Sublimation printing on sportswear made in Bangladesh

Not with true sublimation. The dye bonds chemically with polyester, so on cotton it has nothing to hold to and washes out quickly. On dark fabric, the dye is translucent and simply disappears into the base colour, so a design printed on navy is invisible. There are workarounds that are sometimes sold as sublimation but are not: a white sublimated patch or panel sewn into a cotton garment, or DTF transfers, which print onto film with a white base and can be applied to dark cotton or blends. Each has a different feel and durability profile. If your design needs to sit on cotton or on a dark garment, tell us the look you want and we will recommend the honest alternative rather than promising a process that will fail in the wash.

By treating alignment as a pattern problem rather than a print problem. Artwork is laid onto the graded pattern panel by panel for every size, with bleed beyond each cut line and registration marks that the cutting room uses. A sewn sample is then made and the seams inspected: side seams, shoulder seams, sleeve joins and any panel where a stripe or logo crosses. Tolerances are agreed in writing, because perfect alignment across a stretch fabric that moves during sewing is not realistic; what is realistic is a consistent, small and agreed tolerance. During production we check alignment on garments pulled from the line, not only at final inspection, so a drifting cutter is caught early rather than after the whole run. Ask for the approved placement to be photographed and kept for repeats.

It depends on the coverage and the base colour, and both are often used on the same kit. Sublimation dyes the fibre itself, so there is nothing on the surface to feel, crack or peel, and covering a whole panel needs no extra screens or set-up, only more transfer paper and press time, which makes it the right choice for full-panel designs, gradients and printed patterns on white or light polyester. Its limits are the fabric, which must be polyester, and the base colour, which cannot be darker than the design. DTF sits on the surface, so it works on dark and coloured polyester, on cotton and on blends, and it is the better route for a sponsor logo, a crest or a number applied to a dark garment where sublimation cannot reach. On a navy football shirt, for example, the shirt body might be sublimated navy with a printed pattern and the sponsor logo applied by DTF. We propose the split per style at costing.

It does not crack or peel, because there is no layer to crack: the dye becomes part of the polyester fibre under heat and pressure, which is why a sublimated kit feels the same across printed and unprinted areas. Fading is possible but is a process fault rather than a property of the method: under-pressing at too low a temperature or too short a time leaves the dye at the surface, where it washes off, and pressing on a fabric with too little polyester leaves dye with nothing to bond to. A correctly pressed print on 100% polyester keeps its colour through normal domestic washing for the life of the garment. The one behaviour to know about is migration on blends and elastane fabrics, where residual dye can move into adjacent light areas over time; ask for the sample to be wash-tested to ISO 6330 and stored for a period to check for it before bulk.

Sublimation printing dyes a design into polyester fabric with heat instead of laying ink on top of it. The design is printed onto transfer paper, the paper is pressed against the fabric under heat and pressure, and the dye turns straight into gas and moves inside the fibre, where it stays. Mimaki, a printer manufacturer, describes that transfer route on its European website, read on 1 October 2026, beside a direct route in which the design is printed onto the textile and then fixed with heat, and says fabrics usually need at least 65% polyester for strong, vibrant results. Because the colour is inside the fibre, the print has no feel and cannot crack or peel. For clothing the panels are printed first, then cut and sewn, which lets a design cover the whole garment. The base must be white or pale. Send the artwork, the garment pattern or a reference piece, and the size range.

A placement print sits in one defined position on the garment, such as a chest logo or a back graphic; an all-over print covers the whole surface and usually runs across the seams. The difference is when the printing happens. A placement print is applied to a cut panel or a finished garment, by screen, DTG or DTF, and is priced per position. An all-over print that runs across the seams is normally made before sewing. With sublimation the design is printed onto each pattern panel, through transfer paper or directly onto the textile, the two routes Mimaki describes on its European website (read on 1 October 2026), and the panels are then cut and sewn. That makes it a pattern job as much as a print job: every size needs its own layout, and matching at the seams is agreed as a tolerance. Send artwork at full panel size and say where the design must match.

Sublimate when the design is full-colour or all-over on white or pale polyester; screen print when it is a logo in one or two colours on a dark or already dyed garment. Sublimation dyes the fibre, so the print adds no weight or feel and cannot crack, and the number of colours does not change the price. It needs polyester, usually at least 65% according to Mimaki’s sublimation guidance read on 1 October 2026, and it cannot put a light colour on a dark base. Screen printing lays ink on the surface, so it works on any base colour, but on polyester it needs a low-bleed ink and a lower cure to stop the fabric dye migrating into the print, and every colour adds a screen. A common split on one kit is a sublimated body with a screen-printed or transferred crest. Send the artwork, the fabric composition, the base colour and the quantity.

Yes, provided polyester makes up most of the fabric, because it is the polyester that takes the dye. Mimaki’s sublimation guidance, read on 1 October 2026, says fabrics usually need at least 65% polyester for strong, vibrant results, so check the composition before anything else. Three risks are specific to stretch fabric. The first is show-through: the print colours the face of a white fabric, so when a legging stretches over the body the white underneath can appear as a pale haze, worst on dark designs. The second is distortion, since fabric pressed under tension recovers afterwards and shrinks the design, which is why it is pressed relaxed. The third is migration, where dye moves into light areas over time. Ask for a sewn sample in your bulk fabric, stretch it on the body or a form, then have it washed to ISO 6330:2021 and stored before you approve it. Send the fabric composition, weight and artwork.