4 Design Placements on Sweatpants
The first day of autumn always makes us think of warm, comfy sweatpants and sweatshirts. Even though we aren’t ready for them in Ohio…yet, now is the time to start decorating pants to have them done before the weather turns cold. We put together a couple of examples of where the most popular areas to place a design on sweatpants.
Finished Standard Leg design.
The most common area is to decorate the front/side of the left leg. Either leg can be decorated of course, but the most popular side to do a standard vertical design is the left side. In the above “Love Cheer” example, layout QLG-31 was used in Goof Proof ink on Sport-Tek® Ladies Fleece Pant (L257) in Athletic Heather.
To apply, we simply layed the pant leg on the heat press and applied the transfer starting right across from the inseam. Place the transfer paper as close to the seam as possible for the ideal placement. For this standard size let print, you can choose whether you place the design from the hip-to-knee or the knee-to-ankle.
Goof Proof transfer in place before printed on a sweatpant leg.
This same sweatpant, we tried a little more of an unpopular placement however it is gaining popularity. The back of the ankle print is becoming popular for a secondary design placement. Choose a more square design such as 4 letters in a block formation as shown below. 
If your customer isn’t interested in a vertical leg design and looking for something a bit more subtle, then using a smaller design near the pocket can be done using a heat press as well. Commonly a player number (Shown: 4″ Elasti Print number) is placed on the opposite side of the team design. Remember when applying the transfer to this area, that your print area is free of large seams such as the inseam and pocket. Use a Print Perfect Pad or standard mousepad to raise the print area if needed.
On this Sport-Tek® Sport-Wick® Fleece pant (ST237), we used Elasti Prints screen printed transfers to prevent scorching the heat sensitive polyester fabric.
Small “heart” size designs can be heat printed onto the pant leg.
Sweatpants offer large areas to decorate and can be done so on your heat press. This type of application takes a little more attention than a standard size design however it is definitely possible on a heat press and can be completed in few extra steps. Check out this blog post on “How to Apply a Large Leg Transfer”
Large leg design using Goof Proof transfer is heat printed on Port & Company Classic Sweatpant (PC78P) in Navy.
The large leg transfer is printed as two-parts on a transfer sheet to create the length needed. Half of the design on one side, the other half on the other. So this works for designs that have a separated middle like in the design above. The image below will show what the transfer sheet looks like after we cut it apart.
Large leg design shown on a transfer sheet. Can be cut apart and aligned for application in two steps.