1. Inconsistent Brand Image
While it’s great to have some fun with the design of your apparel, you need to make sure that you’re still sticking with your overall brand image. If all of your marketing materials feature the colors blue and green, using colors like red and yellow shirts could be a poor and confusing choice. Over time, your customers will come to associate certain images, styles, and colors with your company. Stick with something along familiar lines to get the most impact from your branded apparel.
2. Clothing that Targets the Wrong Market
Define your target audience clearly before you decide on a certain type of branded apparel. If you’re targeting casual travelers, a baseball cap is a great choice that will probably get a lot of use on the road. However, a baseball cap won’t reach out to high level executives nearly as efficiently. Where are you hoping to have your branded apparel seen? Polos are likely to make it into business casual attire for the office or out onto the golf course. Tee shirts are a good choice for casual weekend wear.
Think about your market carefully and choose apparel that will appeal to them. Don’t go for a hundred of the cheapest option when you aren’t going to reach the right people. It’s far better to invest in a smaller number of high end shirts if that’s what will appeal to your potential customers, than to get more of an item that just won’t work for you.
3. Ordering too Late
If you’re ordering branded apparel for a special event, set your budget, create the design, and get your order in as early as possible. Don’t wait till the last minute to decide that you want branded apparel to hand out at the next convention. If you have only days or weeks until the event, you’ll be forced to rush your order and risk a completion date that falls after the event. Always think ahead about when and where brand apparel will make the best impression so you can order on time.
4. Failure to Properly Plan
It’s easy to slap a logo on a hat and hope for the best, but this is a major marketing mistake. Think about how you plan to use your branded apparel and order colors, sizes, and quantities that are appropriate. Are you ordering shirts that promote a single event, or choosing generic apparel that’s good for years to come? If you’re handing shirts out at an event you’ll want a broad range of sizes. If you’re ordering apparel for your employees, it’s best to have them fill our order forms so you have the appropriate sizes for everyone.
5. Failure to Send a Clear Message
Branded apparel is designed to send a specific message. Before you place your order, you need to think about what that message is. Do you want your customers to perceive your brand as friendly and funny? Come up with a great joke and design humorous tees that will get people laughing. Are you interested in sparking conversations about your newest product? Send a free tee with pre-orders that promotes that product to get your buyers talking about it with new potential customers. A simple logo and basic design can work for some purposes, but it’s best to really think about what you’re going for before you order.
When you think through these points ahead of time, you can head off the major mistakes that marketers make with branded apparel and achieve stunning success with your next campaign.
]]>Retail inspired designs are calling for softer and softer printing. Current ink technology makes this a breeze on white or light garments with the use of fashion soft base additives and water-based inks. Distressed and/or vintage prints are more authentic when printed with soft inks and high mesh counts. Achieving soft prints on dark garments is not as straight forward, so when requesting a soft hand print on darks be sure to have a conversation with your decorator so you know just what to expect.
Below is a breakdown of the different inks we use and a little bit about each one.
FASHION SOFT OR CHINO
SOFTNESS
Just as soft as water-based inks. You can’t feel any ink after one washing! These base additives are the plastisol answer to soft hand printing.
DETAIL
Inks mixed with soft-hand additives are able to hold the same amount of detail as their standard pantone counterparts.
PRINTABILITY
Since the ink is still plastisol, these are ideal for printing soft-hand in the majority of screen print shops.
OPACITY
Pantone colors mixed with a soft hand base are more transparent than regular plastisol formula colors. They tend to have a washed out look when printed over white underbases. For this reason they are not recommended for use on dark garments, but are really geared for white and light colors of shirts. Soft hand bases are not visible on dark garments.
PANTONE MATCHING
Because the inks are more translucent once the base is mixed in, the pantone colors may not print exactly, though close.
WATER-BASED
SOFTNESS
The chemical make up of this ink lends itself to a less-like-plastic softer print.
