Embroidery, Screen Printing, Vinyl Stickers/Lettering, and Promotional (mass) Printing Questions

Ron

Ron

Dum Spiro Spero
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Apr 16, 2005
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Sharon, SC
Ok, now that I have won the award for longest thread title in the history of NC4x4.com...

The wife and are in final stages of negotiations to purchase a company that will expand her existing embroidery business. (For those that interact on facetubes, instantgrandma, tweetsalot or other social mediums with her keep this quiet as last she heard negotiations had broke down... :D)

So my question for the NC4 crowd is this:

Who here is a regular customer of such services?
What are you regularly buying(merch type and quantity)?
What would you like to have a source for and cant find?
Would you be interestd in working with someone in the 4x4 hobby who would of course offer a nice freinds and family discount?
 
If the prices are right, I would be interested definitely. I buy stuff for my business from Queensboro right now. I don't buy that much right now, but would like to buy more since my business is growing. I mostly buy embroidery stuff but would liek to get screen printed t-shirts at some point.
 
We have a screen printer here in Raleigh for apparel and we have a sticker printer in King, NC, and have been pretty happy with both.

We don't have a steady contact for vinyl decals, so I would be interested in pricing.

We've looked into embroidery (the question of hats comes up occasionally) but haven't found anything compelling, so I'd also be interested in pricing.
 
I work in the Point of Sale Display Industry. We use a lot of Screen Printed materials, Printed Vinyl Graphics with Die cutting and Masking, Printed boards like PVC Sheet, CorePlast, Heavy stock paper. We use a company out of King, NC that kills every bodies pricing because they keep mass quantities of Inventory on hand, run long hours and turn jobs in a FAST manner. If you can compete, I'd be glad to throw you business. I bet we spend several hundred thousand a year with them. I'd be happy to find out what they can't do for us and see if you can do it, or if you can compete with their pricing, quality and turn around times.

But look for Display companies in your area.
 
I just started buying stuf the last couple of years. Just put in a small order for hats for the farm. I'm hoping to expand sales at some point. I'm working with a guy in Asheville right now that's pretty kick ass. If the quality and price are comparable I don't mind shopping around.
 
Would be very interested... Have had such a hard time finding a screenprinter for shirts that would actually work with me on goofy orders.

30 shirts all various sizes
30 hoodies all various sizes

Seems like every time we have a good experience, when I call back they are unavailable.

Also, we have never looked into embroidery, but have discussed many times getting mechanic style shirts with our logo embroidered, so I would be very interested in that.
 
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XJfreakHO said:
Would be very interested... Have had such a hard time finding a screenprinter for shirts that would actually work with me on goofy orders.

30 shirts all various sizes
30 hoodies all various sizes
Click to expand...

One of the many good things about our printer... I can order all different sizes and colors, doesn't matter. If the ink changes color, that slows them down a bit but not by much.
 
trailhugger said:
One of the many good things about our printer... I can order all different sizes and colors, doesn't matter. If the ink changes color, that slows them down a bit but not by much.
Click to expand...

Who do yall use? Our order is pretty simple to me with only one color difference and its split between the order (girls/guys) but when I ask for 4 mediums, 5 smalls, 5 larges, 8 xls, 3 2xls and 2 3xls it seems to cause mass confusion. (random numbers but you get the idea)

The last company I called wanted me to order 10 of every size. I just laughed and hung up the phone, but at this point I have considered it because I don't know what else to do,.
 
XJfreakHO said:
Who do yall use? Our order is pretty simple to me with only one color difference and its split between the order (girls/guys) but when I ask for 4 mediums, 5 smalls, 5 larges, 8 xls, 3 2xls and 2 3xls it seems to cause mass confusion. (random numbers but you get the idea)

The last company I called wanted me to order 10 of every size. I just laughed and hung up the phone, but at this point I have considered it because I don't know what else to do,.
Click to expand...

That's because of shirt orders. Only the bigger gusy stock very many T Shirts.
Within a given family there will be 30-40 colors. Then 4 popular sizes per color. (Though XXL is gaining market share and soon it will be 5)

There are different packaging metrics from different companies but to get serious you are going to be buying quantities of 60 minimum per order sku (given size and color).
Now you want to have shirts in stock? One of each?
30 x 4 x 60 = 7,200 shirts. $1/each
That's a $7,500 inventory order Plus freight.

Very, very few companies an afford that, so as such very few stock shirts. (they take up space and you have to keep moisture, mildew and rats away from destroying your inventory...how many of those skinny fit 2XL fuscias ya gonna sell anyway?) So as a result most shops are buying their shirts from a wholesaler not manufacturer direct. As such they have minimum orders. So even if you want 5 they may well be buying 10 shirts.


That's why you get that response. FWIW if this deal goes through I would hold inventory of ~20 colors in 6 sizes 3 styles each from 3 different shirt manufacturers... In other words...no problemo.

But trailhugger did nail one parts, color changes take time and consume/waste matrials (ink) during the "flush" so thats has a cost associated.
 
