Custom sublimation sportswear made in Vietnam

Hi, my name is Chris. I have been working with custom sublimation sportswear made in Vietnam since 2008. My expertise is sourcing dye sublimation fabric and then overseeing the color management and shrinkage control during printing. Then the printed fabric goes to the sewing facility for stitching. I can produce custom sublimated sportswear made in Vietnam for you or introduce you to reliable factories.

There are more than 10 reliable custom sublimation sportswear in Vietnam. The best are the Koreans and Taiwanese because they started manufacturing in their respective countries and then moved production to Vietnam. They manage everything from fabric sourcing, printing, sewing and shipping. I can introduce you to custom sublimation sportswear factories in Vietnam.

Learn more about:

Color Theory
Color Management
Preparing Artwork Files
Sublimation Ink
Sublimation Paper

Imagine that you have an idea to produce sublimated surf shorts, sports jerseys or mouse pads. Would it be great to get inside a sublimation apparel factory to see how they print and sew? Would you like to check the quality yourself? I can get you inside Vietnamese sublimation factories for a tour. Watch my video for more details.

What exactly is Sublimation Printing?

Dye sublimation printing makes it possible to create highly profitable custom sublimation sportswear made in Vietnam in a quick and easy three-step process. Create an image or import your artwork into a graphics program, such as CorelDRAW® or Adobe® Photoshop®. Print your image using sublimation inks, a standard sublimation printer and high quality sublimation paper. The final step is to transfer your printed image onto your T-shirt, mug, mouse pad, or flag by using a heat press.

Step 1 – Create image

The first step is to create an image for custom sublimation sportswear made in Vietnam using a software like Photoshop or Corel Draw. The goal is to create the highest quality image possible.

Sublimation, like any other form of digital decoration, is simply a means to produce an image on a substrate. Though sublimation has the capability of rendering finished images with an extremely high level of detail, clarity and sharpness, the final product will never be better than the initial image. If you initial image is low in quality, then it’s logical to assume that the custom sublimation sportswear made in Vietnam image will be too.

To get stunning results, you must generate stunning images during the creation stage, as the printing and pressing stages will only duplicate what is developed in the creation stage.

Assuming you have the ability to create, edit and/or modify artwork for sublimation, the beauty of the process is that pretty much any graphics software will do. Unlike embroidery and certain other forms of product decoration, no specialized software is required to create images for sublimation. In theory, all you need is a program that will generate and output standard graphic files that can be read by an inkjet printer setup for sublimation.

The most popular choices of software are Adobe Photoshop and CorelDRAW. Other commonly used programs include Illustrator, Photoshop Elements, and Paintshow. All of these programs are designed specifically to create and edit graphic images, though each has its own unique characteristics. They are all recommended for custom sublimation sportswear made in Vietnam.

Step 2 - Print

Printers fall into two main categories: small and large format. Small format describes all printers under 42” in print width, whereas large format references printers that are capable of printing images wider than 42”. In general, small format printing is also referred to as desktop printing and wide format printing is referred to as industrial printing.

Piezo Electric Heads
Though small format sublimation printing utilizes desktop inkjet printers, it doesn’t mean that just any office style printer will work. Only printers that do not use heat to print are capable of working with sublimation inks.

Piezo-electric print heads, a proprietary technology of the Epson Corporation, use a piezo crystal at the back of the ink reservoir. This is rather like a loudspeaker cone - it flexes when an electric current flows through it. Whenever a dot of ink is required, a current is applied to the piezo element causing the element to flex, which in turn forces a drop of ink out of the nozzle. No heat is generated in the process, thus the sublimation ink is not prematurely turned into a gas, which would happen if using the standard thermal print heads found in most brands of desktop inkjet printers.

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There are several advantages to the piezo method. First, the process allows more control over the shape and size of ink droplet release. The tiny fluctuations in the crystal allow for smaller droplet sizes and hence higher nozzle density. Also, unlike with thermal technology, the ink does not have to be heated and cooled between each cycle. This saves time and the ink itself is tailored more for its absorption properties than its ability to withstand high temperatures. This allows more freedom for developing new chemical properties in inks.

Resolution
Most of today's inkjet printers are capable of well above 720 dpi even as high as 5600 dpi. These super high resolutions are not needed for dye sublimation as you should never print above 1440 dpi and 95% of the time you will only need to use a maximum of 720dpi. Any subtleties you may gain using one of the higher dpi settings will be lost when the ink turns into a gas for the custom sublimation sportswear made in Vietnam process.

Transfer Papers
You must use a high quality transfer paper designed to support commercial sublimation. Because the paper is the media that receives the sublimated image and transfers it to the item being decorated, it’s a critical part of the process and can have a detrimental affect when an inferior product is used.

Step 3 - Press

Sublimation without a heat press is like a broken pencil – pointless. There are many types and sizes to choose from depending upon your products and since custom sublimation sportswear made in Vietnam requires precise temperature and pressure, it’s imperative that you invest in a good quality unit. Presses come in three basic configurations: flat, mug or cap.

The flat (flat platen) press is available as a clam-shell style or a swing-sway style. The clam-shell version opens and closes like a clam, where the bottom platen is stationery and the top platen moves up and down. The swing-away press opens by lifting up the top platen, but then will move sideways completely out of the way for ease of placement and removal of transferred products.

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The heated platen swings completely away to allow access to the transferred product. Examples of swing-away heat presses
Non-flat products require special heat presses such as the mug press and the cap press. Since both the mug and the cap have curved surfaces, the mug and cap presses are designed to fit the curvature of those products. There are also combination presses which offer both flat and curve pressing capabilities via the use of specialized attachments. The mug is placed inside of a rounded heating element which provides equal pressure and temperature all the way around. Heat and pressure is applied only to the front panel of the crown of the cap. A combination press with various attachments can be the answer to the problem of creating a variety of different products with one heat press. All custom sublimation sportswear made in Vietnam uses these methods.

All the information here is intended to help you execute custom sublimation sportswear made in Vietnam.