How to Make the Most of the Athleisure Trend

Posted by Mary Yaeger - 5/12/2017

Defined; Athleisure is a fashion trend in which athletic clothes are worn in settings outside of the gym - work, school, or social occasions for example. There are a couple of theories to why Athleisure has become so popular, but most people describe the style as convenient. Instead of having to change for the gym, change to go to work, change to see your friend for lunch and change again to go to that party later Friday night; now you can be in style for multiple occasions without breaking a sweat (literally).

As with anything in the fashion industry, once a style starts trending, it’s up to everybody to keep up to make sure that their brands stay relevant. Athleisure is no different. So what does this mean for the screen printing industry? It means that we have to adapt to the style with the inks and techniques that we use.

According to Vogue Magazine, there are a few “golden rules” for the Athleisure trend. These rules must be paid attention to if your business is going to keep up with this newly evolving style. The two biggest ones that are especially important to note for screen printers are this:

Number 1: It has to be Seasonal

Remember when you started working out and you went to look for workout clothes, but the only color that was available was black? Not anymore. The Athleisure trend demands that styles be seasonal. This means that the wilder the pattern, brighter the color and color blocks are the go to for this trend.

Number 2: It has to Combine Function and Fashion

Athleisure combines two must-haves that continue to dominate casual clothing - durability and comfort. With the Athleisure trend, many of the clothes we would consider strictly “gym wear” are now work approved. Materials like spandex, polyester, and blended materials like 50/50 cotton and polyester have risen to the top of the comfort charts.

Athletic Materials

As mentioned above there are a variety of athletic materials; all of which can be tricky to print on. Keith Stevens from International Coatings shared a couple of tips to help you master athletic prints:

1. Plastisol inks are usually stretchy by nature, but adding a little bit of stretch additive can greatly improve the stretchability, especially for performance and athletic fabrics, which often contain a high percentage of Lycra spandex. Adding excessive amounts of a stretch additive, however, could reduce the opacity of the ink, so it is important to add only about 1%-5%.
2. There also are new inks on the market, such as International Coatings’ 7100 Performance Pro, which have been specifically formulated for these next-generation performance fabrics. These inks have great stretchability and allow for lower curing temperatures (275°F). The ability to cure at lower temperatures helps to control any potential dye migration issues.

Athletic Inks

Today's athletic inks far out shine the original “athletic” inks that were dull and difficult to work with. With as many materials there are to print on, there are just as many types of inks to choose from. For example:

• High opacity ink. These inks provide good bleed resistance and brilliant colors when printed in a lower mesh range, and used over a low-bleed white. These inks are made to increase the overall opacity and contain a high pigment load over general inks.
• Low-bleed plastisols. These inks are press-ready plastisol meant for printing on polyester and poly/cotton blends. These inks stand out on dark garments.
• Low-cure additives. Low Cure Additives effectively lower curing temperatures of most plastisol inks to less than 300° F (149° C). You can use this additive when printing heat-sensitive materials such as 100% polyester or non-woven polypropylene bags. It is ideal for printing athletic and synthetic fabrics that are prone to dye migration.
• Silicone inks. These inks print well on light and dark cotton, cotton/polyester blends, and 100% polyester. Unlike other types of inks, silicone inks can be ironed without re-melting the ink film. They create a very nice, supple print with the ability to stretch and regain its original shape.      

The truth is that there is no perfect ink for all athletic prints, but it is important to have a good understanding of the inks you have at your disposal when printing on athletic materials. It is also important to understand how the inks vary in printability, flashing characteristics, and opacity to name a few.

Some of these materials and material colors may require you to print an underbase for your athletic graphics. When printing vibrant colors on black or dark garments it is often necessary to print a white underbase first. This is due to the fact that many plastisol inks do not have the opacity to cover well on dark garments. White is printed first to provide a base for the colored ink to rest on. The under base is flash cured before the remaining colors are printed.

It is kind of like using a primer before adding the new color to your kitchen walls. The primer seals the surface which makes it nicer to paint on. Just as important as the ink itself, you also have to select the right screen. Selecting the right mesh for your screen can be just as tricky, but this article should help clear the air.

Choosing the right Artwork

When printing, remember to make your graphics as printer friendly as possible. This goes for all of your prints, not just athletic! And in addition to ink characteristics, you also need to be aware of the fabric type, required cure temperature, and (as always) your clients’ expectations.

In many cases, you will find athletic prints with excessive ink thicknesses on the garment. This is typically the result of overcompensation in fear of the dreaded dye migration.

When printing athletic graphics (as with any of your screen printing projects), the ultimate goal is to consistently reproduce a quality print.

Now that you know a little more about athletic materials and athletic inks, we hope that you are ready and motivated to get out there and tackle this exciting active wear trend!

Brace Yourselves - Winter is Coming

Posted by Ronnie Cannon - Outside Sales on 8/3/2016

In late summer and early fall, many screen printers can look forward to some of their busiest times of the year.  But waiting until the last minute can be costly both to productivity and to the bottom line.

Usually when a screen printer thinks of this time of year the first thing that comes to mind is 'jerseys', as just about every school, university, and YMCA league in America will be looking for football jerseys.  But you also have to consider the numerous opportunities that come with that time.  Sports has long been a huge driver of business for screen printers, so be mindful of the plethora of football and sports-related team items that can be printed and sold by schools for fundraisers, booster clubs, school stores, etc.  Everything from t-shirts to umbrellas and everything in between.  

