Embroidery Applications

              It’s the start of a new AAU basketball season and my club just got our new jerseys in for the season. They are the Marquette style with tackle-twill lettering. Last year we have simple jerseys that had our team name and number screen-printed on. I feel in the end, the decision on which application to use, either tackle twill or screen printing, comes down ultimately to the consumer and finding exactly what fits their needs best.

Screen-printed provides more
design options

             Most of my uniforms in the past few years, both soccer and basketball, have used the screen printing application. Obviously the first thing that stands out about screen-printing is that it is usually cheaper that its counterparts. Also another thing I like about screen-printing is that it is done by computers, so there are infinitely more options on color, font, and size, than there would be with tackle twill which is sewn on.  But, I did encounter a dilemma with the screen-printing on my basketball jersey last year. For our team name, we had the first word in a bright red color and then the second word was in white. After washing my jersey a few times, I found that the red coloring began to bleed onto the white letters and they turned a light pink color. It may have been an error is design by have bright red letters next to white letters, but I think that that shouldn’t be an issue, I think the issue is with the screen-printing application and now it makes sense as to why it is cheaper than alternative options.

Classic block lettering of
the tackle-twill application

           The tackle-twill on our new uniforms looks amazing. Going back to one of my earlier posts, Sweatshirts are Life, I make sure that all my college sweatshirts are printed using the tackle-twill application because I think it looks more official and traditional like an old, classic university feels when you walk on campus. The tackle-twill application is more expensive, but in the end I definitely think it is worth it. If you are looking for a style that looks very professional, I would highly suggest tackle-twill. Also a plus with tackle-twill is that you will probably rarely run into issues with the colors bleeding or the lettering coming undone. The only downside I see to tackle-twill is that options can be limited. With tackle-twill the lettering is usually the big block letters and the colors tend to be the basics, you don’t see many neon options.

             Personally, I am big fan of tackle-twill but I feel that there are times when screen-printing has its benefits. If it’s just a warmup shirt I would definitely go with the screen-printing because there more design options, but when I’m looking at uniforms I would 99% of the time go with tackle-twill. In the end it all comes down to what you want and your budget. Either way I don’t think you will be disappointed, but my only note is that if you do go with screen-printing double check with the retailer to make sure that what happened with my jersey doesn’t happen to you.

Images courtesy of:

www.shopstyle.com

www.polyvore.com