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Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. We welcome back industry veteran, Mark Coudray to discuss the changes that continue to happen in our industry and to find out his thoughts on what is working now. As our industry changes and evolves we must also, and Mark give his insights on why some things are working (See Custom Ink) and why some things are failing (see Spreadshirt). We are also on the eve of SGIA coming next week, so we will be sharing some last minute tips and information from the staff at SGIA.

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans - Oct 10-12

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

SGIA Expo Last Minute Information

There is an App For that!

The 2017 SGIA Expo App, sponsored by Grimco, is available for both android and apple devices

Still FREE Passes Available

Simply visit the list of Exhibitors online at SGIAExpo.org!

Network at the Reception

Don’t miss the SGIA Welcome Reception, Sponsored by SAi in the Golden Image Gallery on Tuesday from 5-6pm

Check Out the Products of the Year

Make these a muststops on your agenda.

Buy a Shirt

Purchase your official SGIA Expo t-shirt for $5 in the lobby. All proceeds will go to lowernine.org, an organization dedicated to rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Get Social

Post your favorite Expo photos with the #SGIAExpo hashtag to participate in a live mosaic in the SGIA booth – stop by 2245 to check it out and pick up copies of your photos.

There is a FREE Lunch!

Garment Decorators Luncheon - Wednesday Noon to 2PM

Get Educated

Garment Decorators Track

Think BIG!

The Largest Printing Trade Show in North America. Period. - Good shoes, rest and hydrate -identify technologies and opportunities on the periphery of their core. For instance, you're doing dye-sub garment printing - what other areas can you access using the same equipment and materials (e.g. soft signage).

What is Working Now with Mark Coudray

* Mark, we first talked with you on the show a couple of years ago about your project Catalyst Plan. Tell us about the program.

Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. We interviewed Justin Lawrence from Oklahoma Shirt Company. They have some unique marketing approaches, and always good to hear from active decorators in the marketplace. Justin and his company are also involved in some unique fundraising program supporting good causes, so we will get the scoop on that as well. Learn from someone who has built their business from the ground up with lots of passion and culture.

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans - Oct 10-12

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

News Items

Imprinted Sportswear Shows (ISS) has published next year’s show locations and dates. 2018 will be their 40th year

-Long Beach January 19-21

-Atlantic City March 15-17

-Houston (instead of Nashville) May 3-5

-Orlando September 6-8

-Back to Texas at Ft Worth September 27-29

Great Dane Graphics has included art training free with their monthly clip art service.

Unique Marketing Approaches

Tell us a little bit about your company.

Oklahoma Shirt Company

Custom Screen Printing

Embroidery

DTG

Vinyl

Graphic Design

Retail / SOTM

Order Fullfillment

“I think making the world a better place starts at home, and as a husband and a dad, my number one priority is my family,” “When I’m not loving my kids, I’m spending my time with my second family, the family we’ve built at Oklahoma Shirt Company, united in our love of this great state and building lasting relationships with our fellow Oklahomans and standing alongside other local businesses. We take so much pride in our community, which has given us so much, and we love giving back as much as we can to the people of Oklahoma.”

Our company began humbly enough as a way for me to support my family while I was in medical school.

“In four short years, we have grown from a small operation slinging shirts out of my garage into an organization that has a tight-knit team of 25 employees, occupies a city block in downtown Oklahoma City and generates almost 6 million dollars per year in sales,” he said.

Tyler Dummit, President of WorkHorse Products introduced us at the ISS Show in Ft Worth last week. How did you and your crew happen to be working the WorkHorse booth?

- Show Shop

- SGIA New Orleans

We like to share with our listeners how each of us got started in the industry. How about you?

Organic Chemistry / Youtube

What would you say are your primary markets for your products?

Custom vs SOTM vs Retail

Our company’s Shirt of the Month club now counts more than 13,500 members across the country,

Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. The screen making room is often where screen printers send employees who are not doing their job well, and this can cause big problems. We brought in Alan Howe from SAATICHEM to give us the rundown on why the screen making room should be one of the most important parts of your screen printing production facility. He will give us insight on what problem you can fix, just by making some minor changes to your screen making room.

