Dye-Sublimation Printing

Sublimated Hockey Jerseys, Printed Into the Fiber

RunHockey Apparel manufactures sublimated hockey jerseys for the artwork other decoration routes cannot carry: gradient retail collections, all-over club designs with per-player names and numbers, and printed lines added beside blank stock. The dye enters the polyester fiber while the cloth is still flat — before any panel is cut — so nothing sits on the surface to crack, peel, or wash away. This page covers what the route reproduces, the five limits stated up front, and what your file needs before printing.

Send Artwork for a Feasibility Reply Read the Five Hard Limits First

140–220gsm, three polyester bases

7–10days, printed sample

2free sample revision rounds

12hbusiness-hour reply

The Route Itself

Sublimation Printing — Dye Bonded Inside the Fiber, Not on Top

A sublimation print begins as a full-size transfer sheet carrying your artwork in reverse. That sheet meets the polyester fabric on the digital sublimation line, and under heat the solid dye converts straight to vapor. Heat also opens the polyester's polymer structure, so the vapor travels into the fiber rather than drying on its face. When the fabric leaves the press and cools, the dye is sealed inside the yarn.

Five consequences follow — and every one is something you can verify with your own hands or your own laundry:

Rub the printNothing to feel: No film, no ink layer, no edge — your fingers read fabric everywhere, printed areas or not. The artwork-effects section below shows what that zero added hand makes possible.
Wash itNothing to strip: Detergent and agitation work on the fiber, and the color is part of that fiber — laundering has no coating to lift. The color-control section covers wash life.
Check the fabric contentPolyester only: The dye needs a polymer it can enter, which is why this route runs on polyester. The fabric-base section lists the three bases we print.
Look at the base colorLight ground required: Dye adds color to what is already there and cannot cover a dark ground — sublimated jerseys start from white or light fabric. The limits section states this plainly.
Ask when it printsBefore any panel is cut: The garment is assembled from already-printed cloth, so the artwork must be complete first. The production-sequence section explains what that locks and what it frees.

This is also why sublimation and cut-and-sew production belong together. Printing needs flat fabric; sewing needs printed panels. This floor runs both, so the cloth moves from press to cutting table to sewing line as one continuous flow.

Each of the five checks on the left lights the part of the fiber it proves.

Artwork being printed onto flat polyester fabric on the sublimation line — the fiber takes the dye before any panel is cut — The print happens on flat cloth — never on a sewn garment.

What This Route Carries

Artwork Effects Only Sublimation Carries — Gradients, All-Over, Cross-Seam

Some artwork only exists as a sublimation job. Buyers bring these effects to this route because no other decoration method produces them.

Dye in continuous tonal range — a gradient prints as a single image because dye density varies continuously across the print

Gradients and Fades

Dye density varies continuously across the print, so a crest that dissolves into the body color, or a sleeve that fades from one team color into another, prints as a single image. Cut fabric and thread cannot blend; print can.

All-over printed fabric — the design runs to the cut line of every panel, with no undecorated margin

Edge-to-Edge Coverage

The design prints to the cut line of every panel, so the finished garment carries artwork across its entire surface — shoulders, side panels, underarms — with no undecorated margin.

Printed panels being cut from printed cloth at planned coordinates, so a stripe continues from one panel onto the next

Artwork That Crosses Seams

Body and sleeve panels come off the same print file at planned coordinates, so a stripe or graphic continues from one panel onto the next. The join itself is a sewn seam — continuity is planned at the file stage and held within normal sewing alignment. Pixel-exact continuation across a join is not promised, and any supplier who promises it is overselling.

Any color count in one pass — no screens, no per-color passes; a many-color design and a two-color design take the same single step on the print line.
Per-piece names and numbers — personalization is a row in the print file, not a new setup; a full roster personalizes inside the same run as the team design.
Zero added hand — nothing is stitched, pressed, or layered onto the garment, so decorated areas feel identical to undecorated ones — the reason sublimation suits garments worn hard and washed weekly.

Sublimation prints on flat cloth. Nothing about the process happens on a sewn garment.

The press meets fabric. It never meets a finished jersey.

Stated Before You Order

Sublimation's Five Hard Limits — Stated Before You Order

Every decoration route has edges. These are ours, stated before you spend a sampling round — a design that hits one of these limits needs a different route or a design change, and the sample stage is an expensive place to find that out.

