The good news is the decorated apparel market continues to grow, with an expected valuation in the United States alone of as much as $20 billion by 2033. The bad news? The custom decorated-apparel sector remains as competitive as ever as well, with creativity and innovation continuing to be the name of the game, the same as in years past. Staying stuck too long may very well result in your falling behind as well.

Equipment, Increased Efficiency

When was the last time you evaluated your equipment lineup? If you’re using outdated machinery, it might be time for an upgrade. New technology allows you to improve production speeds, expand your service offerings and reduce waste.

Depending on the kind of custom apparel decorating you specialize in, branching out/embracing other kinds of decorating technologies can also provide your company with an added edge.

Equipment Upgrades to Consider:

• Direct-to-garment (DTG) Printing: Ideal for high-detail, small-batch orders. Full-color, photo-style designs can be easily created for even the smallest batch orders, in stark contrast to screen-printing with its larger production runs.

• 

  There’s nothing like an automatic screen printing press to boost capacity-assuming it makes sense financially! Photo courtesy of Impressions Expo

  Heat Press Direct-to-transfer (DTF) Printing: Ideal for producing durable designs on multiple materials, including polyester and nylon. Commercial quality entry-level heat presses are affordable and easy to operate. Custom DTF transfers can be easily outsourced to any number of different manufacturers, making the barrier to entry to this decorating technique a minimal one.

• Automated Screen Printing Presses, Accessories: Tackle larger orders while maintaining consistency and quality. Possible upgrades can include everything from a new “auto” to automated screen reclamation systems, screen coating machines, higher-grade exposure units and laser-to-screen (LTS) screen printing systems.

Expand Your Custom Decorating Offerings

Variety is the spice of life, and in custom apparel decoration, offering diverse services can be a great way of attracting a wider customer base. Additional services you might want to consider adding to your skillset include:

1) Custom Embroidery

Great for corporate branding, especially, custom embroidery on polos or hats can generate more business clients. While the barrier to entry remains a challenging one, today’s technology is such that mastering the rudiments of the art of embroidery is much less daunting than in years past. This is an area in which outsourcing your embroidery work to a fellow decorator can also make all the sense in the world.

2) Sublimation Printing

A proven but often overlooked decorating technique among newer decorators, especially, sublimation printing allows for vibrant, full-color designs beyond the typical garment, such as mugs, phone cases and tote bags. Ideal for printing on performance polyester apparel, in particular.

3) Non-apparel Custom Merch

With today’s technology, the lines between apparel decoration and custom-decorated hardgoods is becoming increasingly blurred. It’s a simple jump for heat-press decorators, especially to branch out into mug or water bottle decorating (see “Sublimation Printing” above). Drop-ship merch providers represent viable option for those interested in “testing the waters” in this area as well.

4) Eco-Friendly Decorated Apparel

Sustainability is more than a buzzword. With eco-conscious consumers on the rise, offering organic or recycled fabric options can position your brand as socially responsible while attracting new customers.

Rethink Your Social Media/Marketing Strategy

If “marketing” at your company consists of little more than posting sporadic photos on Instagram, it’s time to think bigger. A targeted, multi-channel strategy can work wonders for engaging both existing and new customers.

Marketing Tips to Adopt:

• Invest in Quality Content

Post behind-the-scenes videos of your printing process, tutorials about garment care or how-to guides on pairing custom apparel with complementary accessories. The more you can personalize or “put a face” to your social media content, the better. You may be surprised at the results!

• Leverage Social Goodwill

Don’t underestimate the power of positive reviews. Share testimonials, case studies or photos of happy customers out and about wearing your custom apparel. Don’t be shy about asking your more regular customers for their feedback.

• Host Workshops or Giveaways

Teach the basics of T-shirt screen printing, or run a social contest with custom merch as the prize. Remote or “live” decorating events at bars, parties or local craft fairs can be another great way of generating name recognition—and bringing in additional revenue while you’re at it.

• Paid Advertising

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Google Ads offer powerful tools for targeting local businesses, schools or sports teams searching for customized apparel solutions. And don’t forget Impressions magazine!

Network with Fellow Apparel Decorators

Another great way to evolve is by learning from others in the industry. Networking and attending formal classes will not only help you stay up to date on trends, but spark collaboration opportunities and creative inspiration. Ways to network include:

• Attending Trade Shows—including (of course) Impressions Expo

Industry trade shows offer a wealth of networking and professional development opportunities, like this screen-printing class at Impressions Expo. Photo courtesy of Impressions Expo

Events like the Impressions Expo bring together thousands of professionals in custom apparel decoration. You can gain insights into new trends and tools while connecting with suppliers or fellow decorators or participating in the event’s professionally led educational conference sessions.

• Participating in Professional Forums and Communities

Join Facebook groups or Reddit threads for screen printing and embroidery professionals. Sharing challenges and solutions with peers can sharpen your skills and broaden your perspective.

• Attending Virtual Webinars and Industry Panels

Many brands and industry organizations host online events where experts share insider tips on marketing, production techniques, and business expansion. Examples include organizations like Fabric, the National Network of Embroidery Professionals and Shirt Lab.

• Working with a Professional Coach/Trainer

Newcomers to the decorated apparel industry are lucky in that there are a wealth of highly qualified consultants and coaches out there ready and willing to help you take your company to the next level. Invariably these will be decorators too (as opposed to the detached, somewhat bloodless consultants found more generally in the business world). More often than not, develop a relationship with a top-quality consultant and next thing you know you’ll have found yourself both a peer and a new friend.

Maximize ROI on Existing Decorating Equipment

Not every solution involves shiny new tools. You can also drive growth by optimizing how you use your current equipment. Look for ways to increase profit margins or extend the versatility of your machines.

Tips for Maximizing ROI:

• Measure, Measure and then Measure some More!

If you haven’t already then your company is already long overdue for an in-depth analysis of everything from the number of garments a particular machine can produce per hour to you cost of goods of sold, overhead costs, wastage, you name it. Simply “running the numbers” or taking a fresh look at whatever numbers you already have can be a great way of taking you company’s production processes to the next level. In the words of famed business management pioneer Peter Drucker: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”

• Offer Seasonal Promotions

Use existing designs and equipment to create limited-edition seasonal products. Offer discounts on holiday-themed sweatshirts or custom-printed summer tank tops.

• Streamline Workflow, Eliminate Pain Points

Evaluate your production line for inefficiencies. Automating small tasks, like garment sorting or pre-treating shirts for DTG printing, can save hours. Simply talking to your production team and finding out where their pain points are can be another way of making big wins in terms of efficiency and productivity. Create a collaborative environment in which your production people feel valued and heard. Same goes for sales, shipping and receiving, you name it. People by their very nature don’t like wasting time. They want to be productive too!

Take the Next Step Toward Growing your Apparel Business

Getting your custom apparel business out of a rut doesn’t happen overnight, but with the right strategies, growth is inevitable. Whether you’re investing in better equipment, refining your marketing strategy, or expanding your offerings, every small change can lead to a big impact.

If you’re interested in more insights and tools that can help your decorated apparel business thrive, keep exploring strategies with our expert blog series. You’ve got the creative skills, now it’s time to reignite your business by putting them to work!

The post Getting Your Apparel Decoration Business out of a Rut appeared first on Impressions.

Upstate Merch (upstatemerch.com) got a call one day from comedian John Mullaney’s people asking if the printer could turn around a huge merch order. “They overnighted 10,000 blanks to us, and we printed and shipped the shirts to the location in a U-Haul,” says owner Dylan Gilligan.

Better still, Gilligan says, “We did them a solid, so we scored the merch orders for the rest of the tour.”

While getting an order like this is exciting, Gilligan says shop owners must understand how to handle the job before saying, yes.

“Many hungry shops jump at the chance to take a 10,000-shirt order they need in a week because the regular printer couldn’t do it,” he says. “As a small to mid-sized printer, it’s easy to get excited about big orders, but the logistics can be overwhelming. You’ve got to know your limits—10,000 hoodies means figuring out boxes, staging space and shipping capacity. If you’re unprepared, the order can quickly outgrow what you can handle.”

The Branded Merch Adrenaline Rush

Hot market printing offers both exhilarating opportunities and substantial challenges for print shops. “We love the challenge of it,” Gilligan says. “Our team is stoked when we say we’re printing for the Buffalo Bills or our favorite band. You also get to put that win on your social media…that’s credibility and reputation right there, and you get more work.”

Case in point, over the years Zome Design (zomedesign.com) has found that hot-market sports championships have boosted sales in slow seasons, like January. When the Eastern Washington Eagles won the 2010 National Football Championship, for example, the shop’s sales skyrocketed for a profitable month. “This gave our employees full-time and overtime work,” says owner Brayden Jessen. “Starting the year profitably means you don’t spend the late spring digging out of a hole.”

Having a strong production team in place is crucial for those shops looking to boost capacity. Photo by Cultura Allies – stock.adobe.com

Like Gilligan, Jessen makes a point of telling news stations and newspapers about these kinds of hot-market printing jobs, especially for local teams. “We receive tons of free publicity across media outlets during primetime and late-night spots,” he says. “Imagine having that many free commercials about your business on several local stations, letting your community know what you’re doing. People see me and say, ‘I saw you on the news! You guys are crushing it!’”

Along these same lines, Marshall Atkinson, principal at Atkinson Consulting (atkinsontshirt.com), where he is also the publisher of the Midjourney newsletter (midjourneyexperience.com), once headed up giant hot-market printing jobs for a number of Super Bowl and Stanley Cup teams while working as the creative director of a print shop.

“It’s a high-pressure situation where your entire team, including front-office staff, works all night to print 30,000 to 50,000 shirts,” Atkinson says. “But we’d have a party atmosphere with pizza and doughnuts. To make it go more smoothly, you must set everything up beforehand, like getting the art approved, burning screens, doing a test print and staging your packing area.”

Rush Decorated Apparel Orders: The Dark Side

While hot-market events are a big score, be warned you might also find yourself putting all kinds of work into an order that doesn’t go through. One time, when the Gonzaga College Bulldogs were in the National Basketball Championship, Jessen brought in 14,000 garments for an “if win,” complete with pre-booked purchase orders for local retailers, an approved design for the shirt in question and even the necessary licensing approvals—all of which would have been for naught if the team itself came up short.

“If the team doesn’t win and we have to ship all the shirts back, it’s a huge bummer,” Jessen says. “Your staff is sitting there on pins and needles, waiting until the end of the game to find out if they’re going to get to print thousands of shirts through the night, or if they’re going home.”

