Custom apparel is an essential part of your company branding strategy. Whether it’s equipping your staff with branded uniforms, handing out freebie promotional t-shirts, or selling branded apparel for profit, quality is of utmost importance. As a layman that is not in the embroidery business, there are many things that you might not consider when you take your logo/artwork to be embroidered. By reviewing the information below, you will have a better understanding of what your expectations should be when you bring your logo/artwork to your embroiderer.
- Location, Location, Location – Typically when we embroider a shirt with one logo, the best location is the upper left chest area. If you are cobranding a garment, you might opt to have one logo on the left and one on the right. Also keep in mind that if you are purchasing an article of clothing that is name brand, such as Columbia, there may already be a subtle brand logo somewhere on the shirt (in the case of Columbia, they have it on the upper right chest area). NOTE: Keep in mind that if you have multiple locations, you will likely need to pay multiple setup fees because the embroiderer will have to setup their machines multiple times.
- Size Matters – Think about your logo for a moment. Is it long and narrow? Square and bulky? Does it have a lot of letters? We will work with you to determine the best possible size that will allow a legible stitch. We typically don’t embroider anything that is larger than 4” in width. The biggest factor in deciding the embroidery size is the lettering. A good rule of thumb is that letters should be at least .15” in height (bare minimum). This may pose issues with some logos due to their orientation, so our graphic designer might have to tweak your logo in order to make it embroidery-friendly. Remember, when stitched at very small sizes, letters become illegible and might end up looking like little blobs of thread. Please take the warnings and suggestions of our embroiderer seriously and remember that this embroidery represents your business.
- Thread of a Different Color – Depending on your needs, you might want a full color logo or just a one color logo. Either way, you’ll want to keep in mind the color(s) of the garments that you are embroidering. If your logo has black in it, but you are embroidering black shirts, you might opt to make those black areas white. Again, our graphic designer will work with you to determine what will work best. Most embroiderers have a list of standard thread colors that are included in their standard embroidery price. However, should you need a different color or a PMS match, embroiderers have access to hundreds of thread colors, it’s just a matter of special ordering the one you need. Also, while using the exact same logo on shirts of varying colors won’t increase your cost, you’ll want to make sure you know how the logo will look on each color. (e.g. If the majority of the logo is black and one of your shirt colors is black, the logo will get lost, so you might have to opt for a thread color change for the black shirts, thread color changes will likely incur an additional fee.)
- It’s Complicated – Pricing out embroidery projects is typically done on a job-to-job basis. This is because the more complicated your logo is, the more expensive it will be to embroider. For example, if your logo consists of your name in big bold letters in one color, that will typically be covered under standard pricing. But if your logo has large areas of color(s) with text and graphics, it will likely bump up the price. Why? Because it requires more stitches to create such a logo and it will take more time to complete each piece.
- Smooth as Silk – Not only does the embroidery quality depend on size, it also depends on the fabric of the garment that you choose. For example, a logo with small lettering will come out better on a shirt that has a smooth surface such as 100% microfiber polyester vest rather than a shirt that has more texture to it like a 100% cotton pique polo. If you are going with a shirt that has some texture to it, you should ask our graphic designer what size the logo should be for maximum quality. Also, be aware of garments that have a lot of pockets, zippers, buttons and pre-applied embellishments, as these might hinder the embroidery process.
- Getting It Done – As a purchaser there are times when “waiting until last minute” is no one’s fault but our own, but there are times when it is unavoidable and inConcert understands that. When placing an embroidery order with us, we will work with you to meet your deadline as best as we can – in fact, I can’t even think of an order that we’ve ever turned away because we couldn’t meet their deadline. But please remember that the number of pieces in your order, the number of embroidery locations, and the size and complexity of the artwork are all factors in determining an appropriate turnaround time. And let’s not forget about final delivery. We embroider our products in Central Massachusetts, so depending on where you are in relation to our office, it might take a few days in transit to ship the final products to you.
So there you have it – a list of considerations to remember when placing an embroidery order. Hopefully this list has given you some understanding as to what goes into producing a quality embroidered piece of apparel. Should you have any questions regarding your upcoming embroidery order or would like us to provide you a quote, please call us at 978-632-5300 or contact us via our website.