The Digital Experience Team at Augusta Sportswear Brands is always looking for ways to make our customers’ lives easier. This involves constant iterative development of our website and its features.
It also involves a lot of listening.
Is this feature helpful? Does it offer ease of use? Can we make it better? These are just a few of the questions we have to keep asking ourselves to ensure we’re providing our customers with the level of service and user experience they deserve.
When our customers told us how challenging it was to design sublimated apparel, we listened.
The challenge wasn’t the printing technique itself. This versatile digital printing method offers a world of possibilities. Dye sublimation technology heat-fuses colors, designs and logos directly into the fabric, rather than just on top of the fabric (like in screen printing or heat transfer). Sublimation printing continues to gain in popularity year after year, and our trend forecasters don’t foresee its popularity waning anytime soon.
Creating sublimated apparel and uniforms in a typical sublimation builder, however, can be a time-consuming process. “Using a typical Sublimation builder makes doing your taxes look fun by comparison,” says Nathan Maxwell, Director of Digital Experience at Augusta Sportswear Brands. “The technology of sublimation builders is behind the times, requiring a seemingly endless series of clicks on a clunky interface. And mobile friendliness? Forget about it.”
This is why Augusta Sportswear Brands’ Digital Experience, Development, and Design teams came together to create something new to disrupt everything you thought you knew about Sublimation builders. After more than a year of exhaustive research, design, and development, FreeStyle Sublimation was born.
FreeStyle Sublimation made its debut at the Sports Inc. Fall Team Dealers show at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas on November 24. The excitement for the unveiling drew an audience that overflowed beyond the allotted seating area into the walkways surrounding the Augusta Sportswear Brands booth as Maxwell began. “Okay, Everyone. Take out your phones!”, he commanded, as a QR code filled the presentation screen. The code led to a sample design within the platform that users were able to manipulate, save, and share in realtime.
After being walked through the design process, users were thrilled. “This is really intuitive, and I love that the proof feature can be shared with my clients, so they can approve the design before finalizing their order.” said one attendee. “I can’t wait to start marketing this tool!”, said another attendee. “Thank you for creating it!”
FreeStyle Sublimation is simple, yet sophisticated. Users are able to design custom apparel via desktop or mobile devices at game-changing speed across our brands.
The FreeStyle Sublimation experience gives users a bold 3D 360-degree garment view with over 1,000 design options. A user can create a custom design within seconds. Whether on desktop, tablet or mobile device, the sublimation design process requires just a few simple steps from start to finish. Users can go back and forth and make changes, saving and sharing at any time. They can also review their designs, add rosters and place orders, all from their fingertips on a tablet or smartphone.
Are you ready to explore this exciting new design experience?
Start designing now, or check out our tutorial to see how FreeStyle Sublimation can make this once-cumbersome part of your business simple, and perhaps even fun.