Here's a number worth sitting with. Across most apparel ranges, a men's medium polo measures roughly 53 to 55cm pit to pit. A women's medium from the same range can come in under 48cm. That's a 7cm gap hiding behind the same letter on the swing tag, and it's exactly why so many orders of custom polo shirts end up half-worn, half-shoved in a cupboard behind the sales office.
Sizing is the least glamorous part of ordering branded uniforms and the part most likely to wreck the whole exercise. You can nail the logo, the thread colours and the delivery date, but if 40 of your 200 polos don't fit the people they were made for, those shirts never leave the building. This post walks through the cut differences, the fabric factors, and the exact questions to ask before you sign off on a sizing run.
Men's polos are cut straight through the body with broader shoulders and longer sleeves. Women's polos are shaped in at the waist, narrower across the shoulders, shorter in the hem and often have a wider neck opening. Unisex polos are, in almost every garment range, simply a men's block with a different label. That last point trips up more buyers than anything else.
Ordering unisex for a mixed team feels like a tidy shortcut. In practice, the women on your team end up with boxy shoulders, sleeves hitting below the elbow, and a hem that was drafted for someone 15cm taller. Some will wear it anyway. Plenty won't, and you can't blame them.
| Feature | Men's cut | Women's cut | Unisex cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body shape | Straight through the torso | Shaped at the waist | Straight (men's block) |
| Shoulders | Wide | Narrow, set closer in | Wide |
| Sleeve length | Longer, to mid-bicep | Shorter, above mid-bicep | Longer |
| Hem length | Longer, sits at hip | Shorter, sits higher | Longer |
| Best for | Men's sizing runs | Mixed teams, women's runs | Loose, casual fits only |
One more wrinkle. Sizing labels don't line up across cuts. A woman who wears a women's 12 usually doesn't take a men's medium, and guessing the conversion on her behalf is how you end up re-ordering twenty shirts in week two.
Fabric weight, measured in grams per square metre (gsm), changes how a polo sits on the body. Lighter knits around 160 to 180gsm drape close to the skin and show body shape, while heavier piques around 210 to 230gsm hold their structure and sit slightly away from the torso. Two polos with identical measurements can fit completely differently because of this.
It matters for sizing decisions in a few concrete ways:
And think about what goes under the shirt. Tradies and warehouse crews in Melbourne winters often wear a thermal or long-sleeve tee underneath their work polos. If that's your team, the sizing run needs to reflect the layered fit, not the showroom fit.
A left-chest embroidered logo positioned for a men's 3XL will sit noticeably differently on a women's size 8. Good decorators adjust placement across the size range rather than using one fixed measurement for every shirt. It's worth asking how your supplier handles this before production starts, because a logo drifting toward someone's armpit is not the brand impression you paid for.
Before any custom polo shirts go into production, get clear answers to these six questions. Ten minutes here saves weeks of swaps later.
The most common sizing mistake on custom polo orders is one person guessing sizes for an entire team. We see it constantly. An office manager who wears a medium orders thirty mediums, ten larges and "a couple of smalls to be safe", and half the delivery doesn't fit anyone.
Other repeat offenders from our production floor:
None of these are character flaws. They're what happens when sizing gets treated as admin instead of the thing that decides whether 200 embroidered shirts become 200 walking brand placements or a box in the storeroom. Every polo that actually gets worn is your logo in front of clients, on site, at the pub after knock-off. Every polo that doesn't fit is marketing budget folded neatly in a cupboard.
Generally no. Unisex polos are built on a men's block, so they fit most women poorly through the shoulders, sleeves and hem. For mixed teams, order men's and women's cuts and collect sizes separately for each.
A sensible buffer is around 5 to 10 percent of the order, weighted toward your most common sizes. Spares cover new starters, replacements and the inevitable size swap without triggering a fresh production run.
Cotton and cotton-rich polos can shrink a few percent in the first washes, particularly with hot water and tumble drying. Polyester and poly-blend polos hold their size far better. If you're ordering cotton, factor shrinkage into size choices and share care instructions with the team.
Men's polos are straight-cut with wider shoulders, longer sleeves and a longer hem. Women's polos are shaped at the waist with narrower shoulders and a shorter body. The size labels don't convert directly between the two, so each cut needs its own sizing run.
Yes, and they should. A sizing sample set lets your team try actual garments before production, which is the most reliable way to avoid a delivery full of shirts nobody can wear. Ask about samples at the quoting stage.
For year-round office and customer-facing wear, a pique around 200 to 220gsm balances structure and comfort. For outdoor work or summer events, a lighter performance polyester around 160 to 180gsm breathes better and dries fast.
A polo order that fits is a uniform people actually choose to wear on their day off. That's the whole point of putting your logo on apparel in the first place.
At Promo Punks, we help Australian businesses run the sizing process properly, from choosing the right cuts and fabric weights to organising try-on samples before a single shirt gets embroidered. One point of contact, no guesswork, no cupboard full of regret. Get in touch at promopunks.com.au and tell us about your team, and we'll sort the sizing before it sorts you.
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