Sublimation.
Your design, dyed in.

What sublimation actually does

Your design is printed onto transfer paper in reverse, then pressed onto the garment at around 200°C. At that temperature the dye skips straight from solid to gas, the polyester fibres open up, and the colour goes in. When the fabric cools the fibres close around the dye and it's locked in permanently.

That's why a sublimated shirt feels like a plain shirt. Run your hand over the logo and you won't find an edge, because there's no ink layer sitting on the surface. It's also why the print outlasts nearly everything else we do — there's nothing on top to wear off.

Where sublimation wins

• Colour costs nothing extra. A two-colour logo and a full photographic gradient price the same. Screen printing charges per colour; sublimation doesn't care.
• Every garment can be different. Names, numbers, sizes, sponsor variations — all in one run, no setup per change.
• It prints to the edge. Designs can run right off the hem and around the side seams instead of stopping in a rectangle on the chest.
• Nothing cracks or peels. No film, no plastisol, no lifting corners after a season of washes.
• It stays breathable. The fabric isn't sealed under a layer of ink, which matters on playing kit in a Queensland summer.

Cut and sew, or printed onto stock

Cut & sub

The fabric is printed flat as a roll, then cut and sewn into the garment afterwards. This is how you get a genuine all-over kit with the design continuing across seams, custom panels and club colours through the collar and cuffs. It carries a minimum quantity and a longer lead time, because the garment is built after your artwork is signed off.

Stock garments

We press your design onto ready-made polyester garments. It's quicker, works in small numbers, and suits clubs and businesses that need something sorted this month. The print covers the panels we can get under the press, so it isn't truly seam-to-seam.

Most clubs run cut-and-sew for playing strip and stock garments for training tops and supporter gear. We'll tell you which side of that line your job sits on.

What sublimation can't do

Worth knowing before you commit, because it rules sublimation out for some jobs.

• Polyester only. Cotton won't hold the dye. Blends work in proportion to their poly content, so a 50/50 tee comes out washed-out and pastel rather than vivid.
• Light garments only. There's no white sublimation ink and the dye is transparent, so whatever colour the garment is shows through the print.
• Not for one-off cotton tees. If you want a single printed cotton shirt, that's a DTF job.

If your job hits any of those limits we'll say so and quote the method that actually suits it — see screen printing and DTF, or embroidery for a stitched finish.

Artwork: what we need from you

• Vector files if you have them (AI, EPS, PDF). They scale to any size without going soft.
• High-resolution raster otherwise — around 150dpi at the finished print size.
• Brand colour codes if the colours have to match something exactly.
• Your squad list for names and numbers, in a spreadsheet if it's a big one.

Send whatever you've got. If the artwork needs rebuilding we'll tell you what it needs and what that costs before we start, not after.