Jersey Gift Guide: How to Choose a Shirt They Will Actually Wear

The one rule that decides everything: do not guess the size

A jersey gift fails for one of two reasons: the wrong size, or a print that cannot be fixed. Everything else — the club, the colour, the season — is recoverable.

If you can find out their chest measurement, that is the whole answer, because every size chart we publish is built on it. If you cannot, use the height bands in our jersey sizing guide to get a range and take the larger size within it. A shirt that hangs slightly loose gets worn; one that pulls across the chest goes to the back of the wardrobe.

• Christmas cut-off — 5 December
• Handling — 1–3 business days before dispatch
• Delivery — 7–15 days after dispatch
• Printed shirts — Add a few days, and cannot be exchanged
• Free shipping — Worldwide over $49.9
• US gift exemption — Duty-free up to $100 per recipient

Safe gifts, risky gifts

Some shirts make better presents than others, and the difference is almost always whether the shirt can go out of date or out of size.

Why a printed shirt is a hard gift to get right

Printed shirts are made to order. That has two consequences for a gift: they take longer to arrive, and they cannot be exchanged for a different size. So a personalised shirt is only a good present if you are certain of the size and certain of the spelling.

If you want the personal touch without the risk, buy the blank shirt and let them add the print later — or check the number first. Our numbers guide explains which numbers are legal in which league and season, which matters on a throwback shirt.

The Christmas calendar, worked backwards

Two clocks run at once: 1 to 3 business days of handling, then 7 to 15 days in transit. Printing adds a few days before the parcel leaves us. Work backwards from the date you want the gift in hand, not from the date you want to order.

Our published Christmas cut-off is 5 December, and that assumes a shirt that is already printed or does not need printing at all. If you are ordering several shirts for different people, note that the EU duty charge is assessed per product category rather than per item — so one parcel with two categories can cost less than two parcels with one each.

Gifts that cross a border

The US still exempts genuine gifts valued at $100 or less per recipient, one of the few low-value exemptions to survive the end of the $800 de minimis rule. Everywhere else, duty is set by the destination country’s customs authority, and the EU has charged a flat €3 per product category on orders of €150 or less since 1 July 2026.

Our shipping and customs guide sets out the full picture, including who is asked to pay the charge on delivery.

What to write on the order

Put the recipient’s address in the delivery field, and keep your own as the billing address. If the shirt is going straight to them, the parcel arrives in our packaging, so there is nothing to wrap and nothing that gives the price away.

And if the fit turns out to be wrong: unworn, unprinted shirts can be returned within 30 days. That window is the reason a blank shirt is the safer surprise — it leaves room to fix a guess.

One last suggestion, from the orders that come back for a second shirt: goalkeeper and training shirts make unusually good gifts. Almost everyone already owns a home shirt; very few own the one their position actually wears.

Timings reviewed 22 September 2026. Handling and transit windows come from our own published shipping policy, and the customs thresholds quoted reflect the position as at the same date.