DETAIL
This ink has a tendency to dry in small design areas, so there is a bit of loss in any detail area or fine halftone.
PRINTABILITY
The curing time is slower and the ink has a tendency to dry at the edges of the stencils. More manpower is needed on press to maintain consistency in print. Expect a higher rate of spoilage.
OPACITY
This ink is more transparent than regular plastisol and does not print well on white underbases, nor do they appear on dark garments. Stick to water-based ink on white or light colors.
PANTONE MATCHING
There is no pantone matching with water-based ink. water-based inks have a tendency to print lighter than their PMS counterpart.
DISCHARGE
SOFTNESS
Discharge ink is the water-based ink for dark garments. It is considerably softer than any plastisol print requiring an underbase. Discharge ink utilizes an activator that bleaches the dye out of the t-shirt and deposits the pigment of the ink.
DETAIL
Since it is a water-base ink, avoid designing with detail and fine halftones.
PRINTABILITY
The curing time is slower and the ink has a tendency to dry at the edges of the stencils. More manpower is needed on press to maintain consistency in print. Expect a higher rate of spoilage. Rich colors such as red, turquoise, purple, and royal discharge very unpredictably. The inks are often contaminated by the dye in the shirt. Black garments also discharge very unpredictably.
OPACITY
Discharge colors can appear quite vibrant, although this ink has a look that differs from plastisol. Be sure to discuss the variables that affect the final print with your customer service rep.
PANTONE MATCHING
The number of variables that affect the ink deters us from being able to guarantee pantone matching with discharge inks. Discharge colors tend to print 1-2 shades lighter than the called out pms color.
If you are interested in the vintage Feel for your next T- Shirt project shoot us an email at Apparel@reddogglass.com
Thanks to our Friends at SP Printing for the detailed info!
]]>A business that has only an idea of what its apparel should look like or that wants to spice up an old design can get the help it needs at a full-service manufacturer of decorated apparel, which has a team of artists with years of experience. Experienced artists know what makes a design or drawing appealing to consumers, and they know what colors and font best represent the company’s character.
A unique digital image or drawing is just the first step. The fabric used for custom screen printing is also important. Team apparel is often of soft breathable jersey material or sometimes microfiber. Cotton, polyester, rayon, silk and dozens of other fabrics woven loosely or tightly are options that teams and organization, retailers and businesses may choose for their custom apparel.
The color of the fabric, lettering and design is important to the overall tone of the apparel.Custom screen printing projects require that the design is “separated” into the individual colors. This process can be simple, such as one color and spot color jobs, or spot color with halftone separation, which varies in difficulty. The four color digital is more difficult, and the simulated process, applying color-rich graphics to color apparel, is the most difficult.
When all the details are ironed out and the actual printing begins, a company must make sure the custom screen printers are capable of putting out the apparel envisioned. A qualified representative of the company inspects the screen printer’s previous work, especially if the company has chosen a more complex process. He should ask questions and express concerns relevant to the process his company’s apparel must undergo.
Custom screen printing has been around for a long time. The representative should consider the longevity of the company chosen to manufacture its apparel, and how long it will take. If the company is looking for 20,000 shirts in two weeks, the representative needs to make sure the manufacturer is able to produce that amount.
Email us today! at: apparel@reddogglass.com
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OCEAN CITY, N.J. - A week after Sandy inundated this beloved Jersey Shore resort with flood waters and sand, the town is awash in a torrent of caring from groups and individuals offering food, clothing, and shelter.
Similar outpourings are being directed up and down the devastated coastline. Following what some have called the worst catastrophe ever to hit the region, municipal officials, church leaders, and business owners say they have received calls and e-mails from across the United States offering help.
In Ocean City, an eight-mile-long Cape May County barrier island, about 4,000 individuals have volunteered to assist flood victims clean up and rebuild their homes and businesses. Preliminary estimates indicate that the city suffered as much as $440 million in damage, Mayor Jay Gillian said Monday, and it could cost up to $31 million to restore the town's dunes and denuded beaches.
