Behind the scenes: How we make Racesafe cross country colours

Welcome to Racesafe HQ and your behind the scenes look at how we make our cross country colours.

You are probably familiar with the fact that we make all of our items here in Northamptonshire, England, but until now, never before have we shared an inside glimpse at just how we make our world renowned products. 

We are very proud of our UK manufacturing and of our incredible team who design and make our products. From creating the initial computer designs to the final hand stitches, every stage of the manufacturing process plays an integral role in creating our high quality, high performance garments. 

Below we are giving you a step-by-step tour of how we make our cross country colours. 

1. Creating the digital designs

2. Sublimation printing

3. Hand cutting

4. Hand stitching & finishing

1. Creating the digital designs

After a customer has designed their cross country colours using the online customisation tool and placed their order, our designers then take the unique designs and recreate them within our printing system. 

2. Sublimation Printing

All custom custom items (excluding the premium satin hat covers and racing silks) are then individually printed using sublimation. 

Sublimation allows us unlimited options in terms of customer designs and branding. Importantly though, designs are permanent, vibrant and durable. The process involves the fabric absorbing the ink, using heat and pressure to turn the ink to gas. 

It is a far superior process to methods such as transfer branding where designs are essentially stuck/bonded on top of the fabric, as these will eventually crack and come off, whereas when garments are created using sublimation printing, this cannot happen. 

3. Hand cutting the sections

The next stage is to carefully cut the sections of the garments, by hand, ready for them to be sewn together. At this point, as shown in the images above, you can really start to see the pieces of the garment, such as this event shirt, come together. 

"Rose loves her new cross country colours, thank you for all of your help and advice along with the alterations for a perfect fit. They arrived beautifully packaged, perfect to wrap for her Birthday. They have already made their first appearance at Arena Eventing and she received lots of compliments on them. We would highly recommend Racesafe to anyone looking for off the shelf or bespoke colours." 

Eloise Chugg-Martin

4. Hand sewing and finishing

The pieces are then transferred across to our talented team of seamstresses who carefully sew and finish each item. 

In the case of the satin hat cover pictured above, the first part of this process involves the 6 sections being arranged and joined, depending on the pattern. Next the lining is added and the is peak covered and added, before finally the elastic is added and the pom or button is secured to the top. 

And now you can see the final set being worn and enjoyed as shown above and below. The rider knows that their outfit has been created with the utmost care and attention to detail and is of an exceptionally high quality, meaning they can go out and enjoy their time on their horse with confidence.