Variable Data Printing test: Custom football hoodie

2026-05-15

Recreating a football hoodie design from Facebook with Variable Data Printing.

I came across a design on Facebook for the back of a football hoodie. The player’s name runs down the middle, and half a jersey shows the player’s number. It looked like a good test for Variable Data Printing (VDP), so I recreated it.

How the design is built

The left and right sections are taken from the original design. The rest came down to three steps:

• Player name: linked to a data field and rotated 90 degrees.
• Size limit: a maximum height, so long names still fit. Strictly speaking it’s the width, because the limit is set before the name is rotated 😊.
• Player number: linked to a data field and placed on the jersey. This needed absolute positioning of elements. That was quick to add, since SVG supports it out of the box.

From webshop order to gang sheet

The next step is a quick webshop test, where customers enter the name and number they want.

Once an order is placed, a webhook in n8n takes over. It merges the name and number into the design, turns it into a high-resolution logo and lays it out on a gang sheet.

Written by: Jesper Halvorsen