Decorating Team Sports Apparel – Before You Touch Go

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Hi Josh,

First of all thanks for providing an excellent blog

Now I wouldn´t mind taking up on your offer to find the right technology for my business idea.

Main area : Sports/Team apparel
Secondary area : Sports/Team merchandise
Main priority: Quality

Already got the Stahls Hotronix Swinger heat press, but are now looking for the right printer/cutter + media for name/numbers (usual 1 or 2 colors), and club logos + sponsors (usual 2 to 4 colors). Also wish to do a bit of merchandise like car stickers, logo on plastic based products (ex. drinking bottels etc.), and fabric (ex. sports bags etc.).

Have been looking at the Versacamm VP-540, but with the XC-540 2008 and LEC-300 on the market, then should I also consider one of those or would that be overkill? (main priority is quality, before price)

Since this is sports/team apparel, then the quality of the media is also important (the apparel will probably be washed/dried 100+ times during the entire “lifecycle”, so that might put the color/ink to test?), however since it also used in sports, then it need to be comfortable + able to stretch. What is the best media + ink for this?

Hope you can give me a few pointers

Regards,

RJ

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RJ

Thanks for the kind words about the blog.  I want to dive right in and answer your questions and share with you a few considerations.  I am actually very familiar with the decoration of athletic apparel/team uniforms.

First – I will say that you are on the right track by considering the Versacamm VP540 or Soljet XC540.  Currently the LEC-300 should not be a consideration as it is a UV printer and doesn’t have a range of compatible materials that you can use with it for apparel applications.

So you know – the Versacamm & the Soljet use the same eco-solvent ink which makes them identical from an ink durability standpoint.  Now there are some differences from an equipment perspective.  The Soljet XC540 is quite a bit faster than the VP540.  Also the Soljet uses 6 colors whereas the Versacamm uses 4 colors (CMYK).  The extra two colors that the Soljet can use are Light Cyan & Light Magenta.  Of course this allows for better color reproduction.  It is also a consideration that Roland has a white ink that can be loaded into the Soljet – however by doing this you would need to convert the unit and the white ink takes the place of the Light Cyan & Light Magenta.  In essence you would be back to a 4 color printer + White.  Also, the white ink currently does not have an application for apparel with this technology.  And my final thought is that the white ink slows the printer down significantly – running at approximately 30% of the speed that it can output without white.

Hopefully, I haven’t confused you yet.  To make it simple, if money isn’t a primary concern, I recommend the XC540 with the standard 6 color ink configuration.

Now, the print/cut heat transfer materials

You may know this already, but the Eco-Solvent ink is extremely durable for apparel applications when married to the right material for the right fabric.  While I can’t say that I’ve tested our materials up to 100 washings – I can say that I have tested pieces over 50 wash and dry cycles which is the industry standard for the life of the garment.  Also – I presume that if it lasts over 50 cycles, there is no ceonceivable reason why the adhesive would fail on additional laundering cycles up to 100.

So how do you choose the right material?  I could make it easy and say just buy the material from me – it is good.  While this is true, you will still need to have an understanding of how to qualify which material is good for which performance features or fabric type.  When you are working with on field uniforms, performance fabrics, pre-game warm ups, helmets, bags etc. there are a lot of considerations.   A few years ago, I would have said, just use our Solutions Opaque it is good for polyester, nylon, leather, spandex etc.   But with the varying types of each fabric, coatings and dye migration issues this just isn’t true.  I can help to guide you to the proper material for each application as part of the installation and training. 

Just a quick plug – this is why I tell people if you are buying the Roland Printer/Cutter for apparel, buy from someone that knows the apparel market, as its much more complex than some sign suppliers will lead on. 

 To give you an idea of what I am speaking of here is a brief list:

Use Solutions Opaque for spandex, nylon based compression wear and loose fit polyesters.  However the Solutions Opaque will not block dye migration (which is typically found in some polyesters).

For garments with dye migration issues use the Solutions Sub-Block.  It is not quite as thin and flexible as Solutions Opaque but will not allow strike through.  Keep this in mind when sourcing your garments to offer – find one that doesn’t have migration issues.

There are two types of porthole mesh nylon and polyester – typically found in football jerseys or baseball jerseys.  For these applications I recommend our Colorprint.  It is a slightly thicker material that is resistant to abrasion and durable on football uniforms.

For t-shirts your options are wide open.  It just depends on the look and feel that you want.  However one place you can run into an issue is if you use a thinner material like the Solutions Opaque on a 100% cotton t-shirt on a larger coverage graphic.  The garment shrinks, the material does not and you get some puckering. 

These are just a few of the considerations.  I definitely don’t want to intimidate you with these responses.  I firmly believe in this process and these printers as they have the ability to open up many markets and be a complete decorating solution for a business.  No other process meets the full color low quantity custom output with such a wide variety of applicable fabrics and substrates.

Feel free to post any follow up questions in the comments field.

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And thanks to everyone for reading.  Feel free to post a comment if you would like some direction for your business.  I would be happy to help. As always feel free to subscribe to my blog via email by clicking here.