Graduation Shirts, Hoodies and Year-Group Tees — Design Yours

Slogan ideas for year groups, classes and teachers

A good graduation slogan is funny, personal and won't feel dated in two years. Here are ten classics you can adapt in the configurator:

• "Class of 2026 — We Made It" — the timeless classic with a year.
• "Graduation 2026 — Goodbye School" — straightforward and clear.
• "Done and Dusted — 2026" — relaxed wordplay.
• "Apocalypse Class 2026" — modern, slightly dark, great on black shirts.
• "Class of 2026 — Survivors" — self-deprecating, college-style.
• "13 Years Down — Class of 2026" — the honest classic.
• "School's Out Forever" — the rocky variant.
• "Goodbye Means We'll Meet Again" — sentimental, popular on hoodies.
• "Year Group XY — Class of 2026" with school logo or city.
• "Teacher Survivor" for teacher shirts (see below).

For the back, it's standard to print all year-group or class names. Rule of thumb: with 100+ names this only works in small type — check a printed sample as a PDF first.

Year-group shirts vs. class shirts vs. teacher shirts

Three typical configurations from the school year:

• Year-group shirts — the entire graduating year group in one unified design. Typical 80 to 200 pieces. Front with year-group motif, back with all names or nicknames. Hoodies (in spring) or T-shirts (summer) are popular.
• Class shirts — a single class or tutor group. 25 to 35 pieces. More room for inside jokes on the back.
• Teacher shirts — small set for selected teachers (5 to 15 pieces) as a graduation gift. Popular: "Favourite Teacher 2026" or an inside quote from class.

If your school orders multiple year groups or classes simultaneously, it's worth a coordinated bulk order with one central contact — we bundle this in our advisory. More under Schools.

Volume discount — from what quantity does it get cheap?

For graduation shirts, quantity is the biggest price lever. Rules of thumb from real orders:

• 25-49 pieces: 10 % volume discount on the shirts, printed in digital print — screen print is only available at 50 pieces and more.
• 50-99 pieces: 15 % volume discount on the shirts. From here screen print is available, usually cheaper per piece than digital print. Setup (€20 per screen, net) is charged on every order.
• 100-199 pieces: 25 % volume discount on the shirts. One screen per print colour, plus a white underbase on coloured shirts — most economical with a 1- to 3-colour motif.
• 200 pieces and more: 30 % volume discount on the shirts (from 500 pieces 32 %) — we coordinate delivery dates and shipping logistics directly with the year-group committee.

The volume discount applies to the shirts, not to print or setup.

More detail in our school hoodies ordering guide.

Print recommendation — screen print from 50 pieces

Which print fits your graduation shirt depends almost only on quantity:

• Screen print — clear recommendation from 50 pieces. Vibrant colours, very durable, lowest unit price on larger runs. Works best with 1 to 4 colours.
• Digital print (DTG) — sensible for smaller class orders or teacher shirts. Photo quality, from 1 piece.
• DTF print — runs as digital print with us (same prices as DTG): vibrant and durable, sensible even at smaller quantities. Popular for the "name back" because complex layouts with many fonts work well.

Important for screen print: logo and text must be supplied as vector files (SVG, AI, PDF), otherwise outlines come out fuzzy. The configurator runs an automatic check.

When to order?

Graduation balls usually take place between May and July. To make sure your year group has shirts on time:

• Order 6 weeks before the ball — optimal for year groups with 100+ pieces. Plenty of time for size collection, corrections and printing.
• 4 weeks before — usually still relaxed.
• 2-3 weeks before — getting tight, plan express production.
• Peak season May/June: print machines are full at this time — ordering early really pays off.

Practical tip: collect sizes by early March, then the year group has time to organise ordering and payment. There are almost always 1-2 people who don't know their size.

Are you organising it as an official school event?

If your school coordinates the order centrally (e.g. via parent committee or school management), our B2B school advisory handles it. You'll get volume discounts, bulk orders and invoices directly to the school.

Are you planning it as a school event? → /en/schools/

Ready for your year group?

Design now → · Request advice →

Material specification table — the key graduation models

Print method recommendations per graduation occasion

All amounts net, plus VAT, excluding the garment. Digital print (DTG/DTF) has no setup; screen-print setup of €20 per screen (net) applies per printed side on every order, and coloured garments need a white underbase as an extra screen. The configurator shows the garment price with volume discount.

Configurator workflow — graduation shirt order in 5 steps

1. Clarify occasion and quantity. Year-group shirt (80–150 pcs), class shirt (25–35 pcs), teacher shirt gift (8–15 pcs), tutor shirt (12–20 pcs).
2. Pick slogan or logo. "Class of 2026 — We Made It", "Apocalypse Class 2026", "Done and Dusted 2026", "Goodbye Means We'll Meet Again", individual class slogans.
3. Model and colour. Premium organic (Stanley/Stella) for graduating year-groups with memorabilia character. Mass-market (FOTL Premium T) for price-driven year-group orders. Bio-mid-range (B&C Inspire) for environmentally aware year-groups.
4. Finishing and personalisation. Year-group logo via screen print/DTF on chest. Individual nicknames on back via flex print (CSV with name + size per pupil). Collective invoice to year-group treasury.
5. Photo proof approval. Before production we send for orders from 50 pieces a photo proof to the year-group rep by email. Corrections possible up to 24 hours before production start.

