“The problem is that when the garment is heated, i.e. when using a heat press to apply a transfer, a temperature of anywhere between 130 and 190ºC will reactivate any loose dye in the shirt. This dye will then bleed or gradually leech its way through the transfer and can, for instance, turn a white football number pale pink,” he says. “The effect is not always immediately noticeable but can take several days if not weeks to work its way to the surface of the transfer.”

To combat this effect, J&A prints its transfers for sports items with special dye-migration blocking layers, which it says greatly reduces the discolouration without adversely affecting the transfer’s light handle and stretch characteristics.

According to J&A, the promotion of branding and corporate sponsorship is ever increasing and sports retailers are increasingly getting in on the action and incorporating their own name and/or logo into their teamkit numbers. J&A can print single-colour number transfers with the logo left clear so that the colour of the logo appears as the colour of the shirt or for an extremely professional result, print the logo in a contrasting colour. Customers can even chose or design their own style and bespoke colours for numbers to complement their branding.

Another trend with sportswear, says J&A, is for retailers to adopt a plotter cutting system to make low volumes (typically a team-strip of 15) of onecolour sponsor logos rather than the traditional method of sending the shirts out to be directly screen-printed. “This saves time and money and regains control of the operation by bringing it inhouse,” it says. “Our Creative division stocks our Pro-Seal range of transfer films for plotter cutting. These are ideally suited for sports fabrics, being light, stretchy and opaque with excellent wash resistance.

“Retailers seem to be experiencing increasing problems with getting transfers to adhere to some nylon outerwear, such as football training jackets, due to inconsistencies in the chemical proofings used in the fabrics’ finishing. However, the polyurethane adhesive on J&A’s Pro-Seal Nylon film has been specially formulated to overcome this and has proved extremely effective.”

Tel: 01790 752757

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