Team Building with Custom Made Logo Apparel

Tag : embroidered apparel

The process that creates logo apparel is called embroidery. Youmay have not thought about this much but you very likely haveembroidered apparel in your closet. That little sewn picture onyour polo shirt is embroidery. Embroidery businesses exist in avariety of sizes. This is because of the investment needed. Anembroidery machine capable of sewing 20 pieces at once is moreexpensive and complex to maintain compared to a machine which sewsone piece at a time. For 1-100 pieces, a small company will giveyou the best price and delivery time. For 100 or more pieces, youwant your quote from a “contract” embroiderer. Priceand delivery depend on the machines that will be used, how manypieces can be sewn at once, and the location of the business.
Buying these items is not difficult, but it does consist ofmultiple steps. Custom logo decorated shirts and caps are notexpensive. But, these purchases do require some advanced thoughtand planning. To get the best price and product, allow at least oneweek for all but the first step. This varies depending on the sizeof the business that you are working with.
Step One - Determine the embroidered graphic.
If you are an established small business owner then you probablyalready have a logo and you certainly have a company name. You mayalready have stationary or business card with your logo and theseare often suitable graphics. Using your logo and/or company nameare very popular. The embroiderer needs your logo graphic to quotestep two.
Step Two - Digitizing the design graphic.
Custom made apparel is sewn using a computer controlled embroidery(sewing) machine. So, your design graphic must be converted into aform which the machine can understand. Today\'s embroiderers callthis process \"digitizing\". Digitizing is performed withsoftware specially made for the purpose. However, using thissoftware is a special skill requiring large quantities ofexperience. So, most small companies outsource this work and largeones may have digitizers on staff. Often, only after the design issewn, it’s discovered that the characteristics of the fabricrequire adjustments to the digitized design. A highly experienceddigitizer can provide a digitized design with few or no adjustmentsneeded.
Step Three - Sewing the final product.
The digitized embroidery design is transferred into the embroiderymachine’s computer memory. The machine is setup with thethread colors required and the blank pieces are sewn. The cost ofthis step varies depending on piece quantity and stitch count.There is a fixed amount of setup time for a particular design andblank product. Depending on the piece to be sewn and the previoussewing job, the needle for each thread color may need to bechanged. Each thread color needed must be mounted and threaded. Thestitch count contributes to the sewing time for each piece.
Copyright 2006 Charles Knell
Charles Knell is the Customer Service Manager at Embroidery Master, http://www.embroiderymaster.com .