The material is then hand cut and sewed up before being packed up prior to distribution of retailers and customers. This heat process permanently bonds the colours and design to the material. This is a fairly intensive process as one printout equals one shirt. The print out is then taken to another room where a machine transfers the design to the material via a heat transfer process.
![jack of all tribes big fish jack of all tribes big fish](https://bigfishgames-a.akamaihd.net/se_jack-of-all-tribes/screen3.jpg)
The material is then printed via a heat transfer process. The printouts, which are reversed, incorporate the basic outline of each individual shirt – front, back, arms and collars and so on. Josh has an array of printers in a separate temperature controlled room. The first stage involves printing the artwork on special paper via water soluable inks.
![jack of all tribes big fish jack of all tribes big fish](https://bigfishgames-a.akamaihd.net/de_jack-of-all-tribes/screen1.jpg)
Josh, a super keen fisho who had a successful career as a top-level surfer before heading to art school in Brisbane, explained the process as we toured through his high tech modern factory. The reality of how these fantastic shirts are made is actually pretty interesting. I had some vague notion about the Big Fish shirts undergoing some sort of screen-printing process. Most fishos probably have little understanding of the garment industry - and I am no exception. This brand new jewie design displayed by Big Fish’s Josh Ker should prove very popular with southern mulloway specialists! Compared to cheaper overseas made garments, Big Fish shirts (plus associated product including Hats, Fish Headz and Jumpers) are very high quality. The material is custom knitted in Melbourne and Josh prints, cuts and stitches the shirts in Darwin. One of the great things about Big Fish shirts is that they’re 100 per cent Aussie made. As something of a devotee of Josh’s shirts – they’re cool to wear, offer great sun protection and feature outstanding artwork – I was keen to see how they were made. Josh picked us up from Pete’s place and offered us a quick tour of his factory before dinner. We’d spent the day jigging with Fisho writer Pete Zeroni (see HERE for details) and had arranged dinner with good mate Josh Ker, who runs Big Fish Graphics, before catching the red eye back home. A RECENT trip to the Top End with my son Jack resulted in some down time while waiting for our flight back south.