Make sure you’ve got the necessary blank apparel lined up in advance of actually beginning each production run. Image by BrilliantPixels – stock.adobe.com

Staffing can also be a challenge. “If you’re already fully booked, taking on something that has to be produced in a rush can make it hard to keep your current work on track while also taking advantage of the surge in orders,” Jessen says. “You have to take good care of your team, so they don’t burn out. The stress levels can be high, keeping everything on track and hitting deadlines.”

Along these same lines Atkinson emphasizes the fact you need a strong production team to handle big, fast upticks in volume. “If you have a good manager and a solid crew, they’ll make it happen,” Atkinson says. “But if your shop can’t hit targets or handle pressure, you probably shouldn’t take on those big orders.”

Another common pitfall is depending too heavily on a single high-profile client, especially one that frequently places large rush orders. “You get Nike and add four more presses and hire a bunch of people, but then you lose the client,” Gilligan says, noting how his team once had to “snap out of it” after prioritizing a big client to the point where it was starting to neglect a number of smaller accounts. “That bubble pops, and now you just lost 40 other customers,” he says.

Handling High-Volume Rush Custom Apparel Orders

If you’re thinking about taking on larger orders, what follows are some considerations as cited by shops that regularly handle these kinds of jobs.

1) The ebbs and flows of big orders

Since the decorated-apparel industry is seasonal, print shops ideally have the equipment and staffing to scale up their output when the busy season hits. “If you don’t have the added machinery, it can cause bottlenecks and delays,” warns Kyle Robinson, owner of Print My Threads (printmythreads.com). “If you don’t have the staff, it can result in costly overtime and burn out your production crew. You should always build in backups for equipment and people if things don’t go as planned.”

It also helps to know your run rates. “Do time studies over an extended length [of time] to determine an accurate run speed or rate,” Robinson says. “If you think you can run a job at 500 pieces an hour, but with press stoppage, you’re only running at 300 to 350 pieces an hour, that quickly causes bottlenecks and getting behind schedule.”

As you are doing these studies, keep in mind your run rate will typically vary depending on the type of garment you’re printing, the artwork, the person running the equipment and so on. “Whoever is doing your scheduling needs to know this and consider all those variables when scheduling your production,” Robinson says.

Finally, Gilligan suggests shops diversify their client base by handling a mix of small, medium and large orders. “When you get those larger orders, you have a whole section of your business, with equipment and staff, to handle that,” he says. “[Otherwise]. the other side will suffer.”

2) Manage inventory so you’re prepared

Robinson prints for several hospitals that require large runs for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, in October. “If they want pink shirts, we start those conversations in August, so we can secure the stock they need rather than wait until mid-to-late September when everyone’s buying pink garments,” Robinson says.

Since Print My Threads doesn’t maintain any in-house inventory, when a client needs a larger or quick-turn job, he makes a point of limiting the options he offers to styles and colors he knows are going to be available. “For large jobs, when we have time to plan, we’ll ask the customer to commit to buying stock before their numbers are finalized, so we can get what they need,” he adds.

3) Maintain lines of communication

Central to the way it does business, Print My Threads employs a customer portal it requires each and every one of its customers to use. “We custom-built a shop management tool using the online database system Airtable that our team uses to enter in all of the information for each order,” Robinson says. “This system has custom views for each department…to ensure our team has all the info they need for each task, job and order. The info our customers need to see gets pulled from our system and is visible in the portal they use to review, approve, pay and track all their orders.”

In addition to Print My Thread’s primary order management system, Robinson says the team employs an email tool called Missiveapp (missiveapp.com). “Missive is basically like a Slack channel plus a CRM (customer relationship management system) that lives within each customer email correspondence,” he says. “This is super handy and allows our team to work remotely but still have access to all the information they need.”

Similarly, Chris Perry of UTees (universitytees.com) says the company has a “Large Order Playbook” that starts with internal collaboration and a Slack channel dedicated to opportunities that qualify. “The key thing is communication, and it needs to happen early and often with all parties,” Perry says. “We decide whether it makes sense to bid, at what price and what timeframe. Then, we communicate what we can do for our customers. From there, it’s an ongoing conversation about logistics, sampling and so on.”

4) Optimize scheduling and workflow

In addition to having personnel and inventory in place well in advance, a shop handling large orders needs a production management system capable of communicating the exact tasks and sequencing required of every department employee. “You also need a dedicated scheduler,” Robinson explains. “This person acts like a [restaurant] kitchen expeditor, directing what’s needed and when to ensure everything is completed in the right order. They must have in-depth knowledge of an order’s lifecycle to orchestrate and expedite jobs effectively through the shop.”

By way of an example, Robinson says, if you’re decorating thousands of hoodies, each with a front and back print, do you know where these hoodies are going to be kept once the front print has completed and they’re waiting for the back one? Do you have the space/capacity to store them on carts, or do you need to move them to pallets or another staging area so they won’t interfere with whatever else might be going on? And where do they go once the printing is done and they’re waiting to be folded?

“The more time you spend handling the goods or moving things around, the more chance for costly errors and the less profit you’ll make,” Robinson says. “We have a ‘go slow to go fast’ mentality, with a plan for each step before we execute. Everything needs to happen in the right order so there’s a consistent flow of goods in and out of the shop daily.”

5) Address space constraints in your decorating shop

Turning to the basic parameters of your shop, Gilligan emphasizes the fact lack of space can turn, say, a rush 10,000-shirt band merch order from a great business opportunity to a nightmare. “If you already do merch and have those 10,000 black shirts in inventory, it’s easy,” he says. “When you don’t keep inventory, you have to order 10,000 shirts and hope they arrive. Do you actually have room for 10 pallets in your shop when they arrive? Then, if the order is for two to three print locations per shirt, you need to move the skids around to print all the shirts multiple times.”

6) Ensure quality control in your shop

As is—or should be—the case with every order, the process for keeping quality consistent over thousands of items starts before the ink hits the first shirt. “Printing is the easy part—it’s all in prepress and proofing,” Gilligan says. For big orders, like 10,000 pieces, his team uses on-press proofing with photo and physical samples to ensure every detail is spot on. “You don’t want to be on the hook for 10,000 shirts with a mistake,” he says.

In addition, there’s the very real challenge that comes in the finishing touches in the wake of actual printing, Gilligan says. Barcoding, labeling, bagging—getting all that right takes laser focus, with many hot-market items needing even more care in the form of specific quantities of each size neatly packed and ready to go.

With this kind of precision in mind, Robinson says Print My Threads uses a color-coded sticker system so that its production team can quickly and easily communicate if something is wrong. For example, the staffer pulling uses a sticker dispenser at the front of the dryer: Pink = Damaged/Hole, Yellow = Misprint, and Blue = Stain.

“There’s a corresponding chart next to the sticker dispenser and a chart on the table for our catcher to reference, so that anything with a sticker can go in a separate stack and either be counted as spoilage or fixed at our spray-out station,” Robinson says. “We also stack or box in 10’s vs. dozens, because it’s easier for our staff and customers to count stacks of 10 vs. a dozen.”

7) Plan for production challenges

No matter how good your shop’s ordering and workflow processes, Gilligan emphasizes the fact a shop needs to be prepared for any kinds of production challenges that may arise, such as managing inks and ensuring proper staffing levels. “Do you have the right ink? I keep 10 five-gallon buckets of white ink on hand, just in case,” he says, stressing that custom colors may require constant mixing during production. “A lot of people don’t think about all of that.”

Before taking on a large order, he also recommends doing a thorough assessment of the state of your shop using a checklist: “Can we fit this? Do we have a loading dock, enough ink, screens and extra hands on-deck?”

Finally, Gilligan suggests holding a candid team discussion before committing to a big job. “Huddle with the team,” he says. “Ask, ‘Do you want to take this on?’ Sometimes, this job is not worth taking because we’ll face burnout or even a mutiny if we’re not all on the same page.”

8) Be realistic about your shop’s capabilities

When managing high-volume orders, preparation and realistic scheduling are musts. Gilligan also emphasizes the importance of balancing rush orders with any other existing commitments you might have. “Can I move current customers around, or will I hurt them?” he says, noting that accommodating rush jobs without jeopardizing existing deadlines can be a delicate balance. “If you’re decent, you’re already booked two to three weeks in advance.”

Bottom line: taking an order of 5,000 shirts can stretch a shop’s resources, even in a shop with multiple presses. “You can get it done with one or two autos, but it’ll be tight,” Gilligan says, emphasizing the importance of realistically assessing whether your shop has the space, people and capacity to handle a huge rush order without affecting the quality or deadlines for other projects.

Look Before Making that Big Leap

Shops that handle high-volume orders typically already have the necessary capacity to maintain a steady flow of large-scale production. “Some shops run two shifts, have 14 autos and crank out 1 million shirts a month,” Gilligan says. “They’re always feeding the beast with a stream of huge orders. If your current shop setup can’t handle it, it may not be worth doing if you put good customers to the side or load up overworked employees.”

At the end of the day, if you aren’t yet set up to manage a hot-market merch pace, it may be best to put this kind of business on hold until you are. It’s important to recognize your strengths and focus on what you can deliver efficiently. By knowing your limits and scaling smartly, you can gradually build the infrastructure needed to take on larger orders without compromising quality, customer relationships or your team’s well-being. 

Nicole Rollender is an award-winning writer and heads up the copywriting and content-creation firm strandwritingservices.com. For more information or to comment on this article, your can reach Nicole at strandwritingservices.com.

The post Big Decorated Apparel Orders, Big Wins, No Problem! appeared first on Impressions.

Over the last 15 years I’ve grown my shop, Axelrad Screen Printing, (axelradarmy.com) from a two-head tabletop manual press all the way up to seven autos and 45 employees. During that time the most common question I have been asked by someone trying to gauge the shop’s capability is: “How many machines do you have?” For the record, I find this to be an absurdly inaccurate metric, though I understand the point. Still, the question seems strange. I’ve never heard of anyone asking a contractor how many drills they have when getting a quote for a new deck.

I’ve always felt like the seemingly common use of this metric as a starting point for deciphering a shop’s capabilities also offers a hint as to why some shops fail. When someone says, “We’re a 10-auto shop,” I can’t help but think, OK, did you have an initial investor, or did you build the shop one auto at a time? Clearly, one of these two tracks is going to be more stable than the other.

