The Best Labels for Kids Lunch Boxes and Clothing in 2023

Aug 17, 2023

We're planning a new round of label testing for this fall. In the meantime, we continue to stand behind our long-time picks as convenient tools to label clothing, school bags, and other kid supplies.

We've reviewed the advice in this guide and continue to stand behind our picks as convenient and long-lasting tools to label clothing, school bags, and other kid supplies.

A legible, strong-sticking label can mean the difference between a brand-new backpack lasting out the school year versus languishing in a lost-and-found bin. After plastering two water bottles, a nylon lunch box, several food container lids, and a few T-shirts with seven kinds of labels and putting them through a combined total of 24 wash cycles, we found that the Name Bubbles School Labels (in a pack of 76) are the best preprinted labels to put on kids clothes and gear.

These versatile labels have a powerful adhesive and are the only ones we looked at that include an option for marking tagless clothing.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $36.

Like the other preprinted labels we tested, the labels in the Name Bubbles school pack take just seconds to apply. Unlike some of the others we looked at, they have a powerful adhesive that stays put on the items that kids use most, but they’re still simple to remove when needed. The company is the only custom-printed option we found with stick-on labels specifically designed to go directly onto tagless clothes.

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Label Daddy makes ordering easier than any other company we looked at, and the company's starter pack is well-designed, with shapes and sizes that are just right for kids’ stuff. The labels for clothing are made to go on tags only, however.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $34.

In its Starter School Pack, Label Daddy uses the same strong adhesive film as Name Bubbles and includes a great variety of sizes and shapes as well as a fun series of personalization options (from electric blue llamas to frenchie puppies) without having so many designs to choose from that it makes you dizzy. The website's ordering process is the most straightforward of all those we tested, but unlike the clothing labels offered by Name Bubbles, Label Daddy's are designed to go on tags only.

These write-on labels adhered well to everything we stuck them on, and they can go directly on fabric, but they'll leave a sticky mess if you try to take them off.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $7.

If your own handwriting is up to snuff and you don't mind the extra work, the most affordable option we tested—blank Avery No-Iron Kids Clothing Labels—has the firmest seal directly on fabric and also sticks extremely well to nylon, plastic, and metal. These labels are the hardest to remove cleanly, however.

These versatile labels have a powerful adhesive and are the only ones we looked at that include an option for marking tagless clothing.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $36.

Label Daddy makes ordering easier than any other company we looked at, and the company's starter pack is well-designed, with shapes and sizes that are just right for kids’ stuff. The labels for clothing are made to go on tags only, however.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $34.

These write-on labels adhered well to everything we stuck them on, and they can go directly on fabric, but they'll leave a sticky mess if you try to take them off.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $7.

We spent three hours researching labels for this guide, including informally surveying more than a dozen parents, reading reviews on parenting websites Mommy Poppins and Cool Mom Picks and determining which labels are the most popular and best rated by users on Amazon and Google.

Personally, I’m a reporter with more than a decade of experience interviewing experts in fields like health and parenting. I’ve written Wirecutter's guides to high chairs, baby jumpers, umbrella strollers, and double strollers. I’m also the mom of two girls, aged 2 and 4 when I was researching this guide, who have strong feelings about their water bottles and think of them as security blankets, yet manage to leave them behind everywhere they go.

Many schools, daycares, and camps ask parents to label everything that accompanies their child, from lunch boxes to water bottles to an extra change of clothes. Of course, masking tape and a Sharpie can serve anyone's basic labeling needs, but if you don't want to reapply after every wash or risk ending up with a gooey smear of leftover adhesive when the tape falls off, it's worth spending a little more.

There are blank label options that still require you to fill in your kid's name in permanent marker before applying but are longer-lasting and neater than tape—and we tested one of them for this guide. But if you want something more aesthetically appealing, are short on time, or just want to be sure that a teacher or good Samaritan who hopes to return your daughter's lost sweatshirt can actually read the name, then the labels from the custom-printing places we tested are a great option.

