Overview of Athletic Lettering

Summary
This month’s article will focus on the various types of embellishment that are available on the modern athletic uniform. Sports are more popular then ever now and fortunately, today’s athlete has a choice of several different types of decoration. Combined with new, technologically superior fabrics the modern athlete can now design a uniform that actually enhances their performance rather then detracting from it.

Screen-printing

This process involves applying a plastisol type of ink to a garment. The garment and ink are then heated to a specific temperature at which time the ink solidifies and “bonds” to the fabric. Screen-printing is relatively inexpensive and can produce almost unlimited graphics. It has been the most popular method of athletic printing for many decades but is beginning to give way to other processes.

Pros:

Inexpensive
Variety of graphics
Unlimited colors

Cons:

Uncomfortable feel
Durable but not permanent
Difficult color matching

Tackletwill

This process involves using a heavyweight “twill” material and sewing it on to the applicable garment. It is an extremely durable process and can stand up to a lot of abuse. The material can be cut with a laser into a variety of fonts and graphics but you are somewhat limited by size since each area of a particular design needs to be large enough to stitch. It can be done in multi-color but each color adds additional weight.

Pros:

Extremely durable
Heavyweight "traditional" feel
Many colors and fonts

Cons:

Very heavy
Somewhat expensive
Difficult color matching
Limited graphics

Sublimation

This is the newest, and most technologically advanced, of the athletic printing processes. With sublimation, the color of the fabric as well as the graphics is applied all at the same time. In essence, you are taking a piece of white fabric and “dying” all of the color into it. The lettering, graphics and trims on the uniform are almost unlimited and match exactly since they are applied simultaneously.

Pros:

Lightweight
Permanent
Unlimited graphics
Perfect color match

Cons:

More expensive then screen-printing
"Non-traditional" feel

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Author Bio
Cisco Athletic is a top-quality team uniforms and athletic wear manufacturer to thousands of schools, universities, corporations and organizations worldwide. For all major sports, they have custom-made team uniforms, warm-ups, and accessories available, including custom basketball uniforms. Visit their website at http://www.ciscoathletic.com or call 1-800-437-1757.