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\nThis Intellectual Property Policy explains who owns the patterns, pictures and words on backheel.shop, what you may and may not do with them, how we keep other people’s names and marks off our shirts, and how to tell us about a trademark, design or publicity-rights concern. Copyright notices have their own step-by-step process on our DMCA page.
\nThe short version fits on a back panel: original patterns only. Back Heel does not sell shirts with team, league, club, college, country, player, character or brand names, logos or crests, and the name field on our jerseys does not accept them either. Every design you see is its own piece of art, made for the court, the blacktop and the walk home afterwards.
\nEverything on backheel.shop is owned by Back Heel or used with permission. That includes:
\nThis material is protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws in the United States and in the other countries where we sell. Buying a shirt gives you the shirt, not the rights to the pattern on it.
\nEach pattern starts from something you would actually see around small-sided football: the painted lines of a school gym floor, chalk marks on a playground, a cracked blacktop, a chain-link fence, a wall mural, a sole roll drawn as a loop. Those are shared everyday sights, and the shapes we draw from them are our own compositions. We do not trace, adapt or remix anyone else’s artwork, and we do not imitate the look of any team’s kit.
\nEvery pattern keeps a calm back panel so a referee can read the number from across the court. That panel carries only what you typed: your name and your number. It never carries a crest, a sponsor, a league badge or anyone else’s mark.
\nOn most jerseys you can add a name of up to 12 letters, printed in capitals, and a number from 0 to 99. On the three Custom shirts, the Custom Flying Keeper, Custom Free Agent and Custom Back Heel Name Bar, a name and number are required. These fields are meant for you and your squad.
\n| Request | \nAccepted? | \nWhy | \n
|---|---|---|
| Your own surname, first name or initials | \nYes | \nIt is yours to wear. | \n
| A nickname from your pickup game, such as a word your friends shout when you nutmeg them | \nYes, if it is not someone’s protected name or mark | \nCourt nicknames are the best part of the back. | \n
| A squad word your team uses on every shirt | \nYes, if it is your own made-up word | \nIt works well for a squad organiser ordering 6 to 10 shirts. | \n
| The name of a professional, college or national team, club or league | \nNo | \nIt belongs to someone else. | \n
| A famous player’s surname with their usual number, styled to imitate their shirt | \nNo | \nIt uses another person’s identity and fame. | \n
| A brand, sponsor, product or character name | \nNo | \nBrands and characters are protected marks. | \n
The number field only takes 0 to 99, and a number on its own is fine. If an order asks for a protected name, mark or identity, we refuse or cancel that order and email you; any payment taken is refunded. You are welcome to place the order again with a different name. Our Terms of Service set out the same rule in contract form.
\nWe know this can be a grey area when your real surname happens to match someone famous. If it is genuinely your name, email us before or after ordering and we will sort it out with you. Nobody should lose their own name because a striker got there first.
\nNeed something that sits between the two lists, such as a short clip of the turntable for a review or a class project? Email us and ask. A quick yes by email is better than guessing.
\nBack Heel and the Back Heel house pattern are our marks. Football words that everyone uses, like futsal, pivo, ala, fixo, panna, akka, sole roll and back heel as a skill, are part of the game and we do not claim them; we use them to describe the range and the moves behind it. On our site a pivo is the target player up front, an ala is a winger, a fixo is the last player at the back and a panna is a ball played through an opponent’s legs. Any other name that appears on the site belongs to its owner, and its appearance never means that owner endorses us.
\nWe do not knowingly sell anything that infringes a trademark, copyright, design right or right of publicity. If we learn that a product or image may do so, we review it, pause producing that design while we do, and remove or change it when that is the right outcome.
\nEmail support@backheel.shop with the subject “IP concern” and include:
\nFor copyright in artwork, photos or text, please use the six-element process on our DMCA page instead, because it gives us what the law needs to act.
\nWe reply within 24 hours on business days, Monday to Friday, to confirm we have your report or to ask for anything missing. We then review the product or page against the right you described. How long the review takes depends on the details, and we keep you posted by email rather than leaving you waiting in silence. If the concern is valid, we remove or change the content, stop producing the design, and confirm what we did. If we think there is no infringement, we explain why, and you remain free to take any other step open to you.
\nPlayers sometimes email us ideas: a motif from their local court, a colourway for their league night, a move they want turned into a pattern. We love reading them. If you send us an idea, we may use it freely without paying you, and we never publish your name or details without your permission. If you have your own finished artwork that you want to protect, please do not send it to us; we only sell our own patterns.
\nWe cannot print it. A league name belongs to the league, even a friendly Tuesday-night one. What works well instead: the whole squad picks one colourway of the same pattern, each player types their own name and number, and the keeper takes a clash colourway of the same art. You look like a team without borrowing anyone’s mark.
\nOrder one shirt in the colourway your new teammates wear and put your own name on the back. If the team has its own made-up nickname, such as an inside joke from the group chat, that is fine too, as long as it is not a brand or someone else’s protected name.
\nNot on a Back Heel shirt. We do not print real players’ names or recreate their shirts. Your own name reads better from the bench anyway.
\nGo for it. Leave the name and number empty on any jersey where they are optional, and the back panel stays plain, so the pattern does all the talking.
\nPlease email us the link with the subject “Copied content report”. You will not need to do anything else; we take it from there.
\nTo ask for permission to use our content, or for any question about this policy, email support@backheel.shop. Back Heel, 19 Leland Hill Road, Sutton, MA 01590, US. Support is by email only. See also our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Contact Us.
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