Hoodies are the most popular items of clothing preferred by people during colder weather. Their ease of use, versatility, and ability to keep the wearers warm without much fuss has ensured that they are an integral part of the winter wardrobe of a majority of people. In this context, custom printed hoodies are gaining much preferred over pre-printed ones as they enable wearers to flaunt their creativity and sense of style. Furthermore, hoodies customized using the screen printing technique are considered to be of a far better quality as compared to other methods of printing. However, there are some important aspects that individuals interested in having a screen printed hoodie customized as per their choice, need to be aware of.

Placement Of Design

Hoodies offer a great choice of options for placing the design selected by the individuals. At the same time, some features of hoodies can interfere with screen printing, which is why it is important for the wearers to carefully consider the placement of the design for getting the desired look. They should configure the design so that it is not impacted by the features of the hoodie or impact the general appeal of the design itself. For example, printing a design across the front of a zipped-up hoodie might require the design to be broken into two parts vertically with a slight gap in the middle. In the case of hoodies with multiple features such as zippers, kangaroo pockets, and collars, it is better to choose simpler and compact designs that are easier to print.

Choice Of The Garment

Most hoodies available in the market today are made from synthetic blended fabrics or even 100% synthetic fabrics. These fabrics suffer from a major drawback, which is that they tend to shrink rapidly when exposed to high temperatures. Since screen printing involves the use of equipment such as flush cure units and conveyor dryer which tend to have a high amount of heat, choosing the hoodies with synthetic fabrics may not provide the desired outcomes. It is recommended for the wearers to opt for hoodies made from 100% cotton fabric or cotton fabric blend for custom screen printing of their chosen artwork on them.

Increase The Off-Contact Distance

It is a well-known fact that hoodies are made from a significantly thicker fabric as compared to customized t-shirts. This means that to get a clean and crisp print, the off-contact distance needs to be adjusted according to the thickness of the garment. In general, the off-contact distance should be doubled while printing on a hoodie or a sweatshirt. So if the distance is 1/8 inch for screen printing on a regular t-shirt, it should be increased to ¼ inch for a hoodie. This ensures that the screen gets enough room to snap off of the sweatshirt in a smooth and precise manner to get the perfectly designed hoodie visualized by the wearers.

Avoid Dye Migration

Screen printing on hoodies with a large percentage of the synthetic blended fabric has a higher risk of dye migration. This essentially means that the chances of the dye leaking out of the substrate and altering the ink color if the substrate overheats are quite high. The best way to prevent this is by lowering the curing temperature and decreasing the speed of the conveyor dryer belt. The solution might also be required while printing on sweatshirts made from thicker fabric as they are likely to retain more moisture and thus may take a longer time for the curing of inks.

Quantity Of Hoodies To Be Printed

Most companies offering custom screen printing facilities prefer bulk orders as it proves to be a more profitable option. Going through the routine of screen printing a single or even a couple of hoodies does not make any business sense. However, there might be some service providers willing to take individual print orders on a conditional basis. However, finding such printing service providers may prove to be a time-consuming task. An alternative method is for the wearers to try the process on their own at home, although it would require them to first learn the art. Another important thing that wearers need to understand is that they would need to submit separate orders for screen printing the same design on hoodies and t-shirts.