3 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SUBLIMATION

Printing a design on a piece of fabric has been much in demand in the past. It is still in demand, and as trends suggest, it will be in demand in the future as well. What has changed, however, is the technique of printing. Earlier, such techniques as screen printing and heat transfers were used to print the team sports uniforms. Today, printing a fabric has taken a modern turn with a new technique called sublimation.

What is Sublimation?

Also known as full dye printing, sublimation is a process of dying a design directly onto a piece of fabric. It is interesting to learn that unlike traditional printing, a fabric is first dyed with print, and then it is dyed at all if required. This ensures the durability of the print.

With Sublimation has arrived a whole new set of options for users of personalised sports kits, that is teams, players and coaches.

Sublimation, if we talk about personalised sports kits, is perfect for striped or hooped kits. Although most other kits do well with sublimation as well, it is the striped or hooped kits that stand out remarkably.

Because sublimation is a relatively new process, there may appear a lot of mystery around it; something we plan upon unveiling in this blog.

Three Things to Know About Sublimation

• Always in Vogue – First cool thing about sublimated sportswear is that it never goes out of style. That is because sublimated sports kits are personalised and made to order. Plus, there are manufactures like Zapkam who never discontinue a style, which means you can wear and tear, order and reorder your personalised sports kit over and over.
• No Cracks – Major problem with traditional printing techniques such as screen printing is that the prints often peel, crack or fade after repeated use and wash. But with sublimation, that flaw turns into a feature as prints get dyed onto a piece of fabric, instead of being printed through an application of heat. This ensures durability because the prints last indefinitely.
• Colours that Pop – Contrary to traditional processes where the fabric is dyed before the design is printed, sublimation involves dyeing the print on the fabric first and then, dyeing the fabric. This makes the colours appear brighter, and designs look more detailed and vibrant.

To add more details to your knowledge of sublimation, here is a quick fact. The very name, sublimation, is in fact, not a hundred per cent accurate. Sublimation, to be precise, refers to a process wherein a solid directly becomes a gas without passing through the liquid state. Here, the dye is actually diffused onto the fabric, which suggests, the process should have ideally gotten a different name, but since sublimation is a name that has stuck around for a while, therefore sublimation is what it is generally called.