By Alex Berryman
We understand that most baseball hats on the market are not printed, but are dyed fabric with embroidery. So, why did we choose to specialize in sublimation-printed caps?
Simply put - we think that by focusing on a special segment of the overall cap market, we can provide you with better products and services. Here are 3 of the top reasons we focus on sublimated caps.
Faster Leadtimes:
With our partners that sign up for our Seamless Fulfillment Service (SFS), we guarantee that we will ship orders within 2 weeks. This is 2 - 3 times faster than most other companies that offer a fully-custom cap.
When offering custom caps with dyed fabric and embroidery, there are many more moving parts in terms of material preparation and production. Manufacturers have to keep many stock colors of materials or dye fabric to order, which usually isn't feasible for small orders on a short timeline. Also, you have to budget extra time for embroidery. By focusing on sublimation-printed caps, we can offer very fast lead times while also offering unlimited colors and design options. Sublimation printing can color the panels and visor of the caps in any color, solids or patterns, or even photo-realistic artwork. By simplifying, we make it possible to print, cut, sew, and ship immediately after receiving your order.
Lower MOQs:
Similarly, our focus on sublimation printing allows us to give lower MOQs than most cap manufacturers. To offer low MOQs, many cap manufacturers carry stock of many different colored blank caps. Making a printed cap requires printing first then cutting and sewing, which most manufacturers consider a fully custom process and set a higher MOQ. At Purnaa, we print, cut, and sew to every order, but have established a streamlined system to do this with agility and speed, and therefore can offer our SFS partners MOQs down to 12 pieces per style.
Better Quality of Print:
If the print on a cap is not good, then it looks cheap and looks like a poorly constructed product - but creating a good print is not as straightforward as many manufacturers would think. There are three main areas in which a print can go wrong when printing on caps:
Considering the print only in 2 dimensions - Many sublimated products are 2 dimensional, but due to the domed construction, cap designs are 3 dimensional. Without proper consideration, prints can be warped or panels can be misaligned
Poor Print Quality - Many printed caps use direct-to-garment (DTG) printing on cotton twill. Some lower-quality printing technology of this sort can result in muted colors or fade with sun or washing. Purnaa only uses sublimation printing, which chemically bonds our ink to polyester fibers which permanently dyes the fabric, provides vibrant colors, and will not fade.
Not considering the limitations of printing - While we love sublimation printing, we know it has some limitations. Because the dye does not penetrate all the way through the fabric, dark solid color prints can show some of the white from the backside of the fabric around needle holes. Additionally, on a sturdy twill fabric used for hats, some print lines can become fuzzy. By focusing on hats, we've learned the limitations and have developed design workarounds to still made beautiful products.
Specialization Makes the Difference
As a specialized sublimated cap manufacturer, we can offer a focused service with excellence. Want to see how we compare with our competitors? We found the 6 companies in North America that provide dye sublimated caps, Purnaa is the only one that specializes in sublimated caps - and our superior service is apparent.
Begin your first order and take advantage of specialized cap manufacturing.