Playing the Athletic Market Embroidery Project

If you don’t currently embroider it, you might be surprised by how athletic wear has changed since you were in school. Don’t worry - letter jackets are still popular, baseball teams still wear their numbers on their backs and football teams still wear travel shirts on the bus. These and other traditional mainstays of the market still abound, but colors, designs and decorating techniques have been updated.

It’s a Big Playing Field

Why should you get familiar with athletic apparel? According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, North Palm Beach FL, sales volume of sports apparel (excluding footwear) increased last year by 3%. With $37 Billion in sales, these numbers translate to a sizable market for embroiderers, because a hefty percentage of athletic apparel is decorated with embroidery or appliqué. Of course, screen printing remains a big influence in the embellishment and personalization of sports apparel, but over the past decade, embroidery has continued to steadily gain market share.

The Feminine Factor

It’s true that women and girls are having an impact on the athletic world, and it’s being reflected in the offering of athletic wear manufacturers.

Sleeveless softball jerseys, some with two-button placket treatment or stylish V-necklines, are popular. As in corporate apparel, ladies have been vocal about wanting apparel styled and fitted just for them. Apparently sales have been sufficient to keep manufacturers introducing more styles for women.

In fact, there are indicators that manufacturers in a variety of segments are paying more attention to the female athlete. For example, Legsource, a website hosted by the Hosiery Technology Center in Hickory, NC, relates, "One of the biggest trends in the sports sector for spring 2002 were athletic socks constructed specifically for women's feet. Women's feet are shaped differently than men's and therefore their socks need to be constructed differently, manufacturers said."

The Color of Pride

	Traditional colors are still popular, but there is also a trend toward brighter colors, and different combinations. Photo courtesy of SanMar.

The traditional colors of sports apparel are still prominent, such as royal blue, kelly green, purple, scarlet and gold. But professional sports teams and changing color trends in other apparel markets have had an influence on some lines of athletic wear.

With professional baseball teams using colors like teal and silver and navy blue, such trendy schemes are imitated by Little League and high school teams alike.

Still, it can be challenging to find garments in any but the most popular color combinations. Because many teams include white or silver in their color scheme, this can be used as a base color with the other colors in the embroidery.

If you embroider white garments for athletic use, it’s wise to embroider with polyester thread. These garments will probably be bleached, and polyester thread is the only type that will withstand bleaching and hold its color.

Fabrics

Much of today’s active apparel is made of highly engineered performance fabrics. Designed to be keep the wearer warm or cool, dry and comfortable, these fabrics are often lightweight yet strong. Fabrics such as CoolMax®, Supplex®, Tactel ® and Thermolite® require special handling when applying embroidery. These fabrics are made of strong synthetic fibers, woven in a high thread count. The resulting fabric can be tough for certain needle types to penetrate cleanly, and the resulting embroidery may appear puckered even when a loose tension and appropriate stabilizer is used.

The most popular needle among commercial embroiderers is the size 75/11 light ball point. While this needle is suited to many types of woven fabrics, however it is not the best choice for embroidering lightweight high tech athletic fabrics.

A regular sharp point needle, also called a round point, will work on these fabrics, particularly when a small blade diameter, such as size 70, is used. The more slender point of the acute round point needle may slide even more easily through closely woven yarns.

On the other end of the athletic fabric spectrum, we have Cordura® and other heavy coated fabrics used for gear bags. These get the team logo as well as highly profitable individual names, so it’s important to master good technique on this fabric. Although you could use a standard needle on this fabric, better results may be obtained by using a size 80 needle, to help reduce the possibility of the needle being deflected when it strikes the tough stuff. A sharp point will make a cleaner penetration, giving a cleaner finish on design edges.

Holey-Moley

Mesh jerseys have traditionally been decorated with heat-applied numbers and letters, and embroidery was limited to sew-on patches and nameplates. Direct embroidery is now becoming more common, and while it may seem an illogical embroidery surface, good results are possible.

Embroidery designs with solid coverage work best on mesh. If you must apply lettering, place a base of fill stitches behind the letters. Beneath the fabric, hoop in a piece of stable cutaway stabilizer. Then, pretend like you are embroidering the stabilizer and the mesh is just getting in the way. This mental concept is helpful when embroidering many delicate fabrics; just remember that the properties of the cutaway stabilizer should be compatible with the properties of the fabric.

Designs Elements Smaller designs have a tendency to be more cofortable for the wearer. Photo courtesy of SanMar. The current trend is toward smaller designs, such as left chest embroidery on items like coaches shirts and team travel shirts. This runs counter to the trend of a few years ago when bigger was always seen as better. Such things do run in cycles, and we will likely see larger motifs again soon. For designs on the back of jackets, warm-ups and other large format uses, appliqué is a common solution that is well-suited for athletic embroidery. For one thing, it is lighter and more comfortable to the wearer than a large chunk of solid embroidery. It’s easy to do appliqué for teams with precut letters and stitch files from lettering companies like Dalco and Stahl’s. There are two basic programs, and here’s how each works. In the first scenario, Dalco Athletic’s Stock Stitch® program allows you to program a word, words or present symbols on your own. Then, you order the necessary number of precut letters in the proper size, fabric and color from the company. The letters will perfectly fit the stitch file that you created on your computer. To use the other option, which can be provided by either Stahl’s or Dalco, send artwork to the lettering company. The artwork may include lettering as well as a design appliqué, such as a tiger head. The company will cut and ship the requested number of sets of appliques along with a stitch file for your embroidery machine for a small additional charge. If you have never done appliqué, here is how it works. The machine stitches an outline of running stitches that serves as a target for your precut pieces. The machine stops after the target has been stitched, and the precut fabric, which has been sprayed with embroidery adhesive, is placed inside the stitches like a puzzle piece. The machine is restarted and a border is stitched around the appliqué to permanently secure it to the garment. For special projects, you can have the lettering supply company keep your fabric and back it with the special coatings used for appliqué elements. In this way, you can make very special coordinating team and spirit wear. Because standard appliqué fabrics, such as polyester twill, can be very tough to penetrate, you may experience fewer thread breaks using polyester thread for appliqué.

Lettering Fonts for Athletic Wear

The most time-honored fonts in the world of athletics are full block and brush script. These fonts are bold, easy to read and have a strong impact. You can set your work apart by introducing fresher bold fonts into the mix. Although brush script has a casual flair, full block is very rigid. So more casual block fonts are usually well received by high school athletes.

Licensing Issues

Many types of youth leagues like to name their teams after professional teams that they admire or that are in their region. Stitching replicas of these licensed designs, or in some cases, even the verbiage, is a violation of copyright laws. If the teams insist on using professional team names and colors, suggest that they purchase licensed logo merchandise for their team.