Printed ties are a relatively new introduction to the market place when it comes to custom ties as a whole.

Printed ties have probably been around in one form or another since the 1970’s.

Back then, most printed ties even though custom ties were gaudy, not well printed, quite wide- perhaps as much as a 12cm width at the bottom of the printed ties as opposed to todays printed ties which are anything for 6cm to 9cm- so quite a difference in the width at the bottom of the tie.

You would be surprised what a difference 3 cm can make, never mind 6 cm when it comes to the width at the bottom of custom ties, it is fair to say that the old style of custom ties resembled almost a bib or at least an advertising banner.

In the beginning, companies would put there colours and logos all over these printed ties or custom ties and even mission statements or cartoons with such memorable characters as Pluto or Mickey Mouse and in those days, licensing was not what it is today so very often , companies or individuals would unknowingly steal the rights to use a certain character without even realising that they were doing the wrong thing.

These days of course, somebody would be knocking at your door very quickly and law suits would be plentiful to say the least.

It was probably only in the late 80’s that things stated to tighten up when it came to who could or could not use licensed material for their own gain.

Having said that, there are still certain part of the world that will gladly condone the use of a Gucci label on a cheap hand bag and consider it a normal thing to steal somebody else’s license and hard work for their own gain.

I must tell you that this also happens all the time when it comes to printed ties and even woven ties. certain individuals just cannot seem to help themselves by applying an brand name label to an item and passing it off as a proper, legit, branded item.

The thing is that these days, very often, the copy can be better than the original which is quite scary. That’s like somebody being able to produce another me, which is very scary indeed!!

So I would say that one of the reasons why printed ties evolved as custom ties made by tie makers and tie manufacturers is the boldness of print and clarity of colour that one finds with printed ties that you generally don’t get with woven ties.

Also, the perfectness of logos and images are achievable simply because most custom ties or printed ties are printed using a process of sublimation which by all rights is the purest form of print because its done using a process of heat transfer- so the print is printed onto paper and then transferred onto fabric by way of heat- very hot heat I might add