Trends in Sublimation: New substrates, New Markets, New Customers

By Jimmy Lamb

How many times have you been told that sublimation only works on polyester? It’s one of those absolutes in the world of apparel decoration that no matter how hard you might have tried, you just couldn’t get around…until now.

New products have emerged that greatly expand the boundaries of apparel sublimation. It’s now possible to sublimate on non-polyester fabrics such as cotton. The bonding process is different from when applying images to polyester, but within certain parameters the doors have opened for sublimators to go above and beyond previous constraints.

Just to be clear, sublimation only bonds with polyester, so nothing has changed there. But when combining sublimation with certain third-party products that were engineered for use with specific sublimation dyes, you can successfully apply images to the surface of fabrics that have little or no polyester content. And when done correctly you still get the same quality of color and image details that you have long associated with the sublimation process.

And its not just about the fabric content. It’s now a reality that you can add sublimation to dark colored fabrics as well.

On top of that, some of these new materials make it possible to create custom applique products, as well as multi-media products.

Ultimately this means expand. In “New Trends in Apparel and Fabric Sublimation” on Thursday, October 24^th at 10:00am in Room C141, I will walk you through the latest trends in apparel and fabric sublimation. Learn five new methods for applying sublimation to a wide variety of non-polyester products that can generate expanded sales while drawing in new customers.