Top Design of 2012 Announced And Three Lucky Customers win $50 Off Their Order
Jan/120
Thank you to everyone who voted on our new trendy Easy Prints®, customizable layouts by our own Great Dane Graphics. Many voted, but three rose to the top as the top three layouts. They are Easy Prints layout QLW-60, QBK-180 and QSW-47. All three of these had the fashion look like you find at Abercrombie or Hollister. They are easy to make your own by just changing the text, and choosing a clip art, colors and size. If you are a current dealer, you can preview a proof on your free Easy View™, or if you are new to Transfer Express, your order can be placed by phone.
Our three lucky voters were also chosen and they are Arthur from Initial Reaction, Karla from Personal Pizazz and Leyland from String it Up. Each won $50 towards their next order! Congratulations!
Easy Prints® layout QLW-60 voted the number one design for 2012
5 More Custom Transfer Layouts and a New Binder Catalog
Jan/120
Which do you like the best? Vote for your favorites on our blog! All 15 of our Great Dane Graphics sneak peeks are shown online and we are looking for your feedback.
New All Sports Layout QAP-46
New Cheerleading Layout QCH-132
New Football Layout QFB-153
New Fire Layout QLW-60
New Music Layout QMU-85
We will screen-print your design, and ship the same day if you order a one color transfer by 11 am EST, and in just 2 days for a multi-color transfer. Once your custom transfer is received it can be applied to your apparel in just seconds with a heat press. There is not an easier way to create custom apparel. You are creating your customer’s apparel without the need for art skills or programs, or expensive and messy screen printing equipment.
Like what you see? These and many others are available in the new personalized binder Idea Book™. The binder catalog gives you a great presentation when you meet with potential customers and is a great companion to the online Easy View™. It is the iron-on industry’s largest, filled with thousands of customizable layouts. The book is color coded in sections including fashion, occasions, school, business and sports. Each section is started with full color photos showing the potential for completed apparel on models. The binder cover is personalized with a one line personalization of your choice giving you a professional sales tool.
First Sneak Peek of Great Dane Designs To Create Your Custom Transfers
Jan/120
Here are the first five designs of the new Easy Prints® customizable layout collection from Great Dane Graphics. These are now orderable and can be customized for your needs using Easy View™, our free design tool for all Transfer Express dealers.
The first five designs include a layout from our recreation, mascot, religion, all star and basketball sections. But the section is just a starting point and the layout can be customized to fit your specific needs. If you love the look of the basketball layout but want it for your baseball team—just change the basketball player to a baseball player and the text to fit your needs.
Get creative with colors too! You can show your customer the same design in 1 color or 2 colors but more can be added – just put what other colors are needed and the color placement in notes and our design team will make it happen.
These five designs will be five of the choices for the ‘vote for your favorite design’ on January 18th. Three lucky voters will win $50 towards their own order.
New Recreation Layout QMS-113
New All Star Layout QAS-113
New Mascots Layout MAS-141
New Religion Layout QRE-70
New Basketball Layout QBK-180
Choose Your Favorite New Custom Transfer Layout!
Jan/120
We are excited to be able to provide you with the not only the largest collection of customizable layouts, but also the best. This year we have added over 200 new layouts to our Easy Prints® customizable transfer layout collection, giving your customer thousands of choices and giving you the ability to provide artwork with just a few clicks.
Beginning this week, we will be giving you a sneak peak of some of these layouts by Great Dane Graphics, a new member of the Stahls’ team, whose artwork is now part of the Easy Prints custom transfer layout collection. These new Easy Prints provide your customer with the look similar to what you find in the fashion retail stores like Abercrombie, Hollister and The Buckle!
Each Wednesday we will release five of the new layouts. As they are released they will be orderable online and viewable customized on our Easy View™ design tool, free to all Transfer Express dealers.
In mid January you will get to vote on which of the 20 layouts is your favorite. And three lucky voters will win $50 towards their own order! So be sure to watch each week and exercise your right to vote for your chance to win.
Shooting for Basketball Printing Profits
Dec/110
The NBA Strike has been settled, college and high school basketball has begun and local recreational teams are getting started as well. Now is the time to help these teams with uniforms and apparel.
We can help you uniform the team to start. Reversible jerseys are especially easy with custom transfers. See our new video! Most basketball uniforms only use the digits 0-5 when numbering keeping your costs low—a pack of each digit will number an entire team! Don’t forget to offer printed bags, all basketball players carry their shoes to the court and our CAD-PRINTZ™ Opaque work great on the popular nylon cinch bags.
Reversible jerseys are easy with custom transfers.
Even greater profits are available from spirit wear. We have 120 layouts ready to customize for your team’s fans. Use Easy View™ to make the team up a flyer to pass out to family members.
Custom Screen Printed Transfers Proven Durable!
Nov/111
Our products have been tested for proven durability to meet your customer’s needs. All of our screen printed transfers recently went through a wash test by a testing lab.