All that spins is not gold! Simply adding more production capacity in the hopes your business will also grow is no way to plan out your company’s future. Photo courtesy of Axelrad Screen Printing

On that basis, I feel like many shops are willing to prematurely invest in machinery as a way of potentially attracting more clients, holding fast to the trusty “if you build it, they will come” approach. Unfortunately, while this philosophy can work, it comes with a lot more risk than building your infrastructure one step at a time. Which brings me to my main point: being financially ready to increase your production capacity by purchasing additional machinery is not a guaranteed indicator you’re ready to grow that way.

Obviously, the financial side of these decisions needs to make sense. But to me, understanding how adding machinery affects the overall workflow of your shop is just as important—and tragically overlooked in all too many cases. For my own part, I adhere to the principle that every time a shop expands the amount of machinery it puts into production, it may gain some percentage of capacity, but it loses a percentage of its overall efficiency as well. It’s unavoidable and must be accounted for when weighing the pros and cons of acquiring new equipment. Not only is this concept written into the basic workings of the natural world, but in economics as well—as the law of diminishing returns.

With this in mind, when acquiring new machinery, the game becomes less about adding capacity and more about increasing or, at the very least, maintaining efficiency. It flips the narrative from proactive to reactive. Consider this: when you finally get that second auto, you’re capable of doing double the work. But when you get a third auto, you’re doing only 50 percent more work overall, and with a fourth auto you’re gaining just 25 percent. Each additional press constitutes a diminished percentage increase to your shop’s overall capacity. So, as you grow, each additional machine inherently has less of an impact on your overall capacities, assuming your overall efficiencies remain constant—something that is by no means a given.

In light of this reality, the following are five things to consider before taking the plunge and buying that auto or that shiny new multihead embroidery machine you’ve been eyeing.

1: Shift into high gear: Consider adding a second shift with your current machinery

If your company is located in a labor market where two shifts are possible, this is always a far more effective alternative to buying more equipment, even as it shifts the problem from being a strictly financial one to one of employee structure and staffing.

That said, turning one machine into two by adding a second shift is a luxury that can only be afforded by those shops in a demographic area where it makes sense. There are shops in metro areas that are moving around the clock; however, there are also shops in small towns that are asleep by 9 p.m. If you’re a smaller shop with one or two machines, having a second crew run a job into the night that was set up at the end of the day shift is a feasible approach. Once you get into having multiple machines moving at night, though, your need for additional management becomes apparent—not to mention having to deal with the added demands on your screen and ink departments as well.

Before you know it, you are taking on the daunting task of staffing the entire shop for a second shift, which can be difficult if not impossible in a highly competitive labor market. It’s important to consider and weigh your options in order to determine whether buying another machine and/or expanding your day shift with another operator or two will, in fact, make more sense in the long run.

2: Capacity Needs:  Are you adding machinery to accommodate just your busy season?

While on the topic of employees, before making any investments into new machinery, it’s important to ask yourself: are you currently staffed for your busy season or for your slower months?  Whatever your answer, you are bound to run into a problem at some point. The inherently erratic nature of the custom decorated apparel industry is a burden we all share. Before making an investment in either equipment or staff, it’s important to make sure you’re being conscious of how this investment will play out in terms of both your busy and down seasons.

The author’s company didn’t become the size it is today overnight, but grew in stages reflecting the amount of business it’s been able to generate over the years. Photo courtesy of Axelrad Screen Printing

Aa a general rule of thumb, the minimum amount of machinery you need on the slowest month of the year is the actual size of your shop. If you base your growth on your busy seasons, you’ll have machines sitting idle the rest of the year. It’s certainly better to run your machines harder in the busy times. Working on proper scheduling and maximum efficiency with the least amount of equipment you can get away with is imperative. If you’re running two machines now at 50 percent of your capability, adding a third will only exacerbate whatever issues you may already be facing.

Identifying and solving any and all of the issues that may be preventing your current machines from running with full efficiency is the key to having confidence in expanding. If buying more equipment feels more like a risk than a no brainer, it’s probably because of efficiency issues, in which case you don’t really need it. You might find it surprising how much you can increase your capacity with the equipment you already have simply by adjusting the processes around them. Think things like kitting, better and faster screen prep, press setups or any other bottlenecks your shop may be experiencing. If the press ain’t running, it ain’t makin’ money! In my experience, a lot of shops bypass this kind of analysis, probably because in many cases it’s harder to do than taking out a loan for a new piece of equipment.

3: Words talk, numbers scream: Measure your output, control your metrics and use numbers to inform your decisions

Having the processes in place to measure your current output and machine efficiency is of paramount importance before growing your infrastructure. If you cannot yet look at an accurate data sheet of what your machine, or machines are currently producing then maybe it’s not yet the time to buy another one. Sure, you can buy another, but you won’t have any way to judge its effectiveness or return on investment. For anyone planning on growing their business in a healthy manner, you’re going to want to make sure you’re doing this accurately at every step from the very beginning. It’s not hard keeping track of these kinds of things when working at lower production capacities. But as you start to expand it 1) gets harder and harder to doing so and 2) become exponentially harder trying to go back and retroactively get a clear idea of your original baseline.

4: Rule your mind or it will rule you:  Don’t grow just to say you did

Oftentimes, the allure of appearing successful can cloud one’s judgment. Be careful you aren’t expanding just to say you did, or to create the illusion of growth for the sake of impressing either your competitors, or your family and friends. Sometimes just having the necessary tools on hand will make you feel like you can do the job. However, there’s a lot more to running a successful business than just investing in a bunch of new gear. It’s important to be conscious of the natural influence our egos can have on us as we make business decisions. Growing too fast is a sure way of growing yourself out of business. Exercising restraint and patience is key when it comes to expansion. Be honest with yourself. Is this really the right time, or do you just want it to be?

5: To thine own self be true, navigating industry trends:  Define who you are and only invest in the trends that suit your needs and goals

In the decorated apparel industry, it seems like every three to five years there is a tectonic shift in the industry due to the emergence of some kind of new technology; however, investing into industry trends is always going to be a risk. When new technologies emerge, it’s important to be able to decide whether or not you should be investing or let it pass and try and weather the storm. There are areas in life where the natural world rewards impulsivity, but in my experience, the decorated apparel business is not one of them.

As your business grows, it is important to identify and develop the niche it occupies in the industry. No one can specialize in everything, and if you don’t know what your specialty is you’ll fall for anything. It’s important to know who you are as a business and where you’re going at all times. That way, as new industry trends emerge, you can make informed decisions as so whether or not a particular new technology is pertinent to your overall goal.

One of the thrills of our profession is the pressure to constantly evolve, not just technologically but creatively. That said, because our ever-evolving industry can be overwhelming as well, it’s crucial to be mindful of those foundational aspects of the business that never change no matter what the equipment you may be using: quality work, excellent customer service and an honest work environment. These are things that remain the same irrespective of whatever else may be going on in the world. Getting the basics right will make deciding whether or not to expand a lot less scary.

Dennis Condusta currently serves as the production manager at Axelrad Screen Printing in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (axelradarmy.com). In addition to screen-printing, Axelrad provides a host of other services, including embroidery and design. Condusta is also a regular Impressions Expo conference series presenter.

The post What to Know Before Growing Your Custom Decorated-Apparel Business appeared first on Impressions.

Impressions Magazine: What do you see as the overall outlook for DTF decorating in the coming years? Do you expect to see continued growth? If so, why?

Ninja Mike: One hundred percent! DTF and UV-DTF transfers have exploded in popularity over the last few years, and they’re only gaining steam. What used to be, “Can I even do this?” is now, “How fast can I get it done?” It’s changed the game for decorators, brands and entrepreneurs alike.

DTF gives you superpowers. You can print on nearly any product, material or color with any design without any headaches. Ten designs on 10 different garment types and colors in various locations? No problem. You’re not wasting time figuring out what’s possible anymore—you’re just saying, yes, and that means faster growth, happier customers and more profit. No longer do you need to run the job and costing by an expert. Anyone can do it, because the answer is basically always, yes. It’s a complete mindset shift for the industry.

Advantages to DTF Custom Decorating

IM: Can you provide us with an overview of some of the advantages of DTF decorating over, say, screen printing? How would you compare the costs of screen-printing apparel to DTF?

NM: What’s exciting is that DTF has come so far most customers can’t tell it apart from screen printing—and often it feels even better, especially on performance fabrics, like nylon or polyester.

Screen printing still makes sense for high-volume shops that are optimized for it, but DTF steps in wherever screen printing slows you down. It also requires a far smaller footprint. No giant auto press. No screen reclaiming. Just a heat press, a table, and you’re in business.

The no-minimums part of the equation is also huge. With DTF, you can gang a ton of designs on one sheet and order exactly what you need. That means no wasted money or inventory. Also—and this is big—full color doesn’t cost more. Whether it’s a five-color logo, single color or a photorealistic design, you’re only paying for space, not complexity.

Decorating hard-to-print items like hats, bags or jackets? DTF crushes screen printing. Why spend time with your most talented printer trying to accomplish a single-color screen print on a tricky item when a brand-new employee trained for 30 minutes in DTF can press a full-color DTF transfer for you flawlessly? The answer is: you shouldn’t. If you are still doing it the hard way, I challenge you to give DTF a try on your hardest-to-print product. You’ll be a believer, instantly. I’ll even guarantee it or your money back on your DTF transfers for that order.

Today’s DTF transfers are good enough they can work just as well or even better than screen printing. Photo courtesy of Ninja Transfers

Sleeve and leg prints are also so easy with DTF. Screen printing on them can be a pain. I know this for a fact having run a screen-printing shop for over 20 years. But with DTF, even multi-color sleeve prints are simple. The more complex the print, the better, because DTF can handle the color and detail with ease without any registration issues.

In terms of cost, if you factor in all the costs, time, risk and space required to run a screen-printing shop—including training printers, prepping orders, ensuring everything is perfect in advance of each print run, then breaking down the screens, and cleaning and reclaiming them—then compare it to DTF, you’d be amazed at the accessibility and ease the latter provides. It is hard to quantify the exact cost difference, but with DTF your costs are well known ahead of time, because you know your cost per transfer. By contrast, with screen printing, your costs can vary greatly as a result of printing problems, having your printers not show up, running low on ink, you name it. Machines can also go down and your shipping costs increase due to production runs taking longer than expected and having to expedite deliveries. This simply won’t happen when DTF decorating, because your timing and the outcomes are so predictable.

When you really break it down—including all the labor, training, screens, risk, rescreens and setup costs that come with screen printing—DTF just makes more sense. It’s faster, easy to learn, more consistent and incredibly scalable. You can quadruple production capacity within the confines of the same space simply by adding more heat presses and tables. It’s that flexible.

