How we make it
Six ways to put a design on a garment, and the reasons to pick one
Most quotes hide this decision inside a price. It is worth understanding, because it determines what your design can look like, what it will feel like to wear, and how it will age. These pages explain each method plainly, including where it is the wrong choice.
- 01 Sublimation printing Colour turned to gas and bonded into the fibre. Nothing sits on the surface, so nothing can crack or peel.
- 02 Tackle twill Cut fabric letters and numbers stitched onto the garment. The traditional look, and the only one that can be repaired.
- 03 Embroidery Thread stitched directly into the garment. The right choice for crests, caps and anything on fleece.
- 04 Screen printing Ink pushed through a mesh, one colour at a time. Still the best value for large runs of simple designs.
- 05 Heat transfer vinyl Cut vinyl pressed onto a finished garment. The fastest route to a name and number on a shirt.
- 06 Cut and sew Garments built from flat panels rather than decorated after the fact. It is what makes everything else possible.
Why this decision is usually made for you
Most quotes for custom kit arrive with the decoration already chosen and never explained. That is rarely dishonesty; it is that most suppliers own one process. A printer recommends printing, an embroidery shop recommends embroidery, and a dealer recommends whatever their supplier stocks — each giving the best answer available to them rather than the best answer.
The consequence lands on the buyer. A squad of eighteen with a four-colour design gets quoted for four screen setups and is then asked, gently, whether the design could lose a colour — when the same design costs nothing extra as dye bonded into the fibre at heat, and the simplification was never necessary.
Running all six ourselves is what makes it possible to say that out loud, including when it costs us the more expensive job. It is also why these pages carry the limits — what sublimation cannot do, what embroidery loses below 5mm, where vinyl fails — rather than only the capabilities.
If you are choosing on cost rather than on look, the shape of each method's pricing matters more than its name, and the trade-offs are compared directly in our post on which method a fixed budget actually wants.
How to choose, in one table
| If this is true | The method is usually | Because |
|---|---|---|
| More than two colours, team-sized run | Sublimation | Colour is free; every other method charges per colour or per layer |
| One colour, two hundred garments | Screen printing | One setup spread across the run — nothing else comes close on cost |
| A crest on fleece or a cap | Embroidery | Print struggles on pile and on curved panels; thread does not |
| A traditional baseball or varsity look | Tackle twill | Nothing else reproduces layered fabric, and it can be repaired |
| Six shirts needed this week | Heat transfer vinyl | No setup, and it applies to a garment that already exists |
| Any colour, trim per panel, design across a seam | Cut and sew | The garment is built from printed panels rather than decorated after |
Most real orders mix two — a sublimated body with stitched numbers is the commonest combination we produce — and that is worth asking for by name rather than accepting whichever single method a quote happened to arrive in.
All of it under one roof
A supplier who only prints will recommend printing. Running every method ourselves is what lets us tell a team when the cheaper one is also the better one, and the reasoning behind each decision is set out across our practical guides to ordering custom kit.
Talk to ZEE Sports WearQuestions we get asked
How many decoration methods do you run?
Six, all in our own factory rather than through a subcontractor. That is the reason we can tell a program the cheaper method is also the better one for their design — there is no version of that advice where we lose.
Which method should we choose?
For most playing kit, sublimation: unlimited colour at no extra cost, and it does not fail as decoration because the colour is inside the fibre. Stitching and twill earn their place on garments looked at closely, like jackets.
Does an extra colour cost more?
In sublimation, no — a twelve-colour design costs what a two-colour design costs. In every other method, yes, because each colour is a separate operation repeated on every garment.
Which method lasts longest?
Sublimation, and not narrowly, because the colour is in the fibre rather than on it. What eventually ages is the fabric around the print. Anything sitting on the surface can lift at an edge.
Why is heat transfer vinyl still offered then?
Because it is fast and cheap for small numbers and short-lived needs — a one-off tournament set, a name added mid-season. We are clear that it is season-long decoration rather than durable, which is a legitimate thing to buy knowingly.
Can methods be combined on one garment?
Yes, and it is common: a sublimated design with a twill name or number on top. It costs more than print alone and less than a fully stitched garment, which is frequently the right place to land.
Does the fabric limit the method?
It limits sublimation specifically, which bonds to polyester and not to cotton. If a program has already committed to a cotton-rich garment, part of the decision has been made for them.
Which method holds a corporate colour best?
Sublimation, which is why sponsor marks are printed in almost every case. It reproduces a Pantone exactly and does not lift at the corner, which is where a pressed sponsor logo fails first.
Do different methods change the lead time?
Twill lettering and embroidery run longer than printing, because they are additional operations rather than a different setting. Tell us early if that is what you want, rather than at proof stage.
Will you tell us if we are choosing wrong?
Yes, including when the wrong choice is the more expensive one. We would rather argue about method before production than explain a lifted number in week three.