1 · True White Cannot Be Printed

White in your artwork is fabric left unprinted — not a color we lay down. There is no white dye in sublimation. On a white base, white elements read correctly. On any colored base, the "white" in your file comes out as the base color — so white elements in a design must sit on white ground, and that ground is a fabric decision, not a print setting.

2 · Polyester Only

The dye bonds into polyester polymer. Cotton and high natural-fiber blends take the color weakly and release it in the wash. Every sublimated garment here runs on one of three polyester bases; there is no cotton-rich version of this route to bend around the requirement.

3 · Dark Bases Cannot Carry Light Designs

Dye adds color; it cannot subtract. A light graphic over a deep ground is not a print problem that pressure or time can tune away — that design belongs to dyed panels or applied decoration, and we say so at the file review rather than print a muddy proof.

4 · Nothing Moves After the Cloth Is Printed

Printing happens before cutting. A sewn jersey cannot be re-printed, and an element placed on the file cannot be nudged on the garment. A change after print approval means printing again — which is why the sample carries the weight it does in the sequence.

5 · The Result Is Flat

Sublimation carries no raised surface. Where a program wants the dimensional, layered read of stitched twill or embroidered thread, that element belongs to those routes — the comparison section below shows how the routes split a garment cleanly.

A light polyester base cloth — sublimated designs start from white or light fabric because dye adds color and cannot subtract it — Every sublimated design starts from a white or light polyester ground.

Color reference cards — color is matched against a coded reference or a physical sample, not against an on-screen appearance — Critical colors are matched against a coded or physical reference at sampling.

Fabric Bases

Polyester Bases for Sublimation — Air Knit, Double-Knit, Mesh

All three registered fabric bases are polyester, so all three take sublimation. The choice between them is a garment decision — weight, texture, airflow — not a printability decision.

Air Knit Polyester

160–180 gsm — the standard jersey body. The open knit takes full-coverage print and is the default base for sublimated game jerseys.

Double-Knit Polyester

200–220 gsm — the heavier build, used for hockey practice jerseys and programs that want a denser hand.

Mesh Polyester

140–160 gsm — vent panels, side inserts, and hockey sock bodies: anywhere airflow matters more than weight.

One honest note on color: the same print file renders slightly differently on an open air knit than on a dense double-knit, because the fibers present different surface area to the dye. When a kit spans bases, the print is calibrated per fabric toward your single approved reference — that per-fabric calibration is detailed on hockey socks.

Air knit polyester — the open-knit standard jersey body that takes full-coverage print

Double-knit polyester — the heavier, denser build for practice jerseys

Mesh polyester — the ventilated base for side inserts and hockey sock bodies

Four Routes, One Floor

Decoration Route Comparison — Sublimation, Twill, Embroidery, Heat Transfer

Four decoration routes run on this floor, and most decorated programs use more than one. This is the honest split.

Route	Sublimation	Tackle Twill	Embroidery	Heat Transfer
Owns	Multi-color artwork: gradients, all-over coverage, photographic elements, per-piece personalization.	Solid-color marks that need body: numbers, wordmarks, crest shapes cut from twill and stitched down in layers.	Small stitched marks — a crest or sleeve logo where thread texture is the point.	Names and numbers applied to finished garments.
Result in Hand	Flat. Nothing sits on the surface; printed areas feel identical to unprinted ones.	Raised, layered edge that print cannot reproduce.	Thread builds relief, but cannot render a gradient or hold fine detail at small size.	A film layer on the garment's surface.
When It Is the Answer	The design carries many colors, blends, or full coverage — and it is locked before cutting, on polyester.	The mark is applied after sewing, so placement answers to the garment's seams rather than a print file. The deep-dive page for this route is in preparation: tackle twill and embroidered hockey jerseys.	A small mark where stitched texture itself is the design statement.	Late roster additions after the run is sewn.

Combining routes on one garment is standard practice here, not a compromise. A sublimated body carrying a twill crest and twill numbers is one of the most common builds shipped from this floor, with the print planned around where the applied pieces will land. If the question is which route fits a whole jersey program — rather than how this one route works — the method-selection view sits on custom hockey jerseys.

Stitched decoration being applied — twill and embroidery build a raised, layered mark that print cannot reproduce — Twill and embroidery: raised, layered, stitched down.

A print stencil being handled — printed routes lay color as a flat image, and sublimation carries it inside the fiber — Printed routes lay color flat; sublimation carries it inside the fiber.

Send the artwork, get a route answer.

The file you have today, rough quantities, and the date that matters — a feasibility reply comes back within 12 business hours.