Get good at DTF, and your costs will drop fast. Once your team and processes become efficient and you are as confident as we are with DTF, you’ll scale up, and your cost per press will plummet at the same time margins skyrocket.

DTF Custom Apparel and Larger Production Runs

IM: Some say DTF struggles with large production runs. What’s your experience been?

NM: That used to be true, but not anymore. With today’s hot-peel transfers, you don’t have to wait for them to cool—you just press and peel, instantly. A simple heat press gets the job done. As you scale up you can also start investing in dual-platen heat presses, which make it possible to load the next item while the current one is still being pressed. Add a few extra heat presses, and you’ll be cranking out high-volume jobs in no time.

When we started, we saw a lot of one- to 100-piece orders. Now, 500-plus-piece runs are normal. Again, once you dial in your workflow, DTF scales beautifully, way more easily than having to manage an additional screen-printing setup with inks, screens, dryers, reclaim, power washers and so on. Ten heat presses can handle what used to take an entire print shop.

IM: On the custom DTF supplier side of the equation, the industry continues to make great strides in the areas of “feel” and special effects. Can you comment on some of the recent advances being made by both your own company and the industry as a whole?

NM: DTF has gotten way softer, stretchier and more durable. At Ninja Transfers, we’ve tested over 100 combinations of film, ink and TPU powder to get our transfers just right. The result is transfers with a soft matte finish, 60-wash durability when machine drying and over 100 washes line-dried.

The entire industry, Ninja Transfer included, has also begun rolling out a wide range of specialty films, including glitter, glow-in-the-dark, metallic gold and metallic silver. We’ve also added puff transfers to our lineup. These days DTF doesn’t just compete with screen printing, it opens up all kinds of new creative options.

That said it’s important to be aware that not all transfers are created equal. Same goes for custom DTF transfer providers. There are a number of quality custom transfer providers here in the United States—including, of course, Ninja Transfers. However, there are also plenty of no-name outfits out there, whose quality is shoddy to say the least. Bottom line, you get what you pay for. That goes for customer support, quick turnaround times and expedited shipping as well.

Here at Ninja Transfers, we’ve invested over $3 million in building a state-of-the-art facility with precise climate control, top-tier consumables, proprietary software, AI tools and constant testing. Why? Because quality needs consistency. We also test our transfers over 20,000 times a day on real garments across all order types. That kind of real-time feedback gives us a huge edge catching issues before they reach our customers, which in turn ensures your transfers will not have pressing problems. In the event a customer does ever encounter problems or have any questions, we provide 24/7/365 customer service.

In terms of judging the quality of a DTF transfer, the first question you need to ask yourself is, “After it’s washed, does it still look great?” It should. Beyond that, do the transfers peel easily and cleanly every time? You shouldn’t be holding your breath or pulling it at the speed of sound in order to get the design to successfully separate from the transfer. The process should be smooth, satisfying and predictable—hot or cold, fast or slow.

On side note, as with any business, a DTF company’s values and overall business philosophy can also tell you a lot about the products and services it provides, and at Ninja Transfers we always strive to do and be the best we can. As of this summer, for example, our production facility will be 100-percent powered by solar energy. Ninja Transfers’ consumables are also all OEKO Tex Certified, a globally recognized safety standard; the company donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to over 35 not-for-profits, including youth educational programs, the ASPCA and St. Jude Hospital. Ninja Transfers also makes a donation with every order to facilitate carbon-neutral shipping.

IM: Any final thoughts for shops still on the fence about DTF?

NM: If you haven’t tried DTF, now’s the time. I can’t stress enough what a difference it can make. It’s the one solution that works on nearly everything. Once you start, you’ll wish you had sooner. 

For more on Ninja Transfers and its complete line of products and services, including DTF transfers, patches, blank apparel and its Ninja Printhouse blind-shipping subsidiary, go to ninjatransfers.com. To see Impressions’ earlier conversation with Ninja Transfers’ “Ninja Mike,” click here.

The post Q&A: Checking in on the Latest in DTF Apparel Decoration appeared first on Impressions.

Between the threat of rising inflation, uncertain economic forecasts and the increasing effects of the on-again-off-again Trump tariffs, businesses across the decorated-apparel industry find themselves in an uncomfortable position. If you’re a screen printer, embroiderer, heat-press specialist or all of the above, you may already be feeling the pinch of higher costs for blank apparel, embroidery thread, inks and other consumables.

But here’s the good news, though—the custom decorated-apparel industry has proven its resilience in tough times before, and it’s in many ways perfectly positioned for whatever else may come along, in both the near or long-term future. During the pandemic, T-shirt screen printers, direct-to-film (DTF) and direct-to-garment (DTG) decorators pivoted creatively to serve shifting demands. Many businesses not only survived but came out stronger. While the future may posed any number of different challenges, it will also present opportunities for those prepared to adapt, innovate and rethink their operations.

The Impact of Tariffs and Inflation on Custom Decorated Apparel

The Trump-era tariffs on imports, including those impacting everything from textiles to raw materials and some of the industry’s most high-tech decorating equipment (think digital decorating and embroidery, especially), stand to significantly increase costs across the board. Add to this the broader pressures of inflation, and it becomes clear why many businesses are grappling with, or at the very least anticipating rising production expenses.

On top of these challenges, the business community as a whole is contending with the threat of a potential recession—the decorated apparel industry included. Bottom line: no one can predict the exact trajectory of the economy, causing many apparel decorators to feel increasingly uncertain as they face with the prospect of clients large and small possibly reducing spending. Large corporations, for example, a significant revenue stream for many custom T-shirt screen printers and embroiderers, may very well shrink as the business community looks to adapt to difficult times.

Despite these hurdles, though, all is not doom and gloom—because challenges often inspire innovation.

Decorated Apparel and Lessons from Years Past  

The decorated-apparel industry has already proven its ability to adapt. During the pandemic, businesses pivoted to meet changing demands, producing everything from branded face masks to bulk custom Zoom-call-friendly hoodies. The underlying takeaway? Agility is key to survival.

Whether dealing with a pandemic or tariff-related economic uncertainty, innovators in the custom-apparel field have consistently demonstrated resilience. Overcoming challenges has built a more flexible and creative industry primed for navigating this current storm. You can draw inspiration from this success as you strategize for the future.

The Path Forward for Apparel Decorators 

To offset rising costs and prepare for economic uncertainty, here are some concrete steps your business can take:

1) Audit Your Garment Customization Operations

Take a deep, granular look at your current processes and expenses. From energy use to the types of consumables you order, there may be areas ripe for cost optimization:

• Look into energy-efficient equipment upgrades that reduce long-term electricity bills.
• Evaluate your supply chain—could you source blank apparel or consumables in bulk at a discount?
• For example, transitioning to eco-friendly inks not only aligns with sustainability trends but could also cut expenses if sourced strategically.

2) Focus on Innovation, Decorating Tech

When times get tough, bold innovation often leads to breakthroughs. Consider adding new services or enhancing existing ones. For example:

• DTF transfers are fast gaining popularity for their versatility and efficiency in producing smaller-run orders. If your business primarily focuses on screen-printing or embroidery, branching into DTF could expand your service offerings.
• Similarly, specialty embroidery services, like puff embroidery or metallic threads, can help you stand out and command premium pricing.

Investing in innovation not only diversifies your income streams but also positions your business as a leader in the industry.

3) Build Strong Relationships with Suppliers

With costs on the rise, strengthening your relationship with your suppliers could pay dividends. Reach out to negotiate bulk discounts, extended payment terms, or exclusive deals for your business. Many suppliers value long-term partnerships and may offer better terms to help you weather the tough times.

4) Invest in Employee Training and Retention

In good times and bad, your team is the backbone of your business. Investing in training ensures your employees are equipped to handle new technologies or workflows that may boost productivity. Retention is equally important—happy, skilled employees are far more valuable than the costs of hiring and training new staff.

Consider hosting regular skill-development workshops or incentivizing employees with benefits like flexible hours.

5) Use Data to Drive Decisions

Track everything—costs, sales trends, customer preferences—then use this data to make smarter decisions. For example, evaluating sales data might show that custom hoodies are outperforming T-shirts in your region. With that insight, you could pivot to highlight hoodies in your marketing campaigns.

6) Double Down on Community Engagement

Leverage your loyal customer base to drive growth. Whether through social media contests, local partnerships, or special offers for repeat customers, your community can be one of your greatest assets. Highlight their success stories using your services—celebrating their wins is also a soft pitch for your business.

Thriving Through Uncertainty

While economic uncertainty is undeniably challenging, it’s worth remembering that the decorated-apparel industry has always been built on creativity and resilience. Whether you’re a custom embroiderer, heat-press decorator or DTG printer, opportunities abound for those willing to innovate and adapt.

The post Navigating Economic Uncertainty: An Apparel Decorator’s Guide appeared first on Impressions.

Athletes today gravitate toward comfortable, versatile gear that works beyond the game, such as these Cool Tees. Photo courtesy of Citadel Brands

Another major trend is that sports and fashion, particularly fashion-forward streetwear, continue to merge, with Gen Z’ers and younger millennials having the most influence on fashion spilling over into sports. This has led to an oversized fit, as well as a shift toward unisex and gender- and size-inclusivity trends. Not only are unisex styles going trending but some companies like Royal Apparel are working on inclusive sizing, going up to size 5X in some cases.

“Unisex, oversized fits are dominating athleisure in 2025, blending comfort and style with a focus on relaxed silhouettes, neutral tones and versatile layering. This trend reflects the growing demand for gender-fluid fashion, emphasizing both function and streetwear- inspired aesthetics,” said Lauren Hoskinson, brand ambassador, TriDri Active.

As Gen Z and young millennials continue leading the way, they are also bringing back an old-school collegiate vibe while at the same time mixing it with modern streetwear and high-performance gear. “They want style, comfort, and a personal touch all in one,” said Rachel Hoskins, vice president of sales at Sock 101. She added that custom socks and sneakers are trending, with teams focused on style on top of performance. “From game day to streetwear, the vintage collegiate look is making a big comeback in both sportswear and retail. Think bold stripes, classic varsity fonts, and retro colorways—blending old-school vibes with modern performance.”

Besides the marriage of sports and fashion, unisex and oversized, some of the other buzzwords for this year’s athletic and teamwear market include versatility, comfort, moisture-wicking, sustainability, breathable and lightweight.

