To just make this clear, there isn't anyway a Judge can legally allow them and not break the rules. With the interest of Japanese sleeves increasing over the years (and at the time, ten or so years ago) they started to allow them because they were popular. They came up with a rule for sleeves to prevent cheating. That rule was the card sleeve had to be completely opaque, so you couldn't the clear Dragon Shield sleeves just to see the card back. If you were using sleeves, then they needed to be solid. At the time, Pokemon didn't allow art on sleeves (at least in my area) and, as I said with the popularity of Ultra Pro products and Japanese sleeve, this rule was lifted but that is because there is money in it. That aside, the sleeves (if they had art) couldn't have the art extend to the boarder because they were taking thew whole marked sleeve/card thing seriously, so this removed all of Ultra Pro's Pokemon sleeves because at the time, the art extended to the card border, leaving the only option being non-art sleeves and Japanese sleeves. Of course since this is now being run by Nintendo and they have a fetish for quality control, if it comes from them or a friendly party, then they know its safe. The other part of the rule is the art has to have Pokemon on it, be it a animal character or a non-animal human character or something that is of Pokemon.
I made this for use for custom sleeves for use at card stores;
It meets all their rules except being official. You might be able to get away with it at a lower level tournament if the Head Judge allows it but the thing is its actually listed in the rulebook. Its a dumb this and I see this as the bad Professor Juniper/Sycamore rule but its there so what you're asking the Judges to do is break their the rules of a tournament so you can feel special - not trying to be rude here. The problem with this is if they allow you to do it, then they have to allow everyone to do it. If they allow you to do it and no one else at a later tournament because you did it at the last one, then that judge can risk losing their right to Judge events or risk being blacklisted. We all know how players can develop ways to cheat.
I should mention that the main issue is quality control. With art sleeves and all the colors on them, you risk the color being off, which means the sleeve is marked and whether or not its known, you're running a marked deck and this shit is taken seriously in the Masters Division and can lead to game losses or complete remove from events (depending on the level of event), which is why they prefer the sleeves be a solid color and things like the cut of the sleeve because that too can also mark a card. Companies like Ultra Pro have contracts and have to follow and have to make sure the product is the best it can be (for Ultra Pro anyway) or they risk losing it. The other thing is sleeve quantity so if one should break, you'll need to replace it.
At the end of the day, it is up to the Head Judge but if you want to use them, I suggest getting them done by professionals. Ultimate Guard can make custom sleeves as does Ultra Pro, but they often want you to buy 25k packs of 50/60 sleeves.
https://www.lightningstoreonline.com/collections/card-game-accessories
https://www.inkedgaming.com/blogs/news/36705345-custom-card-sleeves-now-available
I say best of luck and this is a topic of interest for me so what you want is quality printed and cut sleeves and hope the judge will let you use them.
