Thought Leaders: Views on a New Decade

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

Thought Leaders: Views on a New Decade

Industry veterans reflect on the past 10 years and offer insight about the future of the decorated apparel industry. November 05, 2010
By Jennifer A. Morrell, Contributing Writer

At Jakprints, the company is noticing growth in the short-run industry. This means production must be maximized and spoilage must be kept at a low level.

Decorated apparel is an entirely different animal today than a decade ago for a variety of reasons. In addition to fashion and function, numerous factors have enhanced — and changed — the way the industry operates.

Among the game changers is — no surprise here — the Internet. Access to information has created a better informed, more savvy customer. For example, a decade ago, customer questions would be quite general in nature. Today, they’re asking for specific brands or thread counts when requesting apparel blanks. Thus, decorators have had to rise to the occasion to keep them happy.

Another playmaker is technology. Today’s equipment is less hands-on and a little faster during production. Customers want a variety of solutions quickly, and a plethora of decorating techniques for the picking.

Advances in graphic software certainly have influenced the market, as customization is key. Production costs have risen, so successful decorators have adjusted accordingly to keep their businesses afloat. Overall, the industry is still run by creative, forward-thinking businesspeople who have to lead their companies into the future in a progressive and, sometimes, aggressive way.

Impressions wanted to get the inside scoop on the technologies and trends that have driven the decorated apparel market during the past decade, and gain a little insight regarding what is to come. We went straight to the sources, consulting some of the industry’s most experienced leaders: Jeff Glenn, owner of Missouri Cotton Exchange, Columbia, Mo.; Jacob Edwards, president and founder of Jakprints Inc., Cleveland; Dave Barzyk, president of Classic Team Sport Inc., Edgewood, Md.; Phil Gandy, president and CEO of Gandy Ink, San Angelo, Texas; and Rich Santo, president and CEO of Culture Studio, Chicago. Following is what they had to say.

Impressions: Looking back, how has the decorated apparel marketplace changed in the past decade? How did your shop evolve?

Jeff Glenn, Missouri Cotton Exchange: One thing is apparent: There are a lot fewer apparel distributors now, since the larger ones bought up many of the smaller ones. By aligning ourselves with fewer distributors, our business means more to them, and they show their appreciation with perks like free freight, better pricing or other deals they can offer. Also, customer demand has moved from “easy” printing on white apparel, to people wanting colored T-shirts and more complicated designs.

Jacob Edwards, Jakprints: The biggest change would have to be the knowledge base of the everyday customer. With any bit of information at their fingertips, clients can find exactly what they want prior to ordering. It’s all about brands these days.

Ten years ago, the apparel decorating industry was pretty simple. The market’s most accomplished decorators were known for actually printing photo-realistic images on a basic T-shirt. These days, if the shirt does not include three different embellishments, a custom hangtag and a spray of bleach, it’s boring and “unretailable.” Not to mention, the customer and the brand are so fickle, they only will run a sample or a couple of hundred pieces, if you’re lucky. The simple occurrence of being handed an image that fits on an 8" x 11" piece of paper is few and far between. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it truly “separates the men from the boys.” Those who make the cut are gaining interest by any brand or customer with the need to impress.

Our customer base always has pushed the envelope of what is possible. Early on, most of our customers just assumed we could print massive images with photo-realistic quality like they see in the mall or a high-end retail store. Not only did they assume we could reproduce that image, but [that we could do so] on any garment brand or fabric type. We are constantly evolving our processes, while checking the temperature of the customer along the way.

Dave Barzyk, Classic Team Sport: Over the past decade, we have seen a lot of changes in this industry quickly. No longer are we just a screen printer or embroiderer — we are a technical player on a playing field that is swiftly expanding in a sophisticated manner.

Within our shop, we focus on team sports, among other things. We have evolved to stand tall as a uniquely creative and technically savvy decorator. The change in technology and the progression into automated decorating techniques over the past 10 years (or past five years, for that matter) has opened new doors for us as a custom decorator. We have become more creative, efficient and competitive in our specific market because the available resources have expanded in this industry. For example, the direct-print, dye-sublimated and heat-transfer options for decorating have advanced in the past few years to allow a decorator like us to expand our placement in the industry.

