Printwear & Promotion The Total Promotional Package
Adding extra value to an embroidered garment can see the end product sometimes double its selling price. Managing director of Amaya Sales UK, Peter Wright, explains more.
If you have an embroidery machine, DTG printer, vinyl cutter, transfer and sublimation equipment or screen printing carousel, you can use mixed media to make the product much more desirable and make it worth much more. Not only that, it will give you a cutting edge over your competition.
The equipment out now makes combining the different media’s much easier and accessible. Multi-media garment decoration can be a mixture of any of the above pieces of equipment. With a little guidance you will avoid some of the common mistakes that could occur. Ask your equipment supplier for their help. If they cannot help then they should not be in the business of selling garment decoration equipment.
Media positioning
The biggest issue when mixing media is achieving the correct positioning and registration. One way around this is to arrange the decoration in such a way that will give a little space for error. You would not then notice any alignment problems in the finished product.
Today there are embroidery machines available with laser positioning over two points. This mean that if you insert registration marks on the print design you can accurately line up your embroidery without the need for space for error as mentioned above.
You can also have laser lights on some of the better heat presses for help in aligning your different layers of media.
Create designs especially for multimedia
Although it is possible to use different media on most designs it is always better to create specially for the media involved. Keep in mind how the different medias will work together.
Embroidery looks great with DTG, screen print and sublimation. It really brings to life certain points of the design and adds a 3D look. With the laser alignment tool you can add embroidery to the most complicated design and keep perfect registration. Embroidery also looks great with Metalflex which is available from some of the film manufacturers.
Sublimation prints work well with most media’s because the ink becomes part of the garment. The only limitation is that the media must be able to adhere to polyester.
Mixing Metalflex film with flock provides a brilliant combination as seen in the zebra design. Flock is also a very good media to use as an applique with embroidery.
Transfers especially with white toner also work well with embroidery. It easy to add registration marks so that the embroidery machine can accurately align with the print.
If you have time, experiment with all the different media types that you have. You will be amazed at what the outcome will be.
By adding extra value you will able to increase your selling price.
Equipment
If you don’t possess all the equipment then the two most economical pieces are the sublimation printer, transfer printer and the garment film cutter. If you are in garment decoration you should have these in your business, but if not it’s worth thinking about purchasing them.
The bottom line is that if you create something different for you customers the chances are they will keep coming back and spend more money.
