Two quotes for the same team set can name two different methods. One says sublimation, the other screen printing. They are not the same product, and the difference shows after a season, not on the day the box arrives.
How each method works
Screen printing
Ink is pushed through a fine mesh screen onto the fabric. Each colour needs its own screen, and each screen is lined up and printed in turn. The ink sits on the surface of the fabric and is cured with heat.
Sublimation
The design is printed onto transfer paper, then pressed onto polyester with heat. The dye turns into a gas, enters the fibres and stays there. There is no layer on top. Read what sublimation printing is for the full process.
Durability
Screen printing is very durable on cotton. On a stretchy polyester jersey that is pulled, sweated in and washed every week, the picture changes. The ink layer has to stretch with the fabric, and over time a thick print can crack along the lines where the shirt bends most: across the shoulders and around a big number on the back.
Sublimation has no ink layer, so there is nothing to crack. The colour is in the fibre. For a jersey that will be played in all season, that is the main reason sublimation is the default.
There is a second issue with screen printing on polyester called dye migration. Polyester is often dyed with dyes that move under heat, so a white or light ink printed on a red jersey can turn pink after curing or after hot washes. Printers handle this with special low-bleed inks, but it is worth asking about.
Colours and design
- Screen printing: each colour is a screen, so most screen printed jerseys use one to four flat colours. Gradients and photographs are possible, but they are hard and expensive.
- Sublimation: any number of colours at no extra cost, including gradients, patterns and photographs, from edge to edge across the whole jersey.
With screen printing the jersey colour comes from the fabric: you choose a red polyester shirt and print on it. With sublimation the colour comes from the print: the jersey starts white and every colour is printed, so the body, sleeves and collar can all be different.
Names and numbers per player
This is where the two methods differ most for a team.
A screen is made for one design. Fifteen players means fifteen different names and often fifteen different numbers, and making a screen for each is not practical. So screen printed jerseys usually get their names and numbers added another way: heat transfer vinyl, or individual printed transfers pressed on one by one. That is a second process, a second layer on the fabric, and a second thing that can peel.
With sublimation, each player's name and number is simply part of that player's print file. The eleventh jersey is no harder than the first. The names are as durable as the rest of the design because they are dyed in the same way.
Cost logic
The two methods are priced in different ways, and that explains most quotes.
Screen printing: setup, then cheap per piece
Every colour needs a screen, and every screen costs time to make and line up. That setup is the same whether you print ten shirts or five hundred. Spread over a large run of identical shirts, it becomes small; on a small run it dominates the price. Every extra colour and every extra print position adds another round of setup.
Sublimation: flat per piece
There are no screens. The printer prints the whole panel every time, so a design with two colours and one with twenty cost the same, and one jersey costs about the same to print as each jersey in a set. Names and numbers add no separate setup.
What that means for a team
- A large run of identical shirts with a one or two colour logo: screen printing can be the cheaper method. Think event t-shirts for five hundred volunteers.
- A team set with a design, several colours, and a different name and number on every jersey: sublimation is usually better value, and more durable.
When screen printing still makes sense
- Cotton shirts. Sublimation does not work on cotton. A cotton team t-shirt for the stands or the after-party is a screen printing or DTF job. See screen printing.
- Very large, identical runs. Hundreds of the same shirt with one logo and no names.
- A coloured stock shirt with a simple mark. A plain shirt with a one-colour crest and nothing else.
And DTF?
DTF is a third option: a printed film bonded to the surface. It is often used for names and numbers on stock jerseys, and for small runs on cotton. It sits between the two. See sublimation, DTF or screen printing for jerseys for all three side by side.
What we do
We do all five decoration methods in-house, so we can recommend the method that suits the job rather than the one we happen to own. For team jerseys that is sublimation: in our own factory in India, any colours, every player's own name and number, from one jersey. Jerseys are ₹599 half sleeve and ₹699 full sleeve. You approve every name on the mockup, mockup changes are free, and if we print it wrong we reprint it free.
Send the crest and the roster and the mockup comes back before anything is made.
Quick answers
Is sublimation or screen printing better for sports jerseys?
For a polyester team jersey with a design and different names and numbers, sublimation. The colour is inside the fibre so it cannot crack, it does any number of colours, and every jersey can carry its own name at no extra setup.
Why does screen printing crack on jerseys?
The ink sits on top of the fabric. A stretchy polyester jersey bends and stretches every match, and over many washes a thick ink layer can crack along those lines, especially on large numbers.
Is screen printing cheaper than sublimation?
For hundreds of identical shirts with one or two colours, it can be, because the screen setup is spread over the whole run. For a small team set, or any design with many colours or individual names, sublimation is usually better value.
How are names and numbers added to screen printed jerseys?
Usually with heat transfer vinyl or individual transfers pressed on one by one, because making a screen for every name is not practical. On a sublimated jersey they are printed in the same step as the rest of the design.
