Basketball Uniforms: Custom vs. Non Custom

Managing a team can often feel like a long process of asking yourself the following questions, over and over again:

Can you afford it? Is it worth the expense? Will it pay off?

So the question of custom versus non-custom basketball uniforms is certainly something to consider. Do you spend the money and get those custom uniforms that you've been eying, or do you settle for some ready-made, pre-numbered t-shirts for now? Well, let's weigh the pros and cons of each option:

Ready-Made Uniforms

Price

Pricing is the most obvious advantage to buying ready-made uniforms for your team. It's not just that they tend to cost less, it's that you have more buying options. You can seize on special deals, going out of business sales, overstock, you name it. Since you're not being picky, you can grab any set of t-shirts that have sequential numbers on them and you have yourself some team uniforms.

Timeliness

You can grab a set of ready-made uniforms and be ready to play right now. When it comes to custom uniforms, you might be waiting around days, even weeks to see them all delivered. In the meantime, you're either playing without uniforms or sitting games out.

Custom Uniforms

Team Identity

The most important thing when it comes to custom basketball uniforms is team identity. Nothing really instills team spirit like custom made uniforms that let your athletes know that they belong to the club, that they're one of the gang. This is why most serious sports teams will eventually move up to custom uniforms even if they started out in matching t-shirts.

It's Not as Expensive as You Might Think

There are all sorts of special deals that you can get on custom uniforms. Whenever you're buying in bulk, you can bet that somebody is willing to get you what you want at a reasonable price.

Custom Uniforms, Custom Quality

Simply put, being able to pick the materials and stitching that go into your uniforms will go a long way towards keeping those uniforms in one piece, which ultimately saves you a lot of money on replacing cheaper uniforms time and again.

The bottom line is that not every team has the money for custom uniforms. School sports departments are sometimes underfunded, youth teams often scrape funds together from donations. If you have the option, though, the pros do tend to outweigh the cons.