Can a design be printed over the seams of an item?

Sharing information about wrap-around designs and how to consider seams in the design of a garment.

The short answer is that we can never guarantee that a design element printed over two seams will align perfectly after production and construction of a garment. You should expect that there will be some deviation and also that things might vary across an entire order (especially if different sizes are printed). This can be particularly prominent on the Women's fit jerseys, as the side panels taper in slightly more than that of the Men's fit. 

The reason for this is quite complex, but can basically be summed up by explaining that the fabric itself will shrink by a variable degree during the production process. Even small percent difference (think 1-2%), that wouldn't necessarily have a major impact on the fit or size of the garment, can have an impact on where things align during stitching. 

We'll try our best to advise during the design process if we think it might adversely affect the final product, but there are plenty of ways to work around this limitation too.

For a lot of designs, it won't actually matter too much if things aren't perfectly aligned. For abstract patterns we would typically suggest it matters less that every individual element aligns perfectly, as it's not detrimental to the overall look of the garment if it doesn't. Below is an example where some stylized mountains wrap around the design from front-to-back, where we know that all the small black contour lines -- or even the larger gold outlines -- won't perfectly align on the final product:

 

Another example is shown below, where the stylized dragon and flames are such that even if things were not aligned perfectly on final production, because of the more abstract style, it wouldn't be all that noticeable nor detract from the theme:

 

Where things become a little more problematic are when a intricate design has to go over a seam. This could be a specific graphic, or perhaps a string of text, that would look very odd if it wasn't aligned. This type of design is one we would strongly suggest against opting for as it's just not something we can guarantee will align perfectly on every garment. Our customer success team will always be on hand to suggest alternatives, be it avoid the overlap, or working to ensure that any risks to things not aligning are minimal.