Teamwear

Sublimation vs Embroidery vs Printing: How Should You Personalise Your Kit?

One of the many benefits of partnering with Serious Sport is your ability to personalise your kit to further bring your team’s identity to life.

This means the ability to add a club logo to any of our garments and make the kit mean more to your team.

There are three production methods we offer to add a club logo: sublimation, embroidery, and printing. They are all popular methods of customising your kit but they differ in several ways.

Let's start with an explanation of each method, sublimation is the process of dying a design into a white piece of fabric using heat, embroidery stitches the logo using one of our machines and printing happens via a vinyl transfer.

All of these processes take place in the UK and are done by our production team in Hampshire.

Garment suitability

This is the most important factor in your decision because some methods can only be used on specific garments.


Sublimation, for example, requires the garment to be white so the machine can dye the ink into it.


Printing, on the other hand, works best with coloured garments.


Embroidery would typically be used on our core range, almost exclusively for club logos.

Design Complexity

Sublimated clothing is better suited for complex, multi-coloured designs, patterns, and graphics.


Embroidery, on the other hand, makes the intricacies of a design more obvious and is well-suited for club logos.


In terms of complexity, printing is better suited to numbers and sponsor logos as it is less suited to multifaceted designs.

Durability

Sublimated clothing is highly durable, and the prints do not fade, peel, or crack, even after repeated washing and wearing.


In contrast, printing does have the potential to peel off after constant use and washing.


Embroidery has the potential to be less durable, with the threads becoming loose or frayed over time, particularly if the garment is subjected to heavy wear and tear.

Comfort

Printing a club logo will be very comfortable to wear as it is unlikely to cause much of an impact.


Sublimated clothing has a soft, lightweight feel since the print is embedded into the fabric.


On the other hand, embroidery can be stiff and heavy, but measures are put in place to ensure comfort even if it does not blend into the design as seamlessly as sublimation.

Production Time

Sublimated clothing typically has the longest production time because it involves a printing process that can be time-consuming, particularly for high-volume orders.


Alternatively, embroidery and printing are more straightforward processes that can be completed quickly, even for large orders.

Cost

Sublimated clothing is more expensive than embroidery, primarily due to the printing process and specialised inks and equipment.


Printing and embroidery, on the other hand, are relatively inexpensive and can be a cost-effective option for simpler designs.

As a UK manufacturer, we customise all our garments on-site so we can guarantee the fastest delivery speeds and we take pride in producing high-quality products no matter what you choose.

Overall, the choice between sublimated printing or embroidery depends on the specific design, budget, and desired outcome.

As always, our team would be happy to answer any of your questions on the production process via email at sales@serioussport.co.uk.