January 14, 2020

Like Our Patterns? Yay! But How Do We Print Them?

Right now there is a lot of talk about sustainable fabrics and it is becoming very clear that they will become an industry-standard hopefully sooner rather than later.

But what about other aspects of apparel production and how can we avoid participating in the currently enormous impact of fashion on the environment?

I wanted to tell you a bit about the way we print our patterns.

All of our patterns are designed in-house and inspired by the ocean and warm-water surfing destinations. We are dedicated to preserving our playgrounds and always try our best to create with the least harm to the environment.

We print digitally in a small print house located in Virginia using a water-less method- for solid colors as well as our prints. It is significantly more expensive to print fabric digitally, especially when it is done domestically. However, traditional methods of printing and dying fabric require polluting significant amounts of water. Considering the fact that the fashion industry is one of the biggest water polluters in the world, we decided to choose a different route.

We use dye-sublimation which is a dry process and uses no water, minimal heat and produces no waste products. Our sublimation transfer paper is recycled after use. We also use only digital printers to create the transfer paper, which eliminates the need for traditional screen printing inks, process chemistry, and cleanup solutions. Afterward, we tested the final patterns and solid colors for washability and fading so quality is always ensured. With that being said, digitally printed dark colors are never as rich as they are when the yarn is dyed prior to knitting the fabric. However, we were quite happy with the depth we were able to achieve digitally and wanted to be consistent with the eco-friendly method of printing that we chose. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!