You often hear the term “cycling clothing – or custom cycling clothing” when you’re looking for your own kit. However, cycling clothing is not actually “customized” anymore. Customization nowadays involves “heat transfer” or “screen printing”. With these methods, logos are pressed onto pre-existing garments. Football shirts with your own name are a good example of these printing techniques. Within a few days, you’ll have your printed shirt at home. If you run your finger over your name, you can actually feel the letters on the fabric. However, this is not ideal for triathlon, running, or cycling clothing. The letters on your football shirt are vulnerable and can peel off over time. Imagine putting a logo or letters on stretchy cycling clothing – they would quickly tear. So, when it comes to cycling clothing, we need to look for something stronger and more durable.<\/p>\n
We’re not specifically talking about “printing” cycling clothing. Sublimation printing is often used for cycling clothing. With sublimation, you actually print your colors and logos into a piece of fabric. Because sublimation presses the ink onto the polyester under pressure and heat, it bonds to the fiber itself. This allows you to print any color and makes the kit much stronger and more durable. Next to that, the biggest advantage is that you can print almost all colors, shapes, and designs onto your clothing. No more faded logos, faded colors, or damaged letters. And even better, you won’t be able to feel the colors and logos on your clothing.<\/p>\n
In the past, cycling clothing was mainly printed. With the letters and logos of sponsors on the clothing, similar to your football shirt. Perhaps you still remember how athletes rode around in woolen jerseys with white stick-on letters. Since the introduction of polyester materials in the cycling world, sublimation has become the norm. With sublimation, all colors and logos are printed on a white base fabric. Some teams have used sublimation to create extremely eye-catching and loud kits. They’ll tell you that media attention is worth it. Other teams opted for nice basic colors and fine details. Cycling really became commercial when polyester with sublimation came into play. Suddenly, every part of your outfit could be colored exactly as you wanted. And, of course, even more importantly, sponsor names could now be placed anywhere. Money must roll for a cycling team!<\/p>\n