We have truly been enjoying the Winter Olympics and as hockey fans, we were more than thrilled to see the USA Women’s team win gold. Congratulations to this hard-working team. Of course in additions to admiring the accomplishments of all the athletes, I also take note of performance wear trends. If there’s one place you’re going to see the latest in performance wear, it’s going to be at the Olympics. Several Olympic trends that have caught my eye are on the hockey uniforms. The replica version available from Nike features a metallic rubber Nike “swoosh,” embroidered USA patch and perforated twill lettering. Many of the embellishments we are seeing have texture and are much thicker than we are used to seeing. Of course heavy-duty winter sports like hockey can handle heavy duty embellishments. We are already seeing many requests for Silicone heat transfer vinyl, which is currently available in a 200 micron thickness. A lot of the performance wear is made of colorful, sublimated fabrics. If you are looking for ways to heat print on sublimated garments, you will need dye-blocking materials that can be applied at lower temperatures. AquaTru Dye-Block is available as a custom transfer ink and also in numbers. Another trend we are noticing is full or multi-color logos, placed on arms, pant legs or the back hem of a shirt. If you want to create custom full color logos for application on just about any fabric, CAD-PRINTZ can be custom ordered from Stahls’ or Stahls’ Transfer Express.