Labels like this can also work well for the adult children of elderly parents who are going into a nursing home or assisted-living facility and need to have labels on most of their possessions, or for adults who have trouble keeping track of their own belongings at the gym or yoga studio.

After talking to more than a dozen parents and scanning dozens of online reviews, we found that labels for kids clothing and gear should:

Be simple and quick to apply: The best labels don't require much time or effort to apply. That means stick-on labels trump iron-on for most parents, especially those with smaller kids who need to either be asleep or watched by another adult in order for any ironing to happen safely. Parents who find they tend to do their labeling at the last minute may prefer stick-on labels that require less time for curing.

Stay put: The items that need labeling tend to also be the ones that get the most use, and need to be washed repeatedly. So a great product is one with a powerful adhesive that stays on and doesn't start peeling or flaking after going through the dryer or dishwasher.

Be easy to order: Many companies offer "starter packs" and other packages that provide an assortment of label types and sizes, and include both durable adhesive stickers for use on plastic or metal and a kind that works on clothing tags or right on the fabric itself. It's possible to buy each kind of label separately, but these combination packages are the easiest and quickest option for most parents. If you’re getting custom-printed labels, it's important that you get to preview what you’re ordering. Some label companies allow you to include information like a phone number, email, or online link, so that lost items have a better chance of making their way home.

Be quick to arrive: Printing and shipping times vary, but the best labels are the ones that take a week or less to arrive.

Be easy to read and nice to look at: Many companies offer a wide range of designs and icons, from Hello Kitty and other branded characters to rainbows or robots. It's also possible to choose simple, no-nonsense labels that simply have your kid's name printed in a legible font, or just blank labels that you write on yourself. The kind of look you favor is subjective—and some parents may want their kids to pick out the designs themselves. We found that some of the best label companies have a wide range of options, from simple to super fun, but on the flipside, having too many options to choose from can be overwhelming.

Not be impossible to remove when necessary: Some companies say their labels are permanent, but many parents find that they eventually do want to take off the labels, either to pass along outgrown clothes or to hand down an item to a younger sibling. Ideally, it should be easy to remove labels without leaving any residue, but not so easy that a younger child could remove one by themselves.

Considering all of the above, we carefully examined the best reviewed and most popular options recommended by parents on our own staff, people we know, and parenting websites and ordered label variety packs from six custom-printing companies:

Label Daddy Starter School PackMabel's Labels Starter PackMinted Custom Name LabelsName Bubbles School Labels PackOliver's Labels Starter PackageTiny Me's The Mix Labels Pack

And one set of blank labels:Avery No-Iron Kids Clothing Labels

We noted how easy or difficult each pack was to select and order, how long it took to arrive, and what the labels were like to apply. Then, we spent 36 hours testing the labels, sticking them to a metal water bottle, a plastic water bottle, a nylon lunch box, three different food container lids, clothing tags, and the inside of a T-shirt. We washed and dried everything at least 12 times, and then put each label to the scratch test: My 4-year-old tried to pick and scratch each one off without any adult interference.

These versatile labels have a powerful adhesive and are the only ones we looked at that include an option for marking tagless clothing.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $36.

The Name Bubbles labels are among the strongest-sticking, easiest to use, simplest to order, and quickest to arrive out of all the labels we tested—and stand out as the best because they allow parents to include labels for tagless clothing in their variety packs. We tested the Simple School Labels Pack but think that the School Labels Pack, which costs the same, is a better overall option for its fun designs.

These labels are simple to peel off and stick on—something we found to be true for all of the stick-on labels we tested. The one iron-on option we tried confirmed our instinct that stick-on is the way to go. You do need to wait 24 hours before wearing or washing an item after sticking a Name Bubbles label to it, according to the company's instructions. While some of the labels we tested included instructions to wait even longer—up to three days—and some didn't include a suggested wait time at all, all three of our picks have a suggested wait time of 24 hours.

