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New Year Prep … Already?

by | Nov 7, 2017 | Product Help, Tips & Tricks

New Year PrepI know what you are thinking … New Year prep already? Yes! In all honesty you probably should have already started thinking about your plan for 2018. Now we can’t help you with your entire marketing strategy, however we can help you with branding your business. Whether you are just starting out or have been in business for years we can help you when it comes to getting your logo out there.

We don’t mean that we will do your advertising for you, but we will help you choose the right products for you to put out there with your name on them. Custom apparel and promotional products are essentially walking billboards and do all the work for you!

New Year Prep: Where to Start

There are so many different options out there when it comes to custom apparel and even more with promotional products! It can be very intimidating and may have even been the reason you haven’t explored this in the past. Fear Not!

We know how overwhelming it can be and that’s where we come in. We just need you to give us some basic details about what you are looking for (apparel or promotional products), your budget, logo and quantities. From there we can find options for you to help you rock 2018!

Curious? Take a look at our online catalogs and see all of the possibilities: Apparel | Promotional Products

Improve Your Design without Increasing Your Cost

by | Oct 24, 2017 | Product Help, Tips & Tricks

We all love those flashy printed t-shirts that we see in the stores, but let’s be realistic here. Pulling off a design like that for your event may not fit within your budget. Doing a full color print or using a specialty ink can really make the cost of your shirts jump. Not to fear, we have a few ideas for you to improve your design without increasing the cost of your shirts.

Three Tips to Improve Your Design

Improve Your Design | HalftonesUse Halftones

If your design has multiple colors in it you can bet that it will be one the more expensive side. One way to bring down your cost and cut down on the number of colors used is to create halftones within your design. Halftones use a color that is already in your design, so if you have a couple colors in your design that are similar this is the perfect place to use halftones. Not only will this bring down the number of colors in your design it will also create a little more depth.

Add Texture

Improve Your Design | TextureAnother simple yet effective way to spice up a simple design without adding to the end cost is to add texture to it. One of the more popular options lately has been to add a distressed pattern to the design to give it more of a vintage look.

This is a very simple way to add more detail to your artwork with adding colors and increasing your cost.

Use the Shirt Color

Improve Your Design | Negative SpaceWhen putting your design together think about how you can use the shirt color in the design. Not only will it cut down on the number of colors in your design, but the negative space will make it so your print is not heavy. Using negative space and breaking up the design by using the shirt color makes the print much more breathable.

Do you have other questions when it comes to ordering custom t-shirts? Contact us HERE or send us a message on FACEBOOK!

Halloween Safety: Be Seen This Season

by | Oct 10, 2017 | Holidays, Product Help, Uncategorized

It’s that time of year when the sun will be setting earlier and the ghouls and goblins will be coming out! Kids can get so caught up in the excitement that they forget about Halloween safety. We have put together a list of items that your local business can use to help keep the kiddos safe during this spooky time of year!

Halloween Safety Items

Halloween Safety Coloring & Activity Book

Halloween Safety | Coloring BookThe end of october is a special time of year. Kids get to dress up and pretend to be whomever they want, and gets treats on top of it! This Halloween Safety Coloring and Activity Book has 16 pages of coloring and activities that teach important safety lessons for Halloween. Recommended for children ages 3 and up. A great giveaway for police and fire programs, costume and party stores. Don’t Forget the Crayons! Make it Easy — Make it a Fun Pack: any coloring book or activity pad conveniently packaged with a 4-pack of crayons in a sealed poly bag. No assembly required.

Halloween Pumpkin Lights

Halloween Safety | Pumpkin LightThe Halloween Pumpkin Lights is made of PP & Electronic Components material. It is a great options to attach to your kids candy bag or even costume to make sure that they can been seen while trick or treating!

 Safety Reflectors

Halloween Safety | Reflective LightRound Shape Safety Reflector – Round shape safety LED flashlight reflector. Push button and clip on the back. Ideal for Halloween, school student, bike riding, camping, emergency, travel and self-promos.

Safety Reflector/Flashlight – Safety 3 LED flashlight reflector with swivel carabiner. Three control modes: flash fast, slow, or stay solid. Use swivel holder attachment that hooks to belt loops for added visibility at night. Ideal for Halloween, school student backpack, pets, bike riding and camping. Great gift for flashlight key holder, key tag, keychain, key ring, safety program, emergency, travel and self-promos.

 LED Whistle Safety Light Stick

Halloween Safety | Light StickChemical Glow Stick meets the 21st Century. Angled, Light-Up L.E.D. Light Stick. A GREAT ALTERNATIVE to the standard Glow Stick with High Powered L.E.D.’s offer a Lighted Wand, a Lighted Flashing Wand AND a High Powered Flashlight. Coupled with an Emergency Whistle, this is 1 Great Promo Item. Lanyard and batteries are included and installed. The Special Frosted Plastic in this stick ENHANCES the lighted effect. Orange is great for Halloween Promotions.

