What you missed: The Athleisure Decorating Expo

For many businesses, the thought of expanding into a completely unfamiliar territory can be scary. In the absence of information, it’s easy to stand still, ignore the growing market and stay in the ‘safe’ zone. But in an ever-changing climate and market, standing still might just be the worst decision a heat printing business could ever make.

At Stahls’ UK, we are driven by two things…

1. Spreading awareness of the best custom heat transfers and heat presses in the world. 

2. Our obsessive need to educate and propel heat printing businesses towards success. 

No heat printer gets left behind

In a world of fast-paced trends and rapidly developing equipment, it’s easy for a full-time heat printing business to get stuck repeating the same mistakes over and over. Stahls’ UK heat printing events are designed to make sure no heat printers get left behind. 

We provide answers to our customer's pain points, educate them on the future of heat printing and offer an opportunity to network with other heat printing professionals.

Consumer interest in performance-wear rocketed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and since starting in-house events 14 months ago, it’s no surprise that we’ve noticed an increase in queries regarding printing onto heat-sensitive materials. With the Athleisure market on track to be worth £6.7 billion over the next 5 years, we decided to make this heat printing pain point the topic of our next event. 

However, we needed a little bit of help. While Stahls’ UK offers expert advice in all things heat printing, we needed professional backup on the garment side of things. So we enlisted the help of our partners, TriDri.

The Lineup

TriDri is the leading blank athleisure garment manufacturer in the UK. Their innovative range of fitness garments are designed for maximum performance, comfort and a flattering fit while keeping garment decoration in mind. As the exclusive wholesaler of TriDri, and a global garment distributor, it felt beneficial to our guests to invite Ralawise along too.  

Standing room only

So on the 21st of November 2023 at The Heat Printing Innovation Centre in Braintree, Essex, The Athleisure Decorating Expo took place. And let us tell you, it was a roaring success. After just two months of social media and email marketing courtesy of Molly and Beth, and further spreading the word via our phone lines from the customer service team, heat printers from across the country flocked to Stahls’ UK HQ.

With 121 guests signed up, both the 2 pm and the 6 pm sessions were full to capacity. Impressively, the first session of the day even required additional seating to be placed out due to the unexpected amount of attendees!

Poised and ready to learn, attendees took their seats, with notepads and phones in hand ready to learn about printing onto polyester.

Fresh from her first-ever public talk at Printing United 2023, Molly Harmon, Senior Marketing Executive took the stage. Throughout Molly’s seminar, she checked in with the audience asking which pain points they’d like to discuss and answered all questions raised throughout. With the general query among guests being ‘How can I avoid scorch marks on polyester materials’, Molly began her printing demonstrations. 

First up, Molly printed a 100% cotton TriDri t-shirt with UltraColour Heat Transfers using the Hotronix Auto Open, while explaining the benefits of the world's lowest temperature heat transfer. After also demoing heat printing pillows to isolate print spaces away from common athleisure details like zips and rouching, Molly moved over to The Hotronix Dual Air Fusion IQ™ heat press. This is where the room fell silent. With eyes fixed on the presentation, Molly introduced the Power Platen range to the room. While coupling a Power Platen with a Grip Flex Rubber Pad and an extremely heat-sensitive 100% polyester TriDri garment, much to the amazement of on-lookers, she successfully printed with no scorching or press marks.

After the demonstrations, it was on to Grace Owens, TriDri Brand Manager, for an exclusive look at new pieces hitting shelves in April 2024. Grace then went on to discuss the trends that the TriDri and Ralawise teams are seeing in athleisurewear. One of the most interesting being that Nude is their 2nd best-selling colourway. After discussing the increase in athleisure garments within the workwear industry, Molly wrapped up the presentation with 5 action points for the guests to take away with them to get started.

Goodies

Both sessions of the day played host to brilliant giveaways with 1 person in each slot being randomly selected to win £100 of custom heat transfer credit and £100 of TriDri blank garment stock. All the attendees were recipients of a goodie bag packed with blank garments and heat transfers to take away and practice everything they had learned in the session.

The end of the sessions was abuzz with eager questions, networking and hands-on heat press demonstrations with Andy, Martin, Molly and Rachel stationed around the room at the different decoration areas. 

As always, the 360IQ™ Hat Press and the Dual Air Fusion IQ™ heat press drew the biggest crowds with guests getting to try out the innovative technology for themselves.

After a long and busy day, with 121 guests through the door and many protein bars consumed, It’s safe to say that the team at Stahls’ UK can celebrate yet another successful heat printing event!

If you've made it this far, check out the rest of our events HERE