Name Bubbles uses the same adhesive film, 3M's Scotchcal, as two of our other top label contenders, Label Daddy and Oliver's Labels. Their labels held up on every surface we tried, through a dozen washes and my 4-year-old's best efforts to scratch them off. While all of the brands we tested held up well on plastic and metal, Name Bubbles was one of five that managed to stay stuck on the nylon lunch box, even after I hand-washed it repeatedly. The company's clothing labels also performed better stuck on a tagless shirt than any of the other custom-printed labels we tried, including our runner-up and the one iron-on option we tested. We found that the Name Bubbles labels for tagless clothing were thin enough to be stuck to the inside of a shirt without being itchy. The company suggests you stick its labels for tagless clothing onto the spot where size and other information is printed, and we followed this advice during testing.

The company's website guides you through the multistep ordering process (five steps for Simple School Labels, eight for the School Labels Pack, and more steps for more involved pack options) and shows a preview of your design as you go. Besides school packs, they also make label packs that are geared for camp or daycare or ones that can be used by the whole family. There are 11 fonts to choose from and designs that aim to appeal to a wide range of tastes, so parents can design a label that fits their (or their kids’) liking and is easy to read. We chose the cheapest shipping option available at the time ($3.50), which was advertised as one to two days to print and three to five days to ship, and the pack arrived four business days later. It tied for second to arrive among all of the label packs we tested.

Once testing was through, we were easily able to slide a fingernail under a corner of each label and pull them off without much fuss.

Wirecutter staff writer Rachel Cericola has been using Name Bubbles labels for her elementary-aged son's clothing and school items, and said that although she has occasionally found a label on the floor or stuck to something else, the majority have remained firmly in place—some for five years and counting. Senior writer Chris Heinonen says the Name Bubbles labels he applied to his kids’ items have stayed put for over two years.

Editor Tracy Vence, who has used the labels for her son's bottles and snack containers since he was an infant, said they’ve remained intact through many rounds in the dishwasher over more than a year and a half. She noted that some of the clothing labels had begun to lift off of clothing that had been washed and dried numerous times over the same span of time.

Name Bubbles offers so many options, with three dozen choices in the School Labels Pack category alone, that I found I spent more time hesitating and dithering about what to order than with our runner-up, Label Daddy.

None of the custom-printed labels we tested, including our top pick, performed quite as well as the Avery blank labels when stuck directly to fabric. Still, we believe that Name Bubbles labels are the best choice for the many parents who are looking for labels that are already printed with their child's name and that can be removed easily.

Label Daddy makes ordering easier than any other company we looked at, and the company's starter pack is well-designed, with shapes and sizes that are just right for kids’ stuff. The labels for clothing are made to go on tags only, however.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $34.

Label Daddy has the same adhesive film as our top pick. Once applied, the labels stayed put on everything we tested. We tried the company's Starter School Pack, which we found included one of the best varieties of sizes and shapes out of all of the packs we tested, from circles to small rectangles to even smaller rectangles that fit well on clothing tags. We also found that the number and kinds of design options struck a perfect balance—there aren't so many choices that it's dizzying, but there are icons and colors to appeal to many different tastes, including some fun, irreverent tween options. Ordering from Label Daddy is smoother than from any other company we tried, as the options are better organized and easier to choose from.

According to the instructions that arrived with the pack, Label Daddy's clothing labels are designed to stick onto tags only, and the company doesn't guarantee how well they’ll do when applied directly to fabric. We tried this out, and our label that was stuck to the tag sailed through wash after wash, while the label stuck directly to the fabric of a tagless shirt managed to stay on but did come loose in one corner. We stuck a clothing label from Label Daddy and another one designed specifically for tagless clothing from Name Bubbles on the same shirt and put them through the wash test, and found that the Name Bubbles one did a better job than the Label Daddy option of sticking more firmly and being less noticeable to the touch.