Phil Gandy, Gandy Ink: The changes over the past decade have been immense. The advancement in graphic software technology has been extensive. Adobe Illustrator is our choice of programs, which is a key component in creating artwork for our clients. Many art requests involve high-end custom themes. This requires software that provides tools for the artist to be able to develop a piece of art that can be printed onto a garment. A good example is a photograph. In the current day and age of digital cameras, we see more requests to print photographs onto shirts. The new advances in software and some minor training have allowed us to narrow this down to a manageable process.

Another big change is that software is becoming more universal. We have faced a considerable challenge in attempting to have different types of software “talk” to each other. Order-entry software now is developed specifically for the screen printing and embroidery industry. We are able to track the progress of orders in real time and provide that information to our customers.

Also, specialty garments have come a long way. When we give our customers other options besides a basic T-shirt, they really get excited. Consequently, we see volumes increase.

Rich Santo, Culture Studio: I see more clients opening their own accounts with many vendors that I would get my blanks from, and they are getting the same — or close to the same — pricing that I would get.

We also are seeing many screen printers undercut our prices dramatically to “keep the business” under their roof. This usually leads to the client coming back to us a month later saying that the quality of the imprint and garment was less than what he expected, and he now understands that if the proper work and garment goes into an order, there must be a justification in price.

Impressions: Looking ahead, what outlook do you anticipate for this industry? How will you remain competitive and meet new challenges?

Glenn: The outlook is good. It’s tough to operate our business through a mass market or online. Smaller shops are better able to customize. It’s difficult to do customized business over the Internet. People go online to search for information, but they still need our types of businesses to get the product they want.

We’ll remain competitive by improving efficiency and using new methods, like more automation. We also plan to increase the services we offer to cast a larger net over consumers.

The cost of doing business is a challenge — costs like ink, screen supplies and new machines. One new machine we looked at today costs $10,000 more than it did three or four years ago. The other challenge is simply getting past the U.S. government and the tax situation for small businesses, which is making it difficult to succeed.

Also, we compete with McDonald’s and the like for entry-level talent, so it is hard to find quality people that we can afford to do basic jobs. While our costs are going up, our customers still want an inexpensive T-shirt. Keeping work costs down without passing on expenses to the customer can be difficult.

Edwards: Most customers have much smaller budgets than a few years ago. The runs are smaller but more frequent, ensuring stock does not sit on a shelf. With smaller runs, it is extremely important to maximize production while keeping spoilage low. The short-run industry is getting ready to explode, so we need to make sure we are prepared to accommodate this growing trend.

All the complicated embellishments we offer to apparel decorators that have done this for years are being traded out for college kids with a copy of Adobe Photoshop and some free vector art they grabbed from the Web. That’s the challenge: how to get the orders through with all the questions answered properly and make it all as simple and streamlined as possible for the client.

Being a true customer service-oriented company will win the next generation of buyers. You can create all the Web technology in the world to create an image online. But the real challenge has been making the image on screen match the actual box of garments that the brand, band, company or clothing line will receive.

Barzyk: This industry will continue to grow. I believe any successful corporation would agree that in today’s world, one must play on a state-of-the-art playing field with creative players and unique resources. As it stands now, this industry provides us with these opportunities. Our biggest challenge, of course, is the investment we must put forth to remain state-of-the-art. The key to success lies in how we grasp that opportunity now, in order to provide further opportunities in the next decade.

Gandy: The outlook is positive. There are many areas we feel are important to help gain a competitive edge. We attend all the major trade shows looking for new products. We continually push the envelope on new graphic techniques. We also stay current on all types of new technology.

The two areas that present the biggest challenge for us are controlling rising costs and overhead, and improving the quality of our workforce. We put a tremendous emphasis on employee retention. We do this through good communication, continuous training, added employee benefits, performance rewards and treating all employees with respect.

Santo: At Culture Studio, we pride ourselves on innovative printing with superior customer service. Sticking to this mission statement will always keep us competitive because we are able to produce the most difficult of decorating techniques, match or beat prices, and most importantly, deal with our customers on a personal level to make the ordering and correspondence experiences here pleasurable and painless.

Impressions: What market sectors are your company pursuing in the new decade?