A Range of Influences

Rec leagues can be casual enough for participants to wear more classic athletic silhouettes, such as cotton tees. Photo courtesy of HanesBrands

Gen Z and the athletes and influencers that they follow are the primary drivers of trends in this space.

Most industry experts agree that fashion continues to play a major role in team sports, with amateur teams more closely emulating professional teams, yet another trend that is only growing each year. “Professional athletes are more visible due to social media, where the showcase their gameday attire as well as their training and lifestyle looks so it’s very easy for anyone to replicate what they see on these social platforms,” said Karam.

Glen Brumer, sales director with Royal Apparel agreed with the way these trends are coming from influencers and athletes, and what professional teams are wearing, noting that teams are reinventing the uniform as well as what is being worn to sporting events.

“Within this industry, you find trends drive demand, and brands keep the cycle going. Amateur teams follow professional styles for inspiration, team identity, brand influence and better performance wear,” Hoskinson added.

Boomers are influencing trends as well, as this demographic is concerned about health and mental well-being and is therefore participating in sports, like pickle ball, or joining walking or biking clubs. “Each of these activities could be organized to where they are all wearing high-performance team uniforms or could be casual enough for each participant to wear more classic athletic wear silhouettes, such as cotton tees and blended sweats,” said Marcus Davis, product development manager for HanesBrands.

Fit and Silhouettes

The pandemic solidified the place of athleisure in the market, with many people wearing casual, team-inspired clothing as part of their daily outfits. “As that became the norm in more formal settings, we’ve seen significant advancements in fabrics, innovations and products as consumer preferences shifted brands to move in that direction. There is a spectrum shift when you look at active use (uniforms) to passive use (daily wear/outfitting). As uniforms are getting tighter, slimmer, shorter and smaller, you’re seeing outfitting and daily worn apparel gets looser, more relaxed and oversized,” said Joel Bennink, senior vice-president of product for Momentec.

“For low-impact activities, looser or relaxed fits are popular for comfort and can provide warmth and layering opportunities, where high-impact activities may still rely on more fitted clothes for moisture wicking and stretch benefits, as they are closer to the body,” said Davis. “For off-field styling, classic tees, fleece crews and hoods are the go-to silhouettes in this space. The details on each remain simple with them not being over designed, such as hoodies being offered without drawcords. Relaxed fits are being requested more often for comfort and for layering opportunities.”

Karam agreed, saying: “Relaxed and oversize are making a comeback with a streetwear type of influence, with crossover designs of hoodies and joggers and layering pieces. Simple logos with muted tones are incorporated into the design. I do think women do have a more diverse range for fit, with baggy and oversized bottoms mixed with cropped and more fitting tops, while youth has a more fun and bold look.”

Fabrics, Materials

When it comes to socks and shoes, teams are looking to blend retro styles with modern touches. Photo courtesy of Sock 101

Polyester and polyester blends remain popular in this market segment, in part because of their being the best material for sublimation. That said, materials with some stretch are always welcome in the teamwear space. “Moisture wicking, anti-odor and UV protection are features that everyone will be asking for and expecting, but anything that has stretch and recovery for mobility and a soft hand for comfort will be a top seller,” said Davis.

Bennink added that while performance is still king in teamwear, he’d also still seeing a lot of movement toward softer fabrics, cotton handed synthetics, double knits and textures across the board.

“Fabrics can vary from 100-percent cotton, which remains popular due to the soft hand and breathability, to polyester/spandex blends, which can offer benefits such as wicking and stretch. Bottoms will remain important as long as the fabric and styling allow for diverse end-usage occasions, such as training, running and various sporting activities, while maintaining appeal as an everyday lifestyle item,” agreed Davis.

Recycled/alternative materials are also always being improved upon, with recycled polyester (rPET) becoming a staple, Hoskinson said, noting recycled fibers, and cationic dyed products are both trending. “Cationic dye means a product has a higher resistance to bleeding, staining and fading and can promise zero dye migration on to your chosen decoration technique,” Hoskinson said, explaining the advantages of the latter.

“The athletic orders we get have the best of both worlds: the comfort of cotton, and rPET gives you some of that performance,” said Brumer.

Patterns and Colors

Colors are all over the board this year. Brumer said to look for pops of bright, vivid colors trending as well as neutrals. Bright colors can be traced back to fashion influences, while neutrals are often influenced by nature.

“Team palettes don’t change, but how kids express themselves and get noticed through accessories—gloves, mouthguards, sleeves plus footwear continue to drive the trends. Textural patterns are also big—we’re seeing a range of tonal colors within those patterns, to really fun spectrums of cools (purples, turquoises/teals to light blues) or warms (orange to red to pink). Color combos are less abrasive on the eyes (neons), while still providing a pop to the overall look,” said Bennink.

Sustainability

The call for sustainability in apparel—in corporate practices as well as in actual materials used—continues to grow each year, with an increasing

Unisex Fashion Fleece pulls double duty offering more than a trendy look. Photo courtesy of Royal Apparel

number of companies working to try to meet those customer demands. Still, not all experts see sustainability trending very heavily in the area of team apparel. “There are so many advancements in yarns, fabrics and processes that are happening right now. I wouldn’t say it’s at the very top of customers’ demands or wants yet in the team space though; it doesn’t drive the purchase amongst other key features and benefits necessarily,” said Bennink.

“Sustainability is becoming a larger focus for the majority of consumers, but comfort and performance adaptability will be what people look for in their active apparel,” agreed Davis.

One problem, he said, is the attention on the negative environmental impacts of microplastics, often found in recycled apparel. “Synthetic garments make up a large portion of what’s sold in the active wear and team wear markets, and these materials have a higher tendency to create microplastics as they typically do not biodegrade. There are many regulations and innovations being set in place to try and manage the impact of microplastics, from new standards for filters in washing machines to managing how we dispose of our clothes at the end of their lifecycle,” Davis said.

This awareness has led companies to work on innovative solutions and alternatives. Hanes, for example, introduced EcoSmart polyester technology into many of its products last year, which allows synthetic plastic-based fibers to behave more like natural fibers once they are in a landfill, unlike untreated polyester.

Customization Techniques

Customization remains key in athletic wear and team uniforms, though stock uniforms continue to sell well and will always likely have a place in the market.

Customization remains dominant, but stock uniforms also have a strong presence. Photo courtesy of A4

“Customization is still a dominant force in athletic wear and team uniforms, but stock uniforms continue to have a strong market presence—especially for budget-conscious teams. However, the overall trend is shifting toward custom, performance-driven designs,” said Karam.

Brumer noted direct-to-film (DTF), in particular, has grown tremendously over the years. “You can do printing on demand; individual sport names or number lend itself to that,” he said, though if the team is all wearing the same thing, traditional screen-printing comes into play.

“With the continued growth of DTF printing, it’s easier to customize and decorate on just about any fabric blend now. Designers are no longer limited to sticking to high polyester content fabrics to support the decorating side of the business,” said Davis.

That said, sublimation remains important, particularly for polyester-dominant sportswear, which is why companies like Momentec invest heavily in it. “Sublimation is the biggest mover and shaker in the industry right now. It allows so much creativity and expression while allowing for speed and service needs at a reasonable cost,” said Bennink.

“I think embroidery is back in a big way, the consumer is appreciating the quality and the time it takes to get something custom embroidered,” said Hoskins, adding that heat transfer or sewn on patches are another way to personalize garments.

The Year Ahead

The future is bright for this segment of the market, due to the demand for versatility, comfort and performance.

“I still think it continues to be very, very strong. Real estate for activewear continues to grow. As society gets more and more casual, we don’t see it slowing down,” said Brumer.

“Team sports and activities will continue to grow as people look for community building and focus on their own mental and physical well-being. It’s not just organized team sports, but also activities that help build groups and communities that find a common interest in being active together. The products for each market can be completely different, so make sure to offer a variety to your customers, ranging from high tech polyester performance gear to cotton rich tees and sweats,” advised Davis.

“The athletic team wear market is expected to remain strong in 2025, driven by growing participation in sports, increased demand for customization, and advancements in sustainable and performance-driven materials. However, economic factors, supply chain challenges, and evolving consumer preferences will influence the pace of growth,” said Karam.

Hilary Daninhirsch is an award-winning freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. Her work has been featured in a number of lifestyle and trade magazines. She can be reached at hdaninhirsch@gmail.com or hilarydaninhirsch.journoportfolio.com.

The post Game, Set, Match: Athletic & Teamwear Trends appeared first on Impressions.

The following story was adapted from an online article originally published by the decorated-apparel e-commerce platform InkSoft (inksoft.com), part of the Inktavo family of software solutions for print shops, promotional product and branded merchandise businesses (inktavo.com).

Embroidery is a decoration method most businesses in the custom-branded merchandise and decorated apparel industry offer, either in-house or outsourced. Often, though, it’s a service that isn’t promoted as heavily as disciplines like screen printing, heat transfers or direct-to-film (DTF).

Even if your shop isn’t highly specialized in embroidery and you subcontract it out to another decorator, promoting this decoration method is a great way to boost your bottom line and help your shop stand out from the competition, since it offers certain detail and quality not possible with printed garments. Here’s a look at why it’s worth considering embroidery.

1. A Change in Demand for Embroidered Products

Even though embroidery is often considered a niche decoration method, consider this: one recent report found that the global embroidery market was valued at more than $3 billion and is expected to surpass $5 billion by 2027. A few of the factors contributing to this popularity include:

• Increased Customization: The growth of e-commerce and direct-to-consumer businesses has both impacted decorators since having increased the demand for personalized products. Take a minute and think about how many ads you see a week for a website that will add a logo to a hat, shirt or tote for you with various fonts, colors and substrates. Embroidery offers high-quality, durable personalization, and while it might not offer Amazon-level turnarounds, it’s the kind of customization customers are typically willing to wait for.
• Brand Perception: If you print merch or custom decorated apparel for corporate clients, you’ve probably noticed many of your customers have moved away from cheaper swag for their employees. The days of the cheap T-shirt that ends up on a thrift store rack are fading away. Embroidered logos and designs convey a sense of professionalism and longevity, making them appealing to corporate clients as they consider the promotional items they’re like to offer.
• Fashion Trends: Every few years, an old style previously considered out-of-date comes back and is labeled “vintage” or “retro.” You could argue that some older styles incorporating embroidery have resurfaced in popularity.

