Types Of Apparel Decorating

There are a number of ways to decorate apparel. From most to least popular are Screen Printing, Embroidery, Appliqué, Vinyl, DTG, Rhinestones and combo’s.

Screen printing is the most popular and the least expensive way to decorate a shirt. The shirts are inexpensive and the materials are as well. There are several forms of screen printing as well. The traditional ink-to-shirt which is basically just painting a shirt and the newer discharge ink  process which mixes a color remover to the ink to print a very soft feel on dark garments.

Embroidery is the next most popular form of apparel decoration. It has a higher perceived value and embroidered garments cost more. Generally more expensive garments are embroidered. The cost to embroider a t-shirt is more that the cost of the shirt itself. The cost of materials for embroidery are very low, however the amount of time to do the process is longer than screen printing. Additionally, embroidery equipment is more expensive that screen printing equipment so the cost of entry and the cost to upgrade is more.

Appliqué is a form of embroidery that uses a combination of material and sewing to produce a final design. Basically the material takes the place of large fields of space where sewing would take a lot of time. The perceived value of appliqué is great than just embroidery but the process to sew is faster yielding a larger profit per hour.

Apparel vinyl yields a similar result to screen printing. It is economical for short runs where screen printing would not be. There is no extensive setup or cleanup for vinyl, just cut, weed, and press. That is it. Apparel vinyl has a constant cost. The material price is the same per unit for one, twenty, or one thousand units. It is more expensive than screen printing for large fields and for multi color designs. Additionally there are vinyls that are printable that yield a result that competes nicely with screen printing. The cost for the equipment, however, is somewhat prohibitive.

Direct Garment Printing or DTG is the process of applying a printed design, much like screen printing, on a garment by using an inkjet printer. This process has been proven for light garments and has had some success with dark garments. The cost of the equipment, volume that can be run, and maintenance make this process only viable for shorter runs and light colored garments at this time. This is not to say it does not have its place in printing. There are a number of extras that can be added to a garment printer that make it viable.

Rhinestones are a growing form of decoration that has one of the highest perceived values. There are a number of ways to get rhinestones onto shirts, from individual placement to cut templates to equipment that makes ‘transfer sheets’. Each of these ways has a place in the market and offers different price points for entry.

Combo’s are the process of combining two or more of the above processes to yield a premium shirt or garment. Each process adds time to the equation so the sales price of the garment needs to increase as well.

I will go into each of these processes in detail over the next several articles plus add the new and upcoming methods of decoration and what to expect down the road.

In the meantime, for all your decoration needs, contact Lynn Promotions at 909-638-3339 or http://www.lynnpromotions.com