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans - Oct 10-12

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

Screen Making Room

What do you think Are the biggest challenge screen printers face on a daily basis in their screen making room? A basic understanding of fundamentals of Screenprinting and how they affect their bottom line. Fundamentals: proper tension, coating, exposing/developing, curing, proper use if flood bar/squeegee.

What are some areas that some screen printers miss in their screen making room? It starts with screens... it's most overlooked. Screens are equipment, not a commodity.

Standardizing - To do that you have to have a process set up

-how we coat on each mesh count

-why we do it

-check and control it

-start with screens

What are the tensions? Are you holding them? What is your tap-out? get them restretched, retensioned or replaced

When tension is controlled a lot of other print issues go away.

Should the worst employees be is in the screen room? It all starts with screens, it should be the best employee. They make the printers look good.

Poor tension causes print problems

-bad underbases

-halo, blurred images

-registration issues

Talk about what tools every shop should have for their screen room.

-Hygrometer

-Exposure calculator / 21 step

-Tension meter

-Laser Temperature Guns

And know how to use them, have a process for them to be used. It goes to repeatability, consistency and profit.

Humidity has an impact in technologies such as DTG, but does it impact screen printing? Controlling humidity is major and first. By not you are fighting a battle all the time. Keep it below 32% humidity in your screen room. Solid content. 40% solids = 60% water in the air, per screen.

Heater .... Create a tropical rain forest

Fan ..... breeze in the rain forest

(soon there will be vines and toucans)

Dehumidifier... knowing the relative humidity tells you how big or how many dehumidifiers you need. How often they need to be emptied ( if no drain in the floor)?

Screen guy - "they feel dry". Reality is. Guessing "dry like a tomato. It feels dry on the outside, but in reality,

Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast.  We talked tradeshow preparation for 2018, the good, the bad and the ugly, from the perspective of the attendee and the exhibitor. But we’ll start the show with a conversation with Greg Kitson with Mind’s Eye Graphics, discussing the Orlando ISS Show, and Hurricane Irma.

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans - Oct 10-12

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

Thanks to Greg Kitson of Mind's Eye Graphics for giving us a full run down of the situation at this years ISS Orlando even that was cut short due to Hurricane Irma.

Tradeshow Preparation

Aaron: Let’s start by saying every owner and manager in our industry should attend at least one trade show each year. And most every vendor needs to do trade shows either in your region or across the country if you sell nationally.

Location

Terry: Attendees

Driving distance is a real plus, especially if you plan on purchasing equipment or supplies that will fit in your vehicle. Pickup a heat press or even larger equipment can save you real money. Most vendors do not want to take equipment home with them if they don’t have to.

Traffic and parking expense is something you should figure into your travel and expenses.

A destination like Orlando or Vegas gives attendees, spouses and families entertainment outside the show.

Aaron: Exhibitors

A location with direct flights is a plus.

Hotel rates can be a deterrent in a venue like Nashville.

A destination like Orlando or Vegas gives attendees a reason to not attend as much of the show as they might. That’s why exhibitors prefer the Indy’s of the world. Restaurants and bars near the convention center but nothing really to draw away attendees during show hours.

The Hall

Aaron: Attendees

Food onsite other than the $8.00 convention hot dog is always good, but attendees do have the option of going to nearby eateries.

Pickup access after the show can be as easy as driving inside the building to waiting in a long line to get close enough to load your recently purchased machine.

Terry: Exhibitors

I’ll list food here too since there’s no option of leaving for a bite during a show.

The DAX show provides lunch for vendors which is a welcome bonus on a busy show day.

NBM provides coffee and essentials like aspirin, airborne, hand sanitizer, etc. And on setup day they wheel in a keg of beer.

Drayage, electric, carpet, tables… these are usually ugly expenses no matter what location, but the attitude of those providing the services varies among venues. Exhibitors spend $1,000’s at the hall, beyond shipping there and back.

