Sublimation Situation

Jump off lax shorts are all the rage. You see them at the tourneys, on-line, on kids at the mall, earlier posts in this blog, and everywhere in between, but have you ever wondered just where they come from? One place is from a company called Pro Athletics based in Agoura Hills, CA. That's somewhere between San Diego and Oregon for those of you who aren't as geographically inclined as I. Not exactly the center of the lacrosse universe, but we're talking fashion here and Pro Atletics doesn't let traditional lacrosse get in the way of fashion.

In recent years, lacrosse players in the Justin Bieber demographic have become increasingly concerned with transforming uniforms into something from Ed Hardy's collection. The proliferation of these outfits at all ages of club ball have made them a staple of tournaments from coast to coast. How though do the images of a monkey raping a tiger make it onto a shooting shirt? That's where Pro Athletics and their mastery of a design transfer called sublimation comes in.

Our club, Blarney Lacrosse, has worked with the Pro Athletics boys on a couple of occasions and they've always been easy to work with and competitively priced. The process for us varied from order to order, but each time it was painless.

Our most recent project started as just a couple of thoughts plopped into an image editing program. The result was a rough idea of what we were thinking for this year's shorts, and by rough idea, I mean could have very well been thrown together by a 6 year old. This little gem was forwarded to Chris at Pro Athletics with the instruction to give us something with the same basic idea and with a professional touch. We also let the reigns loose and asked for the "Pro" version of this idea. Here's what we got back in just a matter of hours. Fasten your draw strings people.

Fisher Price, My First Mock Up

Conservative look for the discerning palate.

Then there was this! Thankfully, it was attached to the disclaimer from Pro Athletics that it would "blow up the internet".

One too many clovers.

Situation Approved Sublimination

Being a masters team, we had to consider the health of our players before choosing a design such as this one. We opted to play it safe and avoid any potential seizures brought on by the second design.

Contact Pro Athletics yourself if you think you're ready for something this extreme.

Update....The real deal arrived. I've got all 40 pairs laid out on the floor of my office and I'm rolling around on them American Beauty style.

Screw T-shirt Time