Testing & Producing Event Gear

Some of us are weekend warriors. Some of us are serious athletes. Some of us like to jump off things other people call cliffs. But we all share one thing. We worship at the temple of raw and wild fun. That sacred place where time stands still or stretches into infinity. At Primal, they make the clothing and accessories we need to answer that call, so we can get out there and make life as fun as it can be. From fabrics that enhance our performance to T-shirts we can wear on our day off. So, throw on your Primal and go play nice with the other wild and crazy animals. You can find this proclamation on Primal’s website. It’s a way of life, they say.

We have been working with Primal for more than three decades. They are an aggressive bicycle clothing line specializing in dye-sublimated biking apparel. We handle the screen-printed event gear, some of which is simple and some not-so-simple. Recently, the company placed orders for this year’s Triple Bypass ride. As always, the orders were accompanied by a download link to an FTP site for the art file. We have this customer well trained.

The Triple Bypass story

One July day in 1988, a group of avid cyclists decided that it would be fun and maybe a touch challenging to ride from Evergreen to Avon in the Vail Valley, Colorado. And so it began. Now, more than 35 years later and thousands of more friends beside them, the Triple Bypass is an epic bucket list ride that has raised millions for charitable nonprofit organizations.

The Triple Bypass stretches 118 miles, with 10,800 feet of elevation gain over three mountain passes. So that’s where the name comes from! For those who dare, the classic run is a must ride, and for good reason. Leaving from Evergreen, Colorado, the bikers travel over Juniper, Loveland, and Vail passes for pure gorgeous scenery and maybe a bit of exercise as well, not to mention adrenalin.

All riders receive a limited-edition jersey and T-shirt, full support, a big medal, four aid stations, and (should they finish), a big party at the end including food and liquor. Although it’s not a race, the Triple Bypass hosts two timed uphill segments so you can see how you stack up to other riders. There are start flags, a timing mat at the base of each climb, and a finish flag at the end of each segment. One warning reads “Please do not cross the yellow line, interfere with other riders, or behave aggressively during timed segments.” Oh my.

Test run

Primal, which you may recognize from previous GRAPHICS PRO articles, has challenged us frequently. This year’s project would be something new, however. The art was simple enough, and it’s all one-color work. Wow! This was unusual. Primal always runs multiple locations though. This was full front, upper back, sleeve, and lower front. The only complication? We would need to run metallic or shimmer gold ink. That shouldn’t be too hard, really.

It was a fairly large production run, so we always run a sample for customer approval. It’s a CYA (look it up) thing. We dug out our metallic gold ink and ran with screens that were imaged and exposed on N-102s because of the size of the metallic flakes transferring properly without using higher squeegee pressure. We then smoothed the ink texture with a Teflon screen and heated iron. This step helped knock down the grit sometimes associated with metallic inks and low mesh. We chose to run just the front for client approval. Remember how this should have been an easy-breezy proof process? Nope! The customer didn’t like the color.

They decided to send us a sample of the color they preferred. A day later we received a package from them. Upon opening the UPS bag, the sweet smell of perfume and, dare we say, a little body odor wafted from within. We pulled out a warn maroon sweatshirt of some age. The metallic ink had lost most of its flakes and had tarnished considerably from age and multiple laundry cycles. Additionally, the ink was a bit under cured. We could see through it and it had picked up the fabric color. This is the color the customer wants? We are using fresh ink, though there are several different metallic gold colors available, and we are printing on navy, not maroon. In addition, our eyes just see color differently on warm and cool backgrounds. The solution? We added just a couple grams of maroon pigment to the gold ink. We didn’t want to use too much, as this would bury the metallic flakes and it wouldn’t sparkle. This warmed the color up just enough.

Final product

Once we finally hit the right color and mixed up enough to get started, we could go to production. We opted for a double squeegee to simulate a double stroke to clear out the metallic flakes in the mesh. We were able to run a single stroke and run at a pretty good clip. Because all the locations were one color, we ran the sleeves on the manual rather than change pallets over on the auto. The customer added in some heavy-weight hoodies that weren’t really any more difficult, but had an increased off-contact adjustment and a workout to load.

Team Evergreen Cycling is the oldest and largest cycling club in Colorado. Their mission is to build the cycling community by expanding rider experiences and hosting events such as the Triple Bypass. They have a thoughtful, philanthropic impact and have donated $3.5 million to charitable organizations from folks that care about and contribute to the community through the love of riding a bike. All riders can fundraise for their favorite nonprofit opportunity and put the achievement of the Triple Bypass to a greater good in their own communities. Pretty cool, if you ask me!