Attending your first decorated apparel trade show is exhilarating. Even though the cost of travel is up, I don't think you can afford to miss the trade show closest to your home town. If you are new to the industry, prepare to be astounded by the number of new products and suppliers you will find. If you are an old hand in the industry, expect to find new products, ideas and processes to keep your business innovative and on the right track.
March 02, 2010
Perhaps one of the most daunting, time-consuming tasks for every business owner — and perhaps even more so for decorators — is finding good employees. It would be wonderful if there were an abundance of qualified job candidates who could perform their duties well and be a good fit in your shop’s culture, but that’s just not the case.
February 19, 2010
In the post-press phase of screen printing, as throughout the production cycle, efficiency is your primary goal -- and having set procedures in place is the key to achieving it. By laying out the steps that must be taken, you’ll speed up the process and help ensure that everything is done properly.
February 16, 2010
As our industry continues to show resilience during these challenging economic times, it is evident that art remains at the core of apparel decoration. The 31st annual Impressions Awards competition, which was judged at last September’s Fort Worth Imprinted Sportswear Show, presented a collection of artistic and technical decorating expertise on all types of wearables and even in framed pieces.
January 11, 2010
There’s a lot to see and do at the Long Beach Imprinted Sportswear Show (ISS), to be held Jan. 22-24, and a don’t-miss showcase is the 2010 winners of the Impressions Awards Student Decorating Competition.
January 04, 2010
Screen printing on fleece fabric is difficult because the material is more loosely knit and thicker than a T-shirt, so it requires laying more ink on top of the garment to make the print sharp. Use these seven tips for easing the learning curve of this printing challenge.
December 07, 2009
Garments woven from a blend of polyester and cotton can look and feel so much like 100% cotton that many screen printers are tempted to run blends on the same press and dryer setup that they just used to print all-cotton shirts.
November 23, 2009
A couple of times a year, the employees at Forward Printing, Oakland, Calif., print 250 to 400 shirts for promotional purposes. According to Dan Holzer, owner and CFO, these promo runs are usually printed on a variety of different garment styles and include a spin on the company logo in some way.
November 18, 2009
One of the most popular looks in team and spiritwear decorating is to have names and numbers printed with two or three outlined colors. For example, the image used in this article has gray text with a black outline, then a white outline, then a red outline and finally a black drop shadow. This uses the team colors and creates interest in the design.
November 16, 2009
The time for performance apparel is now. Oh wait a minute — I meant to say that the time has been here for a while now. Hopefully, you’ve spent the last couple of years reading through the pages of Impressions, learning about the latest in performance fabrics and constructions. You should be familiar now with terms such as moisture wicking, anti-static, anti-microbial, loose fit and compression.
November 16, 2009
How green can you be if you are a top-volume screen printer with some 150 employees filling orders for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to big-time PPDs and nonprofits alike?
October 02, 2009
Business partners Jeff Henderson and Adam Walterscheid — who met several years ago playing football for Southern Methodist University — have made a name for their six-year-old company, Pony Xpress Printing (PXP), in specialty screen printing.
October 02, 2009
It was my first screen printing job at a local shop that would forever change my stance on environmental production practices. I was taken under the wing of the owner, Paul Archetko, who was an ex-hippie and had been in the industry for years. Paul was heavily involved in local environmental causes, such as The Grandparents for Peace organization, which put on an annual Earth Day Celebration.
October 02, 2009
Ten years doesn’t seem like such a long time ago, but, in a way, it was. In 1998, “being green” wasn’t a consideration for the typical screen printer — whether small volume or larger. For some, it still isn’t.
October 02, 2009
It’s only appropriate that garments known for their durability and dependability should remain resilient during tough economic times. Wovens, a perennial favorite in the decorated apparel industry, are holding their own despite the fact that the recession has affected most businesses and the economic climate is conservative.