Send the Artwork Check the File Requirements

Print, Then Cut, Then Sew

Printing Flat Fabric Before Cutting — What the Sequence Locks and Frees

Every visual decision on a sublimated jersey is final before the first panel is cut. Artwork is approved, transfer sheets are printed, fabric is printed flat, panels are cut from printed cloth — and only then does sewing begin.

Stage 1 · Print — what it locks

Position Is a File Coordinate

The crest's height on the chest, the angle of a sleeve stripe, the landing spot of every number — all of it is fixed the moment the transfer is printed. That is why the printed sample is treated as the decision point: approve it, and every piece in the run repeats it exactly.

Stage 2 · Cut — panels from printed cloth

No Keep-Clear Zones

Printing has no keep-clear zones. Applied decoration must respect seams, collar structures, and reinforced areas; print respects nothing, because nothing has been sewn yet. Artwork can run under the arm, over the shoulder, across the side panel — through any place a seam will later go.

Stage 3 · Sew — what it means for changes

Edits Get Expensive in Order

A revision before printing is a file edit. A revision after printing is a reprint. A revision after sewing is a new garment. The review is front-loaded for exactly this reason — the cheapest place to move a crest is on the screen.

The sample exists so that everything after it is repetition, not interpretation. Placement, color reads, and per-panel files are all settled while a change still costs nothing but a file edit.

Panel files being prepared — position on a sublimated jersey is a file coordinate decided before printing — Position is decided on the file, not on the garment.

Sewing begins only after panels are cut from already-printed cloth — Sewing starts only after the cloth is printed and cut.

Before We Print

Sublimation Artwork File Requirements — Bleed, Resolution, Color Builds

The general tech-pack rules — vector sources, color codes, font files, and the mistakes that most often bounce a submission — live on custom hockey jerseys and apply here unchanged. What follows is only what sublimation adds.

Bleed past every cut lineBackgrounds, stripes, gradients: Any artwork that touches a panel edge must extend beyond it. A design that stops exactly at the cut line risks a sliver of unprinted base showing at the seam once the panel is sewn. Extend every element past the edge of every panel it touches — the cut should happen inside printed color, never on the boundary of it.
Raster elements at final-size resolutionGradients and photographs: A raster that looks sharp on screen can break apart at garment scale. Supply raster content at effective resolution for the final printed size of each element — a back number and a full-front graphic are very different amounts of image. Sharp-edged elements — wordmarks, numbers, crest outlines — stay vector for exactly this reason.
Colors as builds, not appearancesCoded references or CMYK: On-screen color and on-fabric color are different renderings of the same file, and the gap between them is normal rather than a defect — the printed sample exists to close it before bulk. If a critical color must land exactly, send the code or a physical reference and it is matched at sampling.

Panel preparation tools — artwork that touches a panel edge must extend past it, so the cut happens inside printed color — The cut should land inside printed color — never on its boundary.

A fan of color reference cards — colors are supplied as coded references or defined builds, then matched against fabric at sampling — Colors arrive as codes or physical references — the sample closes the gap between screen and fabric.

Color on a Sublimated Run

Color Control on a Sublimated Run — Reference, Batches, Wash Life

Color on a sublimated order is controlled at three points.

The Approved Sample Is the Reference

Whatever you sign off at sampling — the red of the crest, the exact depth of the body color — becomes the physical target for the run. Production does not print against your file's on-screen appearance; it prints against the piece you approved.

Batches Are Checked at the Press, Not After Sewing

During the run, printed output is compared against the approved reference before panels move to cutting. A drift caught at the press costs a transfer sheet; the same drift caught at final inspection costs panels. And because the print file and the approved reference are frozen together at sign-off, a reorder starts from the same color target as the first run.

Wash Life Is a Fabric Property, Not a Print Property

Because the color lives inside the polyester, laundering acts on the yarn itself — there is no applied layer for the wash to lift, crack, or peel away, and printed names and numbers cannot delaminate because nothing was ever laminated. The garment's color life tracks the fabric's life. Where a program needs that verified on paper rather than asserted, finished garments can go to a third-party laboratory for colorfastness, shrinkage, and pilling tests under your specified standard, with reports available on request.

Third-party laboratory testing — colorfastness, shrinkage, and pilling reports against your specified standard, available on request — Colorfastness, shrinkage, and pilling — lab reports against your named standard, on request.

Who Prints With This Route

Programs Built on Sublimation — Five Buyer Types, Five Design Patterns

Apparel Brands

The design-heavy work: seasonal collections with photographic elements, gradient colorways, full-coverage prints that must read identically across a size run. Private-label programs add their own neck labels and packaging on top of the printed garment.

