My team is having trouble figuring out how to put our team number on our bumpers as nothing seems to stick to the fabric. We are planning to use white spray paint, is this legal and are there any alternatives?
We ironed ours on. Not sure where we got the iron on numbers, as I didn’t do that part.
We did the iron on numbers from RoboPromo. Worked great.
White paint is not specifcally illegal, so it should be legal, but of course the standard disclaimer is that I’m not the GDC and my opinions don’t count.
You need to be aware that it may take several coats - light coats to prevent runs - to make the white stand out from the fabric. Many teams use fabric paint applied with a small brush instead. In any case, as long as they are white, provide a contrast to the background, and comply with the other rules you should be OK.
We have used white paint in the past, but not spray paint. The big problem with paint is that most of the recommended bumper fabrics are nylon or other artificial fiber that do not take most paints well; they tend to flake or peel. If you want to do this, Try painting a scrap of fabric, letting it dry, then striking it against another piece of fabric, polycarbonate, and other surfaces likely to be encountered on the field a few dozen times. You probably will not be happy with the results.
Many t-shirt shops can provide iron-on numbers, or you can order them on-line from AndyMark, RoboPromo, or probably a variety of other vendors. Some teams make their own heat-applied numbers, but I don’t know their recipes. Teams (not mine) have also reported having their numbers silk-screened and seemed happy with the results.