Ask ten factories for “100% polyester shirts for sublimation” and you will get ten different fabrics back. All of them are polyester. All of them are priced differently. None of them arrive labelled in a way that lets you compare one quote against another. The variable that decides how the finished garment looks, prints and survives a season is fabric weight in gsm — grams per square metre — together with the knit construction and the amount of elastane in the blend.
What follows is the reference sheet we hand to buyers when artwork lands and the next question is “what do we print this on”. Every code below is a fabric we actually run, with its real weight and stated composition, so you can quote apples to apples.
Why sublimation only works on polyester
Sublimation is not ink sitting on top of cloth. Disperse dye is printed onto transfer paper, then heat and pressure convert that dye directly into a gas. Polyester fibre opens under the same heat, the gas moves inside the polymer, and as the fabric cools the dye is locked inside the fibre instead of on the surface. That is why a correctly sublimated jersey has no hand feel at the print, no plastic panel across the chest, and no cracking at the shoulder after a full season of washing.
Cotton has no receptor for that dye. On a poly/cotton blend the polyester portion takes colour and the cotton portion stays pale, so the print reads hazy and desaturated — often mistaken for a printer problem when it is a fibre problem. If a brand brief asks for a cotton-like hand, the honest route is a soft-finish polyester or a different decoration method, not a cotton blend forced through a sublimation press. This is also why full sublimation printing is specified as an all-over process: there is no edge to the print, so panels can run seam to seam.
Polyester fabric weight chart: 100gsm to 310gsm
Weight is the first number to lock down. It drives opacity, drape, how the fabric behaves on the cutting table, and how the colour reads after pressing. Lighter cloth generally prints brighter because there is less fibre mass to saturate; heavier cloth needs more dye load to hit the same depth.
| Fabric code | Weight | Composition | Character | Typical build |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AK8032 | 100 gsm | 100% polyester | Lightest option, airy, fast drying | Hot-climate match kits, running singlets, training bibs |
| AK8033 | 120 gsm | 100% polyester | Light with a little more body | Entry-level league jerseys, event tees, giveaway kits |
| AK8014 | 145 gsm | 100% polyester | Standard jersey weight, balanced | Club soccer kits, basketball, general team wear |
| AK1064 | 150 gsm | Polyester | Standard weight, alternative handle | Team wear where a different surface is wanted |
| AK1065 | 150 gsm | Polyester interlock | Denser knit, smoother face, better opacity | Polos, esports jerseys, corporate team kits |
| AK2120 | 170 gsm | 90% polyester / 10% spandex | Four-way stretch, recovers well | Cycling tops, fitted training tops, compression-style fits |
| AK2589 | 170 gsm | 90/10 mesh | Open structure, high airflow | Side panels, back yokes, ventilated performance pieces |
| AK1100 | 300 gsm | 93% polyester / 7% spandex | Heavy, structured, warm | Hoodies, jackets, streetwear-cut tops |
| AK2567 | 310 gsm | 92% polyester / 8% spandex | Heaviest, most stretch at weight | Premium hoodies, oversized silhouettes, outerwear layers |
Full swatch specs, roll widths and handfeel samples sit with our fabric lab, which is where these codes are maintained.
100–120 gsm: light, and light has consequences
At 100 gsm a jersey is genuinely cool to wear and the colour comes up bright. It is also semi-transparent. Dark skin tones, sports bras and base layers show through white or pale panels, and buyers who approved a design on a screen are frequently surprised by that on a body. If a kit has large white areas and will be worn in daylight, 100 gsm is a risk. Move to 120 gsm or specify a mid-tone base and keep white to graphics.
The second consequence is on the sewing floor. Light knits curl at the edge and need careful handling during assembly, which is why light kits should never be judged by a flat photo alone — ask for a worn sample.
145–170 gsm: the working range for team kits
This band covers most of what a club or league actually orders. At 145–150 gsm the cloth is opaque enough for white panels, holds a printed crest without distortion, and drapes rather than clings. Interlock at 150 gsm behaves differently from a plain jersey knit at the same weight: it is a double-knit structure, so the face is smoother, the print reads sharper, and the fabric lies flat on the collar and placket. That is the reason a polo and a match jersey can share a gsm number and feel like different products.
