Impressions - April 2010 - (Page 60)

EMBROIDERY >> HANDS ON DIGITAL DECORATING >> HANDS ON SCREEN PRINTING >> HANDS ON TECH TIPS HANDS ON >> EMBROIDERY HANDS ON DIGITAL DECORATING HANDS ON ideal for sublimation. Embroidery can be SCREEN PRINTING done, but it’s tricky to hoop and imposHANDS ON sible (cost-wise) to do large designs like mascots, letters and numbers. Sublimation handles that with noTECH TIPS problem. Considering HANDS ON that you can print out a full-front image in less than 30 seconds, then press it in another 60 seconds, you can deﬁnitely turn out a decent number of shirts per hour. Sure you can do it via screen printing, but with all the setup time required for that process, you can probably ﬁnish a short-run production job (typical team) in the same amount of time or less with sublimation. Even digital direct-to-garment printing is not as effective as sublimation because most machines use cotton inks that adhere just ﬁne to 100% cotton and 50/50 shirts, but may not work as well on 100% polyester performance materials. True, some direct-to-garment equipment suppliers offer poly-speciﬁc inks, but you ﬁrst need to ﬂush out all of the cotton ink from the printer. It may not make sense to go all that trouble, especially when you look at the cost of adding sublimation to your business. (Check with the manufacturer for the speciﬁc ink sets available for any given machine.) So you might not be sure that you even want to spend the relatively small amount of money required to get into sublimation. Just remember that diversiﬁcation is the key to proﬁtability. Your customers might be spending less money with you simply because they are spreading it around for different purchases of different products. If you aren’t in a position to capitalize on it, then you may just be losing out on a daily basis. Award-winning author and international speaker Jimmy Lamb has more than 20 years of apparel decoration business expertise. Currently, he is the manager of communication for Sawgrass Technologies, Charleston, S.C. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Jimmy at jlamb@ sawgrassink.com. Take the time to visit an ISS trade show next fall and gain more insight into the sublimation process. ISS offers some great seminars and workshops that will show you just how to get into sublimation. For schedules of sublimation classes at ISS Atlanta or Fort Worth (both to be held in September), visit issshows.com and search the “Digital Decorating” conference track. From apparel to mouse pads to coasters and clocks, you can achieve high-resolution sublimated images on any substrate made from polyester or with a polymer-based coating. Photo courtesy of Sawgrass Technologies, Charleston, S.C. will need to do some creative marketing to fully utilize your newfound technology. For example, a pizza delivery restaurant owner can print the establishment’s menu, phone, fax and email address onto mouse pads to give to his customers. Think how cool that would be! The restaurant’s customer has a complete menu right at her ﬁngertips (literally) all day long, meaning it’s a fantastic promotional item. That’s something you can’t do with an embroidery machine. With sports, many uniforms are made of polyester performance fabrics that are Online Directory >> Industry News >> Decorated Apparel Business >> Screen Printing >> Embroidery >> Digital Decorating >> Events >> The Impressions Newsletter >> ecoimpressions >> The Impressions Product Guide >> Catalog Central >> Buyer’s Guide >> Info Action >> Forum >> Publications >> Impressions University >> Imprinted Sportswear Shows Impressionsmag.com/news Impressionsmag.com/business Impressionsmag.com/events mag.com Impressionsmag.com/screenprinting Impressionsmag.com/embroidery Impressionsmag.com/digitaldecorating Impressionsmag.com/newsletter Impressionsmag.com/newsletter Impressionsmag.com/productguide Impressionsmag.com/catalogcentral Impressionsdirectory.com Impressionsmag.com/infoaction T-shirtForums.com Impressionsmag.com/pubs Impressionsmag.com/university ISSshows.com 60 Impressions >> April/May 2010 impressionsmag.com http://www.impressionsmag.com http://www.Impressionsmag.com/news http://www.Impressionsmag.com/business http://www.Impressionsmag.com/screenprinting http://www.Impressionsmag.com/embroidery http://www.Impressionsmag.com/digitaldecorating http://www.Impressionsmag.com/events http://www.Impressionsmag.com/newsletter http://www.Impressionsmag.com/newsletter http://www.Impressionsmag.com/productguide http://www.Impressionsmag.com/catalogcentral http://www.Impressionsdirectory.com http://www.Impressionsmag.com/infoaction http://www.T-shirtForums.com http://www.Impressionsmag.com/pubs http://www.Impressionsmag.com/university http://www.ISSshows.com http://www.issshows.com http://www.impressionsmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - April 2010

Impressions - April 2010
Contents
First Impressions
FYI
Product Gallery
Winning Wearables
Head Turners
Star Students
From the Outside Looking In
Technique
Graphics and Design
For Screen Printers Only
Are You Leaving Money on the Table?
Online Directory
Business to Business
Classifieds
Ad Index

Impressions - April 2010