If you are new to screen printing, you may be wondering what the absolute best way to be productive with such opportunities.  Fortunately with regards to numbering and jerseys, there are several excellent options.  One is to use simple numbering stencils.  These products are easy to use, versatile, look great, and come in a variety of sizes.  Best of all, they work with most any screen printing press that is available.  Make sure that you use a proper type of athletic ink when printing and you should have no problems at all.  

When you are ready to move up from that (for shops who may do a LOT of jersey numbering) you should consider a special press attachment like the Vastex DiGIT Numbering System.  This special attachment for your manual screen printing press is designed to make printing numbers easy and foolproof, and will easily pay for itself in increased productivity.  Once properly setup on your press, the system can be adjusted for any number configuration for either single or double-digit prints.  

Have your screen printing equipment ready to go, have the proper screen printing ink in stock and on the shelf, and be ready to take advantage of one of our busiest times of the year!

Using Screen Tape to Maximize Efficiency

Posted by Harvey Cole - Outside Sales on 3/30/2016

Properly utilizing a quality screen tape such as PMI Split Tape is a great way to reduce your screen work area and increase efficiency.

Usually when you have a screen printing job that requires multiple colors and you have to burn several screens, it almost always happens that one or more of your screens will have a very small area of a certain color, yet for proper registration you must almost always coat an entire screen with emulsion and burn the image.  Although your screen size may be large, your work area may only be a few inches or less in some cases.  Here is where proper taping of your image will save you wasted time and ink and make cleanup easier and faster on your screen printing equipment and frames. 

Consider a wider size tape such as our PMI 3" Blockout Tape.  I still see some shops use simple masking tape, but masking tape in most cases has a much more aggressive adhesion that can pull your emulsion and in some cases perhaps even damage the screen mesh as well.  The blockout tapes that we sell almost all have a less aggressive adhesion that peels away easy for fast cleanup.  Have a look at this video for a demonstration of the application and adhesion properties -

As you can see, this is a fast and economical choice for reducing the work area of the frame which will make your subsequent equipment cleanup a breeze.  

Our PMI Split Tape is a tape that is specially manufactured for use by screen printers, as it has 2 section of the tape in a cross/section type configuration.  Half of the tape is designed for screen adhesion and the other is designed for adhesion to your aluminum frame or wooden frame material.  It is designed to be both applied an removed quickly, is economical, and will save you time and resources in your shop.  Here is a video that demonstrates just how easy the split tape is to apply - 

The tapes themselves have so many advantages over normal masking tape that it makes it almost impossible to use masking tape again once you have used these PMI products in your shop.  As always, Texsource has the entire product line in stock at all of our US locations, ready to ship.  Contact us if you would like to try some of these PMI tapes in your shop - we can arrange sample products to be sent to you to try out.  You will not find a better deal anywhere than you can get here at Texsource, the largest distributor of screen printing equipment and supplies in the US!

The Case For a 4 Color 4 Station Press for Startups

Posted by Jason Cabaniss - Outside Sales on 3/23/2016

If you are just starting out in screen printing, the choice of screen printing equipment available can be overwhelming, but a good 4 color-4 station press will likely prove to be a worthwhile investment for you.

It is the age old argument - you want to buy the best and most versatile and feature-rich screen printing equipment that you can, but when you are just starting out you often must stretch whatever budget you have across multiple pieces of equipment needed to get your shop up and running.  A 4 color-4 station press (Ill call it a 4-4 in this article for brevity) makes an excellent choice for a starter screen printing press for several reasons, and here are a few.  

For most screen printing businesses, athletic seasons are the busiest time of the year as printing athletic apparel represents the better part of their livelihood.  A 4-4 press is almost ideal for most athletic printing jobs because the vast majority of team jerseys across most sports will use a 1 or 2-color front and a 1 or 2-color back.  Assuming the latter (a 2 color front and back), a 4-4 press will allow all needed screens and stations to complete the entire jersey.  you can print-flash-print the front, run through the dryer to cure, then repeat the process for the back and you are done.  Once you get your registration and alignment correct you won't have to deal with it again through the completion of the job.  

As customers are charged more for each additional color, you may find that budget-minded customers prefer a simple 1 or 2-color print job (front or front and back).  Again, the entire job can be completed on this screen printing press.

companies like Vastex offer a variety of 4-4 presses in both tabletop and freestanding models

But what if the job is bigger?  Well, a 4-4 screen printing press is obviously plenty of press for a 4-color process print job, just set one station up for each layer of the print.  With this technique you are not really limited at all to any amount of colors - use the four color process printing technique and achieve nearly photo-quality results.  

Best of all the 4-4 press is affordable and selection is plentiful.  You will find presses at Texsource available from industry leading manufacturers like Workhorse, Vastex, BBC, Brown, and Genesis equipment companies, all featuring their own feature set to cater to your specific needs.  If financing is an issue, Texsource can help you there too.  We offer screen printing equipment financing for many equipment purchases for qualified buyers.  And with your equipment purchase you always get the service that Texsource is known for - the best service in the industry with the most experiences sales and support staff.  

When you are ready and considering purchasing a new screen printing press, contact us and let us talk shop with you!