2.Expanding Your Customer Base with Embroidery

Typically, you’ve probably seen embroidery on popular products like jackets for sports teams’ swag for schools and corporate clients. However, opportunities exist across other customer niches as well. These include:

Embroidery provides the kind of high-quality, durable personalization higher-end customers are willing to pay for. Photo by c_atta – stock.adobe.com

• Tourism and Hospitality Businesses: Any popular destination represents a great candidate for embroidery, especially if it’s in your immediate area, allowing you to establish a rapport with the owner. Whether it’s a hotel, resort, aquarium, botanical garden, theme park or any other popular spot that people from out of town frequent, these businesses thrive on selling branded merchandise in their gift shops and online. Embroidered polos, caps and tote bags are all great products to offer these customers. Because of their perceived value, you can also charge a premium for the decoration method.
• Small Businesses and Startups: While smaller businesses and startups won’t have as big a merchandise budget as tourist attractions, they’re still in the business of brand building. Anything you can offer them that establishes a professional image, like embroidered apparel, headwear and embellished promotional items for their customers, can be a strong contender.
• Franchises: These businesses can be slightly more complicated to tap into since they often have a particular set of brand guidelines and colors. That said, if your business is skilled at working with chains and larger enterprises, working with a franchise can be a profitable niche for embroidered apparel, the same as other corporate clients. On the plus side, franchises usually have larger budgets and a more extensive workforce, which means larger orders.

3.Complementing Other Custom Apparel Decorating Methods

For those exist shops looking to grow their business, embroidery can be a great way to complement and build on other popular decoration methods, like DTF and direct-to-garment (DTG) printing:

• Mixed Media Designs: Combining embroidery with DTG or DTF creates visually striking and textured designs.
• Premium Tier Offerings: Embroidery can be marketed as a premium option for clients looking to elevate their purchases. A premium product offering is where the “good-better-best” strategy comes into play.
• Versatility: While DTG and DTF are great for detailed, colorful prints, embroidery excels with logos and text that require durability. In other words, if your customer needs the text and font to stand out on a garment or accessory for longer lengths of time, embroidery can be an excellent option.

That said, while adding another service to your customer decorating shop’s menu might sound enticing, there are three big questions to consider before diving headfirst into embroidery:

• Is it profitable for my shop?
• When do I contract out?
• When do I say, “no”?

What follows is a deeper dive into all three questions.

Ensuring Commercial Embroidery Jobs are Profitable

Profitability is critical for any decorating job, and embroidery can get complicated and expensive much faster than, say, DTF, DTG, heat transfers or a single-color screen print. To help out with this process, Inktavo has created something called the Embroidery Pricing Matrix, which you can access at the following URL: inktavo.com/tools-resources/embroidery-pricing-matrix. Before crunching the numbers, though, consider the following factors as well:

• Design Complexity: Complex designs require more time and resources, which impact labor costs and final job prices. Make sure you spell this out for your customers before building a mockup.
• Material Costs: While the cost of raw materials for embroidery, like thread, isn’t necessarily expensive, some garments you’ll be decorating will be pricier than they would be for other methods, like screen printing. Stitching usually requires heavier-duty fabrics. Therefore, if you’re decorating apparel, that will mean more expensive items like polos, jackets and sweatshirts.
• Labor Time: Digitization, setup and actual stitch-out times all need to be factored into the cost of an embroidered design. Subcontracting out, especially digitizing, can speed up some of the process—but only at a cost.
• Routine Maintenance: Like all your other equipment, routine maintenance of your embroidery machines (if you’re stitching in-house) is key to profitability. Make sure you factor in downtime for maintenance on your monthly schedule, so you don’t end up having to deal with machine breakdowns mid-job.

When to Contract Out Your Custom Embroidery Jobs

If you’re not prepared to make the equipment investment, here are a few reasons why contracting out your embroidery work can be beneficial for you and your team:

• Keeping Up with Demand: If your in-house capacity is constantly maxed out, contracting out embroidery helps you stay on top of orders without sacrificing quality or missing deadlines.
• Specialized Orders: For high-volume orders or super detailed jobs, contracting out can save your team labor hours and headaches while still netting a profit.
• Training Capacity: Training to run an embroidery machine takes time, and if it’s not possible at present to factor in that downtime at your shop, outsourcing can save you time on cross training. It will also give you more space to assess whether it’s worth bringing embroidery in-house.

When to Say “No” to a Custom Embroidery Client

You’ve probably had other instances where it’s more feasible to refer your customer to someone else, as opposed to taking on a job yourself, and that happens with embroidery as well, the same as with other decoration. What follows are a few key reasons you might want to pass:

• Short Deadlines: Embroidery is time-consuming and intricate. If the customer “needs it yesterday,” it’s probably not worth the effort. Rushing a job sets you up for errors and could end up costing you more than the job brings in.
• Unprofitable Orders: If a quick calculation with the aforementioned pricing matrix shows the job doesn’t meet your minimum profitability thresholds, it’s worth reconsidering. One option is developing an added fee that works for you and your customer. However, this can be a slippery slope, since making an exception can create unrealistic expectations for future jobs with that customer.
• Design Complexity: If the design is too complex for embroidery, suggesting another decoration method is often a good idea. You won’t be able to charge the same premium fee as with an embroidered logo. But if it’s simpler to print it with, say, DTF and you’ll still be able to keep the customer, that’s a good trade-off.

Again, adding embroidery to whatever other decoration methods you may already be using will help you build a reputation as a shop that offers diverse, high-quality options. Pairing this reputation with tools like online stores and production management software will in turn set you and your team up for that much greater success.  

Mike Clark is the content marketing manager for Inktavo, a family of companies that provides software solutions to help print shops, promotional product distributors and branded merchandise businesses succeed. For over eight years, Clark also served as an associate and managing editor at multiple decorated apparel industry publications.

The post 3 Reasons Why Your Decorated Apparel Business Should Offer Embroidery appeared first on Impressions.

Like most other business owners, Krissi Dane of KDdid Designs, LLC, joined this industry after working in a completely unrelated field. Dane was a preschool teacher who moonlighted as an artist, painting scenes on the school windows. Her creative artwork caught the attention of a local business owner who happened to own a screen print and embroidery operation. They invited Dane to visit their business, as they felt that her style of artwork would lend itself well to apparel decoration. They hired Dane a month later to become their digitizer, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Getting Started

The KDdid storefront is a hard-earned accomplishment. Photo courtesy of KDdid Designs, LLC

The first and only thing Dane was allowed to do as their newest employee was to watch the machines run, observe how the layers were sewn and pay attention to the sequence of how the designs were built. Dane began to understand how the layers of a design mesh together and how the layering of design elements influenced the results. She believes every new digitizer would benefit by observing well-digitized designs running, so they can incorporate good design theory into their own future designs.

“It was boring as heck at first,” says Dane, “But what you’re learning is so foundational to creating quality digitizing. You’re seeing pathing, you’re seeing layers.” She believes that this initial investment of time was pivotal to her developing high-quality digitizing skills.

Dane explains that many people can not see artwork in layers, they only see the two-dimensional flat image. “When you create a design for embroidery or screen printing,” she says, “You have to be able to visualize the design as a three-dimensional process and figure out what layers need to go down first in order to build a good-looking design. Otherwise, the embroidered or printed image will look flat, lifeless.”

To make it possible to work while raising three boys, Dane opened her own embroidery business, KDdid Designs, LLC, and operated it out of her home for 10 years. Her home-based embroidery business gave her the income, flexibility and stability to to support her family as a single parent.

Eventually, the business moved to a 2,000-square-foot retail location fit for production along with an expansive showroom space. As the operation grew, Dane added more equipment, including five single-head embroidery machines, a six-station screen-printing machine, a heat press, cap press and more. Dane’s team of five keep production moving, with annual sales between $150-$250k. She describes her staff as “the most amazing team anyone could ever imagine.” She says she greatly appreciates how well they work together and care about the work as much as she does. She says they are even pickier about quality control than she is at times.

“I think that is what our business is all about, adding that personal touch to every order,” Dane says. “We want to wow the customer. We don’t want them to go, ‘Oh, it’s nice.’ You know that is not a good reaction when they open the box. We want to hear, ‘Oh my gosh—It’s amazing, I love it!’” That’s what inspires Dane to stay in this industry.

“I like that my staff can take something from the beginning and go all the way through to handing the job for that customer and seeing them go ‘Wow!’ We get that sense of accomplishment.”

Marketing Your Niche

Dane is an avid fisherperson and shared that passion with her boys. She continued her involvement in the fishing industry even after she started her embroidery business by fulfilling the embroidery needs of the boat captains she knew and the fishing tournaments she competed in. Another market she’s found success with is the construction and skilled trades industries. The latter proved essential during the pandemic, as her HVAC, plumbing, catastrophic recovery and construction customers continued to place orders, helping her business survive while many other apparel-decoration businesses closed.

Being “half-crazy” is one of the mindsets required to operate a successful embroidery and apparel decoration business, according to Dane. “I think you must have a good sense of humor because you’ve got to be able to laugh at your mistakes. There are a lot of them when you first start out, even as a machine operator. As an owner, if you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re not going to last very long.”

She continues, “Having a good imagination helps as well. Sometimes the general idea that you learned at the beginning of how you run your company or how you do this specific design doesn’t always work. You must be able to come up with a new or different way to approach the situation. You need ingenuity to figure out how to accomplish it this time.”

Dane learned early on to ask questions and seek advice from other people when she faces a new challenge. She supports her staff by letting them figure out how to do jobs in the way that works best for them.

“I used to be right on top of them,” she says. “Then I figured out that if what I’m making them do doesn’t make their job more efficient and easier, then I’m kind of missing the point. The way that my embroidery manager hoops things is completely different than the way I would do it, but it works for her. She does an amazing job. I look at one of my trimmers and think, ‘How do you hold the scissors like that?’ But she does a good job, so it doesn’t really matter how she holds them, does it?”

Two of the best sellers for KDdid Designs are ball caps and letter sweaters. She jokes that she wishes she owned stock in Richardson hats, she’s decorated so many of them over the years. The letter sweaters are popular in the South, and they do hundreds and hundreds of them for several colleges in Mississippi.

Longevity Meets Loyalty

Many of Dane’s customers have been with her for years. She credits her staff for creating top-quality work and the fact that she builds relationships

with her customers as the reasons why they keep coming back. “If you form the right relationships with the right people,” Dane explains, “You’ve always got somebody you can count on. You can tell them, ‘We’re a bit slow right now. Is there anything we can do for you? We can get it back to you quickly.’ The people who we’ve built relationships with really appreciate that. Or you see a kid that you did their lunchbox for them in kindergarten and now you’re doing a graduation gift for them. That is truly something.”