Let’s list bitter cold or sweltering heat as the ugly side for exhibitors. Only the attendees during regular show hours benefit from heat or A/C. During setup and tear down vendors are left to the elements outside when the bay doors roll up...

Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. We’ll dig down into a fun subject titled “That’s Just Not True” where we’ll talk about myths and misinformation throughout our industry. We will cover several different techniques, like Embroidery, Direct to Garment, Sublimation and more. We don't need to name names, just want to clear up some things and try to get the correct information shared. We know many times there are lots of ways to do things, but we are trying to get to the best way to do things so people can maximize their profits.

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans - Oct 10-12

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

News

ThreadX powered by SGIA coming soon! February 25th to 27th, 2018 in Palm Springs, CA - Sign-up to receive more information as it comes available.

That’s Just Not True

Terry: Screen Printing

-You only need to degrease a brand new screen

-Always coat with the round side of the scoop coater

-LED exposure units are the end-all-be-all of exposing screens

-Never thin your plastisol inks

-Eco-friendly printers use water based inks

Aaron: Sublimation

-400 Degrees all the time

-All Polyester is the same for sublimation

-The real costs in Sublimation is the time

-Use an off the shelf Hammermill Paper

-Use a Teflon sheet for heating to save money on blow-out paper

-Would recommend not using Craft Paper

Embroidery - Thanks to Erich Campbell, DecoNetwork

* I never call stabilizer 'backing' unless I forget and revert back to my bad old training days; the reason being is that the purpose of the material is to be dimensionally stable, meaning it shouldn't stretch no matter what angle you pull it- there will be some give, but a good piece of stabilizer doesn't have one angle that's weak; that’s why it's important that the fibers are 'nondirectionally' laid. On that same note, just because something looks like a stabilizer or topping, doesn't make it a good substitute; even if you end up with OK results in some instances, spent dryer sheets, coffee filters, and the like aren't as stable as a commercial stabilizer, and may leave fibers or residues on and in your machine.

* It's not likely good for radio, but a huge one is that you never need to put stabilizer in a structured cap, or that you only have to put a small swatch behind the front area of a cap's crown unless you are decorating the sides, but it actually does serve a purpose; particularly on wide-format cap frames, the only points of vertical stability are the posts in the back- to get a stable surface to embroider and to keep the cap from shifting, having a piece of stabilizer that wraps from post to post is the best option,

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Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. We chatted first with Greg Kitson at Mind’s Eye Graphics about the upcoming seminar with Aaron, How to Make Money with Digital Decorating. And then our guest Jay Busselle from Printa Systems will be talking about his new position as well as social media marketing.

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans - Oct 10-12

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

News

John Bergmann who started the Bergmann Group, the parent company of Workhorse Products, passed away last week. We’d like to pass along our condolences to everyone at Workhorse, especially John’s son John Jr and Tyler, his son-in-law. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

* Charlotte Catholic High School students were recently honored by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers for their dye-sublimation photography prints on ChromaLuxe metal. Two students, senior Bella Garner and sophomore Perris Bowling, were awarded Silver Medals in the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards competition. Their work also received Gold Key Awards in the 2017 Mid-Carolinas competition. Read More

Aaron and Greg announce they are extending the early Bird Special for the class How to Make Money with Digital Decorating until the end of Labor Day Weekend.

ThreadX powered by SGIA coming soon! February 25th to 27th, 2018 in Palm Springs, CA - Sign-up to receive more information as it comes available.

Jay Busselle and Social Media Marketing

Terry: Jay, you’re at a new location since our last show together.  Let’s get started by telling us about Printa Systems.

Aaron: Talk about your position with Printa.

Terry: Who is the customer you’re reaching out to?

Terry: Talk to us about PromoChat on Twitter. 3PM Eastern Time #PromoChat

Aaron: Like me, you’re heavily into social media as a way to reach customers. Talk about the current state of social media as a vehicle for promotion and what you see as the f...

