Sportswear Manufacture
Sports Clothing Experts.
(02). UK custom sportswear manufacturer, based in London. We provide a comprehensive range of services for sportswear brands and startups looking for the best sportswear and activewear manufacturers for small runs.
Our London factory manufacture customized sportswear, fitness wear, gymwear and teamwear products. Cut and sew, heat transfer, sublimation, screen printing and embroidery . For training, professional sports, and promotional use.
The London Pattern Cutter has helped countless new UK sportswear labels and small fitness brands of all genres, with custom design, manufacture and sample development.
Our London based sportswear factory has a well deserved reputation for high quality samples and small production runs in sportswear, swimwear, and activewear. Corporate sportswear
We offer a wide range of services, including :-
- Bespoke Design.
- Pattern Cutting.
- Grading.
- Sampling.
- Tech Pack Design.
- Small Scale Production Runs.
- Startup Workshops.
- Expert advice.
Offshore Sportswear Manufacture.
If you are thinking of manufacturing sportswear abroad, then we would advise you check out our very informative page on offshore manufacturing first. To summarise, it can be a great option with the right advice. Our services include help and advice for anyone looking to manufacture all types of activewear abroad, as well as in the UK. It can be expensive manufacturing sportswear in the UK
Local Sports Clubs.
It may not be an economic option for a small local sports club to have a UK sportswear factory manufacture their unique bespoke club kit. Especially if you have a very wide range of sizes and ages.
A better option may be us to customise generic garments. This way the custom design is still unique to your club. Either you could provide us with your own design, or our designers could do the job for you.
Custom Sportswear Manufacturers.
Sportswear is a very specialist area of apparel that needs experience to master. Although much of sportswear is made using high stretch fabrics, they do need to be made to a very high specification
While athleisure garments just need to look stylish and feel comfortable, ergonomically constructed sportswear has to serve very specific functions related to the sport they are made for.
Patterns need to be cut by highly experienced sportswear experts to achieve a perfect fit. The use of panelling and gussets in sportswear is often the secret behind a well cut custom made garment. Just look at cycling gear.
Sports people are very fussy when it comes to the performance of the garments they wear. High functioning athletes performing repetitive actions for maybe hours on end will severely test any product.
Technical Sportswear.
Whether you require a basic hoodie, a T Shirt or Polo Top. Or something more technical – Like an ergonomically designed technical cycling top, swimwear or skiwear, we can provide the sampling for you, along with patterns, grading, tech packs and small production runs.
Gym Clothing.
There are a wide variety of gymwear brands in the UK. Each brand offers clothing designed for a specific body type. A gym is frequented by all sorts of people with specific requirements.
There are body builders, weight lifters, runners and cyclists. There are exceptionally skinny people and overweight and obese people. Each of these gym goer groups have their own very specific clothing requirements.
Athleisure.
Sportswear has undergone a massive increase in popularity in recent years, with just a relatively few manufacturers like Nike and Adidas obtaining a very big share of the market.
While branding is incredibly important in the sportswear sector, there is still a lot of room for smaller companies to create their own niche markets.
An athleisure boom has taken place in the last few years and still has many more years to run. So sportswear is no longer just worn in an active environment – It is worn for work and for leisure.
Negative Ease.
Many sportswear garments have negative ease – That means that the finished garment is smaller than the body measurements. They will stretch when worn. But each fabric stretches differently. They may have more stretch in one direction than the other.
Although any seam will break if stretched far enough,It is imperative that seams used for sportswear have an adequate amount of stretch to cope with normal active wear.
Ideally we would aim for around 50% stretch before any strain is felt, but in practise 25% should be sufficient.
We specialise in dealing with small startup brands within the U.K. so we can provide plenty of advice to the would be fashion Entrepreneur. We use very experienced, high quality sample machinists using specialist machinery necessary for sportswear.
As Sportswear is a very specialised area of clothing, it has to be made by factories that have the correct machinery. Consequently these factories are far more reliable in terms of quality than a normal clothing factory that does not specialise.
Specialist Machinery
Most sportswear styles require specialist machinery. , without which it would not be possible to make perfect samples. Most factories can mock up a sample without the required machinery. But the resulting garment would not be durable or satisfactory.
The two specialist machines that no sportswear factory can be without are the coverstitch machine and the flatstitch machine.
Coverstitch Machine.
The coverstitch machine is a bit like an overlocker, but without the blade. Some domestic overlock machines are convertible.
But domestic machines are nowhere near as durable as industrial coverstitch machines. The industrial machines are designed to be hammered day in, day out for years. They are immensely durable.
The coverstitch machine is designed for use on knit fabrics. It creates a professional hem with a decorative stitch. It has three needles, and one looper thread. The looper is underneath and gives the stitch its stretch. On the top is a simple chainstitch.
Knit fabric requires the use of ball point needles. For best results a bulk thread is used for sewing.
A coverstitch finish is necessary for performance garments that fit close to the skin and need comfortable seams that do not chafe against the skin.
