Powers Athletic
Summer Internship 2021
Who/What is Powers Athletic?
In the summer of 2021, I did an internship for Power Athletics. Power Athletics brought me on to help them develop their volleyball gear. Powers is a company that creates sports gear for football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s hockey, men’s and women’s wrestling, and baseball. Powers has their own pattern pieces to make these sports jerseys, pants, or singlets. But they are also business partners with Under Armour.
The Competition
The Competition
Throughout my research and talking with my bosses, we put a list of possible competitors we would have to deal with. The number one seller for volleyball gear is Nike. Nike creates all kinds of volleyball jerseys, spandex, shoes, and more. Multiple colleges/schools have contracts with Nike which helps spread their brand all across the world. Nike’s jerseys range from $65-$110 and their spandex are $45. A second competitor is Mizzuno, they are a company that solely creates volleyball gear. Unlike Nike that creates gear for all kinds of sports. Mizzuno’s jerseys range for $25-$70 and their spandex are $25. Mizuno is more of a club brand than a college/school brand. The last brand that I see could be a possible competitor is Under Armour. UA is also a sporting brand that creates for all kinds of sports and is represented by colleges/schools. So UA is getting broadcasted all over the world. UA’s jersey ranges are $60-$95 and their spandex ranges are $45-$50.
The Planning
The 1st part of the whole project was researching popular basic silhouettes volleyball jerseys and spandex come in. Throughout the research we saw that volleyball jerseys have 3 basic styles. They come in long sleeve, short sleeve, and sleeveless, but most of the time teams will wear long sleeve and short sleeve jerseys. Along with the jersey silhouettes we discussed that the raglan sleeve would be our base style, since it seemed popular through the catalogs and images found online. Spandex on the other hand had many silhouettes, so we chose 2-3 spandex styles we thought would do good. The next step was figuring out what materials we would want to use when creating these garments. We looked at some fabric that wrestling used and decided to use similar fabric to the singlets to create the jersey and the spandex. We decided to only make one jersey and two different spandex styles.
Tech flats
The Process
Engineering->Patternmaking->Engineering->Sublimation->Lettering->Engineering->Embroidery/Twill->Engineering->Sewing
Once everything was figured out I met with Pam (one of Powers engineers) to start the design process. 1st we worked on the jersey. The jersey is going to be a raglan long sleeve with a v-neck collar. The total number of pieces for the garment is 5. The jersey is going to be made out of the #29 fabric Powers carry. There are 2 body pieces, 2 sleeve pieces, and a collar piece. Powers has never created a volleyball jersey before so we had to go through their archives and find a jersey that is similar to use as a base. The base we chose is an old women's basketball raglan long sleeve shooter shirt. Some of the measurements had to be altered because the shooter shirt was too baggy compared to how fitted a volleyball jersey is. Some of the measurements changed were the body length, sleeve length, and the taper at the waist. Once the engineering was down, it was sent to patternmaking. When making the pattern pieces for the jersey we started with the basic pieces of a women’s shooter shirt. Following the measurements made in engineering help shoe the idea/create happening. We had to do some big adjustments at the top of the sleeve because the shooter shirt top sleeve was very long and narrow. We wanted the volleyball jersey top of the sleeve to be short and wide. After doing some fun math we were able to create what we wanted. Once all the pieces were made, we walked the piece to make sure they measured up correctly. Once they measured correctly it was sent to engineering.
Next are the spandex, and the 2 spandex styles are based off of the Nike Pro’s and Rox’s styles. Nike pro’s spandex has a curved side seam while Rox just has a basic side seam. Luckly, Pam and I found an old spandex sample Powers made and used that as our base. For the first sample the basic spandex and that sample’s measurements matched up pretty well. We only had to do a couple of changes like shrinking the gusset (the crotch) width from 4” to 3 ½”. When it came to the second spandex sample we had to figure out where the curve seam was going to start and end. We also changed the gusset from a rectangle to a triangle and it was going to be attached to the back part of the spandex. We used the first sample as the base, so we wouldn’t have any measurement changes. We were going to compare the two spandex styles by the silhouette, elastic width, and how the elastic would be sewn. The first sample would have a 2” elastic and the second sample would have a 1 ¾” elastic. Next we sent it to patternmaking, and we had to find a basic to start with. We found the old pattern piece of the old spandex and made the first spandex sample. Compared to the old pair of spandex, the new spandex has a 1 ply gusset. With the second pair of spandex, we based it off the 1 sample and made a few adjustments like changing the straight side seam to a curved side seam. Once all the pieces were made, we walked the piece to make sure they measured up correctly. Once they measured correctly it was sent to engineering.
