The details are everything in design, and footwear design and football boots are no different. Many football shoes, have decorative details, that are screen printed on the upper, or embossed parts and logos. These printing and embossing details are usually done in the shoe factory in special printing areas.

Click Read More below for more info and pics about the process.







Contrary to popular belief, almost all decorative printing on footwear is done "by hand". What this means, is that each piece is silk screened one at a time, by a worker working on a long printing table.



The parts to be printed are temporarily pasted to the table, and the worker goes down the line of parts, screening one at a time with a silk screen using one ink color and a wiper to wipe the ink through the screen.



Typically, for good results, each color is silk screened several times to get good coverage and a nice thick ink effect.





Sometimes, special inks are used, like this 3M reflective ink that very small glass particles in it that create the reflective effect.



Another decorative effect used very often on footwear is HF (high frequency) emboss. An emboss effect is a raised effect and depending on the process can raise details or parts anywhere from 1mm to as much as 6mm if as special backing is used.



The HF emboss technique, uses high frequency radio waves and pressure to push a material into the embossed shape against a metal die. Unlike traditional embossing, the HF technique uses less heat and pressure and a more localized application of the energy.



Here you can see the HF emboss machine and the operator embossing one part at a time.



Materials

Cutting

Printing and HF embossing

Stitching

Lasting

Assembly

final QC and packing