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Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. Social Media is no longer the red-headed stepchild of most marketing strategies, it has found itself front and center. Today's apparel decorators not only should but need to embrace social media as it has changed the space of apparel decoration. We are excited to welcome to the show, Brian and Peter from of New Era Apparel out of Long Island, New York. They have over 20 years experience in Screen Printing and one of them printed their first shirt at 3 years old. We are going to dig into what Social Media and Apparel Decorations has changed about screen printing and give you some tips on how to deal with those changes.

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans - Oct 10-12

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

News

Jim Kozikis from 4 J’s Today in West Suffield, Conn stopped by to say he always listens to the 2 Regular Guys!

The deadline for entry to the industry’s most prestigious apparel decorating competition, the 2017 Impressions Awards, has been extended to Sept. 6. The 39th annual contest will be judged at the Fort Worth Imprinted Sportswear Shows (ISS) event, which will be held Sept. 22-24. Impressions Awards winners will be announced Sept. 24.

Social Media and Apparel Decorations

Terry: First off give us some background on how you got into screen printing. We heard through our preparations for the show about printing at 3 years old. Tell us about that.

Aaron: Can you share with us a little more about New Era. What is your niche, what size company are you guys and any other details you don’t mind sharing with us?

Terry: Can you share with the listeners your start with Social Media - when did this approach to marketing start and what brought you to it as a way to drive business to your screen printing company?

Aaron: What to you is the biggest change screen printers are facing with the boom of social media?

Terry: What can an apparel decorator do to harness social media and use it as a tool to grow their business?

Aaron: What are your favorite platforms today on Social Media and Why?

Terry: What do you see in the future for apparel decorators as it relates to social media?

Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. Matthew Rhome with Epson America was an early innovator in direct-to-garment. In fact, much earlier than most people realize. We’ll be talking about where the industry came from, where it is today, and where we anticipate DTG being tomorrow. This direct to garment deep dive will cover everything from light to dark shirts and give you the info you need to create awesome shirts with your DTG machine.

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans - Oct 10-12

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

News

Teespring, the online custom T-shirt marketplace startup, has recapitalized its stock in what is being described as a financial “cram down.” The Wall Street Journal reports that Teespring is currently raising new financing at a company valuation of about $11 million, compared to previous valuations as high as $650 million.  Crunchbase Article

Direct to Garment Deep Dive

Aaron: Matt, not many people know the real history of DTG printing. Talk about the origins of the process.

Terry: Interestingly, the reason for today’s show was a listener request to hear about printing on light shirts. They said everyone talks about dark shirts and white ink, but what should we know about printing light shirts.

Aaron: Here’s the actual tweet: @InstaShirtUSA - Light shirt DTG, specifically. Seems that whenever digital printing is the topic, the dark side, esp. underbase, tends to dominate. whereas the light apparel, no-white underbase, method & accompanying tips, like color utilization, etc. tend to get overlooked.

Old pretreats staining white and pastel and Epson pretreat

How inexpensive to print light garments.

CMYK - You can print out a color chart for the color you’re trying to hit

Aaron: You’re from Epson, so let’s once and for all put something to bed. We all hear resellers out in the industry saying, “Our printer is the same thing. It has an Epson print head too.” The inference, of course, is that they are somehow partnered with Epson.

Two kinds of printers on the market

Out of date printers in many machines

Epson’s (lack of) desire to keep those machines running

Aaron: Matt, you spend time in a lot of shops. What kinds of production runs are you seeing? Is it still a very short run technology?

How the market has changed and short run is going to be a requirement for all decorators.

Terry: Matt, we do the day-long Epson seminars together before all the NBM and most of the ISS Shows. You talk a lot about printing products other than t-shirts. Share some of those ideas with our listeners.

Aaron: You envisioned the beginning of direct-to-garment printing.

Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. We are excited to welcome in one of the team members from Stahl’s TV to our show to give us very timely information about selling to Teams and how to manage those differences when it comes to Team Apparel. Stahls TV is one of the best sources of information when it comes to decoration in the industry. Stahls and their family of companies are the leaders in Team Apparel so we are excited to bring you details you can put into practice today to make your company better.

