With more of our customers seeking to put their unique creative stamp on their very own garment design, we thought we'd share an insight into exactly how this picture-perfect apparel is created and why it’s proving so popular.

How we transfer high resolution images and bold graphics into fabric is due to a process called sublimation printing. The possibilities of what we can print are endless, and that's why we love it so much for sportswear and unique team wear. In a nutshell, sublimation is a process that uses heat to transfer dyes into fabric and a special paper is used that acts as a medium between the image and the clothing. Once the image is printed on a large-scale printer, it’s then cut out and taken to the heat press where with the right temperature, pressure and time, the dye is transferred onto the fabric.

After the image is transferred, it becomes a part of the fabric - this is why It looks so vivid, but still feels super soft That's the difference between sublimation and screen printing. You can feel the ink and design with a screen print because it just sits on top of the fabric, but with sublimation, the technique basically transforms the fabric. Sublimation printing is specific to synthetic fabrics because the dyes used are generated to bind on a molecular level with the fibre in the material (as opposed to sitting on top of the material face).

SUITABLE FABRICS

Sublimation printing requires fabric with a high synthetic content to achieve the richest colour. The more synthetic content - the more saturation of colour you can achieve. At Weareco we mostly use dye sublimation print technology on 100% Polyester, Microfibre and Spandex fabrics.

ADVANTAGES

  • Easy ‘set up’ concerning the development of the fabric design itself and a rapid turnaround time.
  • Dye does not build up on the fabric
  • Images are permanent and do not peel or fade.
  • Colours can be extraordinarily brilliant due to the bonding of the dye to the transparent fibers of the synthetic fabric.
  • Truly continuous tones can be achieved that are equivalent to photographs, without the use special techniques such as half-screen printing.
  • Images can be easily customised to meet individual requests.
  • The image can be printed all over the entire item, with no difficulty in printing all the way to the edges.

Design and order your teams sublimated sportswear by contacting [email protected]