What is a line sheet, and how to make one for teamwear

01What a line sheet is

A line sheet is a sales document, not a marketing one. Each style gets a clear image or flat sketch and the facts a buyer needs to order it: style code, name, colors, sizes, fabric, wholesale price and ordering terms. Buyers use it to build an order, so it has to be accurate, consistent and easy to scan.

In teamwear, the buyer is usually a team dealer, a decorator, a club shop or a school supplier's purchasing desk. They are not browsing for inspiration; they are matching your range against a roster, a budget and a season start. A good line sheet answers their questions before they ask.

02What a line sheet contains

The exact layout varies, but these fields appear on almost every apparel line sheet. Teamwear adds the last four.

• Brand name, season or collection name and the date of the sheet.
• A front image or flat sketch per style, plus back view where it matters.
• Style code and style name.
• Available colorways, with color names or swatches.
• Size range, including youth, women's and extended sizes where offered.
• Fabric composition and weight, for example 100% polyester interlock, 150 GSM.
• Wholesale price per tier, and suggested retail price if you set one.
• Order terms: minimum per style, order deadline and expected ship window.
• Decoration options for each style: sublimation, screen print, embroidery, twill or transfers.
• Whether names and numbers can be added per piece.
• Size chart reference or fit notes.
• Contact details for orders and the next step to place one.

03Line sheet vs lookbook

A lookbook sells the idea; a line sheet sells the order. A lookbook shows styled photos, athletes or models, and a mood for the season. It may carry no prices at all. A line sheet strips that away and puts every style on a grid with the facts.

Most brands use both. The lookbook opens the conversation and the line sheet closes it. For a small teamwear range, a single line sheet with good product photos often does both jobs well enough, especially for trade buyers who care more about fabric, sizes and price than about styling.

A catalog sits between them. It usually covers the full range with more description per style and may be aimed at the end customer rather than the trade buyer.

04How brands and distributors use a line sheet

Private label brands

A new brand sends its line sheet to retailers and dealers ahead of a season, often before stock exists. Orders come back against the sheet, and the brand places its production order to match. Building the line sheet early forces useful decisions: which styles are core, which colors earn a slot and what the wholesale price must be to leave margin for the reseller. Our guide on how to start a sportswear brand covers the decisions behind it.

Distributors and team dealers

A dealer uses a line sheet to show a coach or club buyer the range they can supply, under the dealer's own name. The dealer adds their own prices and decoration options and takes the order. Because our garments are made to order from 12 pieces per style, the sheet can show the full range without the dealer holding any stock.

Decorators and print shops

A decorator uses a line sheet to show which blank garments are available for their decoration. Fabric content matters most here, because it decides whether the shop can screen print, press transfers or sublimate a given style.

05Line sheet template for teamwear

You can build a line sheet in a spreadsheet, a slide tool or a page layout program. What matters is that every style follows the same layout. Use this structure as a template and adapt the columns to your range.

Page header: brand logo, collection or season, sheet date and a page number. Page footer: order contact, minimums, payment terms and the order deadline. Then one block per style, laid out in a grid of four to six styles per page.

• Image: front view, same angle and background for every style.
• Line 1: style code and style name.
• Line 2: fabric composition and GSM.
• Line 3: colorways, as named swatches.
• Line 4: size range, for example YS to 3XL.
• Line 5: decoration options available on this style.
• Line 6: wholesale price at your first tier, plus the volume tiers if space allows.
• Line 7: suggested retail price, if you publish one.

Tips for a clean layout

Keep one font and one image style throughout. Group styles by sport or garment type, not by color. Put the price in the same position on every block so a buyer can scan a page in seconds. Use style codes that you will keep across seasons, because reorders will quote them. Our free trade teamwear templates include a tech pack and a size spec sheet you can pair with the line sheet.

06Common line sheet mistakes

Most line sheet problems show up later as order errors, so they are worth catching before the sheet goes out.

• Prices that do not say whether decoration or freight is included.
• Colors shown from screen captures that do not match the fabric.
• Size ranges listed that the factory does not grade for that style.
• Different style codes on the line sheet, the order form and the invoice.
• No order deadline, so late orders miss the production window.
• Fabric described by a trade name instead of composition and GSM.

07Ready-made white label line sheets for trade accounts

If you resell our garments, you do not have to photograph and lay out the range yourself. When you open a trade account, you get printable line sheets of our full catalog with photos, style codes and fabric, with no factory name and no prices. You add your own logo and price list and hand them to your customers as your range.

One caveat: those sheets show the catalog as photographed. Custom fabric, your colors and your decoration are confirmed per order, not on the sheet. If you want the range sold fully under your name, with your own labels, packaging and blind shipping to your customer, our white label sportswear program covers it.

Q&AQuestions buyers ask