Embroidered Clothing - 5 Top Tips on How to Make Sure You Get the Right Products at the Right Price

Fruit of the Loom Heavy Cotton T-Shirt - 8 Colours - Small to XXXL

By Francis George Murphy

1. Check out your proposed supplier

It is amazing how many people trust a great looking website when in fact the owner of the site has no more than a shed at the bottom of the garden or even worse a worn out chair in his local internet café. 

Do not take anything you see on the World Wide Web for granted, not even this article, check out who owns the site, where they are based, how long they have been in the business and most importantly get some independent references. Do not be afraid to ask for references and if your proposed supplier is at all hesitant to introduce you to a few satisfied customers then run a mile away and don't look back. 

2. Check out your suppliers suppliers

Lots of promotional merchandise suppliers say that they are manufacturers but let's face it, unless you have a few thousand acres of cotton fields then you can't really be a manufacturer of cotton garments can you? That said, even Ford don't manufacturer all the bits for their cars and they still call themselves manufacturers so it's fair enough if your supplier has  production facility maybe with some embroidery machines or Silk Screen carousels at least they are then part of the manufacturing process. But most importantly check out the brands of textiles that your proposed supplier uses. 

Brands such as Fruit of the Loom, Gildan, Hanes etc are well known international manufacturers whose products you can generally depend upon. If your proposed manufacturers are recommending garments from El-Cheepo T-shirts or Itch & Scratch it Polo shirts then beware. Any decent supplier of promotional merchandise will be trading with the large brands and if they are not then get those running shoes on again.

3. Who is creating the computer disk of your artwork that runs the machines?

Embroidery machines are expensive, delicate and very complicated pieces of equipment and they need looking after very carefully but as long as they are oiled and cleaned regularly they produce stunning results. However they can only ever be as good as the computer programme that runs them. When you send your artwork to an embroiderer the design has to go through a process called Digitisation. 

Fortunately the author of this article is a simple person who does not understand a lot of technical stuff so I will explain it thus. Your design is uploaded into a computer programme that tells the embroidery machine how many stitches are required to embroider your design, where the stitches go, in what order and how big. A proper embroiderer will have this process in-house so that they can ensure that your design is created in such a way as to suit the fabric you have chosen. Do not use an embroiderer that send his computer work out to places like China, Taiwan or Nottingham because you will be getting what the boss in China thinks the bloke who you gave the job to wants when in fact you may think something completely different. If your chosen embroider cannot afford to Digitise his own work then back to the running shoes again please.

4. Who is actually embroidering your shirts

Always, always, always try to buy your promotional Clothing from a company that has their own Embroidery and Screen print machines. Not only can you be sure that you won't be paying unnecessary middlemen prices but you can also rest assured that your order will be completed on time. I would estimate that 80% of all problems with late deliveries of screen printed or embroidered garments are as a result of the 3rd party decorator delivering late or the carriers messing up between the manufacturer, the middlemen, the decorator and the client. There are just too many links in the chain. Ideally use a supplier who carries large stocks of plain goods on the shelf.

5. Make 100% certain that you get a proof sample before you give the go ahead

Do not ever give the go ahead for an embroidery job until you have seen at the very least a digital image of an actual embroidery. Better still ask the embroiderer to send you a finished sample of a garment or a swatch of fabric with an example of the embroidery. Once the Promotional Garments are on the machines it is too late to change your mind because you cannot unpick even the most simple of designs.

I hope this article has given you some good advice on how to get the best embroidered garments. It's not difficult to do once you have done your initial research and hopefully once you have found a good decorator you will stay with them.

Francis Murphy is the Founder and Managing Director ofhttp://sashionswomensshirt.blogspot.com and has more than 30+ years of experience in the Promotional Clothing Industry. BTC Group are not just an on-line trader but are preferred suppliers to Argos, Tesco, Starbucks and many more blue chip companies. They have in-house Design, Screen Printing and Embroidery divisions at their 35,000sq ft factory which you can view = at Women's T-shirt http://girlruitofthroomtshire.blogspot.com/

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