With the growing popularity of athleisure and performance wear in the sporting goods industry, we are seeing more and more of the garments containing materials that present a challenge to the apparel decorating community in regards to heat transfer printing.
Sublimated apparel adds trouble to the printing mix because of the special dyes used during that specific printing process. In the end, when apparel decorators are trying to print on these types of fabrics, especially polyester, the apparel dyes tend to “migrate” through the finished design that was added to the garment.
What does this mean? Well, for example, your white letters on your red shirt end up being pink instead of white. This is known as dye migration.
Dye migration is when the ink “bleeds” through the ink or transfer that was applied to the garment. This happens because of the heat that is needed to cure the ink or apply the transfer during the screen printing or heat printing process.
However, the same heat will also “activate” the dyes used for coloring the apparel, especially in polyester fabrics. This will allow the dyes in the garment to start penetrating the ink used for decorating. It may not be visible immediately, and many times will become visible within several days after the decorating process occurs.
Dye migration is also very common among sublimated apparel. During the sublimating process, dyes are actually infused into a garment with the dyes being in a gaseous state. Heat will also activate these dyes back into a gas state, allowing the dye to bleed through your ink.
It is a similar concept of when you wash your clothes. If you add a red shirt in with your white shirt, especially in hot water, your white shirt will come out pink. So the most common culprits are the polyester fabric types, bright colors, and the dye process that was used, such as sublimation printing.
If you have these combination of factors, take careful measures to avoid dye migration from happening.