Dane and team take pride in their showroom displays. Photo courtesy of KDdid Designs, LLC

Another thing that Dane says she enjoys about owning her business is the fact that no two days are ever the same.

“I might be done if it ever stops being fun,” she says, “I’m still enjoying it. There is always something new. And I have the best staff in the world. They are KDdid Designs just as much as I am. How much they care about their work has a lot to do with the quality that we turn out, they really care.”

Dane also really loves walking her customers through the workroom. “They always say, ‘Wow, I did not realize that you did all this right here!’” she chuckles, though she says she and her staff do not appreciate the frequent comments receive about how all they do is “push a button.”

Word of mouth has consistently been KDdid Designs’ most effective marketing strategy. They encourage customers to take business cards, and when asked about their decorated apparel and products to let people know where they got them. They also directly ask for their customers to post a Google review. Finally, Dane invites customers to send her photos of their events and/or staff wearing their new products. Dane then posts these images, with permission, of course, on social media and the company website.

Offering Wisdom

Dane’s most important advice for other apparel decoration professionals is this, “Don’t be a bottom feeder!” She emphasizes that if you start out as a bottom feeder, it is hard to break out of that mold. Speaking from personal experience, she says used to meet or beat competitors’ prices. But she soon realized she was going to end up having to get another job to pay for what she was doing if she kept pricing her work that way.

The other advice she offers is to develop your business plan. “I know that sounds so textbook, but making a business plan is big,” Dane says. “Because then you know who your audience is, you know who you should go after, you know who you can go to find a support group if you’re not near your family or friends who are business owners.”

Looking to the future, five or 10 years from now, Dane says she would like to own a building. “The goal when you build a business is to build it so that eventually, you can sell it. I want to sell the entire package, the business, the building, and everything that comes with it.” 

As the founder of the National Network of Embroidery Professionals (NNEP), Jennifer Cox has worked with thousands of embroidery and decorated-apparel business owners to help them build successful businesses for over the past 25 years. NNEP supports members with services, savings and programs designed to help its members find customers, keep customers and make money. To find out more, or share any of the challenges your own company may currently be experiencing, go to NNEP.com.

The post KDdid Designs: Student to Teacher appeared first on Impressions.

Keeping with family tradition, Van Wyk’s daughter Stacie Baker joined in 2013. Three years later, Baker took over upon her mom’s retirement. Van Wyk still helps at the shop a few days a week.

Custom Embroidery Shop is a Family Affair

“When she started showing me all the customer records, I was so impressed and amazed that she’d built this company from scratch,” Baker said. “She worked so hard to get this business started and to create such a respected business. It is an honor to carry that on.”

Baker shared, “I never imagined I would be doing this. I majored in Geography in college. Then earned a BLA/MLA (Bachelors/Masters of Landscape Architecture). I worked in that field for a few years and really enjoyed it. Once we started our family, I decided I wanted to stay home with our kids. When our youngest was starting pre-school, I started helping a little bit around the shop, and then it just kept going from there…back when I was in college, I wanted to find a job that I loved as much as she did. I just didn’t know it was going to be the same job!”

Baker operates two embroidery machines—a single head with 12 needles and a two-head with 15 needles—and a heat press in her retail shop. Their 1,760-square-foot location offers a product display and sales area in addition to production space.

“We have years of experience and knowledge to draw upon,” said Baker. “We’ve learned to pivot and adjust as necessary. It’s good to try new things, but sometimes the tried-and-true ways are best. It’s important to keep learning and keep growing.

“My mom still helps a lot. My youngest daughter is currently helping as well…my oldest daughter has also helped in the past. Not to be left out, my son helps too. My dad is fabulous at keeping the yard mowed and looking nice. He also picks up the trash and recycles for me. My husband helps with some of the accounting and financial aspects. Casual Rags is a family affair, and I definitely appreciate all the support. Yet at the end of the day, it’s up to me to make sure Casual Rags is successful.”

She went on to say, “Exceptional customer service is also very important to us. I want our customers to be happy and love the products we provide. This goes for the individual who bought a decorated T-shirt off the rack or the large corporation for whom we ship out orders to agents all across the country.

“Quality is also very important. These three things—experience, exceptional customer service, and high-quality apparel and decoration—are the keys to Casual Rags being successful for nearly three decades.”

Shop Local: Marking Embroidery Services/Products to the Community

According to Baker, word-of-mouth has long been her company’s primary marketing strategy. “When my customers are happy, they continue to come back. More importantly, they tell their friends, family, business partners, and so on.”

A preschool class visited the shop to learn about what they do at Casual Rags. Each child left with an Indianola embroidered cap, after watching the sew out and helping to remove the backing. Photo courtesy of Casual Rags

Baker is also a big believer in “shop local.” To this end she supports the businesses in her community whenever she can. She also encourages her local community to use her business in a creative way and works with the local educators.

The other marketing strategy Baker implements is the creation and use of company stores for some of their customers. Because Casual Rags focuses on businesses as the primary customers for their embroidery and apparel decoration services, the company-store marketing strategy offers an efficient customer-centric solution that puts products and services right in the hands of customers on their smart phones.

For those not familiar with them, a company store is an online portal targeting a specific group by allowing them to order the products they want in advance and select their own designs. Each company store offers as many or as few products as the customer desires. Once the initial decisions are made, the company store website is created, and a custom URL is provided to the customer. Each store can be opened and closed whenever it makes the most sense, creating opportunities for customers or employees to place all their orders after which Casual Rags does the necessary decorating.

“Offering custom online store capabilities has been pivotal for our growth,” Baker said. “This has allowed us to do seasonal popup and ongoing stores for construction and design companies, contractors, sports teams, clubs, retirement communities, restaurants, family reunions, technology companies and even national insurance companies.”

Baker believes having patience, being organized, creatively solving problems and always learning are some of the skills most important for running your own business. “This is basically a one-woman shop. As I am the one doing the embroidery, I quality check each garment and decoration. If something isn’t right, it doesn’t go out the door,” Baker explained.

Reaching out for help is another important skill, Baker said. “I don’t know how many times we emailed or called NNEP [National Network of Embroidery Professionals] with questions so I could handle the order,” she noted.

According to Bakers, time management represents yet another challenge.

“This is still challenging, even after all these years,” she said. “Seems like I never have enough time to do everything I want to do! Social media, marketing, setting up a cute retail space, developing a specialty line, keeping up on paperwork and filing. There is always something to do and rarely enough time.”

At the same time, Baker said, “This business has also offered me the flexibility to be available for my family. With no set hours, I tell my customers I am always available by appointment. My email and phone number are right on the door. If they want to reach me, the information is right in front of them.”

Embracing the Future: Custom Embroidery Coming Down in Price

Most of Casual Rags’ business comes from established or new companies that already have their logo. Some of their best markets are insurance companies, financial institutions, manufacturers, contractors and government agencies. Baker said when it comes to spirit wear for schools and the local college, she is also always on the lookout for inspiration, whether she’s out and about or online. She especially keeps a eye out for unusual design placements that she can adapt and tweak, making her designs unique and on-trend.

Logoed items create unity, promote a business or organization, help a team or organization look good and offer a sense of pride. Photo courtesy of Casual Rags

Interestingly, when Baker’s mom and grandmother started the business, embroidery was seen as expensive. Now embroidery, in addition to being more affordable, is recognized as being a great value, due to the fact it lasts longer and looks professional.

Indeed, the business has come a long way from the old days, from hand cutting and freehand stitching on traditional sewing machines to using multi-needle machines and materials that allow embroidery to work well in many more situations. Technology has also allowed her company to reach customers they never could have otherwise.

One bit of advice Baker would share with anyone thinking about getting into this industry is, “I was taught to tell the truth. Still the best advice. I don’t overpromise.”

Beyond that, Baker says, “I really enjoy all the different aspects of owning and running Casual Rags. I enjoy the variety of projects that I work on, from large orders of 500 shirts to a single baby blanket and everything in between. I enjoy meeting with the customers, working with them to determine their needs are and delivering what they want. We continue to offer more and more on-line stores for businesses, and that has been an excellent solution for us.

“I also like the ability to help customers decide what they want, finalize the logo, take care of the embroidery, and see everything through from start to finish. The company had a fabulous start thanks to my mom. To carry on this legacy—this love of helping customers look and feel good in their logoed apparel—is such a wonderful way to honor my grandma’s and my mom’s story.”

As the founder of the National Network of Embroidery Professionals (NNEP), Jennifer Cox has worked with thousands of embroidery- and decorated-apparel business owners to help them build successful businesses for over the past 25 years. NNEP supports members with services, savings and programs designed to help its members find customers, keep customers and make money. To find out more, or share any of the challenges your own company me currently be experiencing, go to NNEP.com.

Updated 4/24/25

The post Casual Rags Custom Embroidery Company: Local and Loving It appeared first on Impressions.

This unisex classic
mid-weight hoodie is
spun from premium 3-end fleece, making it soft and prime for DTG printing. Photo courtesy
of Lane Seven

Fashion Influences: Gen Z, Gen Alpha and More

Women drive many household purchasing decisions, even those marketed to men, and when it comes to the fashion industry especially, women are also influencers and trendsetters.

“It’s funny, because I always tell people that to find out the trends, you should always look at the younger generation. They are the ones that find the trends, put them on social media, and then the mainstream catches on and those take off. The first to wear something used to be on the fashion runways. Now you just have to look to see what the younger [people] are wearing, and within a year, they will be everywhere,” said Andi Goeing, product marketer and content strategist with SS Activewear.

Fashion trends in womenswear are also influenced heavily by the music industry, particularly those artists favored by Gen Z, Gen Alpha and even younger millennials. Think Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, BLACKPINK, Taylor Swift, SZA and more.

At the same time, it is generally agreed that trends predominantly deriving from Gen Z, do not take into account how more mature generations also influence trends. In other words, all demographics of women and all age groups have a say. Not only that, but with headwear, Jeremy Laney, president of Infinity Product Group, said men’s headwear trends are even encroaching in the women’s space. “We look across and see what is trending in men’s and adopting and adapting that to women’s headwear,” he said.

Beyond that, elevated basics and comfort-driven silhouettes serve as the foundation for workwear-influenced styles, which will also be trending. “Influenced by the ‘utility’ trend, workwear-inspired promo items like chore jackets, utility vests and cargo pants are emerging as stylish yet functional choices. These pieces are popular in industries where practical apparel is needed, but they also appeal as fashionable and unique items that can work beyond the workplace,” said Goeing.

