Supplier Champro Sports (asi/44612) offers custom cut-and-sew sublimated uniforms, including a popular line of reversible garments. We spoke with Jim Dusbiber, promotional products sales manager, about the benefits of sublimation in the uniform market.

Q: Why is sublimation such a good decoration technique for uniforms?
Jim Dusbiber: It’s the pinnacle of quality in decoration. First, it allows for complete customization, with virtually limitless colors, textures and locations for names and logos. Second, it’s long-lasting. The ink is infused into the fabric, so it won’t crack, peel or fade like some other traditional decoration methods. Third, sublimation allows the garment to maintain its original characteristics, like moisture-wicking and stretch.

Q: What are the benefits of cut-and-sew sublimation?
JD: It provides total edge-to-edge decoration without gaps in ink coverage. One of our competitors uses a process that sublimates finished garments. They promote it as faster, but the garments end up crushed and have white streaks where the ink didn’t penetrate.

Q: Can you tell us about your online customer uniform builder and how it works?
JD: Distributors or end-users, like parents and coaches, can design the look of their uniforms or fan gear at Ub.champrosports.com. We made it a simple step-by-step process by choosing a style, designing the look of the uniform and providing the roster information (sizes, player number and name). The result is a completed order form in a PDF format that can be used to place the order. You can save and share designs by email.

Q: How did end-users react to your reversible uniforms?
JD: We added reversible uniforms to our basketball and lacrosse lines, and they’ve quickly become some of our best-sellers. Customers love that it’s a home-and-away jersey built into one uniform – it keeps things simple for the program. It’s also budget-friendly, as our reversible prices are less than the cost of buying two sets of uniforms. One of the challenges of typical reversible garments is that screen printing and twill decoration add a lot of extra weight. Sublimation provides more options without the additional weight.

Q: What else do athletes like about sublimated uniforms?
JD: Our athletes love having virtually unlimited options to customize their look. They also like that they’re easy to reorder. Many schools are on a limited budget, and they don’t order new sets every year. We print reference numbers on all our jerseys that customers can use to reorder additional pieces days, weeks, months or even years later. Lastly, our athletes appreciate that sublimated garments are lightweight. They want to be as fast as possible and less weight equals more speed.

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