So this year, the Forward crew attended the ISS 2012 Convention (Imprinted Sportwear Show) in Long Beach, CA back in January. We had a great time making new friends, seeing the latest products from our favorite manufacturers, and getting sneak peeks at the newest technology in apparel decoration.

One of the highlights of our trip was the SRoque press from Portugal, or as some of us called it “The Green Monster.” It had integrated foil and flocking! So cool. And the giant glowing alien lamp coming out of the top might have been one of the best eye-catching displays there.

As someone relatively new to the industry, it was fascinating to see how almost every brand had great sales representatives who really did their companies’ proud. It gave me some insight on how to best engage our customers and truly represent what we do here at Forward Printing. For those of you in apparel decoration or those considering joining up, I definitely encourage you to go to as many industry events as you can. ISS 2012 was a great educational experience, and I can’t wait for the next one!

Forward printing will see you in Vegas for the next ISS Convention!

oxo – Kate

To kick off the new year we decided to dig into our considerable archive of past prints to see what gems were lurking around. After many rounds of sorting and high level meetings we settled on these twelve shirts as a good representation of work we’ve enjoyed seeing again. We expect 2012 to be full of more awesome designs to add to our collection of favorites so keep ‘em coming in!

Adapt "Real Chill Scrill" design >>> adaptclothing.com

Spearhead "Ganesh" design >>> michaelfranti.com

Tattoo City "Diver" design

Metallica "Harvester of Sorrow" design

Lunatik Clothing "Buried Alive" design >>> lunatikclothing.com

nice silog design from ShirtSilog

I Love Synthesizers tee

Forward "Tribune" promo tee

TreeShurts "White Rhino" tee >>> treeshurts.com

Kenwood "Artist Series Tee" design by Obey

Fangamer "Magi's Tower" design >>> fan gamer.net

A brief video from this year’s Printwear Convention in Long Beach. We ran into a lot of traffic on the way in and rushed into the seminar not realizing that i looked pretty funny with my alfalfa sprout hair!

Wow, our boy Jonathan over @ Jusami keeps coming up with the freshest kiddie prints. This time we’ve got a leopard skin dinosaur, printed in 4 colors with waterbase inks. Be sure to pick one up here: Jusami : Terrific Tees For Kids

Jusami - Dino Leopard Toddler Tee in all of its glory.

All of Jonathan’s designs get printed on Monag brand garments. These garments discharge great and are very well constructed of quality cotton. Many Monag garments are constructed of interlock fabric which feels very soft but durable at the same time. For lack of a better word, the fabric feels “fluffy” to me. We generally print these designs through 230-S Thread mesh and double hit on some colors to get the penetration needed for interlock fabric.

Closeup view of the Dino Leopard print. You can see the shirt fibers which means this is a soft and breathable print.

Another closeup shot of the print showing strong and bright colors on a color that typically gives some problems when trying to discharge.

Some garment manufacturers have gotten hip and are now offering some of their styles with tear away labels. These labels generally get melted in the intense heat needed to sure the ink, but are easily torn ou so that we can print your custom label inside.
In the event that we need to remove a sewn-in label, we resort to very sharp scissors and just snip the label off as close to the neck tape as possible. There may be some label residue left, but it is generally minor and unnoticeable to the typical consumer.

Manufacturer tag residue after cutting out the existing label.

Close-up view of the residue remaining after a tag was cut out. This is typically covered up by the neck tape when folded back over.

Here is how the finished print should look.

This is a great video interview with one of the industry leaders printing with different kinds of water base and discharge inks…

Watch The Video

Waterbase printing is our comfort zone, and we’ve been know to talk down about plastisol ink. Regardless, we do need to use plastisol for some types of fabric. Recently, our clients have begun asking us to print on performance fabrics which are known for their moisture wicking properties. These garments are made of 100% polyester, so we need to resort to plastisol since water based inks will look washed out on this sort of garment.

Luckily, Tim over at Screen Printers Resource set us up with the new line of Rutland “Endurance Inks” which are specifically formulated to print on these sheer 100% polyester fabrics. We are glad that we tried these out because they work quite well.

First we print a clear barrier underbase down, flash it and then lay the top colors on next. This ink cures at 290 degrees so we are able to run our dryer faster and avoid any dye migration issues.
Just like that, we have printing technical garments down pat!

Here is a link to a Printwear Magazine Q&A about printing on ribbed garments.

Read more

A quick notice that the State of California actually LOWERED the sales tax, effective on July 1st 2011. The sales tax in our county went from 9.75% to 8.75%. Good for consumers!

Do you still need a California Sellers Permit? It’s easy to get, just go apply at the CA BOE Website.