Decoration Direction: Decorating Tough Teamwear Fabrics

April 30, 2007

Every good decorator competing in the uniform and teamwear market needs a savvy coach, especially when the fabric is one of those tough tackles such as micromesh or polyester. Here's your playbook:

Performance Wear
Sport: Worn as soccer uniforms, undergarments under football, baseball and hockey uniforms; also worn by wrestlers, runners and golfers
Challenge: Susceptible to heat
Solution: Sublimation transfers. Sublimation dyes penetrate performance fabrics when you apply heat and pressure, turning into a gas which bonds with the synthetic garment. The process allows extremely fine control of the primary color ratios making it possible to obtain a good quality image even with relatively low printer resolution.

Mesh
Sport: Basketball shorts and jerseys, baseball and football jerseys, caps
Challenge: Fabric's holes capture ink
Solution: Screen printing. Most apparel decorators choose screen printing to embellish mesh jerseys. If your client wants the holes filled in, use a heavy ink deposit combined with either a heavy flash or a preheated pallet. The problem with heavy ink deposits is that they cut down on the breathability of the fabric. For clients who want mesh holes cleared, you must assign someone on the shop floor to poke out each hole.

Nylon
Sport: Soccer and basketball shorts, jackets, warm-ups and sports bags
Challenge: Fabric's finish
Solution: Knitted nylon refers to nylon mesh jerseys where the ink can be pushed into the garment to wrap around the fiber and form a mechanical bond. While any plastisol ink will do this, you have to use the correct one for nylon mesh application.

Woven nylons, such as windbreakers, have a slick finish so the ink cannot go into the fibers and form a mechanical bond. For decorating on this substrate, a catalyst or nylon bonding agent has to be added to make the ink adhere to the garment.

100% Polyester
Sport: Basketball and soccer jerseys, baseball pants, warm-up suits, sports bags
Challenge: Migrating dyes lead to blurred colors, fabric is susceptible to heat
Solution: Heat Transfers. When embellishing polyester with heat transfers, make sure you use transfers made specifically for the fabric. This fabric also requires a special adhesive.

Screen printing. Make sure you use the right ink and also control the heat as the garment goes through the dryer. Why? Because polyester fabrics have a set temperature where the manufacturer of the cloth sets the dye at a certain temperature. If you don't keep the fabric below this temperature, the fabric will release its dyes and the image's colors will be ruined.

Source: Impressions' Team Sports Supplement, Fall 2006, "Winning Over Difficult Fabrics," Jane Grillo, Contributing Writer