Year 12 leavers hoodies — the complete guide
Leavers hoodies are one of the things we print most. Group the order, lock the design, sort sizes — we handle the rest. Here's the playbook for a smooth Year 12 run.
Why most schools come to us
Year 12 leavers hoodies are a rite of passage. They're also a logistical headache for whoever ends up coordinating — usually one student rep or one teacher.
We've built the order flow around making that easier. Group ordering, locked design once it's approved, automatic size sorting, and one delivery for the whole cohort. No back-and-forth with 80 individual checkouts.
There's no minimum order, so smaller cohorts (specialist streams, year levels under 50) get the same pricing structure as a 200-person Year 12 group.
Step 1 — settle the design first
Before any garments are ordered, lock in the design. Front logo or chest crest, back layout with the year and school name, names or nicknames on the back if you're going that route.
Two ways to build it:
Interactive Design Studio is the right path for most leavers groups. You can build the layout in the browser — add school name, year, crest, choose colours, position everything. The Studio outputs a print-ready file automatically. Useful when the design is being decided by committee — easy to adjust, easy to preview.
Easy Upload suits groups where the school art department or a student designer has already built the artwork in software like Illustrator. Drop the file in and we'll proof it back.
Don't promise the design to the cohort until you've seen the proof. Once it's approved, the design is locked for the order.
Step 2 — choose the garment
Most leavers groups go with a heavyweight hoodie. AS Colour, Supply, and a handful of other premium brands are popular for this.
Things to factor in:
- Fit (oversized fits are popular, but slim-fit works too)
- Weight (heavier hoodies feel more premium, warmer)
- Colour (school colour, or a neutral base like black or stone)
- Inside print options (some groups print signatures or year lists inside)
If a few students want a different style — a crewneck instead of a hoodie, for example — that's fine, but each style code tiers separately. To keep maximum bulk discount, try to land on a single style code for the cohort. The print can vary per garment (each student's name on the back is no problem) — it's the style code that needs to be consistent.
Step 3 — collect sizes
Run a Google Form or a spreadsheet through the cohort. Get full name, garment size, and any nickname or surname they want on the back.
Common size mix for a Year 12 cohort:
- A few XS and S
- Solid block of M and L
- A handful of XL and 2XL
- One or two 3XL/4XL — check the garment's available size range
Send through the size list with the order. We sort, label and pack so you can hand out the right hoodie to the right student.
Step 4 — names on the back
Most leavers hoodies have nicknames on the back. This is a personalisation add-on per piece — your front design counts as the bulk print, and the back name adds a small fee per garment.
Keep the name list locked once it's submitted. Reprints because someone changed their mind are an extra cost and an extra turnaround cycle.
If a name needs to be a specific font or has accents (Maori, Greek, Vietnamese), tell us upfront. We'll match it.
Step 5 — timing
For a normal-size cohort (50–150 hoodies), allow 2 to 3 weeks from order to delivery. That includes the proof cycle, the print run, and the shipping.
For end-of-year orders, place the order by mid-October at the latest. November gets congested — every Year 12 cohort in the country is ordering at the same time, and we run honest turnaround on a first-in basis.
Lightning Lane is not designed for cohort orders — it's a single-piece rush service. Don't plan on rushing a cohort order at the end.
Pricing notes
Cohort orders qualify for our bulk discount tiers automatically. The bigger the group, the cheaper per hoodie.
If you've got a written quote from another printer for the same garment, same design, same method, send it through with your enquiry — under our Price Beat Guarantee we'll do our best to beat it on bulk orders (discretionary, case by case).
Shipping is free on orders over $150, and almost every cohort order clears that easily. Standard shipping is $12.95 for smaller orders.
What we don't do
We don't embroider. If you want the school crest stitched onto the chest, you'll need an embroiderer — we only print.
We don't run a design service. The Design Studio handles most design needs in-house, but if you want fully custom illustration, that needs an external designer.