Custom Staff Shirts,
Easy to Spot in a Crowd.
Staff shirts tell a crowd, a shop floor or a campground who to ask: your logo on the chest, STAFF, CREW or VOLUNTEER big across the back. We print them in-house in Ottawa, by the dozen or by the hundred, and ship Canada-wide. Give each role its own colour of the same tee and every shirt still counts toward the same price break — with a free mockup before you pay.
A shirt for every kind of crew.
A crowd sees your people from behind and from across the room, so the role goes on the back: STAFF, CREW or SECURITY up to 11″ wide, starting 3″ below the collar. The event logo sits on the left chest at 3.5″ wide.
Put volunteers in a bright colour of the same tee your staff wear in black. Every colour of the same garment in one order counts toward the same price break, so 30 black STAFF tees and 30 orange VOLUNTEER tees are priced as 60, not as two runs of 30.
Front-line staff tees with a 3.5″ left-chest logo and, if you want one, a small mark under the collar on the back. Black and Charcoal hide a shift’s worth of spills; staff who greet customers at the counter often get polos instead.
Counsellors in one colour, campers in another, same design. Youth sizes count with the adult tee toward the price break — 12 adult + 12 youth tees are priced as 24 — and youth fronts print 8″ wide instead of 11″ so the art fits a kid’s shirt.
Cotton Gildan 64000 tees for most days, the 100% polyester Team 365 TT11 for hot trucks, or the heavier 6.0 oz Gildan 2400 long sleeve for cold docks. A bright tee still isn’t hi-vis: crews working near traffic need certified safety wear, which goes through a quote.
Paste your staff list into the studio’s Team names & numbers chart: each name prints across the upper back, and numbers are optional. Each personalized shirt costs a bit more than a plain one, and you approve the whole chart before you pay.
Build the staff shirt.
- ✓Cotton Gildan 64000 tee, XS–5XL, or 100% polyester Team 365 TT11
- ✓Long sleeve, crewneck or hoodie for cold shifts
- ✓Left-chest logo, 3.5″ wide
- ✓Back print up to 11″ wide, 3″ below the collar
- ✓STAFF, CREW, SECURITY or VOLUNTEER in print-quality text
- ✓Names across the upper back, numbers optional
- ✓A colour per role, pooled toward one price break
- ✓Screen print for big runs, DTF for full colour
Who orders staff shirts.
- Festival & concert crews
- Race & charity-run volunteers
- Retail store floors
- Restaurants, cafés & food trucks
- Summer & day camps
- Warehouse & delivery teams
- Conference & trade-show staff
- Office team days
One crew, a colour for every role.
A starting layout for a mixed crew, built only from garments the design studio stocks — “Tee” means our Gildan 64000 cotton tee. The front logo stays the same on every shirt; the back says the role, and the shirt colour does the sorting.
| Role | Garment & colour | Front | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Event staff | Garment & colour Tee · Black | Front Event logo, left chest, 3.5″ wide | Back STAFF in white, up to 11″ wide, starting 3″ below the collar |
| Security & door crew | Garment & colour Tee · Red, or Black with yellow ink | Front SECURITY, left chest | Back SECURITY across the full 11″ width |
| Volunteers | Garment & colour Tee · Orange, Kelly Green or Daisy | Front Event logo, left chest | Back VOLUNTEER, with sponsor logos underneath if sponsors paid for the shirts |
| Retail floor | Garment & colour Tee in your brand colour (Navy, Charcoal) — or a polo at the till | Front Store logo, left chest | Back Blank, or a small logo under the collar |
| Kitchen & back of house | Garment & colour Cotton tee · Black or Charcoal (skip polyester near open flame) | Front Small logo, left chest | Back Blank — a back print adds to the price, and nobody reads it on the line |
| Camp counsellors | Garment & colour Tee · Kelly Green; campers in youth tees, Royal or Daisy | Front Camp logo, full front, 11″ wide (8″ on youth sizes) | Back First name across the upper back, STAFF below it |
| Warehouse & delivery | Garment & colour Tee · Charcoal, or the Gildan 2400 long sleeve | Front Company logo, left chest | Back Company name and website, up to 11″ wide |
| Office team day | Garment & colour Tee in the company colour, or a crewneck for a fall offsite | Front Event artwork, full front, 11″ wide | Back Team or department name |
Measurements are our standard placements: left-chest logos print 3.5″ wide, backs up to 11″ wide starting 3″ below the collar, and youth fronts 8″ wide. The chest logo size guide explains the 3.5″, and any row above can be built in the free design studio.