Experience cases — three typical graduation orders

Case 1 — Year 12 from Munich, 95 B&C Inspire Bio tees

Munich gymnasium Year 12 ordered 95 B&C Inspire tees (TM042) in black for the graduation year-group trip + graduation ceremony. Finishing: two-sided screen print (year-group logo + slogan). Print at 95 pieces with 1 motif colour per side: on black each side also needs the white underbase, so 2 screens per side — 2 × €2.20 = €4.40 net per piece plus €80 setup (4 screens at €20, net). Collective invoice to year-group treasury.

Case 2 — Year 13 from Hamburg, 120 Open Hood hoodies for year-group party

Hamburg Year 13 (support association) ordered 120 B&C Open Hood hoodies (WUI24) in black for the graduating class. DIN EN 14682 compliant (school regulation). Finishing: embroidery left chest (school logo) + flex print back (nickname individually per hoodie). Finishing at 120 pieces: embroidery for a school logo of e.g. 8 × 8 cm (64 cm²) €5.28 net per piece plus digitising €44.00 net per order; flex-print names: price on request.

Case 3 — Berlin teacher gift, 12 Creator tees with photo caricatures

Year-group rep ordered 12 Stanley/Stella Creator tees (STTU755) as a gift for the homeroom teachers of Year 12. Finishing: one-sided DTG with individual teacher caricatures + name. Print at 12 pieces: digital print without setup, €3.32–5.84 net per piece depending on motif size.

What we do better than competitors

• Print data stored for follow-up years — year-group orders often recur annually. Screen-print setup (€20 per screen, net) is charged on every order, including reorders; we keep your print data on file.
• Collective invoice to year-group treasury — 80–150 year-group members don't pay individually via PayPal, the year-group treasury pays ONE collective invoice.
• DIN EN 14682 compliance automatically — the configurator filters from Year 11 (younger pupils included) to drawcord-free hoodies, if the year-group wishes.
• Per-pupil personalisation — nicknames, class names, tutor names set from your list (price on request). You send the CSV, we deliver each shirt with the right name.
• GOTS certificate PDF included — organic orders of Stanley/Stella (Creator/Cruiser) get the current GOTS certificate with delivery. Important for year-groups with wholesale resale.

Graduation slogan competition — 20+ classics and insider tips

Classics. "Class of 2026 — We Made It", "We are the [school] Year 2026", "Class of 2026 — Finally Free", "Graduating Year 2026 — Almost Grown Up", "Year of the Legends".

Wordplays with "Abi". "Apocalypse Class 2026", "Done and Dusted 2026", "Genius Year 2026", "Final Year 2026 — the Last Class", "Abilympics 2026".

Teacher-related. "We Drive the Teachers Crazy — Year 2026", "13 Years with Mr Müller — Year 2026", "Teachers Wanted, Students Did the Opposite", "We Survived — Year 2026".

Sentimental classics. "Goodbye Means We'll Meet Again", "Finally Arrived — Class of 2026", "One Journey Ends, Another Begins — Year 2026", "Never Forget This Summer — Class of 2026".

School-specific wordplays. "We Were the Gymnasium — Class of 2026", "[School Name] Year 2026 — the Real Ones", "We are the Last Class [School Name]", "Year Without Standard — But With Style".

Graduation embroidery vs. print — what costs what for 100 year-group hoodies?

The hoodies cost the same in all three variants — the configurator shows their price, at 100 pieces with the 25 % volume ladder on the goods. What is compared here is the finishing, all amounts net, plus VAT.

100 Open Hood hoodies with one-sided DTF print (year-group logo + slogan, motif up to 40 × 25 cm): DTF runs as digital print without setup — 100 × €3.74 = €374.00 net for the print.

100 Open Hood hoodies with two-sided screen print (single colour per side): The volume ladder (25 % from 100 pieces) applies to the hoodies only, not to print or setup. At 100 pieces the screen print on white hoodies costs 2 × €1.16 = €2.32 per piece plus €40 setup (2 screens at €20), €272.00 net in total. Coloured hoodies need the white underbase on each side: each side is charged as 2-colour, i.e. 2 × €1.43 = €2.86 per piece, plus €80 setup (4 screens at €20), €366.00 net in total.

100 Open Hood hoodies with embroidery left chest + flex print back (individual nicknames): embroidered logo 8 × 8 cm (64 cm²) 100 × €5.28 = €528.00 plus digitising €44.00 per order, €572.00 net in total; the flex-print names are available on request.

Tip: For uniform design, screen print is the cheapest unit price at 100+ pieces. For individual nicknames per person, DTF + flex is the economical choice. Embroidery is the premium variant with the highest long-term durability.