Off the Cuff: The ‘Blingification’ of Decorated Apparel
Bling is bigger than ever and still growing in popularity on shirts, caps, higher-end wearables, jeans, bags, and fashion accessories. While most embroiderers and screen printers are quite familiar with it, few push it — much less advance it as a profit center for their enterprises. If you haven’t attended a trade show in a while, here’s what you’re missing, as well as what you should know to get up to speed about rhinestones and other blingification trends.

The Beauty of Bling
The attraction of bling is undeniable and universal — it seems everyone is drawn to these small, shiny objects. It’s easier and more profitable than you might think to add this irresistible element to your apparel decorating services.

Laser Bridge Technology Revolutionizes Appliqué Production
A laser bridge machine is the latest piece of equipment designed to do appliqué and etching on ready-to-wear apparel. It is called a bridge because it is built over a multihead embroidery machine. The laser head travels down a beam stopping over each embroidery head to cut, then move on the next hoop. It can cut almost any type of fabric or etch designs on the fabric’s surface.

Off the Cuff: Wallowing Won’t Help Your Business
Yes, the tough economic times remain with us. There’s no need to dwell on what you already know and have been dealing with for the past few years. All that said, there are some silver linings to consider and opportunities to be found if you look for them — or more to the point, create them or adapt to them in ways that your competition is not.

Recession Survivors Reveal Strategies for Staying in Business
To get a pulse on how today’s decorators are faring three years after the start of the Great Recession, we interviewed six decorators from Rhode Island to the California coast. Some of our panelists saw sales drop in fall 2008, while others began to feel its effects in early 2009. But regardless of when these shop owners felt the recession affect their businesses, they all experienced a significant plummet in sales.

CPSIA: Three Years Later
Adopted in 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) remains one of the most misunderstood pieces of legislation within the garment decorating community. There are several reasons for this: the continued stay of enforcement for both testing and certification; the lack of clear, consistent guidance from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regarding the applicability of the phthalate content limits; and the applicability of the tracking label system.

Meet Michelle: Chronicling a Start-Up Decorator — Part 3
In part three of this series, find out what happens as start-up decorator Michelle Capps receives and learns how to use her newly purchased equipment.

Meet Michelle: Chronicling a Start-Up Decorator — Part 2
In part two of this series, learn how start-up decorator Michelle Capps navigates her first Imprinted Sportswear Shows (ISS) in Atlanta. Find out what she learned, who she networked with, and the equipment and accessories purchases she made to help grow her Dade, City, Fla.-based embroidery business.

Meet Michelle: Chronicling a Start-Up Decorator
Inspired by fond memories of decorating her children’s clothing by hand when they were young, Michelle Capps decided to enter the decorated apparel industry. Read on to learn how this Dade City, Fla.-based woman started her own embroidery business from the ground up.

Why a Sustainability Program Makes Economic Sense for Your Shop
If you haven’t already noticed, there’s tons of press about sustainability programs, focusing on the triple bottom line in corporate America. Many companies understand that they can link aspects of their lean manufacturing programs, governmental regulatory responsibilities, tax incentives and good old-fashioned marketing to make a public stance on sustainability and drive consumer spending their way. Read on to learn why you should implement a sustainability program in your shop.

Can Your Shop Survive When You Are Gone?
A principle that took me years to learn is that it’s never a good thing to have one person be so critical to the business that he or she can’t leave the shop without everything falling apart — and that includes the owner.

How to Build an Accurate Production Schedule
Hopefully, sales at your decorated apparel shop are at a point where your production schedule is crowded and full of orders. As everyone knows, it’s pretty easy to prioritize work when there are fewer jobs to sort through. However, once the schedule is full and moving toward maximum capacity, any production manager will start to feel overwhelmed. This article outlines the need to link building an accurate production schedule with the understanding that every person in the company plays a role in this effort.