Same tee, same price break
In the design studio, every colour of the same garment in one order counts toward the same price break. Thirty black STAFF tees, twenty orange VOLUNTEER tees and ten red SECURITY tees count as 60 pieces, so every shirt gets the 50-piece price — on their own, the three colours would sit at the 24-piece, 12-piece and 1–11-piece prices. A polo, hoodie or long sleeve is a different garment and counts separately. On a screen-printed quote, each different design still needs its own screens.
One ink, if you can
White ink reads on Black, Red, Royal, Kelly Green and Orange, so a crew dressed in those colours can share one ink on a big screen-printed run. Daisy, Lime and other pale shirts need a dark ink, which is a second colour to set up.
Bright isn't hi-vis
A Safety Green long sleeve or a Safety Yellow polyester tee is easy to spot, but it isn't certified safety wear. Parking, traffic and roadside crews need CSA Z96-rated garments with reflective tape, which we decorate on a quote rather than in the studio — see custom hi-vis clothing.
Front desk or a cold night?
Staff who greet customers at a till or a front desk often look sharper in a printed or embroidered polo. Overnight set-ups and cold events call for custom hoodies: a hoodie's front print starts 3.5″ below the hood opening and stops at the pouch pocket, so the big role word stays on the back.
Sizing the crew
Collect real sizes where you can and estimate the rest. The bulk t-shirt size breakdown has a starting curve for a unisex tee, and how to organize a group apparel order covers the closing date and the sign-up form. Add a few spares in M, L and XL to the same run — a second run is a second setup.
Staff shirts or a uniform program?
Staff shirts are printed tees for an event or a season: one design, a colour per role, bought in volume. Year-round embroidered polos, jackets and aprons, reordered as people join, are a custom uniforms program — plenty of businesses run both.
Shirts for the crowd rather than the crew are promotional t-shirts; when sponsors are paying for the run, see sponsor shirts for laying out their logos on the back. Hiring a licensed security company? Ask them before printing SECURITY on anyone else's shirt — security firms outfitting their own guards should see security uniforms.
How a staff shirt order runs.
- 1Design it or send it
Build the shirt in the free design studio — logo on the chest, the role word across the back, a colour row for each role. Ordering hundreds, or need a garment the studio doesn’t carry? Send your artwork and head count through the free quote form, or call 613-666-9292.
- 2Free mockup + designer check
You get a free digital mockup on the actual shirt colour before any payment. A human designer checks resolution, colour, sizing and placement, and either fixes the file or tells you what’s wrong.
- 3Approve, then we print
Nothing prints until you approve. Big one-colour runs are usually screen printed and full-colour logos go DTF, in-house in Ottawa. Standard turnaround on clothing is 1–2 weeks, and every order shows its ready date before you pay.
- 4Shipped, or ask about pickup
We ship Canada-wide, including the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Montreal; shipping is quoted for your postal code and shown before you pay. In Ottawa, ask us about pickup.
Send whatever you have — we'll get it print-ready.
A vector file (AI, EPS, PDF or SVG) or a high-resolution PNG works best, but a rough logo is fine to start — we'll tell you exactly what we need. Not sure if your file will print sharp? Read PNG vs vector for printing and how to prepare your logo files, or let our logo vectorization service redraw it for you.
What it costs
Your price depends on quantity, product, colours, and how many print or stitch locations you need — bigger runs cost less per piece.
Get exact pricingHow fast
Most orders move as soon as you approve the mockup. Got a hard deadline? Tell us up front and we'll tell you honestly what's possible — rush options are often available.