A constant stream of donations, including money, food and other supplies, has poured in, Gillian said at an afternoon news conference where he announced creation of the nonprofit OCNJ C.A.R.E. (Cleanup and Recovery Effort) Project.
Sea Isle City, Ocean City's neighbor to the south, is expected to announce a similar campaign Tuesday.
In Ocean County, home to two areas hit hardest by the storm - Long Beach Island and Seaside Heights - officials have urged volunteers and those who wish to donate to focus on the area's many volunteer fire companies, which may have lost equipment in the storm, and the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation, a nonprofit that has given more than $1 million to help needy children in Ocean County and North Carolina.
Funds raised by the Truex foundation will go to help flood victims. Donations can be made online at www.martintruexjrfoundation.org or by mail at 156 Cayuga Drive, Mooresville, N.C. 28117.
In Ocean City, the OCNJ C.A.R.E. Project - which over the weekend served more than 2,000 free meals at a local community center - will function as an umbrella agency for municipal and civic groups and churches and will work side by side with groups such as the American Red Cross and Salvation Army, Gillian said.
Over the weekend, the effort became a giant potluck, he said. Many vacation-home owners who came to town to check on their properties brought casseroles and containers of soups and cookies and cupcakes by the dozens to the Ocean City Community Center. The food was dished out to locals who hadn't had power at home for days and had no means to purchase a hot meal.
A group from one Pennsylvania suburb organized a lasagna-making effort so productive that they arrived at the center with 50 pans in time for Saturday night dinner.
OCNJ C.A.R.E. will harness all this good will so funds are distributed properly and securely and efforts aren't duplicated, Gillian said.
"Most importantly, we don't want to miss an opportunity to help," he said, noting that the effort has mushroomed through social media such as Facebook (www.facebook.com/ocnjCARE) and Twitter.
Information about the project also may be obtained by calling 855-622-2730 or at www.ocnjCARE.com. The mailing address for donations is P.O. Box 807, Ocean City, N.J. 08226.
The need is enormous, even in small-town Ocean City, where about 11,000 people live year-around, officials said.
"We have a large retirement and senior citizen population. . . . We have people that haven't even left their homes since the storm. We need to get to them," said Drew Fasy, an OCNJ C.A.R.E. volunteer organizer who was at Monday's news conference.
The largest project OCNJ C.A.R.E will tackle will be providing breakfast, lunch and dinner for the foreseeable future at St. Peter's United Methodist Church at Eighth and Central Avenue, Fasy said.
Help has come from unexpected sources. A customized glass and giftware company in Collingswood, Red Dog Glass, is selling a $20 "Restore the Shore" T-shirt with all proceeds going to the Red Cross' flood victims' relief effort. And an apparel sales rep from Pittsburgh sent his Shore clients who lost their stores a truck stuffed with generators, water and other items.
A wholesale manufacturer of floral designs in Joplin, Mo. - where 100 were killed and neighborhoods were flattened last year in the deadliest tornado in U.S. history - has directed employees to call every client in the New Jersey and New York area to ask how the company can assist them in rebuilding their businesses.
"No matter how much you might lose . . . your house, your belongings, whatever . . . if you are any kind of human being with a conscience you forget your own troubles and you want to help others," said Susan Deaver, a resident of Ocean City's Gardens section who said her family home had been "totaled." Deaver had arrived at City Hall on Monday to look for a place to sign up to volunteer with the cleanup.
"It's a way to heal, so I'll do anything . . . cook meals, find people a place to stay, help them clean up their houses," Deaver said. "I just want to help."
]]>A pair of entrepreneurs launch a t-shirt fundraiser for the Red Cross, while another resident organizes far-reaching material support for victims of the disaster.
For Diane Fornbacher, seeing the mass devastation wrought by Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy is what started it.
