VC SUBlimation - If YOU CAN DRAW IT, WE CAN MAKE IT.
About Sublimation
Sublimation is perhaps the most impressive and detailed way to customize your performance apparel. Screen printing is tried and tested, and has that old school element to it, which we all love, but sublimation allows for endless design possibilities across every inch of your jersey. With sublimation, you can use any colour, gradient, font or effect that you can think of, design across seams, under arms, along waistbands ...all while maintaining the wicking properties of your jersey as you go to work on the playing field.
How it works...
Sublimation (as the term pertains to garment printing) is a process whereby ink is actually burned into the fibres of the garment, as opposed to the way ink is caked on top of the material in conventional silk screening..
The design is first rendered digitally on a computer. Special papers are then printed with the sublimated design, and are placed face down in a heating press over bolts of white fabric. As the press heats up, the ink on the sublimation papers turns into a gas and bonds with the fibres of the material, thereby ingraining your design into the fabric permanently. The fabric is then cut into body, sleeve and collar panels that are sewn together to create a “full body” sublimated jersey.
The benefits of sublimated printing are manifold. Once a design has been sublimated it will, in effect, become part of the material. This means that the design will stretch with the fabric, it will allow sweat to wick through the design, and the image surface will not crack or fade over time, or with repeated washing.
VC offers two different ways to customize your jerseys using sublimation:
Full Body sublimation and Spot Sublimation
Full Body Sublimation
Compared with Spot sublimation, Full-body sublimation involves sublimating panels of fabric before they are sewn together which allows you to maximize your design space and incorporate every square inch of jersey in your design. This requires a significant amount of design attention, since the art must be situated on a jersey template (digitally), then “nested” into jersey sizes by our designers, colour corrected and finally printed onto giant sheet of paper before they can be sublimated into the jersey material.
Sublimated printing is done before the garments are cut and sewn together, so this opens up design options such as wrap-around prints that line up and meet at the side seams of the garment (see example).
The dimensions of our conventional silk screens are only 12” x 12”, so if you have a design that needs to cover the entire body of a garment (or is over 12” in any direction), sublimated printing may be the way to go. Sublimated side panels on jerseys or shorts are a popular option, and are more economical than a full-body sublimated design. Please specify to your rep if you are interested in sublimated panels on jerseys or shorts.
Due to the complexities of this printing method, sublimation prices are by quote only. If you would like to get a quote for your design idea, please submit a mock-up with your comments here:
To get a better idea of how this all works, have a look at the step-by-step guide to Full Body Sublimation, below.
THE PROCESS
Step 1 – Idea: The Mock Up
Send us a “mock up” of the jersey that you envision. A rough draft of your jersey should do fine, but please include as much design information as possible (font names, logo locations, logo/text size, basic colours etc.) This is will help us figure out the template you should be using, the amount of art time and the general cost of the jersey as well.
Other relevant info, if you know it at this point:
- Size breakdown and if men’s and women’s
- Will you be needing Art/Design services to render your artwork into usable, vector artwork? We can do this for you, just ask your VC rep (and see below).
Step 2 – Template/Layout details
This is a more refined version of your mock up with the actual art files (vectorized artwork) that you will be using. Each logo should be situated where you want it on the jersey panels and laid out on one of the VC Sublimation templates (available below). The main logos should not go outside the largest jersey size you are ordering, unless that is the effect you are going for (anything outside of the “panels” will not be included in the design). Colours should be listed with specific pantones, within the file, or in the body of your email. Any specific sizing details regarding text/player names/numbers or logo position/size should also be included in the file. Don’t forget to specify the colour of the collar!
Step 3 – Final Proofs
Once we have received all of step 3 and there are no more questions about the design, it will be about 1-2 weeks before we send back a file for final confirmation on the artwork/player numbers/sizes. This will be a complete file that contains the base art design for your jersey (colour corrected to match your chosen pantones), as well as sizes, player numbers and player names. You should click through each layer to make sure that each jersey is accounted for. Once the artwork is confirmed by you, the customer, it is sent in and 3-4 weeks later your jerseys should be ready.
Note on colour correction: Every computer screen show colour differently and this can cause some worry when choosing colours. When confirming your artwork, make sure that the Pantone references are as you want them, since the colour on screen may look off compared to what the Pantone looks like.
TIMELINE
Sublimation makes for impressive jerseys, but the process takes longer than your typical screen printed jersey. Make sure to leave 4-6 weeks in between step 3 and when you want to receive the jerseys.
Pricing
Click here to download our Sublimation Pricing Guide
ART SUBMISSION
We work in Adobe Illustrator (CS3 or lower), so please create/convert you files into a vector based format. We can work with Photoshop files and jpegs as long as they are at 300dpi and true size at 1000% scale. There are 2 main jersey patterns that we sublimate with: Classic (Set-in sleeve, ie. Your classic T-shirt sleeves) and Raglan (Raglan sleeves, kind of like a baseball jersey). You can download the templates here:
CLASSIC JERSEY
RAGLAN JERSEYS
COLOURS
When submitting your art, we need to know exactly what colours you would like to use. You can choose from the standard VC Sublimation colour chart (coming soon, with Pantone references), or you can specify a specific Pantone colour. Please select from the SOLID COATED PANTONE library (ie. Red – 200c, Green – 361c). Unfortunately we cannot sublimate neon colours, so choose the brightest Pantone if you are looking for neon-like colours..