Most of the sublimated jersey fabric options we build sit in this band, with mesh at 170 gsm dropped into underarm and back panels where ventilation matters more than coverage.
300–310 gsm: hoodies and heavy silhouettes
Jumping from 170 to 300 gsm is not a small step — the cloth roughly doubles in mass, and everything about the print changes with it. Heavier fabric absorbs more dye, so the same file pressed on 310 gsm reads slightly deeper and less crisp at fine detail than it does on 145 gsm. Hairline typography and thin outlines that look perfect on a jersey should be thickened for a hoodie. Panels also need more press time to reach the same colour, and oversized cuts eat noticeably more fabric per piece, which is where the cost difference in a quote usually comes from. Weights in this band are what we run for custom esports hoodies and heavier streetwear cuts.
Spandex changes the print, not just the fit
Four of the fabrics above contain elastane at 7–10%. Buyers read that as stretch and stop there, but it has print consequences worth knowing before approving a sample.
Elastane does not accept disperse dye the way polyester does. In a 90/10 blend the elastane filament stays lighter than the polyester around it. On a relaxed garment nobody notices. Stretch that same fabric hard across a chest or a thigh and the colour opens up slightly — deep navy and black show it first, pastels almost never. On a fitted cycling top or a compression cut, size up your colour depth or avoid a solid deep field in the highest-tension zones.
Stretch also moves the pattern. A stretch knit is cut with different pattern allowances than a stable 100% polyester knit, so a design approved on 145 gsm cannot simply be re-pressed onto 310 gsm at the same graphic scale — placement drifts. Confirm scale on the exact fabric you intend to buy.
Choosing by failure mode, not by preference
The fastest way to pick a weight is to work backwards from what would go wrong.
| Weight band | Choose it when | Do not choose it when |
|---|---|---|
| 100–120 gsm | Heat is the main enemy; budget is tight; large-volume event pieces | The design has big white panels; the buyer expects a premium hand |
| 145–150 gsm plain knit | Standard match and training kits; sponsor logos on solid colour | Collars and plackets need to sit flat and structured |
| 150 gsm interlock | Polos, esports and corporate wear; fine detail artwork | Maximum breathability in extreme heat is the priority |
| 170 gsm stretch and mesh | Fitted performance cuts; ventilation panels | A loose, drapey silhouette is part of the brand look |
| 300–310 gsm | Hoodies, jackets, oversized retail-facing product | Artwork depends on hairline detail; freight cost per piece matters |
How a fabric gets proven before bulk
A gsm number on a quotation means nothing until the cloth has been tested and the print has survived a wash. Every base fabric goes through a defined test panel, and third-party reports from Intertek back the results.
| Test | What it catches |
|---|---|
| Colour fastness | Dye migrating or dulling after washing and light exposure |
| Print adhesion | Incomplete dye penetration from under-pressing |
| Wash durability | Cumulative colour and surface loss over repeated cycles |
| Shrinkage | Sizing that drifts after the first wash |
| Anti-pilling | Surface fuzzing on high-abrasion zones such as underarms |
| Seam strength | Stitch failure at stress points on stretch fabrics |
| Zipper and trim durability | Hardware failing before the fabric does |
The production route behind those results is fixed: digital graphic and pattern design, high-fidelity sublimation printing, precision laser cutting, expert tailoring and assembly, professional ironing and finishing, then eco-friendly retail-ready packaging. Cutting is done after printing, not before, which is what keeps a continuous graphic aligned across panels. Finished goods are inspected against our AQL 2.5 inspection standard, with flatlock stitching on the seams that sit against skin.
Get the fabric decision out of the way first
Guangzhou Akilex has been building sublimated apparel since 2008 — 17+ years of OEM and ODM work, 300+ staff across 8,000+ square metres, Japanese printing equipment holding roughly 95% colour matching, ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 certified, an official Umbro licensed manufacturer, with SLCP and Intertek WCA social compliance on file. That matters less than what you can verify yourself: order a sublimated sample and look at it.
Send the artwork, the end use and the market it ships to, and we will come back with a shortlist of two or three codes from the table above, the trade-offs for each, and a quote within 1–2 business days. Sublimated samples run in 5–7 days, and low MOQ means you can prove the fabric on real garments before committing to a full run. Request fabric swatches and a quote and we will start with the cloth, not the invoice.