Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 25

Left, multiple carts move T-shirts in varying stages of completion from press to press and from dryer to folding and sorting station.
Right, a long-sleeve T-shirt is flash cured between colors.

embroidery, and specialty advertising, is no stranger to hotmarket printing. "We started hot markets the same year that
[University of Alabama's] Coach Saban won his first national
championship; that was in '09," Rodney Tidwell, F&E plant
manager, recollects. "Chaos would be a good word for that first
time." The shop now averages two hot markets per year, and
has developed a system Tidwell classifies more as "organized
chaos." The shop is contracted with New World Graphics (which
in turn is contracted with both Auburn and Alabama) for the
annual Iron Bowl rivalry game hot market, and usually one or
both of those teams are in the SEC football championship game.
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect (or at least, as close
to perfect as a hot market will allow).

THE GAME PLAN
With the countdown to kickoff less than 12 hours away,
I make my way to F&E's shop on the north side of the state
capital to see just how much prep work can be done before the
game. After a very confused Uber driver drops me off at F&E
Sportswear - and not AB Sportswear, located directly across
the street - Tidwell gives me the grand tour of the facility.
By now, F&E is in full swing, from the art department to the
showroom to the shop floor. Clarence Smitherman, graphics
supervisor, is in the art department offices on the phone with
their agency, New World Graphics, sorting out some last minute
artwork details: Georgia ordered 13,000 red shirts, but the job
ticket that came in this morning also calls for charcoal shirts. The
final approved artwork was designed for printing onto red, so
prints onto charcoal T-shirts will require some tweaking - preferably sooner rather than later. "We're trying to get our ducks in a

row before it's crunch time," Smitherman explains. "Sometimes it
goes as smooth as smooth can be, and other times, not so much."
Smitherman does what he can to make things run as
smoothly as possible. He calls himself the "problem guy,"
looking for any issues that could occur during a run before
the printing starts. "You get in a hurry, you get tired, you're 10
hours in, and mistakes start happening," he says. "When we
do our art here, we try to set it up so that we can run different
color shirts at one time instead of having to drop plates and
add plates." Simplicity will certainly be appreciated by the
press operators tonight at 3 a.m. when printing is in full swing.
Since the artwork for tonight's hot market requires approval
from outside entities, Smitherman hopes to have the final
design ready to go in the next hour or two so Darrel Scott,
print manager, can set up as many presses in advance as possible. Because both teams' T-shirt designs require the game's
final score (Bama's design is what Smitherman calls a "recap
shirt," with the scores of every game of the season on display
- "which, as Alabama fans, we wouldn't really like to have the
Auburn score on there" since the Tide lost that game), at least
some screens will have to be made after the final whistle blows.
Out on the shop floor, Scott and the production crew are
setting up the four presses that will be running the overnight
job. "We've already burned the Georgia design and the left
chest," Scott tells me over his shoulder as he gives me a tour
of the screenroom. This is where the magic happens: I watch
as the screens with both designs for tonight are exposed,
washed out, dried, and taped, ready to go.
I learn that F&E is in a fortunate position to be contracted
to print the T-shirts for both teams involved in the game.
FEBRUARY / MARCH 2018

25



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Screen Printing - February/March 2018

Contents
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - Cover1
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - Cover2
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 1
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - Contents
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 3
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 4
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 5
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 6
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 7
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 8
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 9
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 10
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 11
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 12
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 13
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 14
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 15
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 16
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 17
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 18
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 19
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 20
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 21
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 22
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 23
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 24
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 25
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 26
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 27
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 28
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 29
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 30
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 31
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 32
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 33
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 34
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 35
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - 36
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - Cover3
Screen Printing - February/March 2018 - Cover4
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