“Womenswear styles are being modernized for both work and play. We’re combining comfort with functionality by leveraging fabrics with stretch, softness and easy care,” agreed Amy Carton, director of merchandising and brand management, SanMar.

Eco-friendly Options for Blank Apparel and Custom Decorators

Continuing a longstanding trend, many companies increasingly use organic or recycled materials, or materials that are carbon neutral. “When corporate values change to put sustainability at the forefront, consumers tend to align themselves with these brands in a deeper way,” said Mel Lay, marketing director and co-founder, Allmade Apparel.

In previous years, perhaps making eco-conscious buying choices was a luxury for many consumers because products made in a sustainable much were more expensive. And while that is still true, the tide is now turning, with manufacturers able to incorporate sustainability practices into their production facilities with greater ease and less expense. As a result, while sustainability may not be fully mainstream just yet, with the passage of time it is becoming more the standard in manufacturing, in direct response to growing consumer demand.

Milissa Gibson, sales director with Lane Seven Apparel, noted that as environmentally friendly practices become more widespread in manufacturing, that in turn reduces the costs of manufacturing in a sustainable way. Companies can then pass along these savings to the consumer, which both helps the environment and serves to elevate trust between the consumer and the producer.

Transparency in Sourcing, Production a Continuing Trend in Bank Apparel

Complementing the growing emphasis on sustainability is the demand for transparency throughout the supply chain, from how and where cotton is sourced and grown to whether the apparel is ethically made to whether it is delivered in a recyclable bag: all stages of the production process are increasingly highlighted on social media, putting consumers in a better position to hold companies accountable.

“We are updating our omni channel messaging to share more about our sustainable raw materials and the production process. The consumer wants what they wear to represent their values,” said Glen Brumer, sales director with Royal Apparel, describing his company’s efforts in this area.

Along these same lines, Gibson note, “Women tend to be more conscientious buyers overall, because they are the ones that drive a lot of purchasing decisions.”

“To me, it’s more of a ‘once you know, you can’t go back’ situation…transparency is key. Once that became a trend, people don’t want to close their eyes. They want to know they are getting product from a reliable source,” said Ramona Watson, vice president of product development/marketing with Infinity Product Group.

Which is not to say consumers have to compromise on quality as they are doing so. Infinity Product Group, for example, includes a division called Infinity Her, which manufactures baseball caps specifically designed for women, featuring an opening for a ponytail and a make-up resistant, wicking sweatband that is breathable.

Colors: What’s Hot and What’s Not in 2025

For womenswear in 2025, neutrals continue to dominate, but more vivid tones are finding their way into the market as well, with a cornucopia of colors expected. Experts say vibrant hues, like pinks and oranges, in particular, will dominate. “As 2024 ends, we are seeing an end to ‘tone on tone’ looks. The days of natural tops paired with natural sweats are over, and color is back in the spotlight. Neons and brights will be back in the forefront. ‘Neon Pop’ or ‘Color Revival’ are the buzzwords to look out for,” said Lay.

The Tess style offers a trendy, modern take on your traditional mesh cap. Photo courtesy of Infinity Her

Brumer added that not just bright hues but contrasting color combinations are expected to be popular. “We are also seeing classic shades that are seasonless: navy, natural, grays and black. We introduced a new garment dye program where brands can customize their own color,” he said, describing his company’s efforts to accommodate customers seeking out unique looks.

Goeing agreed that neutrals—such as tans, whites, blacks, dark browns, and beiges—will be trending, along with darker red shades, such as maroon. However, she predicted that leopard print is going to be huge in 2025, particularly, muted, monochromatic leopard prints, as she is seeing that all over social media.

“In 2025, leopard print makes a sophisticated comeback with muted, monochromatic tones. Rather than bold, high-contrast colors, many designers are exploring muted versions of leopard print, like tone-on-tone neutrals or monochromatic color schemes, for example, shades of beige, soft grays, and off-whites,” she said.

In addition, other animal prints, like cow and zebra, will be dominant. “It has really become more of a staple than a fashion,” said Watson. “Camo will be everywhere. We saw it peak a few years ago, that generic fashion camo, and we are predicting that it will be back in a big way,” she added.

Laney agreed, adding that other patterns will be blended into camo. “It’s mixed media camo. It will be incorporating other elements, such as stars and flowers,” Laney said.

“In 2025, we are still embracing office-ready neutral colors with black, rich navy and a range of white to off-white as an essential base. However, earthy colors are emerging as a new complement, beautiful shades of green from sage to mint and olive, sienna, rust, dusty purples, and rich tones of brown and tan. These fresh updates are approachable and easily elevate your wardrobe for the season,” said Carton.

Silhouette: Form and Function in Today’s Blank Apparel

Some industry experts noted that gender-neutral styles and gender-neutral inclusive sizing is also trending. “To accommodate diverse audiences, promotional apparel is expanding its focus on gender-neutral styles and inclusive sizing. Relaxed fits, unisex designs and a broader range of sizes make branded apparel accessible to more people, enhancing its appeal and utility,” Goeing said.

This unisex classic mid-weight crewneck is crafted in a plush, textured knit and features ribbed cuffs, and waistband. Photo courtesy of Lane Seven

Lay agreed that gender inclusivity is also influencing womenswear trends in 2025. “You will start to see more gender-neutral fits and styling that consists of both typical pieces styled by men mixed with fitted feminine elements,” she said.

“We are definitely in a maximalist era. Think Carrie Bradshaw in ‘Sex in The City.’ More is more in 2025: layering and bold looks are in our future. You will see more experiments and individuality with styling,” Lay added.

Similarly, Gibson said she’s seeing a kind of diversification or split between a minimalist versus maximalist era. “Either they are tight and fitted, like the ‘90s Bibi tank, or super oversized and relaxed.”

As for Goeing, she noted oversized styles are increasingly popular overall, not just because people are buying bigger sizes, but the sweatshirts and silhouettes are actually larger.

“The oversized trend in 2025 reflects a shift toward comfort and high-impact branding in the imprintable apparel market. Larger, relaxed-fit items like oversized hoodies, T-shirts, and crewnecks provide ample space for logos and custom designs, creating memorable brand visibility. These pieces are especially appealing as they offer a universal, unisex fit, making them versatile to a wide audience,” she said.

On a side note, according to Goeing, this ties in a bit to athleisure, which she said predates the pandemic but has skyrocketed after Covid, with more and more brands coming out.

“Athleisure still reigns supreme and is not going anywhere, but it has gone from working out to wearing it to work on the weekends, to running errands. Wearing it out has become such the norm attire,” she said. Because people can work from anywhere, this parallels the trend of women wanting elevated basics and comfort-driven silhouettes.

“These items come with a strong focus on moisture-wicking, quick-dry, and odor-resistant fabrics. Branded items like joggers, zip-up jackets, and moisture-wicking polos offer comfort and practicality, especially for outdoor events, team-building activities and corporate wellness initiatives,” Goeing added.

“Spring 2025 will usher in a move toward new-bohemian and romantic silhouettes. From SanMar, you’ll see this come through in soft sleeve shapes, subtle shirring details and feminine necklines,” said Carton.

Fabric Blends and Textures All Critical to Today’s Womenswear

Cotton, especially organic cotton, is going to be popular, which is consistent with the previously mentioned sustainability trend. Brumer noted that RPET blends (recycled polyethylene terephthalate), made from recycled plastics and other materials that are blended with organic cotton, are growing in popularity as well. Other fabric blends include organic cotton blended with viscose bamboo and tri-blends.

The Weekend Boxy Crop is not only comfortable but ideal for all embellishing needs. Photo courtesy of Royal Apparel

“Subtle textural interest is a common theme when we look at 2025 styling. From fine linear ottomans to sub-fabrications, baby ripstop, and oxford piques, we’ve injected playful textures to give new dimension to core silhouettes,” said Carton.

Gibson said that ribbed and micro-ribbed are the textures that will be popular in 2025. She added that fashion choices are more about fit and weight versus fabric, and next year there will be an emphasis on heavyweight.

Goeing agreed, predicting heavyweight styles have been and will continue to be huge. “Almost every single main brand we carry has a heavyweight style,” Goeing said. This ties in to customers seeking durability and comfort in what they wear. She also noted that these types of heavyweight pieces, like hoodies, sweatshirts, and oversized Ts, are inspired by streetstyle and skate culture.

Beyond that, Watson said corduroy is going to be a dominant texture. “We’ve seen it across the board. If you pair it with a mesh back, it makes it a year-round fabric. It used to be a fall holiday fabric but now it’s a trend.”

Other trends are tech-integrated fabrics and smart fashion, like mosquito repellants built into the fabric or those that provide UV protection or have antimicrobial properties.

Vintage/Retro: Back to the 1990s

The ‘90s are back in vogue and appear to be an ageless decade, as the ‘90s retro look seems to be hanging on. “That means butterflies, big prints and low-rise jeans,” said Lay.

Vintage black, or faded black will be dominant, which also ties into that neutral trend, added Gibson.

Other vintage-inspired trends over the past few years, which will still be present in 2025, include bomber jackets, old vintage T-shirts, and ringer T-shirts. “I was at a street festival in downtown Chicago, and every single vendor had vintage T-shirts; some people were paying $100 for them,” said Goeing. The buyers for these vintage styles are often Gen Z, who are, of course, the primary trendsetters.

A Demand for Quality: Today’s Custom Decorators Want Garments that Last

On the downside, as we get deeper into 2025, some companies will likely start to see a downslide to today’s trends, among them, fast fashion and lower-quality garments. “Consumers would rather thrift an item than buy a low-quality, poorly made, cheap piece of clothing. Women will be searching for staples that last in their closets instead of the one-time wear,” said Lay.

Another thing that is waning is the “retail fit” T-shirt, which Gibson described as being akin to a lightweight fitted unisex T, in light of the ongoing transition to an oversized, relaxed fit and heavier weights.

That said, overall, trends are slowing down, observed Goeing. “Much of what we have been seeing have been trending; people are slowing down and making trend last longer, which is better for the consumer, because there is less that you have to buy.”

Hilary Daninhirsch is an award-winning freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. Her work has been featured in a number of lifestyle and trade magazines. She can be reached at hdaninhirsch@gmail.com or hilarydaninhirsch.journoportfolio.com.

Updated 4/24/25

The post For Custom Apparel Decorators, Anything Goes in Women’s Clothes appeared first on Impressions.