“I don’t become numb to those things,” she said. “Every time I see it, it’s always like the first time.
When the initial storm warnings broke, Fornbacher, who describes herself as a newshawk, was “in a mad rush” to prepare her home for its effects.“I saw the projections,” she said. “I was scared to death for my own family.”
In light of the damage sustained by a town like Atlantic City or Staten Island, Collingswood escaped, comparatively unscathed. But Fornbacher had still collected a pile of provisions that would go unused in her household.
Maybe it was because the destruction had bypassed her family; maybe it was remembering what life had been like in fragile moments of her young adulthood. But Fornbacher was floored by the images of the waterlogged Jersey shoreline that came pouring in from various media.
She needed an outlet for that anxiety, needed to do something. She didn’t have a lot of money to donate to relief efforts, but what she did have was a pile of survival items—and a house with electricity, heat, and running water.
“Most people, that’s not enough for them to get up off the couch,” said her husband, Terry Wall. “Diane is the type of person who will take it from an idea to fruition.
“There should be more people doing things like that,” he said.
People living in the dark
Instead of squirreling away her cache for the next disaster, Fornbacher resolved to get it into the hands of families who needed it sooner.
So Monday, she will load up a car full of provisions and care packages and head for a storm shelter along the coast.
“Sometimes it’s hard for people to conceptualize that something couldn’t happen to them because it hasn’t happened yet,” she said.
“Some people will be without power for two weeks. The things they’ve hoarded could go to people living in the dark—literally.”
Fornbacher pointed out also that victims of the devastation were not necessarily unprepared, either. The suddenness of Sandy’s onset left many people unable to find goods to buy.
“A lot of stores ran out of perishable foods,” she said. “Some people were relying on being able to treat their water by boiling it; some don’t even have access to water.
Almost immediately, Fornbacher said, Collingswood pitched in. As of Friday evening, her home was starting to fill with the care packages she’d assembled, and there was more on the way.
Some people offered gas cards; some were fund-raising through their churches. A woman she’s never met is driving down from Ohio this weekend with donations pooled from her neighbors.
“Throughout my life, I have suffered a couple of tragedies,” she said. “It was wonderful for people to contribute to lightening the load.
“That’s one of the things that I wanted to bring home to people.
'We're going to come back stronger'
Meanwhile, across town, Lil’ Diesel apparel brand co-owner Jen Hilgenberg had the same reaction watching the news pour in from the shore towns where she spent her youth.
Since Sandy hit, her family in Hunterdon and Somerset Counties have been without power. And she knows well that the impact of the storm has reached far beyond even there, to Connecticut and New York.
Lil’ Diesel is an imprint that’s designed to respond to circumstances like this. In an age of quick-turnaround printing, the branding and apparel business offers the almost-immediate gratification that Hilgenberg and her business partner, Mindy Leher, could leverage to make a difference.
They paired up on a t-shirt design they’ve dubbed “Restore the Shore,” and are donating to the Red Cross 100 percent of all profits generated from its sale after costs.
Originally, orders were to be filled Nov 16; now the duo thinks the first run will be printed Monday.
At $20 apiece, they’d already sold some 213 shirts between 4:30 p.m. Thursday and lunchtime Friday. In the first 15 hours, orders were pouring in from all over the country, St. Thomas and the U.S. Virgin Islands, all from social media sharing.
“We’re getting orders every couple minutes coming in,” Hilgenberg said. “We know how much we’re helping [by] how our phone goes off, every time an order goes off.
What are people responding to? Hilgenberg thinks it’s the Jersey mentality.
“You can hit us, knock us down, but we’re going to come back stronger,” she said.
“This fight is coming from all of us.”
Want to help? You can make donations in person all weekend at Fornbacher's house (113 Arlington Ave.) or Tricia Burrough's house (510 Cedar Ave.)
To buy a Restore the Shore t-shirt, click here.
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