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans - Oct 10-12

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

 

Team Apparel Decoration Like the Pros

* School is starting, teams are forming, but start us off by telling us when the ideal time is to be chasing these Team Apparel orders.

* What are some of the biggest challenges a decorator might expect to face when promoting and decorating team apparel and what can they do to overcome those challenges?

Can you also describe some of the decorating techniques people might use to best manage team apparel? You are most likely dealing with names and numbers at a minimum and maybe even some unique decorating locations

From my days as a custom screen printer, it was the additional uniforms needed… new kid on the team, damaged uniform, etc. And sometimes those sponsors are screen printed. Suggestions here.

If this is my niche and I really want to grow my team apparel business, what tips do you have for generating new customer here?

My personal experience when dealing with individual teams rather than an entire league was not so much getting the sizes and numbers from a coach, but getting the sponsor information in a timely manner. Is your realm just the decorating, or do you coach your customers on the business as a whole? What kinds of business advice to you share?

Maybe we need to break this down by types of teams, age groups, etc., but what would you guess the percentage of heat applied names and numbers are today compared with other decoration methods?

In looking at the sheer fact of matching numbers front and back, the right name with the right number, any suggestions for team sellers to keep themselves organized? Who’s the ideal candidate to be a team decorator?

Let’s talk about the order taking the process from the front end. How do you recommend sellers to make sure everyone on the team gets the right size, etc.?

Courtney Kubitza is the Educational Content Manager for Stahls' TV She has been teaching customers heat printing within the apparel decorating industry since 2010. Her role in the apparel industry started with helping decorators expand their business with heat transfer vinyl and vinyl cutters. Since that time, Courtney has grown to help thousands of decorators from start-up entrepreneurs ...

Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. This week we welcome back into the show, the jet setting Erich Campbell of DecoNetwork. He has been traveling the country talking to businesses using the DecoNetwork Platform and we are going to ask him about embroidery by the numbers. We will use his extensive experience with embroidery and his new role with DecoNetwork to give us an in-depth look at costing and pricing your embroidery decorations.

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | 2017 SGIA Expo in New Orleans - Oct 10-12

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

News

We just got listed on a new service called TuneIn. This is news and something we are excited about because TuneIn works with Amazon Alexa/Echo. Now just tell your Alexa to play 2 Regular Guys Podcast and boom!

Embroidery by the Numbers with Erich Campbell

Give us the overview of embroidery costs and pricing.

Embroidery is not a monolith: Different shop models

Cost and Pricing are two very different things

Costs: what it takes to keep the doors open and produce a garment

Price: what we can reasonably expect a customer to pay

Can’t price on cost alone; we have to talk about value, and it can’t just be a discussion about material costs; market fit, demand, marketing, niches; much more goes into the price you charge that is more subjective than the cost of production.

Models: Base garment + markup + cost of embroidery; Garment + markup + flat rate; Price matrix: One one axis you have cost per thousand stitches, with the cost decreasing with stitch count increase, on the other you have garment costs, decreasing at quantity breaks - generally with a base price; hooping a garment and putting it on a machine always takes a certain amount of time. Base of 6-8k stitches at a flat initial rate, then +per K.

Markup isn’t the only way; huge contract shops price on decoration only, but that’s not how an average small shop works - PW survey - the models I talked about are common, but not the only methods; the key is knowing what things cost and your capabilities.

Talk to us about the impact of embroidery production time as it impacts your costs.

Time is everything. Materials costs are actually quite negligible; at the most expensive rates, a quality thread at retail rates is roughly .06 cents per thousand estimating 4mm stitches. At that rate, even a 10k stitch logo has only 6 cents of thread in it, add about 7 tenths of a cent for bobbin thread, pre-cut stabilizer, averages maybe 10-15 cents for a pre-cut left-chest sheet. If I go for specialty stabilizer, maybe 20 odd cents. If I add a water-soluble topping, maybe add another 3 cents there, all high estimates. The likelihood is the materials cost me 25 to 30 cents per garment o...