Posts Tagged ‘Sportswear’

The Best Lightweight Fabrics for Sports Clothes

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Over the years sports clothes have developed in leaps and bounds and, with new innovations and trends introduced on an ongoing basis, team clothing in South Africa will continue to evolve. New lightweight fabrics with added enhancements allow sportsmen and women to perform at their optimum without any discomfort.

It’s quite unbelievable to think that tennis players in the 1920’s were expected to play top flight matches in long skirts and trousers, or that the leading golfers of the day could still manage a birdie or two making a drive in tight, form-fitting jackets!

One simply has to compare two unequivocal greats of the swimming pool to see how far sports apparel has developed. The 1920’s world champion, Johnny Weissmuller, won 5 Olympic gold medals and 1 bronze in a cumbersome, full-piece swimsuit made out of heavy, water absorbent wool while current legend, Michael Phelps, claimed 14 gold medals attired in a streamline spandex suit.

It was really the introduction of synthetic materials that changed the look and feel of sportswear and if we take a close look at the vast majority of sports clothing worn today, it is spandex that has arguably had the greatest impact.

Also known as elastane, spandex is classified as an elastometric fibre, or quite simply a fibre or material that is able to expand over 500% without breaking. The additional wonder of this technically-bred super-fibre is its ability to recover to its original size when not in use.

Spandex, an anagram of expand, first took the world by storm as the preferred attire of the superheroes like Superman and Batman but was soon embraced by our current heroes and heroines: the athletes of the modern world. Swimmers, gymnasts and figure skaters wear spandex to great effect – even our cricketers wear spandex undergarments on the field.

Apart from its ability to stretch and recover to the original shape and form, spandex is

Another miracle material is mircrofibre, a synthetic material made from fibre with a denier (unit of measure of the linear mass density of fibres) of 1 or less. It is generally made from polyesters, nylon or both and is an extremely popular alternative to cotton.

This ‘nineties’ material is really quite remarkable and its wickability, or the ability to spread out any moisture so that it can easily pass through the fabric’s surface, is one if its greatest assets. Other major benefits of wearing microfibre include

A final material that continues to attract fans is calico, a natural material derived from cotton that is often unprocessed. Also known as muslin or mutton cloth, calico is both inexpensive and readily available. It is soft, breathable, durable and absorbent and if we have to take our carbon footprint into account, it’s clear which fabric should ideally be chosen by environ-friendly sportsmen and women.

Various Printing Options on Your Outfits

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

If you are searching for things such as children’s apparel, sports apparel, and other types of clothing, online clothing stores have various items available that can be personalized.  Now how do you get started with ordering your product?  With online clothing stores, you have several options available to you in order to customize your product.  Here’s how it works.

One such method that is probably the most commonly used is called screen printing.  Screen printing creates somewhat of a tiny inscription into the clothing in which the color ink is filled into. It can be applied to most every color of clothing, whether it’s white, black, or anything in between, and will not be affected by the garment’s colors.

Transfers are also popular, though used less frequently than screen printing due the fact that they’re less resistant to washing and fading.  Transfer paper is a thin sheet of paper which the object is directly printed onto.  The paper is placed face down on the garment, and the object is transferred via large amounts of heat.   A press is one way of doing this, and involves a large device that creates extreme amounts of heat and pressure to relay the image onto the garment.  Of course this can also be done by simply using a household iron as well, though it will likely take a bit longer.

Another method of creating personalization on garments is direct-to-garment printing.  Direct-to-garment is very permanent, and highly resistant to washing, fading, and other forms of discoloration.  The downside is that this can only be done on lightly colored fabrics, as darker colors will affect the color of the ink being used.

Another such method of personalization and likely the most exquisite is embroidery.  Embroidery stands out where the other methods of personalization do not, as embroidery is done with different colored threads.  Usually the embroidered design is created by a type of sewing machine, which in most cases is computerized.  Consequently, the detail can be quite stunning, and 3-dimensional.  Items that are commonly embroidered into clothing can include logos (i.e. business logos), sports team names, etc.

Online clothing stores offers personalization on most of their products, whether you’re buying sports wear, children’s wear, or anything else.  Products that can be customized are noted with a button at the virtual checkout counter, which allows you to determine the method of personalization, color, type, etc.  You’ll be given a variety of different options to choose from, in some cases including things such as size, location of personalization (on the garment), and other pertinent items.

Embroidery can be quoted instantly and directly on the site by using the embroidery calculation.  You may find this link directly from the online marketing stores home page.  The calculator offers discounts at various levels of purchase (i.e. 100 items), which will allow you to determine an exact quote.