Custom Racing suits for karting: anyone here repping/distributor?

Patrick Nagel
In the 80s you couldn’t swing a dead cat in any mall without hitting at least one of his prints. :rofl:

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Better check your homologation numbers, I guess

I’ll ultimately have Nick for the manufacturing. I think he uses the same folks as Urace, so the homologation is likely on point.

I am sort of conflicted with those Pakistani suits. The racing nerd in me loves the idea of looking like Max or Lewis but it’s also a bit goofy. As a seasoned veteran (haha) it’s bad form.

I could be the rental kart Lance though.

Very common in the suit producing third world to just fake the labels. When I was doing suits I had to really be careful to guy a proper source with legit CIK/FIA homologation.

He doesn’t stop by often (Shame on him LOL) but I’ll tag him anyway because he seems to know a lot about counterfeit suits @Ryon_Beachner

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I wonder if my Ariat Rebar jeans that I always wear with my jacket are homologated…

I know the jacket isn’t. :joy:

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I went full bandit mode for the first couple of test sessions this year with jeans and jacked. Gotta the convenience.

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The rental series at UK… you can wear shorts and t-shirt!

Yeah, I used to get FIA homologated suits from them. I’ll still get suits without the homologation from them because people want cheap suits but…

I’m getting homologated suits from Marina Racewear now. They are more expensive but so much better.

It’s probably worth mentioning that many series don’t mandate the homologation and those that do rarely check. The amount of car racing suits (big no no in karting) that you see at the big events is almost amusing.

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There are now only two Pakistani homologations. K1 Racewear and Al Khair International. URace and I were using PM Sports (subject of the letter above).

But PM Sports aren’t exactly advertising this, so URace might not know.

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Thanks. When I get to actually making a final suit, we’ll go with whatever manu u like

I was rather critical of sublimated graphics when discussing Ryan’s suit design. I kind of dislike the sheen and smoothness of how that printing process ends up.

However, I’ve never seen it in person, only pics. Here’s a video Ryan posted that the suit looks really nice in. I guess the lighting is favorable in this case. And, the suit does appear to be very light weight. That’s the problem with the heavier cloth suits, too hot.

They look fine in person and honestly I don’t think I ever really noticed stitched vs. sublimated unless I was specifically looking for it. Sublimated is definitely lighter which personally is a higher priority for me than an embroidered suit, although embroidered is definitely better than sublimated in my eyes. I own one sublimated hockey jersey and I like the stitched jerseys so much more.

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I guess my hot take as a graphic designer type of person is that the medium dictates the design or at least informs it.

In the case of sublimated graphics, I find that suits that attempt to mimic a cloth suit (ie sectors that would normally be different cuts of cloth) make it obvious that the design is supposed to look like cloth, but isn’t.

Screw that and use it as a canvas (the entire suit). The design doesn’t have to refer to the cut with sublimated.

So the painterly or patterny type stuff seems to work with sublimated but not with embroidered.

Maybe I should try sub.

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I wonder how much assembly plays into those decisions too, like are they able to line up the designs across layers when it’s sublimated or is that more precision than they can manufacture?

If that’s the case, I can understand why they would still want to design the suit like traditional embroidery.

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There was a time when sublimated felt cardboardy but that hasn’t been the case for years. They are lighter and allow more design freedom. I haven’t had an embroidered suit in years.

They can line it up, but some manufacturers request that you don’t place logos across seams (except on the chest/abdomen).

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@NikG
Nik, what are the options for making a custom suit that isn’t a racing suit?

For my indoor stuff I was thinking of doing a custom tacchini, fila, or adidas tracksuit. Logos etc.

Is that in your wheelhouse as well as race suits?

Which one is sublimated and which one is embroidered? :rofl:


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Easy. Top is emb. Race to 50 with its big graphical look and painterly bits is transfer. The sublimated makes a lot of sense for “art” as opposed to shapes.

I could get a customized single layer abrasion resistant suit made. We looked at getting some made for indoor karting places before. I’d have to check the pricing.

Is that what you mean?

Obviously I wouldn’t recommend wearing an actual tracksuit, that stuff melts to your skin if you’re unlucky enough to meet the asphalt in a less than friendly way.