stretches with every movement. Our custom softshell jackets page describes it as the mid-season jacket that replaced the company bomber.

There are two constructions. The three-layer model combines a stretchy woven face, a membrane and a microfleece lining: warm and windproof, it is made for outdoor work. The two-layer model drops the membrane: lighter, it breathes better, which suits intense activity. The product page of JHK's Softshell Jacket puts figures on its three layers: a waterproof rating of 3,000 mm and breathability of 3,000 g/m² per 24 hours.

Its limit fits in one sentence: a water-repellent softshell is not a rain jacket, as our softshell definition explains. For a team that is active outdoors from autumn to spring, setting up a stand, training, welcoming people in a car park, it is the jacket that follows every movement without letting the wind in.

What a fleece does, and for which team

Fleece is the jacket of light warmth: our fleece page says it gives a lot of warmth for its weight and dries quickly, and Wikipedia's French article on polar fleece adds that it lets the skin breathe. In return, it does not stop the wind, and Wikipedia's English article specifies that it loses most of its insulating power once wet.

Before the weight, look at the anti-pilling treatment: our custom fleece jackets page gives it as the criterion that decides how the fleece looks after a season. Both fleece pages in our price table mention it.

The choice between a classic fleece and a thinner microfleece is covered in our fleece and microfleece guide. For a team that works in the dry, indoors or in calm weather, or for a layer to slip under a jacket, fleece is also the least expensive of the three on the pages read.

What a puffer jacket does, and for which team

The puffer jacket is the jacket for winter cold: it insulates through the air trapped in its filling, not through the thickness of its fabric, as our custom puffer jackets page points out. On the two puffer jacket pages in our price table, Result's Soft Padded Jacket announces quick-drying padding, B&C's Reset Puffer synthetic padding, and both a water-repellent outer fabric.

The choice of filling matters. According to Wikipedia's English article on the down jacket, real down offers a better warmth-to-weight ratio than synthetic filling, which resists water better. Our puffer page draws the conclusion for a team: synthetic filling still insulates when damp, is machine washable and costs less, which makes it the default choice for a jacket that lives outdoors.

The seams that shape the compartments, the baffles, hold the filling in place, but our page notes that they create colder lines. For a team that stays outside for a long time in the cold, welcoming visitors at a winter market, a night outreach round, a fixed post at an event, it is the family to look at first, with synthetic filling.

Which jacket for your team and the moment?

The right jacket follows from three questions: is your team outdoors, is it moving, and in which season? Here are four common situations.

• Staff at an outdoor event in winter: standing for long hours, they need warmth first, so a puffer jacket; if they set up and take down the site, the softshell follows their movements better. An outdoor trade show stand has its own section in our trade show merch article.
• The club on the touchline: coaches and volunteers alternate between waiting and moving about in drizzle. The softshell blocks the wind on the pitch and follows every movement.
• The office team: for the commute and short trips outside, the softshell, which our page presents as a mid-season jacket, is worn on its own; fleece is enough when wind is not the issue.
• An association's volunteers: our inspiration for an embroidered puffer jacket for volunteers makes it the outfit for winter outreach rounds, warm and recognisable from a distance.

When one jacket is not enough, our fleece page points out that fleece can also be worn under a jacket; building a complete outfit in several layers is the subject of our custom workwear guide. And if you only want to block the wind without adding warmth, the windbreaker is another family, compared in our polyamide or polyester article.

Which decoration on a softshell, a fleece or a puffer jacket?

On the six jacket product pages read on 29 October 2026 (two softshells, two fleeces, two puffer jackets), all three families can be embroidered online; softshell printing, online, on the softshells and the puffer jackets; patches, on quote, on all of them. Each jacket still has its own placement rule.

On a softshell, embroidery goes through the membrane: our softshell page advises keeping the logo on the chest or the shoulder, a stable area, and choosing a compact logo. For a logo in several colours, softshell printing applies a printed film that holds on water-repellent fabrics, at least 2 to 4 cm away from the seams. How techniques behave on polyester is explained in our guide to printing on polyester fabric.

On a fleece, embroidery is the online technique. Our fleece page explains that a soluble film flattens the pile during embroidery, then disappears in the first wash; it recommends generous lettering and a simplified logo, with no millimetre-sized detail. Our inspiration for an embroidered pictogram on the chest shows it on the Polar Fleece Man: a simple drawing and a short name, 8 cm on the chest.

On a puffer jacket, the decoration must not pierce the filling. Our puffer page advises against embroidering a filled panel directly: the needle holes let the filling escape and create cold spots. It offers two solutions: embroider an area without filling (collar, yoke, cuff), or sew on an embroidered patch, priced on quote. For a colour logo, it recommends a transfer applied at low temperature, which respects the nylon. On a navy blue puffer, our inspiration for volunteers recommends two or three light threads on this dark background.

When a softshell or a fleece opens at the front with a zip, place the logo on the wearer's left side, clear of the zip: our inspirations place it at 8 to 10 cm wide.

How much does an embroidered softshell, fleece or puffer jacket cost?

According to the tknp.io product pages checked on 29 October 2026, an embroidered jacket (8 × 10 cm) comes to, for 25 items, €31.78 to €32.78 excl. VAT as a softshell embroidered on the chest, €16.62 to €19.09 excl. VAT as a fleece embroidered on the chest and €31.38 to €45.69 excl. VAT as a puffer jacket, depending on the model. On a puffer jacket, the embroidery goes on an area without filling or on a patch, as our puffer page advises.

Unless stated otherwise, a price in this table assumes an order placed in one go, a single model, one logo always positioned the same way, and the page's public rate, with no discount. Read on 29 October 2026, these amounts are given as an indication: excluding VAT, jacket and decoration included, one position, at standard lead time (two weeks), base colour, standard sizes, delivery charged separately. On four of the six pages, a note flags a small extra charge for a few colours and for the larger sizes.

Price excl. VAT per decorated jacket, for 10 and 25 items

On these six pages, patches are priced on quote. For a team of 25, allow €819.50 excl. VAT in embroidered Reset 3Lr Softshell, €415.50 excl. VAT in embroidered Reset Polar Fleece and €784.50 excl. VAT in embroidered Soft Padded Jacket.

A decorated run can be launched from 10 jackets of the same model, freely combining sizes and colours. To judge the size or the fabric of a jacket before the run, the FAQ of three of these pages gives a single blank jacket: €29.26 excl. VAT for the Reset 3Lr Softshell, €12.59 excl. VAT for the Reset Polar Fleece, €27.82 excl. VAT for the Soft Padded Jacket. Given to staff in December, the puffer jacket follows the timetable set out in our article on the company end-of-year gift, so it arrives in time.

Let each club member reserve their jacket and size

In a club or an association where everyone pays for their own jacket, the tknp.io Store saves you deciding for everyone, through a pre-sale. The Store is reserved for verified organisations: the Sell page describes a 7 to 21-day campaign in which you put the collection together, for example a softshell and a fleece with the same logo, and then your members reserve online.

Everyone chooses the jacket that suits them, their size, and pays for their reservation. The softshell and the fleece each have their own threshold: the jacket that reaches it is made when the campaign closes, in a single run; the one that stays below has its reservations refunded, unless another technique allows it at the same rate. The jackets arrive at the club about three weeks after the close, each in a bag with its member's name.