By the Puck Drop Prints team. Updated October 2026.
High school hockey team jerseys need two matching sets, white or light for home games, dark for away, and NFHS rules require numbers at least 10 inches tall on the back and 4 inches on both sleeves. At Puck Drop Prints, sublimated jerseys are $65 each on a team order of six or more.
Nobody tells you this part when you volunteer to run the jersey order.
You think you are buying one sweater per kid. Then a referee explains at the first away game that your dark jerseys are the home set, your numbers are two inches short of legal, and the goalie's sleeve numbers are hiding under his blocker.
So here is the whole thing, in order: what the rulebook actually demands, why you are buying twice as many jerseys as you thought, what it costs, and when you need to click order so the boys are dressed for the first drop.
What do NFHS rules require on a high school hockey jersey?
NFHS ice hockey rules require back numbers at least 10 inches high in contrasting Gothic numerals, the same numbers at least 4 inches high on both sleeves, identical sock colors across the roster, and light jerseys for the home team with dark jerseys for the visitors. Manufacturer logos are capped at 2¼ square inches.
NFHS is the National Federation of State High School Associations, the body that writes the rulebook most state associations adopt for high school sports. A handful of states run USA Hockey or state-specific rules for ice hockey instead, so confirm with your association before you approve artwork, but the numbers below are the common denominator, and a jersey built to them passes almost anywhere.
Puck Drop Prints
What the NFHS rulebook demands
| Back numbers | At least 10 inches high, Gothic, contrasting color |
| Sleeve numbers | Same numbers, at least 4 inches, both sleeves |
| Home team | White or light-colored jerseys |
| Visiting team | Dark-colored jerseys |
| Socks | Identical color across every player |
| Manufacturer logo | Max 2¼ square inches |
| American flag | Max 2 x 3 inches |
Want the full uniform? Uni Kits are priced per player at 6+ players: Sublimated kit $100 (reg $120), Tackle Twill kit $134 (reg $154), Reversible kit $134 (reg $154), and the Roller kit (jersey + roller pants) $100. Pant shells are $35 and socks $20 on their own. See the pricing page, or start building yours in the jersey customizer.
Source: NFHS ice hockey uniform rules. Commemorative patches up to 4 square inches are permitted by state adoption.
The sleeve-number rule is the one that catches teams out. Plenty of vendors will sell you a beautiful jersey with a big crest, a big back number and clean shoulders, and no sleeve numbers at all, because beer league doesn't need them. High school does. Put them in the design brief on day one.
The 10-inch back number matters too. Ten inches is genuinely large; it eats most of the space between the shoulder yoke and the hem, which means the nameplate has to sit high and tight. Any decorator who has done school work knows this. Ask before you approve the proof.
Why does a high school team need two sets of jerseys?
A high school team needs two sets because the rules assign color by venue: the home team wears white or light, the visiting team wears dark. Your team plays roughly half its games on the road, so one set covers half a season. For an 18-player roster that means 36 jerseys, not 18.
The same design in a light colorway is your home set. Names and numbers are included on every jersey Puck Drop Prints makes, in both sets.
This is the single biggest budget surprise in a first-year program, and it is why a school order lands so differently than a beer league order. The beer league guys buy one sweater and wear it until it disintegrates. You are outfitting a team that has a scheduled, published, rule-governed reason to own two.
The good news is that both sets are the same design. Same crest, same nameplate font, same number font, same layout, just flipped to a light and a dark colorway. You are not designing twice. You are designing once and ordering twice, which is a much smaller job.
One more thing worth deciding early: order both sets at the same time. Same run, same fabric lot, same decorator, matching in person and not just on screen. Splitting the order across a season is how you end up with two whites that are not the same white.
What do high school hockey team jerseys cost?
For an 18-player roster, the cleanest school package is a Sublimated kit in the home colorway at $100 per player (jersey, socks and pant shell) plus a second sublimated jersey for away games at $65. That is $2,970, or $165 per player for the season. Two jersey-only sets cost $2,340 in sublimated or $3,564 in tackle twill.
Team budget
An 18-player varsity roster, home and away
| 18 Sublimated kits, home colorway (jersey, socks, pant shell) at $100 | $1,800 |
| 18 sublimated away jerseys at $65 | $1,170 |
| Custom logo design | Free |
| Names and numbers, front and back | Included |
| Worldwide shipping | Free |
| Team total | $2,970 · $165 per player |
Team order minimum is 6 jerseys. A 36-jersey school order clears it six times over. One sock color across both sets keeps you inside the NFHS identical-sock rule.
Split across a season, $165 a player is less than most programs charge in ice fees for a single month. Split across a booster club fundraiser, it is one decent raffle. The full breakdown by jersey type lives on the custom hockey jersey pricing page.
Two costs people forget. First, the goalie. Goalies need both colorways like everyone else, and a goalie-cut jersey is a different pattern, flag it when you submit the roster. Second, the kid who gets called up from JV in January. A one- or two-piece reorder is $85 per sublimated jersey, so a mid-season call-up in both colors runs $170. Order a spare of each in a mid-size and you will use it.