Dave,
1- I havent bought anything...yet.
2- I can only say this. The business conveys with an existing account base. I wouldnt be dependent on business from here to be viable...this was intended more as a teaser, idea generator, conversation starter... until it clsoed and we were inide 90 days or so I am not even sure how deasible new business would be to take on..but Ive seen a lot of inefficiency in my initial due dilligence process...
 
Hey Ron,

I sold around $32,000,000 (million) in print, stickers, and promotional over the last 8 years. I closed local businesses all the way to dozens of fortune 100 companies and I can tell you Nothing EVER Goes Right in the print/promo world.

I left the industry because in my opinion, it is a dying industry. Here are two questions for you:

  1. Are companies today trying to add more paper to their daily routine, or go paperless?
  2. Do smart phones cause people to need more business cards, or less?

Ironically I picked up some stickers and swag from the local printer right down the street from me yesterday- I've ordered 7 times from them and 6 orders have been wrong, including yesterdays order.
 
I kinda agree with Jay's two points... print and business cards are pretty much a thing of the past and most printing companies I've dealt with generally suck. The two we are using (for apparel and stickers), mentioned in a previous comment, are far above and beyond good at what they do, though. I'm feeling extra lucky to work with the guys I do... they call me or email me with questions, they COME UP with design and color questions and ideas, they make GOOD design decisions on the fly (like down-sizing a screen for smaller shirts so it looks better and not charging me)... it's nice when people know how to do their job. :lol:

But you cannot deny that logos are everywhere and promotional stickers/apparel are not going away. I wish I was the MF'er who came up with "Lake Life" and similar stickers.
 
I buy/sell 50 shirts a month from a local vendor (across the parking lot from my shop). They have a 25 piece minimum order at a time. For decals, Bighorn is truly hard to beat. I tried to give my business to a local company, but nobody came remotely close.
I would certainly be interested in embroidery for shirts and hats.
Offering design services would be very beneficial IMO.
For our businesses needs, we use the same company @trailhugger mentioned. They are leaps and bounds the best screen printer I have ever used. In fact, we continue to use them up here in Asheville and they are in Raleigh.
 
I am sorry to say I agree with Jay :) (just kidding.. but I do agree with him)

the one thing that people will always want is shirts, hats, sweatshirts.. but cards/printed material etc all are going away.. not completely but a lot

I would be curious to see who Jody and Cyd use here in Raleigh.. only because CNC uses a company here in Raleigh and they are very easy to deal with etc.. heck we just order a crap load of stuff from them a few weeks back..
 
BRUISER said:
I am sorry to say I agree with Jay :) (just kidding.. but I do agree with him)

the one thing that people will always want is shirts, hats, sweatshirts.. but cards/printed material etc all are going away.. not completely but a lot

I would be curious to see who Jody and Cyd use here in Raleigh.. only because CNC uses a company here in Raleigh and they are very easy to deal with etc.. heck we just order a crap load of stuff from them a few weeks back..
Click to expand...
Thou hast PM
 
Thanks for all the feedback.

FWIW the print part of the business we are looking at encompasses about 2% of annual revenue. SO if it goes away it wont be the end of the world.

Certain things may always be printed...like NFL Game programs...tickets for NFL games and NASCAR races...etc. Well maybe not always but I feel safe those services wont stop in the near future.

Plus construction documents, blue prints, spec books, submittals, O&Ms.... all that stuff we are seeing digital creep in but it certainly hasnt became the standard yet.

Largest portion of the business is the embroidery, screen printing and vinyl graphics stuff. As I have dug deeper this week Vehicle graphics (wraps) accounts for ~10% revenue and 18% of the profit for the company...tells me that area needs more thought consideration from me as I saw it as a headache and necessary evil.

Jay,
I be real interested in talking more though about your experience..
 
Ron said:
So my question for the NC4 crowd is this:

Who here is a regular customer of such services?
What are you regularly buying(merch type and quantity)?
What would you like to have a source for and cant find?
Would you be interestd in working with someone in the 4x4 hobby who would of course offer a nice freinds and family discount?
Click to expand...

Finding someone who can do larger direct print (sintra, plex, foamboard) and die cut vinyl would be something I would be interested in. We have a few vendors we deal with right now in various parts of the state and country, depending on who we order other materials from for our builds (Trade show exhibits, corporate interior projects etc), but QC has become a bigger issue lately so someone semi-local that we could develop a good relationship with and we can trust to handle some of our larger projects would be nice. Nothing is as large scale yet as a vehicle/trailer wrap, but 4x8 sheets of plex direct printed or wrapped in complete vinyl graphic are more common. We still see a lot of our clients print a LOT of collateral for shows, but the digital option is taking over slowly with people just using USB jump drives with their logo printed on it as a giveaway at shows.

Good luck with the possible venture Ron, I'll keep an eye out for threads about this if you all do make this move. I wouldn't mind giving you guys some business if it became feasible for us.
 
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