Sublimated Jerseys vs Screen Printed: Which Is Right for Your Team?
Choosing between sublimated jerseys and screen printed jerseys is one of the first decisions a club, school or social team makes once they start designing a custom kit. The two methods look similar in a product photo, but they behave very differently once a season of training, washing and hard tackles gets going. If you are weighing up sublimated jerseys vs screen printed for your team's next order, the short version is this: sublimation prints the design into the fabric itself, while screen printing sits a layer of ink on top of it. That difference drives almost everything else, from how the jersey feels on a hot day to how it looks after twenty washes.
Sublimated jerseys vs screen printed: the core difference
Screen printing works by pushing ink through a stencil, one colour at a time, onto the surface of a finished garment. It is a well understood process and it is cheap for small, simple designs, which is why you still see it on basic one-colour tees. But every colour needs its own screen, the ink sits on top of the weave, and on performance fabric that layer can crack, peel or feel stiff against the skin.
Sublimation is a different process entirely. The design is printed onto transfer paper first, then heat and pressure turn the ink into a gas that bonds directly with the polyester fibres of the fabric. There is no layer sitting on the surface because the colour becomes part of the fabric. That is why every custom jersey on this site is 100% sublimation printed rather than screen printed: it is the better match for sportswear that needs to move, stretch and breathe.
How sublimation printing actually works
Dye sublimation starts with a digital design, not a stencil, so there is no extra cost for adding a fourth colour or a gradient the way there is with screen printing. The whole jersey, front, back and sleeves, is printed as one continuous design and then heat pressed so the dye converts from solid to gas and fuses with the polyester. Because the print becomes part of the fibre, the fabric keeps its original stretch and breathability. That matters for a basketball jersey that needs to move with a full range of motion, or a soccer kit that has to handle ninety minutes of running in the heat.
This is also why sublimation suits teams that want sponsor logos, numbers, player names and detailed crests on the one garment. There is no per colour setup cost standing in the way of a busy design, so a team can customise this kit in four simple steps, uploading a logo and adding names and numbers without being quoted extra for the complexity of the artwork.
Where screen printing still has a place
Screen printing is not a bad process, it is just built for a different job. It makes sense for a simple one or two colour logo on a cotton tee, a low volume order, or a design that will only ever sit on the chest rather than cover the whole garment. The setup cost per colour is the limiting factor: a two colour screen print on a hundred tees can be efficient, but the same two colour approach on a full sided jersey design with names and numbers for every player starts adding screens, setup time and cost very quickly.
The bigger issue for team sport specifically is the fabric. Most performance jerseys are made from a lightweight, moisture wicking polyester knit designed to flex with the body. Screen print ink sits on top of that stretch fabric as a separate layer, so under repeated stretching and washing it is the ink, not the fabric, that comes under the most stress. That is a reasonable trade off for a cotton event shirt. It is a worse one for a jersey that gets stretched, sweated in and washed every week of a season.
Durability and wash life
This is where the two methods separate the most over time. Because sublimated ink is part of the fabric rather than sitting on it, there is no printed layer that can crack, flake or peel after repeated washing. The design fades at the same rate as the fabric itself, rather than ageing faster than the garment underneath it.
Screen printed ink, by contrast, is a surface coating. Even good quality plastisol or water based ink will eventually crack along fold lines, particularly anywhere the garment creases in the wash or the dryer, such as under the arms or across the shoulders on a jersey that gets pulled over the head every training session. For a jersey that is expected to survive a full winter or summer season of matches, training runs and regular washing, the printed layer is usually the first thing to show its age.
Colour, detail and logo complexity
A sublimated design can include unlimited colours, gradients, photographic elements and fine detail at no extra cost, because it is printed digitally rather than built up screen by screen. That is a real advantage for club crests with multiple colours, sponsor logos, or a jersey design that wraps around the side panels and sleeves rather than sitting as a single chest print.
Screen printing charges by colour and by print location, so a design with five colours and print on the front, back and both sleeves can involve several separate screens and setup runs. For a club that wants every player's name and number as well as sponsor logos on the one jersey, sublimation is generally the simpler and more cost effective route because the complexity of the artwork does not change the production process.
Comfort and breathability on game day
Because there is no extra layer of ink sitting on the fabric, a sublimated jersey keeps the original hand feel and stretch of the performance fabric. There is nothing to peel away from the skin, no stiff printed patch across the chest, and no raised texture where a logo has been applied. For sports like basketball and soccer, where uniforms need to handle constant movement and heat across a full game, that difference in feel is noticeable the moment a player pulls the jersey on.
Screen printed garments can still be comfortable, especially with thinner inks on cotton blends, but a heavy or multi layer print on a stretch polyester jersey will always feel slightly different to the untouched fabric around it. On a jersey that is supposed to disappear and let a player focus on the game, that is a disadvantage.
Cost and minimum order size
Screen printing tends to be cheaper per unit on very simple, very large orders because the main cost is the screen setup, which is spread across more units. Where sublimation usually wins on value is on team orders with any real design complexity, because there are no screens to set up and no per colour charge to budget for. On this site, custom basketball and soccer jerseys start from $59.95 each for orders of seven or more, fully sublimated with colours, names and numbers included rather than quoted separately, and reversible jerseys are available from $79.95 each at the same order size. There are no quotes or callbacks to wait on: the price is shown against the design as it is built.
Which one suits your team
If your team needs a durable, full colour jersey that holds its print through a season of training and washing, sublimation is the stronger choice, and it is the reason it has become the standard for performance teamwear rather than an upgrade option. Screen printing still has a place for simple, low cost, low complexity jobs on cotton garments where print durability under constant stretching is not the main concern.
For club jerseys, representative uniforms and anything a player will be sweating in and washing weekly, the practical answer to sublimated jerseys vs screen printed comes down to how the garment is actually used. A jersey is not a static tee that sits on a shelf. It stretches, it gets washed, and it needs to look as sharp in the last round as it did in the first. That is the job sublimation was built for.
Getting your custom jersey made
Every jersey built on this site starts the same way: pick a design template, add your team's colours, logos, player names and numbers, and the order goes straight to production once it is confirmed, with no quote to wait on and no back and forth over artwork complexity. Because the printing is fully sublimated, a crest with five colours costs the same to produce as a plain two colour design, so the only real decision left is how the kit should look. If you are ready to compare the finish for yourself, start a design and see how the colours and detail translate onto the fabric before committing to a full team order.