Wirecutter senior editor Kalee Thompson has used Label Daddy labels on her sons’ clothing and items. She said they’ve generally worked great, but a few clothing labels she had attached directly to fabric did come loose in the wash after the mound of filthy laundry that came home from sleepaway camp went through a super-hot, supersized wash cycle. Supervising editor Winnie Yang says the Label Daddy labels affixed to her children's water bottles, lunchboxes, and other food containers look pristine after two years of use.

Label Daddy allows you to laminate its labels for an additional $5, which the company says makes them smoother and even more durable. We tried the standard option and found that it stuck and held up well through testing, but parents who expect their kids’ stuff to come into contact with chlorinated pools or other challenging conditions may want to consider laminating. Unlike Name Bubbles, Label Daddy offers a satisfaction guarantee for its labels.

These write-on labels adhered well to everything we stuck them on, and they can go directly on fabric, but they'll leave a sticky mess if you try to take them off.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $7.

Avery's No-Iron Kids Clothing Labels are the least expensive and quickest to arrive out of all the labels we tried (we ordered from Amazon). But because I had to fill them out myself using a thin Sharpie before sticking them on, applying them took twice as long as applying any of the other stick-on labels we tested. We found that the assortment of small sizes and shapes in each sheet of blank labels works well for kids’ stuff, although a fine-point permanent marker is needed for legibility.

Nearly all of the stick-on clothing labels we looked at sailed through testing when stuck on a clothing tag. But the Avery labels clearly performed the best out of all the labels we tested, including those from Name Bubbles and Label Daddy, when stuck directly on tagless clothing. While none of our picks fell off after being stuck directly to a tagless T-shirt and then washed and dried 12 times, it was clear that the Avery label had the firmest seal with the fabric, followed by Name Bubbles and then Label Daddy.

While Avery markets these as being for clothing, they stuck just as well to metal, plastic, and woven nylon surfaces as they did to a cotton T-shirt, holding up through every wash without peeling. In fact, they stuck so well to everything that they were the hardest to remove, leaving a strip of sticky adhesive behind. Avery calls them "permanent" for a reason.

Wirecutter staff writer Jackie Reeve, who has been using Avery labels on her 7-year-old daughter's clothing and other items for years, reported that they stick excellently to everything except socks. Senior writer Joanne Chen keeps a supply of Avery labels and a permanent marker on hand in a drawer for last-minute labeling.

Oliver's Labels Starter Package was a strong contender, with labels made with the same adhesive film as our pick and our runner-up. But we liked the shapes, sizes, and design options made by our runner-up, Label Daddy, and Oliver's doesn't offer a tagless clothing option like Name Bubbles does. Oliver's does give you the option of including a special link to the company's website that allows someone who finds a lost item to contact you, without having to actually print a real phone number or email if you are worried about privacy. We think this can put more of a burden on the finder of the lost item, however. And this can also be accomplished with a Google voice number on any of our picks.

According to the website, Mabel's Labels are used by celebrity parents like Gwyneth Paltrow and Heidi Klum. They were one of two that didn't stick well to the nylon lunch box we used for testing, however.

Minted Custom Name Labels are designed by different, independent artists, and they look really cool. They stayed stuck to most materials we tested, including nylon, but the labels we chose were not sized well for applying to clothing tags and ultimately melted in the dryer. The company sells labels of different sizes (including ones that will fit on a clothing tag) separately, but don't have the convenient pack options that other companies offer.

The designs in Tiny Me's The Mix Labels Pack are adorable and were my daughters’ favorite among the contenders. But out of all the labels we ordered, they took the longest (seven business days) to arrive. The clothing labels are iron-on only and didn't stay fully adhered through more than half a dozen washes, while the stick-on labels didn't stay stuck to the nylon lunch box.

Anna Fader, Best Name Labels for Camp and School Gear, Mommy Poppins, July 21, 2015

Mary Marlowe Leverette, 6 Ways to Label Clothes for Camp, College, or Assisted Living, The Spruce, April 9, 2018

Christina Refford, 6 Cool Sets of Summer Camp Labels for Kids, Cool Mom Picks, June 25, 2015

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