Every club has a set of shirts where half the squad numbers have a corner lifting. Here is why, and how to not buy them again.

Heat-pressed sits on top

A pressed number is a piece of vinyl bonded to the surface of the shirt. It works, and for a low-wash garment it works for years.

A rugby shirt is not a low-wash garment. Contact, heat and repeated washing work at the edges until a corner lifts, and once one corner has gone the rest follows quickly.

Sublimation goes in

Sublimation turns dye into a gas that bonds with polyester fibre. The colour becomes part of the cloth: nothing is raised, nothing has an edge, and there is physically nothing to peel.

It also makes complexity free. Hoops, quarters, gradients, a sponsor panel on each sleeve and a different number and name on every shirt are all one print job.

The one real limitation

Sublimation bonds to polyester. It cannot be used on a cotton-rich traditional jersey, and anybody claiming otherwise is about to disappoint you.

On heritage cloth the answer is embroidery or twill applique, which is what it has always been and which suits that shirt better anyway.

What to ask for

On any performance jersey: sublimated numbers and names, printed as part of the garment. On a traditional weave: embroidered or twill numbers.

Then wash it properly. No fabric softener on a performance knit — it coats the fibre, kills the wicking and does nothing good for the colour.