Keep in mind that you can use as many colour and shades as you would like. More colours can require more art time to colour correct, but this difference can be minimal as long as the artwork is well submitted
TEXT, NAMES and FONTS
If there is going to be text in your design, submit it as part of your design. This means that it will be part of the art and will show up the same on each jersey. Make sure that the text is “expanded”, because we may not have the font file on hand and we want to make sure that it is situated just as you want it. If you are getting a team name or player names, fill out this size/name/number form and submit is as a separate file (you do not need to layout each jersey with each player name/number). We are happy to add names to your jersey design, we just you to send us the specific font that you would like (should be a .ttf file). We will typically place names on the back of the jersey centered between the shoulders (at 1.5 to 2” tall, depending on the length of the name and the size of the jerseyy), but if there is another location and size that you want, please specify in your design instructions in the art file that you submit. Same instructions apply for player numbers: submit the specific font you would like, as well as the size and position on the jersey.
SPECIAL NOTE
Seam matching: One of the benefits of sublimated designs is being able to match your design from one panel of the jersey to another, something that screen printing cannot do cleanly and with consistent results. Seam matching is most easily done across the side seams of the body (note: seamless jersey template is available for designs that wrap around one side of the jersey) and if the design is distinct. Complicated designs with lots of colour and match points will require more design attention and potentially more time (particularly around the shoulder and collar seams). Although it is possible, please keep in mind that seam matching can extend the timeline on your jerseys and cost more. Although the matching may not be 100% spot on, it is done to the best ability of our designers and sewers.
ART and DESIGN SERVICES
VC offers art and design services to ensure that you are submitting the best artwork for your jersey design. This applies across screen printing, spot and full body sublimation. Some screen printed designs are easily redrawn, but we suggest that artwork for sublimation is redrawn professionally by one of our artists. Rates are $40 CND/hour for redrawing art (either cleaning up a vector file or rendering a vector based file from a jpeg etc.).
Our artists are also available to help with conceptualizing a jersey design. For information on this service please contact our production department directly, sam@vcultimate.com
SPOT SUBLIMATION
Spot sublimation is a process by which your design is applied to a smaller area of an sewn garment. Teams will often choose Spot sublimation over screen printing because you can effectively have as many colours in your logo (gradients and shading as well) without incurring the extra screen set up fees that would be associated with a multi-coloured design. Spot sublimation is also less expensive than Full Body sublimation, but while Spot sublimation is an excellent and affordable way to increase the quality of your customization, there are certain limitations:
- Max application area: approx. 15" x 15", although we can do thinner designs that run the full length of the garment.
- Art Submission: We can Spot sublimate nearly any image, but to ensure that it shows up cleanly on the jersey we recommend image with a high resolution (300dpi). Vector based images are best, because you can hand pick each colour, whereas jpg, gif and Photoshop images are printed in the colours provided by the image and cannot be colour matched
- Similar to Full Body Sublimation, you should choose colours from the VC Sublimation colour chart or specific Pantones from the Solid Coated Pantone library. This only applies to vector based artwork.
- Spot sublimation is really only acceptable on white, or very light colour jerseys as the design will be affected by the colour of the garment. The image shows up less on coloured jerseys and press marks from the intense heat and pressure are more evident on coloured garments (please read Special Notes below)
- Spot sublimation is quoted specifically based on each job, but the standard charge is $0.40 per square inch. A minimum charge of $5/logo will apply
SPECIAL NOTE
Seams: Although we can do it, we can NOT guarantee the best results when sublimating over a seam with Spot sublimation. If your design idea has an over-the-seam element to it, ask us about a side-seamless printed jerseys design, a test shirt, or Full Body sublimation as options.
Press marks: Because Spot sublimation requires a significant amount of heat and some pressure to fuse the ink into the fibres of the jersey, it can sometimes leave ghost marks or press marks. These marks are less visible on white garments, and get worse with the darker the garment the garment is. Just a heads up that some press mark may be more visible that others, but on white jerseys they faded after a few washes.
FAQ
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How long does it take to receive a set up sublimated jerseys?
Once we have 100% confirmed vectorized art, font files, approved layouts and Pantone colour references, the production process (step 3) takes 4-6 weeks. Orders can be done in non-peak months (peak = April to July) in less time, but a 20% rush charge may apply.
Step 1, the final design mock-ups, can take weeks, but this is up to you. Come to us with a concise description of what you want and we will push through the next phase in a matter of days.
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Can VC design me a sublimation jersey?
Yes, but we do have to send this type of design work out to one of our artists at a rate of $40 Canadian/hour.
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I have Adobe Illustrator, vector-based art… how come I need to have your Production Artist layout, “nest”, the design.
Ensuring that your digital design is properly represented on your actual jerseys is no easy task. VC Staff are very experienced in Illustrator, and we’ve been putting these orders together for 10 years, but we still never do our own sublimation layouts. All orders will be subject to a minimum 1 hour Rendering Art Charge (nesting) and Colour Collecting for the final layout process.
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What are the order size minimums?
Without exception, meaning that unfortunately this is also true for repeat customers, the order minimum for sublimation is 12 units. If you are ordering for a mixed team, the minimum is 8 for each gender.
Orders of 6-11 units (or 6-8 units for a mixed team) will be subject to a 20% surcharge.
Orders of 1-5 units will be subject to a 50% surcharge.