At Banana Moon, we pride ourselves on offering an unparalleled range of unique processes and services that elevate your custom clothing and merchandise to the next level. Our expertise and creativity allow us to bring your vision to life with precision and style.
Whether you're starting a new clothing line, planning merch for your brand, or just unsure how your logo will look on fabric, we’re here to help. Our creative support team offers help at every stage, from artwork prep to garment mockups, ensuring your final product looks just as good in real life as it does in your head.
Established in 1993, we're a family company that has grown from a lifestyle craft business to an agile, responsible and visionary personalised clothing supplier operating from a 10,000 sq. ft purpose-built facility in Yorkshire, UK.
We are so pleased to announce that Banana Moon has been B-Corp certified! This certification acknowledges our continued commitment to people and our planet and we feel extremely happy and proud to achieve B-Corp certification after years of hard work.
Leavers hoodies are a staple of UK culture. They're the perfect parting gift as your students take their next big step in life, and a memento they'll keep forever. That means schools feel a fair bit of pressure to get it right.
At Banana Moon, we've been making high-quality leavers’ hoodies since the ‘90s, and we've learnt a few things over the years. So, here are our tips for creating a leavers’ hoodie your pupils will love while reducing stress for the grown-ups, too.
Leaving school is an emotional, significant time in a young person’s life. Having a keepsake, such as a leavers’ hoodie, is a wonderful reminder of all the happy memories from their school days. It’s also an incredible way to create a sense of belonging for all students in the class.
Hoodies are the most common choice of leavers' merch because they’re versatile, cost-effective and popular among students. However, if you want to create another wearable memento for your students, see our ‘Beyond the Hoodie’ leavers’ merch ideas.
Creating a hoodie that the whole class will love might be a challenge, but with our guidance, it’s one you can face head-on!
Your leavers’ hoodie needs to be comfy enough that your students love wearing it and durable enough to be a keepsake that lasts through the years.
Cotton and polyester blends are a perfect best-of-both-worlds solution, as cotton offers softness and breathability while the addition of polyester strengthens the material so your hoodie doesn’t stretch or lose shape from frequent wear and washing. If you’re an eco-conscious school looking to make your leavers’ hoodies as sustainable as possible, you can explore organic cotton and recycled polyester blends.
Another option is ring-spun cotton. This spinning method makes cotton fibres both softer and stronger, combining comfort and durability for the perfect leavers’ hoodie.
Colour is a big consideration when it comes to leavers’ hoodies. And with Banana Moon, you have plenty of options, as some of our hoodies are available in more than 100 colourways.
One idea that can be quite meaningful is to create a leavers’ hoodie in your school colours, strengthening the hoodie’s connection to school day memories. Our Pantone colour-matching service means we can replicate your school colours exactly, even if you can't find your exact shade in our current collection.
For a leavers’ hoodie that goes with anything, a black hoodie with white print can be sharp and stylish. However, if you want students to be able to write personal messages on each other’s hoodies in pen (as tends to happen on those last few days!), lighter colours are preferred.
It’s also common for schools to offer their leavers’ hoodies in multiple colours. This allows each hoodie to feel more personal to each student, as they can express their individuality by choosing the shade they like most. Offering 3-5 colourways is a fantastic way to give students a choice without overcomplicating matters on your end.
When it comes to leavers’ hoodies, the most iconic design is the ‘names in a number’ back print. A good ‘names in a number’ design should ensure students’ names are equally sized, evenly spaced and easy to read. At Banana Moon, we have a range of ‘names in a number’ templates for you to choose from. All we need is a list of your students’ names to personalise the design.
Other personalisations you could add include your school’s logo, or each individual child’s name or nickname on the chest. Or why not create a bespoke print that’s completely unique to your school? Our creative support service can help you and your students turn your design ideas into a reality.
For large classes and school year groups, we recommend screen printing your design. This is because screen printing is able to repeat designs at high speed and efficiency, ideal for creating lots of hoodies with the same print.
To add individual customisations, such as names or nicknames on the breast pocket, however, we suggest small-format embroidery or DTF printing, as these have a lower setup time for one-time-only designs.
One option is to mass-produce your leaver’s hoodies by screen-printing your names in a number design, then further customise them with individual names and numbers on an order-by-order basis.
Learn more about our personalisation methods through our printing and embroidery pages. Or, to create a leavers’ hoodie that’s extra special, explore our next-level customisations.
The general rule with clothing customisation is ‘the more you buy, the cheaper it gets’. This is thanks to the efficiency of repeating the same design, resulting in lower per-item costs for larger bulk orders.
Including individual customisations, such as names and nicknames, therefore increases the cost per item. To lower the cost of individual customisations, we recommend opting for small-format embroidery, Direct-to-Film printing, or Direct-to-Garment printing, as these methods are cheaper for smaller volume orders.
Another factor affecting price is the number of colours used in your design. The more colours your leavers’ hoodie uses, the more it will cost, as it requires more inks and takes longer to set up. However, the traditional student names within the year design is usually done as a 1 colour print.
To learn more about the pricing of our leavers’ hoodies and other custom clothes, see our pricing guide.
Ordering leavers’ hoodies is simple with Banana Moon. Simply choose the hoodie you like the look of, then pick the colour you’d like. After that, you can choose where you want your personalisation to be placed and submit your design to us.
Our guide ‘How to Order Custom Clothes Online with Banana Moon’ explains all of these steps in further detail. And, if you get stuck, you can give us a call or email, and we’ll be happy to help.
One easy way to distribute leavers’ hoodies to the whole year group is through setting up a fulfilment store with us.
Our fulfilment service means that we at Banana Moon can handle inventory storage, order processing, packing and shipping of your leavers’ hoodies for you. We’ll also set up an online store with your chosen branding, where parents can order their child’s leavers’ hoodie directly. The best part is our core fulfilment offering is actually free to schools!
Learn more about our fulfilment offering and see if it’s right for you by reading our fulfilment store guide.
Ready to create a leavers’ hoodie they’ll treasure forever? Explore our hoodies for personalisation today.
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Unbranded pouches offer a refined look and are easily recyclable at home. Perfect for a sustainable, customer-friendly solution.
Tissue-wrapped for a thoughtful touch. Ideal for personal gifting or presenting to individual team members.
