Leaving school can be both an exciting and intimidating time for many students. To help make the year special, it has become a tradition for students to have customised school leaver’s garments or jerseys in their final year. These jerseys help students feel connected to their school and develop a sense of class pride.
Once the school year has finished, school leaver’s garments can help students remember their school days – whether they were a fan of school or not! They can remember the friends they made, the information they learned, and the experience they gained.
Do you want to know more about leavers jumpers, what they are and how to design your own? We have everything you need to know about school leaver’s hoodies right here.
What Is A School Leavers Garment?
Have you ever seen a young adult wearing a varsity jacket with “class of XX” and many names written across it? That is a school leaver’s garment. Earlier-born millennials and gen-Xs might remember their “leavers garment” being a t-shirt that school peers wrote well-wishes on with a marker.
Today, a school leaver’s garment is typically a customised piece of memorabilia given to students in their final year. While the term “leavers” is generally used for year 12 high school students, it can also be used in other circumstances such as year 6 students graduating the end of their primary schooling.
Most high schools in Australia will have a year 12 yearbook filled with happy and fun memories throughout the students’ school years, but some schools also opt-in to design year 12 hoodies for the graduating students to wear.
In some schools, faculty go one step further by leaving high school hoodie designs entirely up to the students. Not only does this give students creative control, but it allows young adults to take on extra responsibilities and teaches them how to collaborate and work together.
Varsity Jackets or Hoodies? What Are The Options, And Why Should You Have One?
First and foremost, leaver’s hoodies set graduating students apart from others. Students can wear them proudly around town, and everyone will know they are in their school’s graduating class. It provides sentimental value to the students and value in brand awareness to the school. Consider adding logos for that extra brand recognition.
There are various options to choose from when it comes to leaver’s garments. Here are a few of the most popular garments:
- Varsity jackets
- Zip hoodies
- Two-tone hoodies
- Cotton football jerseys
- Fleece jackets
- Polar fleece hoodies
- Hoodies with a drawstring
- And more.
6 Simple Steps To Perfect Your Custom School Leavers Jerseys
1. Gather Inspiration
Get the creative juices flowing by contacting us for design ideas and examples, or show us the designs you have in mind. Collecting possible school jumper designs creates excitement amongst the students.
From here, our friendly staff will prompt you for the information we need to keep your year 12 hoodies on track.
2. Garment Needs Analysis
Invest 10 minutes of your time to complete our “Garment Needs Analysis.” This brief phone conversation ensures that we have all the information necessary to help you select a year 12 leavers garment. We want to make sure your leaver’s garment fits perfectly within your budget, timeline, and style criteria.
3. Style Consultation
Once we have established your leaver’s jumper criteria, a creative team member will conduct a structured consultation with you. This consultation should be with the decision maker/s appointed for deciding on your school’s garment type and customisation.
It is not necessary to have a firm design in mind before this meeting because our designers will have creative design ideas for year 12 jumpers that you may have yet to think of.
Optional Extra: Include Individualised Jersey names
You can also include individualised names on your school hoodies. Though we encourage creativity and individualism, we also offer advice not to get too carried away. Go with a nickname, or keep it simple with your last name.
If you pick a nickname on the spot, it probably won’t make sense when you look back at your school jumper design in a few years.
We recommend checking with school guidelines first to ensure there are no restrictions in place with using students’ names or other messages on your year 12 jersey design. Remember, students will wear these high school jerseys outside of school, which means the school’s reputation is always on the line.
4. Digital Artwork
Your allocated design professional will take the information gathered in your style consultation and bring your ideas to life. Our digital artwork also includes pricing info to ensure you always work within a budget.
Varsity 12 provides an unlimited number of free digital artwork modifications. We encourage you to be as particular as possible at this stage because this is your last chance to make changes at no expense.
5. Full Physical Printed Sample
We want to ensure that your leaver’s apparel is exactly what you ordered before we go to mass production. Provided you stay within the schedule deadlines provided by Varsity 12 throughout the decision-making process, we will always allow time for a physical sample. This is a quality assurance measure that we offer at no charge.
Year 12 Graduation Hoodies
Designing custom leaver’s hoodies should be an easy and fun process. It’s a time for students and faculty to work together to come to a compromise that works well for both the school and the students.
Are you ready to design your year 12 class jerseys? Follow our simple steps above and contact us to get your school leaver’s garment ready for your graduating class today.
