Your Embroidered Logo: Locate Styles?

Trouble finding your favorite embroidered polo shirts? Tired of shuffling through various styles in search of the perfect shirt only to learn that your preferred style is temporarily out of stock in some sizes? Putting together a large order can be particularly frustrating now.

How do you navigate through current supply challenges? Plan ahead, prioritize your needs and be flexible. Your embroiderer can help by making style suggestions. They have access to additional search tools which can make it easier to locate high-inventory styles with certain features so it’s easier to locate a shirt that meets your needs and is currently available in all sizes.

Your Embroidered Logo: Supply Issues?

No 100% cotton black polos in size 2X? Your favorite, two-toned, mesh-back hats are back-ordered for two months? 

Recent supply chain delays have made it difficult to obtain some types of decorated apparel. Items like black polos and sweatshirts are especially hard to find. How do you navigate supply chain issues?

Order early. Then you’ll have your embroidered and screen printed items when you need them.

Start small. Your order will be easier to finalize if you limit the number of styles. Then, place another order for the additional styles you want while your initial order is being processed.

Be flexible. Can you use a substitute style or color? 

Make a change. Have you always wanted to try another style or type of item?  Now is a good time to try something different. If you’ve always ordered a shirt that is currently unavailable now may be the time to order embroidered jackets.

Reserve what you want. While waiting two to three months may seem like a long time, preordering backordered garments will allow you to get what you want and you’ll know when to expect your order.

Your Embroidered Logo: Easy Design Updates!

Want an easy way to update your embroidered logo? Change or simplify the colors. Brightening a design’s colors can make a big difference. If you previously used “traditional” shades, consider using different hues to create a more modern appearance. 

Another way to produce a new look is to design a one-color logo. While this won’t work for designs that need different areas of color to be readable, you might be able to use negative space (area where the garment shows through) to define some details so your logo can work with fewer colors.

Your Embroidered Logo: Heathered Fabrics!

Haven’t ordered embroidered apparel in a few years? Consider T-shirts, polos and sweatshirts in heathered colors! Having your logo embroidered on a heathered material will give your design a fresh new look.

What is “heathered” fabric? It's material with specks of another color, usually white, woven into the fabric to give it a muted appearance. “Heather grey” shirts and sweatshirts have been around for a long time but now heathered shades in black, navy, royal, red and other colors are available. Just make sure your logo is readable. Items like small text can be more difficult to see when placed against a multi-colored background so you may need to increase the size of your logo, adjust your thread colors or eliminate details to make your logo clearly visible.

Your Embroidered Logo: Embroidered Sweatshirt Back?

Can the back of a sweatshirt be embroidered? Yes. Small designs can be embroidered just below the collar. This is a great location for a slightly larger version of your left chest logo (4” - 6” wide) or a web address if the sweatshirts have a crew or cadet collar.

Want a large design? Say 10” to 12” wide or high? Most likely it will be more economical to have it screen printed. Unlike lightweight T-shirt fabric, sweatshirt material can support a large embroidered logo but the set-up can cost $100.00 or more and you’ll pay for additional machine running time. 

Screen printing most designs will be cheaper as long as you can meet minimum printing quantities. What if you only need a few sweatshirts? Locate a decorator who provides direct-to-garment printing. The cost per sweatshirt will be more but the look is almost identical to screen printing and you won’t be charged for screens which makes this an especially good option for multi-colored logos. What if your design has lots of colors and you need a large quantity printed?  Four-color process printing may be your best option. Still unsure what type of printing is best for your job? Get quotes and compare your options!

Your Embroidered Logo: Adding to Existing Logo?

Can you add text to an existing design and still have it work for a left chest embroidered logo? Possibly. It depends on the amount of available space in your design and what you want to add to it. An employee's name can usually be placed underneath a logo but adding more information such as additional text can overcomplicate your logo.

Let's say you have simple design that consists of your business name in a custom font and you want to add a short tag line. That will probably work but you may need to decrease the size of your existing logo to gain room.  Is that a smart move? Will adding a tag line that might make your logo less readable be more beneficial than keeping the professional-looking design you already have? Maybe not. A better option might be to freshen up your design by giving it a more current look. Consider using cleaner lines, a simplified shape and new colors to give your logo an updated look that will attract new attention.

Your Embroidered Logo: Sizing Elements?

Designing your embroidered logo? Wondering how to size the different elements in your logo?

Left chest embroidered logos are limited to 3.25” to 4” wide. Some designs are smaller and a few are slightly larger.  But, they can’t be much bigger because of the limited amount of space between the center of a shirt and the shoulder seam. 

How do you size the different elements in your logo?  Give the most room to the most important element - your business name - and save the remaining space for an image or tag line or possibly both. Even though you may have a great image, avoid the desire to make it bigger than your business name. A larger image may catch someone’s attention but limit the size of your name and make your logo less readable. Want to include your phone number or web address? Avoid the temptation and limit your design to key elements so you have a professional-looking logo rather than a design that looks amateurish because it contains too many details.

Your Embroidered Logo: Embroidered Gifts?

You’re shopping for gifts before the holidays. You see a chic bag at a terrific price and think it would make a great gift for Aunt June. After returning home you decide that adding your aunt's initials to the bag would make it the perfect gift. You call different embroiderers but soon realize that not everyone will accept your job.  Why not?

You understand that most embroiderers are busy and there often isn’t much profit to be gained from a small “embroidery-only" order. Are there other reasons why it's difficult to find an embroiderer to monogram your bag?

Yes. Most embroiderers like to supply what they embroider because they can make a profit from the item in addition to charging for the embroidery. But, the additional profit isn’t their only concern. The quality of the item is also an issue. Items sold by embroiderers are designed to be embroidered and have a certain quality level so those products are easier to handle. Customers' items can require more time and are more likely to be damaged during the embroidery process because of their unfamiliarity. If damage occurs, the embroiderer is faced with giving their customer the bad news so many embroiderers avoid the situation by only handling items they can easily replace.

While many embroiderers don't accept “gift” jobs some love and specialize in those types of orders. They may not have the biggest embroidery shop but they can be equipped with more specialized tools like monograming software and are better able to handle your job. But, they can be extremely busy before the holidays. Want to avoid the last-minute rush? Locate an embroiderer before the holiday season and ask them when you should place your embroidery order.