This year’s Impressions Expo Atlantic City, held March 20 to 22 at the Atlantic City Convention Center, was packed with decorating equipment manufacturers, apparel suppliers and other vendors with software solutions and supplies for the printwear market. Here’s a look at some of the biggest trends at the show

1. DTF Is Here To Stay

Direct-to-film has experienced a meteoric rise over the past few years as a decoration technique for vibrant, detailed designs on any substrate that can make print-on-demand or low-quantity orders easier. The process starts with printing the designs onto a film, which is then coated in a powdered adhesive and sent through a heat press. Then, after cooling, the resulting transfer can be heat-pressed onto the substrate.

When the tech was first available, there were some concerns because not every decorator or machinery manufacturer was offering the highest quality equipment or transfers. However, the entry of well-known equipment manufacturers like Epson into the DTF world has brought the technique even more into the forefront, according to Estevan Romano of All American Print Supply. That meant the tech was once again ubiquitous at this year’s Impressions Expo.

“Pretty much everything in here has Epson under the hood – but now it has it on the badge,” said Romano, whose company sells Epson printers and a range of other decorating machines, equipment and supplies. “With the emergence of the big manufacturers finally getting their feet wet with DTF, it’s legitimizing it to an extent. To get that support on there, it validates what we’ve been doing at a mainstream level.”

2. Retro Styles Stand Test of Time

Momentec Brands (asi/37461) showed off heritage styles with a preppy vibe at Impressions Expo Atlantic City.

Varsity jackets, preppy polos and an all-around vintage vibe – retro is back.

Casey Baker, a territory manager at Momentec Brands (asi/37461), said he’s seen major recent demand for retro styles, and that’s what’s been guiding the supplier’s product development. The recently released Heritage Collection from Holloway – one of Momentec’s brands – leans into the vintage varsity look with striped details and preppy silhouettes, for example. And demand for retro styles recently prompted him to dive into the Momentec archives and dig out catalogs from decades past to get inspiration from bestselling styles of yesteryear.

“I brought down old catalogs all the way back to 2000,” he said, “and we’re going to go through them and come up with new products that way.”

3. The Boxier, the Better

HanesBrands (asi/59528) is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Beefy T.

Another sign of the return to retro styles is the continued popularity of heavyweight, boxy tees.

“Heavy is back,” said Greg Brown, vice president of business development at Cotton Heritage (asi/46778). “They used to say bigger is better – well, now, heavier is better.”

Brown said Cotton Heritage’s 7-ounce box cotton T-shirt is more on-trend today, especially among younger consumers, than the lightweight 4.3-ounce varieties that were popular in the early 2010s.

HanesBrands (asi/59528), too, has an eye on the heavyweight trend. Jim Dunne, director of distributor sales, said he’d been showing a lot of Hanes’ new 7-ounce retro Beefy T in Atlantic City – and the brand is also celebrating the 50th anniversary of its original 6-ounce ringspun cotton Beefy-T style, which was created for the printwear industry.

“It started in 1975 this way,” Dunne said, “and it’s trending back this way in 2025.”

4. All That Glitters

Rhinestone designs and glitter were among the trends at Impressions Expo.

Also prevalent at the Impressions Expo was the return of bling – from intricate rhinestone transfer designs for T-shirts and tote bags to glitter-heavy cap styles. “Anything that sparkles is going to catch your eye,” said Jamie Jeter, head of sales at Counselor Top 40 supplier Outdoor Cap Co. (asi/75420).

Jeter noted that Outdoor Cap’s glitter mesh back cap (OCGLTR) has been a hot seller recently – with customers appreciating that the glitter doesn’t flake off the cap when it’s abraded. The flashy style is ideal as spiritwear or as a gift for bridal showers, but she added, sparkle holds appeal for more than women-focused markets. In fact, one distributor Jeter worked with was asking about ordering glitter caps for an oil company client. “Glitter isn’t just for the female anymore,” she said.

5. Down to Earth

The official Impressions Expo show shirt from Lane Seven Apparel (asi/66246) came in chocolate brown, in addition to the classic black.

On the other end of the spectrum, earth tones and neutral shades reigned supreme at the show. Light browns, tans, bone and oatmeal shades were all over the show floor. In fact, the official Impressions Expo show shirt from Lane Seven Apparel (asi/66246) came in chocolate brown, in addition to the classic black. Landway (asi/66238) showed off various outerwear in earth tones, including a quilted full-zip sweater (CF-67) in a heathered olive tone.

Cotton Heritage as well offered tees in an array of earthy shades. Though black and white are still at the top of the apparel food chain when it comes to T-shirts, Brown said, “Earth tones are pretty much the song and dance people are going to right now.”

6. All Puffed Up

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Embroidery machines at the Expo were churning out examples of 3-D puff embroidery – a popular technique to add some dimension to designs. Another take on puff, though, was the scour fleece puffy hoodie from Los Angeles Apparel (asi/67971), an oversized cotton fleece with an exaggerated voluminous fit. The top is stuffed with a fluffy polyester filling and lined with a 100% cotton jersey T-shirt material. “It sits almost like a bomber jacket, but it’s not as heavy as a jacket,” said Quinn Straw of Los Angeles Apparel. “It does really well for us in LA because it’s perfect for the weather.”

Baggy styles continue to be hot, Straw said, noting that Los Angeles Apparel has transitioned all of its sweatpants to a baggier fit. He added that he doesn’t expect the trend toward looser styles to wane anytime soon: “I always love baggy stuff. I’ll never change, so I kind of assume other people are the same.”

7. Specialty Washes & Finishes

Distressed effects and specialty washes were prevalent on the show floor, including paint drip effects on garments from Tee Styled (asi/90718).

Garment dye, mineral washes and other effects added visual interest to apparel blanks from various suppliers. Tee Styled (asi/90718) showed off a variety of garments with specialty finishes. The supplier’s Blueprint collection, coming out in May, has a biopoly wash that gives the fabric a softer feel, said Adriano Fieramosca, vice president of sales. “We think it’s going to be a bestseller,” he added.

Tee Styled also displayed a custom collection, dubbed Distressed Angels, where the supplier takes current inventory and lets a Los Angeles-based artist add various effects – from multicolored paint drips to a “sun-dried” ombré bleach look to hand-distressed collars. It’s great, Fieramosca said, “if people want something a little different” but don’t want to worry about minimum order quantities.

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