Ask about your deadlineSee it before you pay — free mockup.
Send your logo and quantity and we'll send back a digital mockup and an exact price. No deposit to see it.
Staff Shirts across Ottawa & the National Capital Region
We're a real Ottawa shop with local pickup, delivery, and same-day quotes across the National Capital Region. Find your neighbourhood:
Frequently asked questions
How much do custom staff shirts cost?
A screen-printed t-shirt runs roughly $12–$18 CAD each at 50 pieces and drops under $10 each in the hundreds; full-colour DTF sits slightly higher per piece with no setup fee. A back print, a sleeve print or a name adds to the per-piece price. Every quote is free and includes a mockup, and in the design studio the price drops at 12, 24, 50 and 100 pieces, with every colour of the same tee counting toward the same break.
Is there a minimum order for staff t-shirts?
No minimum on DTF and DTG — we will print a single shirt, so one tee for a mid-season hire is a normal order. Screen printing starts around 6 pieces and becomes the best value past roughly 24–50 pieces. Orders in the hundreds are usually screen printed and quoted directly, through the free quote form, by email or by phone.
What should a staff shirt say on the back?
One short word, as big as the back allows: STAFF, CREW, SECURITY or VOLUNTEER. At our standard 11″ back width, a nine-letter word like VOLUNTEER comes out with letters roughly half as tall as STAFF’s, so keep the word short when it has to read across a field, or set a long one in a condensed studio font like Bebas Neue or Oswald. For first-aid volunteers, spell out FIRST AID instead of printing a red cross — the red cross emblem is protected by law in Canada.
What’s the best t-shirt for staff?
For most crews, a soft cotton tee: ours is the Gildan 64000, 100% ring-spun cotton (the heathers are poly blends), semi-fitted and true to size, in XS–5XL. Staff who work hot or sweat through a shift do better in the 100% polyester Team 365 TT11, which dries faster. For colour, pick one the crowd isn’t wearing — black disappears at a concert full of black band tees, where Red, Royal, Kelly Green or Orange stands out.
Can each staff t-shirt have a different name?
Yes. In the design studio, paste your staff list into the Team names & numbers chart: each name prints across the upper back, numbers are optional, and the chart fills in the size breakdown for you. Each personalized shirt costs a bit more than a plain one, and you approve the full chart before you pay.
How far ahead should we order event staff shirts?
Count back from the day the crew needs them. Standard turnaround on clothing is 1–2 weeks; most apparel orders can rush — 4–5 business days or 1–3 business days, priced at checkout — and every order shows the dates it will be ready before you pay. Then add shipping and the days it takes to collect sizes and approve the mockup: on a big crew order, the size list is usually the slow part, not the press.
What’s the difference between staff shirts and staff uniforms?
Staff shirts are printed tees bought for an event or a season: one design, a colour per role, ordered in volume and often redone the next year. A uniform program is the year-round kit — embroidered polos, button-ups, jackets, aprons and caps — reordered as people join, and it has its own page under custom uniforms. Plenty of businesses run both: polos at the front, printed tees behind the scenes.
Outfitting a whole team or space?
Event T-ShirtsDesign it yourself. A human designer still checks every order.
Our free studio gives you the price and the mockup in the browser. What it doesn't do is print your file blindly — every order is reviewed by a real designer before it reaches the press.
- Step 1You design it — free
Upload your logo, drop it on a real garment, set the size and placement, pick colours and quantities. No account, no deposit, no waiting on a reply.
- Step 2A human designer checks it
Before anything prints, one of our designers opens your file and checks resolution, colours, sizing and placement. If it won't print well, we fix it or tell you exactly what's wrong — a person, not an automated preflight.
- Step 3You approve, then we print
You get the corrected mockup back on the actual product. Nothing goes to press until you say yes — then it's ready in 1–2 weeks, or in 1–3 business days with a rush.
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See the packageReady to start?
Tell us what you need and we'll send a free mockup and quote — usually the same business day.
Or design it yourself in seconds — a human designer still reviews every order before it prints.