Which jersey type should a high school program order?
Most high school programs should order sublimated jerseys at $65. Sublimation is 220 GSM, has double-layered shoulders and elbows, ships in 4 to 5 weeks, and prints unlimited colors and gradients at no extra cost. Tackle twill at $99 buys stitched crests and embroidered logos for programs that want a traditional varsity look.
Sublimation is a printing process where dye is turned into gas and bonded into the fabric itself, so the design cannot crack, peel or fade the way a screen print does. Tackle twill is the traditional method where letters and numbers are cut from fabric and stitched onto the jersey. GSM means grams per square meter, the standard measure of how heavy a fabric is.
Tackle twill is $99 per jersey and takes 5 to 6 weeks, the stitched crest and embroidered logos are what you are paying the extra $34 for.
| Sublimated | Tackle Twill (Pro) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per jersey | $65 | $99 |
| Two jersey sets, 18 players | $2,340 | $3,564 |
| Turnaround | 4 to 5 weeks | 5 to 6 weeks |
| Fabric weight | 220 GSM | 210 GSM |
| Double-layered shoulders and elbows | Yes | Yes |
| Embroidered logos | No | Yes |
| Reorder, 3 or more pieces | $65 | $99 |
If the program replaces jerseys every three or four years, sublimation is the right answer and it is not close. If the program has a hundred-year-old crest and a booster club that would riot at a printed one, pay the $34 and get it stitched. The full comparison including roller is in the sublimated vs tackle twill breakdown.
When should a high school team order jerseys?
Order at least 9 weeks before your first game. Sublimated jerseys take 4 to 5 weeks in production after you approve the final proof, design drafts take 3 to 5 business days, and collecting sizes from a full roster reliably takes two to three weeks longer than anyone plans for. Tackle twill needs 10 weeks.
Tryouts are done, the roster is set, and nobody has sent you their size. Budget two to three weeks for that part alone.
| Weeks before first game | What has to happen |
|---|---|
| 11 to 12 | Start the inquiry, brief the design, confirm your state's number rules |
| 10 | Design drafts back in 3 to 5 business days; send the size spreadsheet to the roster |
| 7 to 9 | Chase the last four kids for sizes. There are always four |
| 6 | Approve the final proof on both colorways. The clock starts here |
| 1 to 2 | Jerseys land. Hand them out, take the team photo |
| 0 | Puck drop |
Most US high school hockey seasons open practice in November, which means the ordering window is September and October. If you are reading this in the fall, you are on time, but only just.
The size collection is the part that sinks teams, not production. A ready-made spreadsheet and a hard deadline fixes it; there is a full method in how to collect jersey sizes, names and numbers, and the measurements themselves are on the size charts page. More detail on production windows is in the turnaround time guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big do numbers have to be on a high school hockey jersey?
NFHS ice hockey rules require back numbers at least 10 inches high in Gothic numerals, in a color that contrasts with the jersey. The same numbers must also appear at least 4 inches high on both sleeves. Sleeve numbers are the requirement teams forget most often, because beer league and youth jerseys frequently skip them.
Does a high school hockey team need both home and away jerseys?
Yes. NFHS rules assign jersey color by venue: the home team wears white or light-colored jerseys and the visiting team wears dark. Because a high school schedule splits roughly evenly between home and road games, a program needs two matching sets. For an 18-player roster that is 36 jerseys in total, not 18.
How much do high school hockey team jerseys cost?
Sublimated jerseys are $65 each at Puck Drop Prints on a team order of six or more, and a Sublimated kit (jersey, socks and pant shell) is $100 per player. For an 18-player roster, a home kit plus a second sublimated away jersey totals $2,970, or $165 per player. Tackle twill jerseys are $99 each.
How long does it take to get custom high school hockey jerseys?
Sublimated jerseys take 4 to 5 weeks in production after final proof approval, and tackle twill takes 5 to 6 weeks. Design drafts come back in 3 to 5 business days before that. Allow at least 9 weeks from first inquiry to first game for sublimation, and 10 weeks for tackle twill.
Is there a minimum order for high school hockey jerseys?
The team order minimum at Puck Drop Prints is 6 jerseys. A high school program ordering two sets for a full roster clears that minimum many times over. Names, numbers, custom logo design and worldwide shipping are all included at no extra cost on a team order.
What happens if a player joins the team mid-season?
Reorders of one or two pieces are $85 each for sublimated jerseys, so a mid-season call-up needing both a home and an away jersey costs $170. Reorders of three or more pieces return to the standard $65 team price. Ordering one spare jersey in each colorway at the original run is usually cheaper.
Get your program dressed
Send the crest, the roster size and your first game date, and you will have design drafts back in 3 to 5 business days. Logo design is free with a team order and your program keeps the artwork, so next year's order is a reorder rather than a rebuild.