Glenn: We are looking to increase the amount we sell to retailers; we’ll sell to any market that works. Collegiate apparel is working well for us. Business is good regarding resale to mall stores and grocery stores.

Edwards: We have always stayed where we are pertinent, keeping a close eye on what the clients want. Our products and services support our core values. The customers’ needs have always kept us on our toes.

Barzyk: Our company hopes to expand in various market sectors over the new decade. Our primary focus will continue to be team sports, but within that niche, we have many chances to hold more market share in the future. Just as today’s athletes pursue a technical advantage in all sports, we pursue a technical advantage in providing high-performance decorated apparel. Further, as advancements are made in decorating processes in the new decade, we hope to capture more of the branding side of the decorated apparel market.

Gandy: I’m a firm believer in focusing on a niche market. The screen printing and embroidery business is so large that you can get lost trying to be everything to everybody. Focusing on a niche enables you to fine-tune your products and services to match your customers’ needs.

Santo: Our main concentration market is contract promotional printing with an edge. We are going after high-volume clients that are looking for something more than your simple left-chest plastisol print, but are doing a decent volume and placing orders often. Our target client is price-conscious and knows the industry, but can appreciate the work that goes into a difficult technique.

Impressions: What new technologies will have the biggest impact on your shop’s success?

Edwards: We have been looking at direct imaging for years. For us, the hardest part is getting clients to understand there is a perception of quality that cannot be reproduced by these machines. At this point, we are offering all of our apparel services as low as 24 pieces. At a six-size breakdown of YL-2XL, that’s only four shirts in each size range. For the price, it’s still a better buy for the customer, although we see many scenarios whereby a digital technology could have saved us hours of press time.

Barzyk: I believe the digital direct-to-garment (DTG) and dye-sublimated technologies will have the biggest impact on our shop’s success. We have not introduced these technologies into our shop, specifically. We do provide sublimated solutions and very creative transfer solutions to our customers. We use the resources provided by many of our vendors, thus keeping us in the game currently until we can make the investment to bring this technology home.

Gandy: Direct-to-screen technology will have the biggest impact on our company. We are waiting for the technology to be fine-tuned before we move forward. I feel like it has the potential to cut labor costs, speed up overall production and save on supply costs. At peak times, we use more than 1,000 screens a day. Our experience indicates that direct-to-screen does not handle this volume at this time, but I am confident it will be soon.

Santo: In the near future, we will be looking to expand our shop-management software, as well as add direct-to-screen equipment. Also, we have been subbing out our DTG work, but have not had the demand to purchase a DTG machine.

Impressions: What design trends will influence wholesale apparel decoration in the coming decade?

Glenn: Our customers want a softer hand and halftones in design. In retail, “different” is the key word. It manifests itself in a variety of ways, like large printing, new print placements and specialty inks.

Edwards: I think designers are realizing they still need to consider the person who is buying the garment. There has been a large, misguided push for “greener” printing recently as well. Clients will want a 10-color discharge ink image printed on the front and back of a garment and think it’s eco-friendly because the words “water-based” are in the ink description. With this order, the fact is that 20 different screens had to be created and prepped, while the dryer had to be adjusted, wasting a substantially higher amount of gas. All in all, less is more when thinking green.

Barzyk: In our market, I think the technical gear plays the biggest role. The performance and moisture-wicking technical weaves of material are important to our end users. I also believe the future trends will show more simplified decorating in terms of color. I think we also may see more creative solutions for decorating locations on a garment.

Gandy: It tends to be the old trends that come back in style. In our niche, we try to start the next trend, not wait for it to happen. The use of more fonts and less artwork is back. I also think we will see changes in print location on a T-shirt.

Santo: We are heavily pushing lighter-colored garments with high-mesh, soft-hand plastisol prints. The price is right, and we can simulate discharge or water-based printing with the high mesh, as well as get vibrant colors. Halftones have been a defining trend this year, and a combination of printing plastisol whites or vibrant colors with a one-color grey or discharge background has been a constant winner for our clients looking to have a retail look.

Jennifer A. Morrell is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and a 15-year publishing veteran. She has written about topics ranging from sports to real estate. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Jennifer at jennmorrell@hotmail.com.

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