Hockey Clubs & Team Buyers

The crest-and-roster combination: one club design carrying a crest, sponsor marks, and a different name and number per player, in home and away versions of the same artwork system.

Distributors

A printed line beside blank stock — sublimated designs give the catalog a decorated option without holding decoration equipment.

Teamwear Agents

Client programs where one artwork system spans jersey, hockey socks, and pant shells and reads as one design on the ice — the kit-level view sits on hockey uniforms.

Decoration Shops

Fully finished sublimated garments when a client's design exceeds what their own presses produce — the garment arrives ready to deliver, with no finishing step left in their shop.

Printed fabric in varied colorways — one artwork system prints identically across a full size run — One artwork system, identical across the size run.

A worker finishing printed garments — decoration shops receive fully finished pieces with no step left in their own shop — Fully finished garments — no decoration step left in your shop.

Order Timing

Sublimation Order Timing — Samples 7–10 Days, Bulk 25–35 From Sign-Off

Sublimation front-loads its decoration work. Placement decisions, per-panel files, and color proofing all happen before cutting — which means they happen inside the sampling window, not inside bulk production.

The Sampling Window

A printed sample runs 7–10 days from a complete tech pack, and two revision rounds on that sample carry no added sampling charge. The clock starts from complete inputs, not from first contact — artwork that needs redrawing or color references still in transit pause the start. Use both revision rounds: the sample is where color reads are confirmed against fabric and placement is judged on a real garment, and it is the last point where a change is a file edit.

The Bulk Window

Bulk production runs 25–35 days from sample sign-off. Because the design was resolved before approval, the bulk window is repetition — printing, cutting, sewing, checking — without interpretation stops. Where a season start compresses the calendar, an accelerated window of 18–20 days is possible with production scheduling confirmed in advance; ask for it at inquiry, not after sign-off.

The full factory-side sequence after approval — scheduling across the lines, in-process checks, final inspection, packing — belongs to custom hockey jersey manufacturing.

One Roof

One Building, One Flow

Printed cloth moves from the sublimation press to the cutting table without leaving the building — and that physical fact has three consequences a buyer can actually use.

A Revision Never Leaves the Building

A placement fix after sampling is a file edit walked from the review desk to the press — not an email chain between a print vendor and a sewing factory in two different places. The people who printed the sample are the people who print the run.

A Color Question Closes on the Same Batch

When printed output is compared against the approved reference, the comparison happens meters from the press that made it. A drift is caught and corrected while the cloth is still on the table — before it becomes cut panels, let alone sewn jerseys.

A Problem Has a Physical Address the Same Day

The printed panels, the cut pieces, and the sewn garments of your order all sit on one floor. When a question comes up mid-run, inspection can hold the actual pieces that day — not a photo requested from a subcontractor and returned next week.

A worker inspecting printed fabric on the same floor that prints, cuts, and sews it — every stage of the order holds a physical address in one building — Print, cut, sew, and inspect — every stage of one order, on one floor.

What to Send

Sublimation Inquiry Checklist — What to Send for a Feasibility Reply

An inquiry that answers these gets a route answer and a feasibility read within 12 business hours; a quote follows within 24 hours once the tech pack is complete.

The artwork you actually have — vector if it exists, the best available file if it does not. Redrawing is a step, not a rejection.
Color references — codes where you hold them, a physical sample where you do not.
Garment scope — jerseys only, or jerseys with hockey socks and shells in the same artwork system.
Counts and cuts — rough quantities, and whether the run includes the hockey goalie cut.
Personalization — a roster with names and numbers, or one team design across all pieces.
Your calendar — the date the garments need to be in hand, so we can tell you honestly whether the windows above fit it.

Start Here

Send a Sublimated Hockey Jersey Inquiry

This page exists so that no buyer spends a sampling round discovering a limit that could have been stated in an email. Send your artwork and rough counts through the form; the first reply tells you which route we would run, which base we would print it on, and whether any of the five limits above touches your design.

With a complete tech pack, the quote follows within 24 hours. If the checklist above is only half-answerable today, send it anyway — the reply asks only for what is missing.

Printed garments moving through production — every sublimated design is sampled and approved before bulk

The first reply names the route we would run, the base we would print on, and any limit that touches your design.
Every design is printed as a sample and approved by you before bulk — two revision rounds carry no added sampling charge.
A quote follows within 24 hours once the tech pack is complete.