October 01, 2009
Editor’s note: In the following pages, the authors take you step-by-step through the process of adding foil to your T-shirt artwork. First, they detail how to incorporate foil into the workflow of an automatic press. The process differs significantly for printers using a manual press, so the authors also detail how to apply foil when printing with a manual screen printing press.
September 01, 2009
When we get an order at our shop, it’s not uncommon to hear an employee exclaim, “Foiled again!” That’s because as many as 15% of our orders involve some kind of foil printing, making the process somewhat of a specialty for our shop — Forward Printing, Oakland, Calif.
September 01, 2009
Corel Corp., Ottawa, recently announced the winners of the CorelDRAW International Design Contest, which drew submissions from users in more than 60 countries. Junior Souza of Brazil won first place in the Fashion/Textile category. Impressions Senior Editor Terry Murphy was among the international panel of judges for the competition.
August 10, 2009
Even in a down economy, fleece buyers will find lighter weights among basics and a healthy dose of fashion and color. As consumers tighten their belts, fleece remains popular and decorators should look to vendor lines with lighter weight fabrics making value-added changes to basics, as well as and some fashion-forward styles and sizzling colors.
July 31, 2009
I’m the first to admit that I am one of those people who tears out the sewn-in neck label as soon as I buy a T-shirt. And I’m obviously not the only one who does so, because T-shirt manufacturers have heard the message loud and clear. Many garments from vendors big and small have gone tagless. The information normally on a tag is still right there inside the neck of the shirts — it’s just either screen printed or a heat-applied transfer.
July 31, 2009
Learn how to turn stock art from ordinary to interesting using a few simple techniques to add dimension and details. Clip art is a handy tool that allows apparel decorators to minimize the cost of artwork while still offering high-quality, professional- looking work. It also enables a decorator who might not be a trained graphic artist to produce a quality design quickly when time is of the essence.
July 31, 2009
Following the trends in retail, custom apparel decorating shops can expand their product mixes and bottom lines by offering garments with allover embellishment and oversized designs in unorthodox placements. There are numerous production methods to achieve this end, from fitting your screen printing press with oversized pallets and screens, to mastering certain techniques of digital printing. The method with perhaps the lowest cost of entry and one that’s easy to manage is buying (or printing) oversized transfers.
July 01, 2009
The unconventional is definitely at the heart of the urban Chii Clothing Culture collection, produced by Culture Studio Screen Printing & Embroidery. The Chicago-based decoration house specializes in allover and discharge printing, and processes including foil and texture inks. In January 2005, Rich Santo, president of Culture Studio, launched the Chii Clothing Culture line, which showcases all of Culture Studio’s specialties and is designed especially for fashion-forward young adults.
July 01, 2009
As America’s collective business community continues to struggle with the longest recession since the Great Depression (though not near the same magnitude), stories of resilient companies — such as Impressions’ 2009 Top-Volume Shops — offer a beacon of light during this overcast time.
July 01, 2009
Today’s kids are sporting some decidedly progressive, adult-driven apparel, including sun dresses with Affliction-style heraldry designs, diapers decorated with abstract sublimated designs, vintage-wash fabrics and organic cotton one-piece body suits. These fashion-forward offerings are part of a bumper crop of products from industry suppliers, who continue to unveil new twists for tots, even as classic kidswear items retain their perennial popularity.
July 01, 2009
While the ongoing recession may have prompted suppliers to narrow their product offerings a bit, that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of stylish, new options this year in ladieswear. See-through sheers, eco-friendly cottons, red-hot layered looks, deep V-necks, bright colors like apricot orange and lime green, and standby styles like baby ribs are giving decorators plenty of alluring choices. Eye-catching looks inspired by retail are in abundance.
May 01, 2009
There are about as many ways to number athletic team uniforms as there are teams in the ever-expanding playoffs of professional sports — in other words, lots. But you have to know which decoration process works best in various situations. With that in mind, here's an in-depth look at the six main ways to number uniforms, as well as the pros and cons of each process.
April 01, 2009
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