The next step was to create the route, which also means the process of sewing. Powers uses a program called Geber and it involves multiple codes to create a single route for a garment. Some of the codes have been around longer than I have been alive. Once the routing was set in motion we brought the pieces that were cut out to sublimation. The fabric pieces that were cut out and white. The jersey piece needed to be turned pink, one pair of the spandex needed to be black, and the other pair needed to be navy. so we used a sublimation machine called Monti Antonio. The machine takes 1 minute to use and it's almost like a big heat stamp. Everything is already printed out, you place the fabric on the pieces, and add heat. After piercing all the garment’s pieces, we checked to see how much extra white space there was. As long as it was more than 1/8th the pieces were ready to be put together. Next, we took the piece to Embroidery/ Twill so they could get their labels. We chose to do a heat seal for the size and label. Following Embroidery/Twill, we went to sewing next and met Serifa, who is one of the big seamstresses at Powers. She helped us create the product and used two different methods when sewing the spandex. It took most of the day to complete the garments, but it was so cool that the garments I thought of actually came to life.
The Products
The Raglan Long Sleeve Jersey
Basic Spandex
Curved Side Seam Spandex
The Testing
When testing the volleyball gear, I asked a couple of collegiate volleyball players to wear them during one of their practices. I wanted to test how comfortable they are, how durable they are, how breathable they are, how the fit looked, and how much sweat would show. The player that wore the jersey name is Kaylee. She is 5’4” and her position is a DS/Libero. She said the sleeves were a little short and her arm length is 26”. Looking at the jersey there was no sweat being seen. She said that the jersey was very breathable and comfortable. Kaylee also liked the fit of the sleeve and didn’t have a problem with the curved part at the top of the sleeve. For her the jersey was a little too long but she is 5’4”. She just tucked it in and had no problems. She rated the jersey 4 out of 5 stars. For the spandex that has the curved seam, I had Emily wear them. Emily is a 6’2” middle blocker/ outside hitter and I thought it would be good for her to wear, because of all the jumping and diving she would be doing. I wore the other spandex that had the basic side seam. Talking with her we agreed. That the spandex fit really well. Emily’s only issue was wanting the back to be a little longer, but everything was covered. I noticed while playing that the hem of the spandex would roll up, but it wasn't a big problem. There was no problem with the bands, especially since she had the 1 ¾” and I had the 2”. There was no camel toe shown/happening. After the practice you could see the sweat at the top of the spandex near the waistband but nowhere else. Emily and I both give the spandex a 4 out 5 starts.
The Ending
Some of the fixes that could be implemented are after making the volleyball gear, we found that using the Kansai machine was the easiest. When attaching the waistband to the spandex, compared serging it then using a double needle machine to attach the waistband. Moving forward I would use the Kansai machine if Powers were ever to mass produce spandex. When trying on the jersey after it was completely finished, I noticed that the shoulder was a little baggy and could be taken in ½” to 1”. After completing the experiment, I ask my participant what they though of the spandex and jersey. The girl that wore the jersey said that it was very comfortable. It was breathable, not heavy, and didn’t show sweat. The things she said she would change is the length of the sleeve. The sleeves were 24” long and they were too short for her. In the future, I would like to have the basic long sleeve be 26” long, so if Powers were to make a tall size they could add 2” to the basic size. Also the neck opening looks a little tight to hers. The neck opening was at 94%, in the future I would possibly drop it to 80%. During the experiment the participant wore the jersey dove on the ground to create a couple of holes on the sleeve of the jersey. This is common in volleyball jerseys, so to see it happen didn’t worry me. When I asked the participants that wore the spandex what they thought of them. The only complaint was to make the length of the spandex a bit longer in the back. Over all thought, they loved it. So, I would like to add an inch to the back.
The next steps for the volleyball for Powers would need to find other materials they can make the gear in. Looking into mesh fabrics to insert in parts of the jerseys. Start making the jersey in different silhouette styles and different design characteristics. Looking into sublimation ideas and lettering ideas. Overall, this project was very fun for me and I would love to do this kind of work in my future career in fashion.
