Moisture-Wicking and Technical Fabrics for Custom Sportswear
By The Velocity Wear Team
Moisture-wicking fabrics move sweat from the skin to the fabric surface where it evaporates, rather than absorbing it. This is a property of synthetic fibres — principally polyester — and of how the fabric is knitted, not a coating that can be added to cotton.
How Wicking Actually Works
Cotton absorbs moisture and holds it, which is why a cotton shirt gets heavy and stays wet during exercise. Polyester barely absorbs at all. Instead, moisture travels along and between the fibres to the outer surface, spreading over a larger area where it evaporates quickly. That is wicking: not the fabric doing something to the sweat, but the fabric refusing to hold it and letting physics move it outward.
Knit structure contributes as much as fibre. Fabrics engineered with channels or a differential surface area move moisture more effectively than a plain knit of the same fibre. This is why two polyester shirts can perform noticeably differently.
What to Specify for Sportswear
For kit worn during activity, a few things matter.
- Polyester or a high-polyester blend. Cotton-rich fabric will not wick, whatever else it is described as.
- Lighter weights for high-intensity use, where breathability and drying speed matter more than substance.
- A small elastane content where freedom of movement matters, particularly in fitted cuts.
- Consider odour retention — polyester holds odour more readily than cotton, which is worth knowing for kit worn repeatedly between washes.
Decorating Technical Fabrics
This is where sportswear orders most often go wrong. A large, dense print on the front of a technical shirt creates an impermeable panel that does not breathe, undoing the fabric's main advantage exactly where the wearer needs it. Sublimation avoids the problem entirely, because the dye goes into the polymer and leaves no surface layer at all — which is why it dominates performance kit. Where print is used, keeping designs open and avoiding large solid areas across the chest and back preserves breathability.
Polyester is also heat-sensitive, so heat-based decoration needs handling carefully to avoid marking the fabric. Embroidery works but adds weight and stiffness at the decorated point, which is why it is generally reserved for small marks on sportswear rather than large designs.
“"There is no point specifying a breathable fabric and then printing a plastic sheet across the chest."”
Casual Versus Performance
Be honest about which you are ordering. A great deal of gym merch is not worn during training at all — it is worn before, after and casually, in which case a heavyweight cotton hoodie is a better product than a technical one. Reserve technical fabrics for kit that will genuinely be worn during activity, and use cotton and blends for everything else.
Ordering
Orders start at 20 pieces with mixed sizes, and sublimated kit typically takes around 15–20 working days from artwork approval, plus 2–5 working days tracked UK delivery. Bulk discounts reach up to around 40% as quantities rise. Compare fabric and method combinations in the free instant price calculator, and preview designs in the free Design Studio before approving.