Have your jersey flocked: Where to find it

In jersey flocking, fine fibres are accumulated on a film to be cut out with a machine according to the desired motifs. The fibres have a velvety, soft surface with a height of a few millimetres so that cutting them out with the machine is a little easier. Once the flock motif is ready, it can be placed on the textiles. Last but not least, the jersey is put into a press. The press melts the durable adhesive between the flock and the textile at a temperature of around 170 °C. The decisive disadvantage: The material is glued over during the flocking process and thus loses some of its properties (e.g. breathability). Sublimation printing is a vapour process in which a solid material changes directly into a gaseous state. Accordingly, in the sublimation printing process, colour pigments are vapourised into the textile. Furthermore, it is a digital printing process that is much more efficient compared to flock printing and thus also brings faster delivery times.

There are various printing processes for jersey finishing, which should ultimately make the textile look as you want it to. The following processes are available to you when you want to have a jersey printed:

• Transfer printing: Here, transfer foil made of a felt-like material is applied to the jersey with pressure and heat. The disadvantage: The foil comes off after frequent washing.
• Flex print: The process is identical to transfer printing. The difference lies in the material used and the resulting visual appearance of the print. The disadvantage: Here, too, the foil comes off after frequent washing.
  
• Digital printing: Digital printing uses a thin carrier layer that is glued onto the jersey in the final production step. The disadvantage: The jersey loses its material properties after a short time due to the gluing process.
• Sublimation printing: Unlike conventional printing methods, with sublimation printing the jersey is printed directly on the textile surface. This enables the application of multicoloured emblems or logos. The decisive advantages: Quality, durability, efficient production and cost-effective manufacturing. These factors have made sublimation printing the most popular process for jersey printing.

If you want to have jerseys printed, there are retailers, online retailers, mass retailers and printers on the market. The mass merchants are well-known sporting goods manufacturers where jersey sets can be ordered and sometimes also printed. As a rule, you can get a favourable price for the standard jersey here (jersey production usually takes place in low-wage Asian countries), but you have to reckon with high costs for printing and long delivery times. In addition, favourable prices can usually only be achieved with certain minimum purchase quantities.

Jersey flocking is usually only possible in retail outlets or print shops. Retailers are dependent on the major sporting goods manufacturers for delivery times. In addition, not every sports shop has flocking or printing machines, so the ordered jerseys have to be delivered to a print shop. Ordering processes with up to six weeks waiting time are not uncommon here. Alternatively, you can order the jerseys online or in retail stores without printing or flocking (blank) and commission a print shop to finish the jerseys. This, too, will certainly take a few weeks before you can hold the finished jerseys in your hands.

At spized, you can choose from over 6 million variations of how you want your jersey to look. We produce within 14 days, making us one of the fastest suppliers on the market. How do we manage that? Thanks to short production routes within the EU and innovative or efficient technologies (sublimation printing process), we can deliver the jerseys you want within two weeks, despite individual designs. Would you like to learn more about the time it takes to print a jersey? 

When jerseys are to be finished, clubs and teams are faced with numerous factors that need to be taken into account when ordering. In summary, the following are crucial points when it comes to jersey finishing:Not sure if sublimation printing is right for you? Then take a look at our savings calculator. It will calculate your exact needs and find out where you can get the best price.