Last week, we were asked to help the amazingly talented teenager-group BEYOND 5 with their merch. Since we have printed most of their merch in the past, most of it was just simple reorder stuff (mixtures of multi colored Tshirts and tank tops, jersey zip up hoodies, tote bags). But, this time they added another addition: The drawstring backpack tote bag. These bags are made of 100% nylon, which is super soft, durable, washable and keeps its form for a very long time.
Now, nylon bags are kind of a nightmare for screen printers, considering that they are made primarily of plastic and their tolerance to heat is VERY low (meaning they burn, or should I say melt, very easily). Our belt dryer, on normal operation, usually heats at around 400˚ for over a minute. These particular bags, at 400˚, would melt in a matter of seconds. So, our belt dryer was NOT an option here.
We decided to print them with waterbased ink, to print the first color and then in order to make them look perfect, we hand dryed it with a forced air hand dryer. This was VERY time consuming (seeing that we did over 300 pieces of these), but they dried in the air and end result was amazing! They looked great. You can get one of these bags at a Beyond 5 show, where they are currently shooting them into the crowd out of a Tshirt cannon. Maybe you can be the lucky one to get one! :)
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