Snowflake Designs

Dye-Sublimation Brings Custom, High Impact Designs to Gymnastics Competitions Worldwide

Snowflake Designs   |   Clovis, California

LaDonna Snow learned to sew while growing up thanks to her mother and grandmother. After having a daughter of her own, Kindra, LaDonna used her talents to create a colorful leotard for her to wear to gymnastics class.  Soon, friends began asking LaDonna if she could make leotards for their children.  

LaDonna started Snowflake Designs in a spare bedroom, financing it with a single credit card.  Today, Snowflake Designs in Clovis, Calif., creates beautiful leotards for gymnasts of all ages – from youngsters just starting out to athletes competing in the World Gymnastics Championships and the Special Olympics. 

Expanding with Dye-Sublimation
While most of their products are produced on traditional presses, Snowflake Designs brought in dye-sublimation equipment to easily and quickly create customized apparel.  LaDonna invested in the VersaCAMM VS-300i 30-inch printer/cutter and a GS-24 cutter, then added the Texart XT-640 64-inch high volume dye-sublimation printer.

“Adding dye-sublimation has really expanded our capabilities,” said LaDonna. “Honestly, the sky’s the limit. If we can dream it up, there’s nothing we can’t print.

“With dye-sublimation, we’re able to produce custom designs in a fraction of the time needed for traditional production.”

A thriving enterprise employing 35 full-time staffers, Snowflake Designs now occupies an 11,000 square-foot facility. According to LaDonna, dye-sublimated prints are an expanding part of the business. In fact, Snowflake Designs has plans to add another 1,700 square feet to better accommodate their dye-sublimated production.

“With dye-sublimation, we’re able to produce custom designs in a fraction of the time needed for traditional production”

“The Texart dye-sub inks let us print every color under the sun. We especially like the fluorescent inks because they really make the designs pop,” said LaDonna.

Design Inspiration
Ideas for their dye-sublimated designs come from Snowflake Designs’ team of graphic designers as well as from customer requests.  Popular designs include a pink and blue unicorn and a dinosaur singlet with the words “T-Rex doesn’t like handstands.” 

Snowflake Designs’ dye-sublimated apparel orders can range from one to 1,000 pieces.  Sometimes the designs can be quite elaborate, and some include photos. 
 
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