Any Resilient Vinyl that Would Work?

Creative Arts Dye Sublimation
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I’m part of a small soccer club in McKinney. We have about 20 teams of boys and girls ranging from 6 to 18 and a men’s Elite team and a Women’s Semi-Pro Team.

We are wanting to get team specific soccer balls for each team to use in league and tournament play. What we want is to be able to put a club logo on the ball and the team name for each one.

I initially thought about laser etching the balls, but am still not sure about that and need to test this out. Seems like it might be a hassle or just might be too deep and destroy the ball, etc…

So I was wondering as an alternative to the laser if there might be some kind of vinyl application that would work? My thoughts were that vinyl would not work because the ball being kick a lot would cause the vinyl to wear off quickly, etc.

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Yeah, I don’t think Vinyl is what you are looking for. Except, unless you were to use it as a mask and then paint the logos on.

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Do you think paint would last very long either? Seems like it would get smeared with one good kick.

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I’d ask someone in the Leather SIG. They might have an idea as to what will work on a ball.

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These modern socccer balls are made up mainly of some kInd of rubber or plastic polymers. The more expensive balls $100-$200+ range are made with synthetic leather but the $30 soccer balls are made up of these polymers mostly.

I thought here might be some sort of stretchy vinyl that could be heat set for longer lasting use.

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I looked online for personalized soccer balls. First one I looked at was this: https://www.usimprints.com/product/regulation-size-black-white-soccer-ball-10714924/

Their Rep said the images on the balls are screen-printed and are shipped uninflated. I think starting with a flat ball is the keep to being able to print on them with a silkscreen. Putting distinct team names on each ball would be a pain: unique setup for each team would be a lot of work. If the league balls are really interchangable, I’d skip that step.

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I wouldn’t throw away your laser idea,
I would check and see how good the burned laser mark looks. I bet you can get the laser low enough power to etch very lightly. Based on the material of the ball, heat transfer vinyl may work as it is very nearly the same strength as screen printing in many applications.

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8

This

https://www.football-bible.com/soccer-info/what-is-a-soccer-ball-made-of.html

would indicate the outer layer of the soccer balls may be PVC which is verbotten on the laser. Can’t find any indication the other material polyurethane would have any issues with the laser, but one would need to know for sure which material is which on the ball before attempting to use the laser.

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You could make a “negative” with the vinyl cutter and use it as a paint stencil. I’ve done this before and achieved pretty good results.

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I was thinking maybe I could stain the etching to enhance the image? I’ll have to play with this.

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I did check the actual material of the ball we want to use and the PVC is not used. It looks like EVA and possibly polyester with a polyurethane is the outer material with butyl rubber for the inner bladder.

Materials: 65% rubber/15% polyurethane/13% polyester/7% EVA(ethylene vinyl acetate)

I don’t want a heavy etch, but I guess I just need to try it out.

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I’m kind of worried about the paint smearing the first time it gets kicked. Unless there is some kind of heat set paint that is more resilient to that?

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Haven’t seen it mentioned, so I’m guessing not, but I’m wondering if Dye Sub would be remotely suitable.
@CaryF300

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Dyesub requires a High polyester sub-strait to adhere to. I often forget this when I suggest it and @CaryF300 reminded me last time I mentioned dye-subbing a non-polyestar item just the other day at DMS.

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So Dye Sub is not good on cotton? I thought it was analogous to silk screening?

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Definitely not good on cotton

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Good to know. thanks.

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Nope, first time it gets washed the ink washes out of cotton. Dye sub inks bond with the polymers.

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@Owen_Soccer22, I think Dye Sub would be worth a try. I would recommend trying it on an uninflated ball. We could use the hat press to try a small image on one of the panels. I can try to meet you at the space next week if you want to give it a go. I’ve got the week off, but have some social commitments in the evenings.

What time of day would work best for you?

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@CaryF300 - that would be awesome. Let me know when it’s convenient for you and I’ll be there. I have the ball and can easily deflate it. I also have the logo in jpg and can convert to svg or dxf, whatever format is needed.

I also found out that the outside material is polyurethane and EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate)

Thx - Owen