Printed Hoodies and Sweatshirts in Seattle
Custom hoodies and sweatshirts are a staple of our print business. With our shop being located in Seattle naturally we print a lot of fleece. If you live in the Northwest you’re likely wearing fleece year around. We offer heavyweight styles that are great for the cold winter months as well as lighter weight styles that are great for layering and summer evenings. Amongst fabric weights there are several different fleece material configurations that promote properties like wickability for performance or water and wind resistance.
There are a lot of styles on the market to choose from, we are big fans of Independent Trading and Beimar fleece because of their finer construction and more modern fits. When it comes to hoodies and sweatshirts a little higher quality goes a long way and doesn’t always cost a lot more. You’ll also find that the higher quality fleece styles are going to take print better due to the finer face yarn of their knit.
There are many ways to print a hoodie or sweatshirt
Front, back and sleeves impressions are pretty common. Although a little more difficult we can print over the zipper placket and on the left chest of zip hoodies. We can print on the kangaroo pocket or on the hoods themselves if needed. We use transfers to print custom care and size information into the collar of the garments if the project calls for it and unless asked to do otherwise we always move the back print down on hoodies so the hood doesn’t cover the graphic.
Embroidery is also a popular way to embellish fleece garments such as sweatshirts and hoodies
Fleece takes embroidery really well because it has more structure than say a tee shirt. We have methods of using an underbase and increased pull compensation to make sure that fine details don’t get lost in the loft of the fleece. As far as locations you can embroider on a hoodie of sweatshirt the same pretty much applies as above. Front, back, sleeves are no problem, with hoods keep in mind that you can see the embroidery backing on the opposite side of the material.
Sewn Patches and Labels on Hoodies and Sweatshirts.
Custom woven labels and patches are a good look on fleece. I always liked the screen printed back and patch left chest combination for hoodies and sweatshirts. often. Small clip label on hoodie kangaroo pockets are popular and a simple flat woven label is a classy look on fleece crewnecks. We can also sew woven tags with size and garment care information into the collars of fleece for an elevated retail look.
Screen Printing on Hoodies is a lot like Screen Printing on Tees and often we can use the same setups for both.
Because of the loftier nature of fleece you’ll find that art with a lot of colors can be a little more difficult. Also printed images that contain high color counts are a challenge. With fleece being sensitive to heat it can shrink or become damaged from the temperatures needed to pre cure between colors.
From your basic hoodie with single color print to highly customized fleece projects that contain multiple types of embellishments. We have all the tools to guarantee the success of your next printed hoody and printed sweatshirt project.
Contact us for a quote today!
Common Fabric Types
Cotton is ideal for screen printing because it deforms less than synthetic fibers such as polyester, nylon and acrylic when exposed to the heat needed to cure screen printing inks. It is also the only fabric type that is fully compatible with water-based discharge printing.
Blend fabrics consist of cotton and other synthetic fibers such as polyester, acrylic or nylon. It is recommended that only plastisol screen printing systems be used on poly blend fabrics because the synthetic fibers use colorfast dyes that will not discharge. Some blends are more discharge compatible than others but testing should always be done before production.
Plastisol is the only screen printing ink system compatible with nylon and other waterproof fabrics. Nylabond additive is used to bond the plastisol to the nylon for a more durable and washable print. Because the melting temperature of nylon is close to the the curing point of plastisol ink some nylon prints must be manually flash cured, however our natural gas textile dryer is effective in most situations.
Garments that have 100% synthetic content are often referred to as performance fabrics because of their ability to wick moisture and dry quickly. Due to their hydrophobic nature only plastisol inks should be used to screen print these fabrics. The high amount of synthetic fibers and colorfast dyes require specially formulated inks to prevent dye migration from the garment to the screen printing ink.
With so many fabrics on the market we customize every job to the garment being printed. If customers choose to provide their own garments we strongly suggest they consult with our staff before purchasing them.
