The Quick Guide to Creating Football Kits in Phnom Penh

Football (or soccer) is a hugely popular sport across Phnom Penh. Whilst many football pitches have succumbed to garages and hotels, or have been bought out for other purposes, those that remain are going strong. With more and more teams forming across the city, the pressure’s on to source a banging kit.

Luckily for you, I’ve been there, done that and literally bought the (football) shirt. Here’s what I found.

Picking your company

If you do a bit of homework, you’ll find an abundance of companies at your fingertips in Phnom Penh. Almost all businesses are run via a Facebook page rather than a website, which actually works in your favour as you’ll quickly get sponsored adverts from rival companies (thanks, targeted ads!). After a few weeks of research, I had my shortlist ready for the companies I wanted to approach:

Home Sport

Word of mouth had pipped this as the favourite, with a wide range of kits available and speedy turnaround times.

Double H Sport

While they specialise in official team kits, I noticed that Double H occasionally posts photos of custom kits they’ve created. It’s always good to see finished products (and companies taking pride in them) as it suggests you can trust the quality of their work.

Lorngkhorng Sportswear

In the end though, I went for these guys. Ultimately it came down to the sheer range of shirt designs they had on offer. On the downside, most of the stock comes all the way from Thailand, but pricing seemed pretty reasonable.

Creating Your Design

I scrolled through about 200 different kit images until I found a design I loved.

As with all designs, I always recommend mocking up a sample yourself. This ensures you get the correct placement. I picked out the black shirt above, and sent across a sample and price quote request.

The company took about 4 hours to get back to me, but were extremely helpful when they did. However, after placing the order and paying half the invoice as a deposit, I was told they were unable to get the sizing I wanted from their supplier in Thailand.

Back to the drawing board.

I asked if they had similar styled shirts, and after waiting a day for them to offer options, I spotted these shirts advertised on their page:

Gauging the Price

It appears that the majority of their shirts are sourced from Thailand, and the price in baht is displayed to give you a rough gauge of the pricing. The base shirts are roughly $6, and after adding a sponsor, team crest, player name and number, the total was $10.29 per shirt.

I asked for one alternate shirt in white, for the goal keeper to wear. There were no extra charges for a single shirt with different prints, which is incredibly reasonable.

Collecting the shirts

After a week, I headed to the LorngKhorng store in Toul Kork to collect the products.

The little shop had a colourful collection of kits on display, and the staff were incredibly friendly. Each shirt was individually wrapped and the whole order placed inside an aesthetically displeasing bin bag.

Quality-wise, these shirts are great and good value for the final price. If you’re looking for a kit for your soon-to-be-famous footie team, I’d 100% recommend!

You can find out more about LongKhorn Sportswear here, or read more of our sports coverage in Phnom Penh here.