#plastisol

At this year’s Impressions Expo in Long Beach, MADE Lab partnered with ROQ to bring a duo of cosmic prints to life for the Print Masters Throwdown—one on a tee, one on a hoodie, and both engineered for maximum visual depth using just a few well-played screens and smart press setups. The Tee: Space Meets […]

If you’ve been around a press long enough, you know that not all squeegees are created equal. One of the most underrated tools in screen printing, your squeegee's durometer (aka hardness) can make or break your print quality—and your sanity on press. Here’s a quick guide to help you choose the right squeegee durometer depending […]

At MADE Laboratory, we’ve made it our mission to raise the bar in apparel decoration testing. Every year, we test thousands of garments from top manufacturers, offering detailed performance data to guide decorators and brands toward better results. From fiber matte down, heat tolerance, ink compatibility and dye migration, our testing provides a roadmap for […]

There’s a learning curve when moving from plastisol to water-based inks, and that curve gets steeper when you're working with high-solids acrylic (HSA) formulas. HSA inks give beautiful results, but they demand precision, consistency, and a very different approach than what plastisol printers are used to. I recently ran an 8-color water-based job using Avient […]

How to Evaluate Polyester Garments Before Decoration and Production When it comes to decorating on polyester, dye migration is one of the most common and costly print defects. It occurs when the dyes in synthetic fabrics become reactivated under heat and migrate into the ink layer—especially whites—causing discoloration. At MADE Lab, we conduct standardized migration […]

Why Testing Matters in Apparel Decoration In the branded apparel industry, quality is everything. A smooth and bright print, a durable heat transfer, or embroidery that doesn’t pucker—these aren’t just happy accidents. They’re the result of choosing the right garment, matching it with the right art, and executing the proper decoration processes to get the […]