There is also a reverse coverstitch machine . This stitch looks like a flatlock seam, but is a little bulkier.
Flatlock Machine
The flatlock machine is used to provide a flat seam for a performance garment. Because the garment fits close to the body the seams need to have as little bulk as possible to reduce chafing.
The seam needs to be comfortable, stretchy and durable. As well as functional it is also decorative.
There is just a small seam allowance used for the flat lock seam as the seam is formed by butting two raw edges together with a slight overlap that is cut off as it is sewn with a zig zag stitch over the top.
A special performance elastic is often used in sportswear in areas that need to stretch and to provide stability. Areas like necks, shoulders, armholes or hems may have this elastic.
Framilon flat elastic is often used around armholes or necks. This is a narrow elastic that is normally either transparent, or white.
We have been working in sportswear for many years and have created patterns and samples for Boxing, Tennis, Cycling, Cycle Polo, Football, Rugby, Racing Silks, Skiwear, Beachwear and Aerobics.
We can also provide small scale production runs for startups at our London sampling unit.
Bespoke Sublimation Printing.
Dye sublimation enables the creation of unique personalised designs. This way you can design a custom garment from a generic one. It is a very flexible form of printing that allows you to place your logo or badge almost anywhere on the garment.
Embroidery.
We can supply a custom embroidery design service for anyone who requires it.
Working With Startups.
Many of our sportswear clients have little, or no fashion industry experience. Often all they have are their design ideas, an interest in sportswear, and a vision of what they want to achieve.
They may have no idea where to start, or even the basics of how to draw their designs in order to get their ideas across to the pattern maker. The whole process is a mystery to them, and a potential for disaster.
It can be scary trusting strangers with your hard earned money. But sometimes new fashion entrepreneurs are a little too trusting in people who call themselves professionals.
They may assume that someone who calls himself a pattern cutter will be proficient just because they have graduated from fashion school. Or that they can do tasks that they have no experience in. It is necessary to be a little sceptical in the fashion business, because incompetence is rife.
Sportswear Startup Workshop.
We run a number of very informative workshops and courses for new businesses, including our very popular How to start a sportswear brand workshop.
This is a variation of our sportswear startup workshop, but aimed specifically at new sportswear brands. It is an intensive two hour workshop, covering all aspects of starting and running a sportswear business. It provides an excellent overview of starting a sportswear brand in the UK.
Our Design Development Process
What happens when you come to us to develop your styles ?
1). Once you have taken the plunge and decided that you would like us to go ahead with developing your styles, we suggest that you take part in our 1-1 sportswear start-up workshop.
This isnt by any means compulsory. We just feel that it provides a great starting point for anyone new to the fashion business. And more specifically – To the sportswear business.
2). In order to get started developing your designs we always suggest that you provide us with some reference garments, along with sketches and reference images.
This all helps to ensure that we get it right first time round. We would guide you on exactly the information that we need and we can ask if we need more.
3). You will need to source fabrics and trims. If you have done our workshop then you should have all the appropriate information. We can do the sourcing for you, but there would be a charge for this service. We can also offer guidance here.
4). The next step is for us to make the pattern. We dont ask for a tech pack, as long as we have all the information we need. Some people waste their money on a tech pack before coming to us. In most cases it is an unnecessary expense at this stage.
We can certainly provide you with a tech pack design service later if necessary. We do also offer a service in which you can work with the pattern cutter to develop the pattern.
5). Once the pattern is made we would either make a toile (mock-up), or a sample. It is often more economical to go straight to the sample, as long as we are confident with the pattern.
6). If the sample is approved, we would then cost the garment for fabric consumption. The fabrics and trims would be ordered.
7). If a tech pack is necessary, then that would be done now for the production. The tech pack would be a final blueprint for the design. It would include all the information necessary for the factory to be able to produce the garment exactly as it should be.
8). We would now grade the pattern to the different sizes. We would discuss with you what the best size range and grading increments should be.
9). Production.
Tech Packs.
Just a word on tech packs, as we get a lot of enquiries concerning this. Unlike most sportswear sampling and manufacturing units, we do not require tech packs for sample development, although sometimes they may be useful for production.
If you are considering offshore manufacture, they are however essential, but they must be made by a professional skilled in tech pack design. We also offer a professional tech pack design service if required.
One-Stop-Shop
We are a one-stop-shop for anyone wanting to start a sports brand in the UK. We aim to support new businesses by offering full product development and professional advice.
Design
Many of our clients require some help in the designing process. We can either help you to produce your own designs, or provide a complete design service with our own design team.
Pattern Cutting.
Our sportswear pattern cutters are extremely experienced in all aspects of sports clothing. Bill has forty years experience in the clothing business, and has been a fitness enthusiast all his life. A qualified gym coach and indoor cycling instructor, with a passion for ergonomics and the technological aspects of sports clothing manufacture and sample development.
Prices.
Prices for our sportswear garment development services vary dependent on the specific work required by the client. Feel free to contact us for more information.
EMAIL [email protected]