Exploring The Apparel Decoration Opportunity

As a wide-format print service provider, the idea of adding apparel decoration services might not make sense initially. I mean, what do signage and decals have to do with apparel?

Think of it this way: let’s say your customer needs custom printed signage for an event, but the event also requires swag like t-shirts and tote bags. Do you really want them to have to go somewhere else for that?

Apparel presents an opportunity for wide-format PSPs to provide their customers with an elevated brand experience. | Credit: Visual Marking Systems

By adding apparel decoration, you make your customers’ lives easier, and you eliminate their need to take their business somewhere else. It’s a win-win situation. John Gibbs, owner of Logo Daddy Graphics in Valley Park, Missouri, seems to agree.

“With any type of large-format type situation, let’s say you’re printing signage for the local school markets ... you could start doing merch for the baseball teams, the football teams. There’s a lot of opportunity there,”  Gibbs says.

All that said, you can’t just add apparel decoration overnight. However, there are ways to make the process a little less daunting.

DTF is Your Friend

According to Gibbs, direct-to-film (DTF) printing has made apparel decoration an “open playing field.”

Some of Logo Daddy's recent work. | Credit: Logo Daddy

“My catchphrase is always ‘screen printing is hard,’ and it is. So, I think for a while a lot of large-format guys probably were like, ‘we're never going to buy a press and clean screens and do all these things to try to make money decorating apparel,’” Gibbs says. “But now, with DTF and all the technology that’s there, I think it’s just incredible and it really opens up different markets to wide-format printers.”

Eric Kahle, president of Visual Marking Systems in Twinsburg, Ohio, echoes Gibbs’ sentiment on DTF.

“I do believe in DTF. I think that it is a great way for people to be able to start decorating at a screen print level quality without the expense,” Kahle says.

While DTF is a great option for getting started, Phase 3 Marketing and Communications Vice President of Sales for the northeast region and branded merchandise division, Meredith Schwarz, urges those interested to keep in mind that apparel decoration is a “high volume game.”

“DTF and DTG are going to be a great solution for one-off jobs. But with apparel decoration, you're going to need a lot of volume, very similar to small-format printing. Whereas with wide-format, you could have a lot of smaller projects that are big dollars because they're giant pieces. So DTF, DTG, you can produce lower volume items and still get that return, whereas if it was screen printing, you're going to need quantity,” Schwarz says.

It's More Than the Equipment

As you could guess, investing in the right equipment doesn’t automatically make you an apparel decorator. It's the same as a shop that just installed its first wide-format machine isn’t instantaneously a 'wide-format printer' overnight. There’s trial and error, practice, and education that must follow. And you have to sell the service.

An example of embroidered merchandise from VMS

“You need to have a lot of talent," Kahle says. ?Embroidery is not printing; it just gets grouped in because of the product of apparel and promotional decorations. But it is, I mean, I understand screen print, I understand digital print. Embroidery is not any of that. So, having the right talent in place is the key to being successful."

Schwarz believes in a system of trial and error – because at the end of the day, it’s still printing, it’s just a different kind of printing that might take some getting used to.

“It's something that can easily be taught through some trial and error; it's going to be a little different than printing. PMS is not guaranteed with direct-to-film, direct-to-garment, or even heat transfers. So that might be a little bit of a teaching point for somebody,” Schwarz says.

And while embroidery technology is widely available in the marketplace, it can’t do all the work for you, Schwarz again insists that it does deeper than that.

“You can buy some machines that do a lot of the work for you, but there is an intrinsic knowledge you need from kind of that tailoring background where there are different backings, there are different weights, there's all these different pieces,” Schwarz says.

If you want to learn more about apparel decoration, but you’re not sure what resources are available – consider joining PRINTING United Alliance, where members have access to iLearning+ courses like “Screen Printing Basics for Apparel” and “DTG/DTF Printing Technology Essentials.”

Don’t Be Afraid to Outsource

It's no secret that elements of apparel decoration, like embroidery, require a great deal of skill – outsourcing is also a great route to take. But if you’re worried that outsourcing may be a bad look, Kahle urges you to think again.

“Most people wonder, ‘Is my customer going to be OK with the fact that I didn't decorate it?’ Well, there's a reason for the term of 'print service provider.' In an entire market, there are a lot of people, a lot of customers, and I find they're looking for turnkey more than they care about whether you do everything. They care about whether you service everything. They care about the quality of the product, not about whether it was made in your facility,” Kahle says.

And to find just the right decorator to outsource to, Schwarz advises going on shop facility tours. That way, you can see how the shop functions, you can gain a view of its cleanliness and efficiencies, and ultimately gather if they’re the right fit for your business.

“That sounds very, you know, I would say easy, but there's a lot of shops that just don't hit that standard. And if you're not producing it and you can't control it, you're going to want to make sure that the trade producer has the same standards that you do for your product,” Schwarz says.

Networking is Essential

While your existing customer base has treated you well thus far, Kahle warns you not to bank on them if you add apparel decoration.

“I would tell you from a wide-format standpoint, don't be confident that your book of business is going to be the right people in those organizations to that are buying the apparel,” Kahle says.

He explains that for typical wide-format jobs, PSPs are working with project managers, supply chain managers, etc., but those who really make the decisions for apparel and promo are marketing and HR.

When Visual Marking Systems added apparel to its tool belt in 2018, Kahle admits he didn’t have strong relationships with heads of marketing and HR for his already-existing book of business.

“While we were great at making their labels, their HR and marketing departments already have strong partnerships with different people,” Kahle says. “So, we found that instead of our Fortune 500, publicly-traded larger customers, it was easier to sort of get in with apparel for our mid-tier clients whose marketing departments had an idea of who we were.”

For Gibbs, he believes that PSPs should get the word out on social media – considering it’s one of the easiest and fastest ways to reach an audience.

“If you’re not already showing off what you can do on social media, you should start. But even aside from that, maybe just start with an email blast to your current list of customers to let them know that you can offer them this service,” Gibbs says.

Overall, between DTF and outsourcing, apparel decoration is proving to be an accessible and up-and-coming additional market for wide-format PSPs.

“I think that large-format has an advantage. It is really probably more advantageous for them to get into this market than it would be, maybe even for a traditional screen printer,” Gibbs says. “So hopefully all the large-format guys don't go into business and compete against me now.”