Italy Home Authentic Printing 08/09
There isn’t exactly a trick to printing these names and numbers, but there is a procedure you must follow in order to print any of these double-layer Puma shirts properly. Extra care has to be taken when you’re printing a player version authentic jersey, which is entirely thermal-welded (their term, not ours) meaning there is no stitching. Every seam is put together using heat and pressure to create the bond. That also means if you accidentaly place any of those seams under the heat press when printing the shirt, you could accidentally weld the shirt to itself. But that’s a topic for another discussion, let’s get on to the printing.
While most of the jersey is comprised of a dual layer mesh fabric, the back panel is a smooth fabric to which the numbers easliy adhere. The edges of the panel though are heat welded so you have to make sure you don’t accidentally fold them over, or catch a part of the jersey underneath. First step is to line up the transfers for the nameblock and the large digits. Put the press down for 8 seconds and let cool off.
Then you flip over the shirt to the front side, which requires a bit more effort. Each Puma double layer shirt has an opening at the bottom of the hem. This is to allow you slip a teflon sheet between the two layers in order to prevent them from being bonded to each other. Yes, that is supposed to be there. We’ve had more than our share of calls from people complaining that the shirt had a manufacturing defect!
Make sure the teflon sheet is under both the Puma cat logo and the Italian federation badge. If not, you will bond them to the layer below, causing the two layers to be stuck together. The same goes for the Puma logos on the shoulders, make sure they’re not under the heat press platen! Line up the digits, lower the press for 8 seconds, and you’re almost done.
You can start by peeling the film backer from the name and number transfers on the back of the jersey. The transfers should be warm now, if they’re still hot then it’s too soon and the transfer will pull off the jersey. The adhesive needs to cool off a bit before peeling. Once warm, it should peel off like butter. Nice job.
Once warm you can then peel the front transfers. Looking good!
And that’s all there is too it. The tricky part is the double layer mesh. Back in 2002, both Nike and Adidas presented double-layer versions of their football shirts for the World Cup. Those shirts though were pretty simple to print as the fabrics were not as pourous as the mesh front layer on the current Puma shirts. Plus the two layers moved independantly of each other, only attached at the neck and shoulder lines. Puma complicated matters by bonding the two layers together all along the bottom hem. To solve this, they left an opening big enough to fit your hand through.
As far as design goes though, these have to be one of our all time favorite name and number styles. The fine detail of the dots around the letters compliments the half-tone look of the digits. They are appropriate for a mesh jersey, and additionally are aesthetically innovative.
Click here to buy one of these unique jerseys.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
good site qfdpoh