Finisher T-shirts that survive the mud: Nuclear Races

The brief

Damian at Nuclear Races was looking for a printer for the finisher T-shirts: high quality, in the brand’s trademark colours, and durable enough to be raced in again without the print giving up.

What we did

Screen printing was the choice for two reasons. It is the only technique that lets us Pantone-match the colours, so the shirts sit exactly on the Nuclear brand palette; and it lets us use plastisol inks, which are very durable, the right ink for a run full of mud and obstacles.

Since that first batch the relationship has run for well over a year, and we print most of Nuclear Races’ merchandise. New design or repeat, Damian sends the logo and the quantities, we prepare a visual for approval before anything goes to print, and we handle the rest: stock ordering, printing, bagging and size labelling, delivered in time for each event.

What the shirts had to survive

Nuclear runs award-winning obstacle races over undulating terrain, hard enough for elite runners and still achievable for anyone reasonably fit, and they are a regular choice for company team days.

A finisher's T-shirt is worn to the next event, not folded away, so it had to come through more than one race without damage. That is why we default to screen printing wherever the job allows it: for consistency across a run and for what the print looks like after a season of washing.

“Nuclear Races offers all our Obstacle Mud Racers a free T-shirt once they have completed one of our events, therefore we had to find a printing company to logo up our tops. We contacted a few printing companies to see what they can offer us and we very quickly found that Garment Printing was the one to go with. They offered a fast friendly service, at a fine price but more importantly offered good advice when needed. Overall Garment Printing offer Nuclear Races a flexible fast and friendly service.”

— Damian, Nuclear Races