Choosing Fabric for Team Sportswear: A Practical Guide

The four numbers that matter

• Composition. Almost all modern teamwear is polyester, usually 100%, sometimes blended with 5–15% elastane for stretch. Recycled polyester (rPET) behaves like virgin polyester for printing and wear.
• GSM. Grams per square metre — the fabric's weight. This is the single best proxy for how a garment will feel and drape.
• Knit structure. Interlock, birdseye, pique, mesh and jacquard are different ways of looping the yarn, and each changes breathability and surface texture.
• Finish. Moisture-wicking, anti-pill, antibacterial and UV finishes are applied after knitting and are what separate a basic tee from a performance garment.

GSM: what the numbers feel like

For most club orders the sweet spot is 150–180 GSM: light enough to move in, heavy enough that a dark colour is not see-through and the print reads crisply.

Knit structures and what they do

• Interlock. Two interlocked layers of loops giving a smooth face on both sides. The default for sublimated kits — it takes print evenly and does not curl at the cut edge.
• Birdseye mesh. A fine eyelet structure with visible perforations. Excellent airflow and a light, technical look. Often used for the back panel of a jersey while the front stays solid.
• Pique. A textured, waffle-like surface borrowed from polo shirts. Feels more formal than interlock, so it suits coaching staff and club polo ranges.
• Jacquard. A knit pattern built into the fabric itself rather than printed on it. The design cannot fade or crack because it is structural, and it survives heavy abrasion.
• Bonded / seamless. Panels joined by heat and adhesive instead of stitching, producing a flat, stitch-free seam. See our separate guide on sublimation versus seamless construction.

Choosing by sport

How to judge quality before you buy bulk

• Colour fastness. Ask for a wash test report. Look for grade 4 or better on both colour change and staining. Cheap disperse dyes drop to grade 2–3 after ten washes.
• Pilling. Rub two swatches together for thirty seconds. Visible fibre balls mean the yarn is under-twisted and the garment will look tired within a season.
• Recovery. Stretch a swatch and release it. Good elastane blends snap back flat; poor ones stay bagged.
• Print penetration. On a sublimated sample, check the reverse of the fabric. The design should ghost through, which proves the ink reached the fibre rather than sitting on the surface.
• Seam behaviour. Give a flatlock seam a firm pull. Stitching should stretch with the fabric, not snap.

Any of these can be checked on the physical sample we dispatch within 72 hours of your brief.

Fabric care that protects the print

Sublimated polyester is unusually forgiving, but a few habits extend kit life noticeably: wash at 30 °C or below, turn garments inside out, avoid fabric softener (it coats the fibres and blunts wicking), skip the dryer where you can, and never iron directly onto a printed surface.