Pumpkin Drawstring Backpack

Halloween Safety | Candy BagExclusive Jack O Lantern cinch up bag is a new and unique seasonal alternative to the disposable trick-or-treating bags. Features the same durability and reliability of the classic drawstring bag. Jack o lantern stock art comes pre-printed on the front of each bag in reflective ink. Great safety precaution for a night of ghouls, ghosts, witches and goblins. Add your logo or message to the back for an exciting and professional giveaway or promotion. Made of 210D Nylon and features grommeted adjustable soft black Nylon shoulder strap doubles as drawstring closure.

Halloween Safety | Glow Stick

Glow Bracelet/Sticks

Glow sticks and bracelets make the perfect Halloween safety accessory! They are light weight and your kid won’t even notice they are there. Glow sticks and bracelets come in a variety of colors and make it so your child can be seen while out trick or treating!

Contact Us with any questions!

2017 New Fall Gear

by | Sep 26, 2017 | Product Help

Can you feel the chill in the air yet? Those crisp mornings are a sign that fall is upon us and with that comes this year’s new fall gear! We have a lot of new exciting products for you to check out and upgrade your schools, teams or corporate apparel. There are only a few of the products highlighted below, but if you want to see all of the new gear CLICK HERE.

Upgrade Your Look This Season with New Fall Gear

Eddie Bauer® StormRepel® Soft Shell Jacket

Fall GearUnsettled weather won’t dampen your adventures in this sleek 3-layer soft shell with exclusive StormRepel durable water repellency (DWR). Created with 8K/3K waterproof, breathable fabric, the outer shell has stretch and the look of your favorite sweater or heathered fleece. The brushed microfleece interior adds warmth and comfort. Front zippered pockets, locking reverse coil zippers, comfort fit cuff binding. Contrast Eddie Bauer logo embroidered on left sleeve. Made of 100% polyester knit shell with DWR coating bonded to a water-resistant laminated film insert and 100% polyester brushed microfleece interior.

Fall GearDistrict Made® Lightweight Fleece Hoodie

This lightweight hoodie is extra soft with coverstitch details for go-anywhere style. With the ladies style sporting a cowl neck and slightly longer length making this exceptionally soft hoodie a great look with leggings. These lightweight hoodies are perfect for the crisp fall school events and festivities.

Port Authority® Flannel Shirt

Fall GearOur flannel shirt takes laid-back looks to the next level. Ultra-soft and just the right weight, it makes a statement with a classic plaid pattern and casual comfort.

  • 4-ounce, 60/40 cotton/poly flannel
  • Lightly brushed for softness
  • Open collar
  • Bias-cut back yoke
  • Back shoulder pleats
  • Double button-flap chest pockets
  • Bias-cut pockets
  • Button-through sleeve plackets
  • Adjustable cuffs

Check out these styles along with all of our other new looks for this fall HERE!

Have questions or want a quote? Email us or send us a message on Facebook.

Top 3 Screen Printing Mistakes

by | Sep 12, 2017 | Behind The Scenes, Tips & Tricks

Screen Printing MistakesAnd how to avoid them.

Mistakes are inevitable. No matter what industry you work in there are bound to be mistakes, after all we are only human. Even though mistakes cannot be 100% prevented you can do things to minimize how often they happen. We have compiled a list of our most common screen printing mistakes and what we do to minimize them.

Our Screen Printing Mistakes

Smudged Print

Sometimes during printing you end up with a smudged or ghost print. This occurs if the t-shirt or the screen shifts during the printing process. If you do not have enough spray tac on your palette your apparel can shift between prints.

When printing we are always checking to make sure that our screens are tight and that we have enough spray tac to hold the apparel in place. With that being said it does happen from time to time. When it does we replace the shirt for the customer and use the messed up one for future test prints.

Missing Graphics

Very rarely we have had a small piece of a graphic missing from a print. Such as a line missing here or part of a logo not showing up there. This happens when the artwork is being output and burnt to the screen. When working with the art we work with pantone colors. For example if one of the main colors in a graphic is red there might be a piece of it that looks like it is the same red, but it may not be the exact same pantone number and therefore could get left out when burning the screens.

The best way we have found to avoid this is by double checking everything at every stage during the process. There have been a couple times where something has made it to print then been caught and we have to go back and fix it. Which can be very time consuming, but at least our customer is getting what they expected!

Flaking or Cracked Ink

More often than not people jump to the conclusion that their ink has gone bad if it cracks or flakes after being printed. However, this is not always the case, very rarely it is. In reality it is because it hasn’t been cured properly and unfortunately there are many factors that can play into this issue. A good place to start is by checking the temperature with a temp gun and/or thermal strips. If your temps are good it could be that the layer of ink is too thick or there is moisture in the garment keeping it from reaching the full temp.

We recently ran into an issue similar to this and we had to go through a few different tests only to discover that it was a combination of old ink and over flashing the garment.

The Best Piece of Advice …

Screen printing mistakes can be costly if you don’t catch them ahead of time. Double check everything during your printing process and then check it again!

Have questions? Shoot us an email or send us a message on Facebook.