Color Accuracy and Durability for Printed, Branded Textiles

Branded athletic apparel is a multi-billion dollar business and it continues to expand year over year. Sports teams and their fans expect brand accuracy and durability across all types of textile-based products from clothing to home decor. Color is a vital part of a brand’s identity and printing consistent, durable, and accurate brand colors across different materials can be challenging for manufacturers. This study examines the accuracy and durability of two brand colors, specified by the brand as Pantone and CMYK values and measured as LAB values using a spectrophotometer, and printed on three textiles commonly used for clothing. The study examined the three most common printing processes for manufacturing apparel–dye sublimation, direct-to-garment (DTG), and screen printing. Study results show that the screen printing process is able to provide the most accurate color replication on any of the three textiles when compared to the target brand color. The DTG process in combination with a polyester or poly-blend material provides the best durability of the color after the first cycle of laundering has been completed. However, dye sublimation on blend or polyester textiles provides the most color stability after the full five treatment cycles.