The products were tested on 100% cotton, 50/50 Cotton/Polyester, 100% Polyester Steel mesh, 100% Polyester patterned Jacquard, 100% Polyester 70 Denier Tricot Mesh w/moisture wicking, anti-microbial agents and stain resistant coatings and 100% Polyester Dazzle.
The products tested were Goof Proof, Polytrans, Hot Split, Reflective, Glitter, Pearl, Puff and Elasti Prints. Each was applied to every fabric and then subjected to 50 wash/dry cycles.
Through all 50 wash/dry cycles, all of the products submitted held up through this vigorous testing. This is helpful to ensure your customers are receiving the highest quality graphics that will last them a long time.
Our Goof Proof® ink formula on a variety of fabric types after testing.
Apparel Terms to Help with Heat Transfers
Nov/111
Terms used when ordering apparel can be confusing. A special thank you to team member Andy Curtiss who did some research on what they mean and how it comes into play when applying heat transfers.
Denier– A unit of measurement that indicates how fine the weave of a material. Specifically, denier references to the weight of a fiber. For example, 1 denier = 1 gram per 9,000 meters of a fiber. So this means that the higher the number, the heavier the weight of the fibers used. A lightweight garment has a lower denier. For example, a woman’s nylons could be 7 denier. But a heavy duty nylon awning could be 1,000 denier. This does not affect heat printing.
Moisture Wicking – This term refers to some fabrics abilities to absorb sweat from your skin and pull it through to the outside of the garment. This leaves your skin dry and comfortable and allows the sweat to evaporate more quickly. Both nylon and polyester have the capacity to wick moisture as noted above. This term alone has no effect on the adhesion of our product as it is NOT a special coating, but a natural ability of some fibers.
Dri-Fit, Aerocool and Cool Mesh – These are trademarked or brand terms that refer to a type of jersey in which nylon or polyester has been mixed with cotton or another natural fiber. These garments are advertised as not only good at wicking away sweat, but the added natural fibers like cotton make the garment more breathable and comfortable, allowing a person to cool down more quickly. So when dealing with these garments, we will always need to ask: polyester or nylon.
Porthole, Mini, & Micro Mesh – These are all terms that simply refer to the size of the holes and the denier (weight) of the mesh fabric. All three can either refer to polyester mesh or nylon mesh. The largest holes with the heaviest denier are generally the porthole mesh which is used for some football jerseys or mesh laundry bags. In contrast, the micro mesh has tiny holes and smaller denier and it is used for basketball and lacrosse jerseys. Mini mesh is between the other two and can be used in any of the sports previously mentioned as well as soccer. When a customer mentions any of these products we should immediately ask if it’s nylon or polyester and make the appropriate transfer type choices from there – don’t ever assume!
Tricot Mesh – Tricot is a term that refers to a style of knitting or weaving. The tricot style will generally leave one side of a garment smooth and the other side textured. Tricot mesh is this style of weave used in a mesh jersey. These are often times a higher end jersey in the sports world (it is also used in undergarments and sleeping bags). Tricot mesh comes in both polyester and nylon varieties so we need to ask when customers mention it – don’t assume!
Performance Wear – A garment that is worn close to the skin because of its wicking properties. Performance wear is made to be tight, but flexible so it can be worn under a uniform or as a uniform itself in some sports. Some performance wear is worn as a loose fit. These garments can be decorated with any of our products that are appropriate for polyester. However, other performance wear is referred to as compression fit. These garments are worn skin tight and will generally stretch to some degree. For this fit you should use Elasti Prints® or CAD-PRINTZ™. You will hear the terms moisture wicking, dri-fit and aerocool occasionally in conjunction with performance wear (see above for their definition).
Sublimation – A high end process of decorating garments that involves dying the garment with a gas process. Garments are polyester and start the process as white or very light grey. After the sublimation process is complete, the garment will show a different color(s) on the outside, but still show the original white or light grey on the inside. The only catch to the process is that it easily suffers from dye migration (see below). The only transfer type that can be safely used is CAD-PRINTZ Sub Block.
Sub Block on a Sublimated Shirt
Christmas Transfers for Gift Giving Apparel
Nov/110
Help your customer with gift giving shopping—Transfer Extreme™ Christmas gives you a choice of 5 different stock transfers, 3 with Puff ink that can be applied to cotton, polyester and cotton/polyester blends in seconds.
Our new line of full color transfers can be applied to tees, tote bags, fleece, towels and even pillowcases! They are sold in packs of 10 for just $20. You can buy a pack of your favorite design or a multi-pack that includes 2 of each of the 5 designs.
Full color, screen printed Christmas transfers are perfect to sell as gifts. Pictured here is Christmas design HOL-56.
Want to add customization? No problem! Text can be ordered as Express Names™ for individual personalization or in gang sheets for group personalization.
You can even create your own “gift” by adding your store name to the prints! One customer told us they gave a personalized tote bag, with every order over $100. Not only did their customers buy a little more to reach the $100 plateau, it was great advertising when carried in public, generating more business.
The Ins and Outs of League Business
Nov/110
Yesterday with Doug Wilcoxson of Bomark, we hosted an all day seminar on the ins and outs of league business here at Transfer Express.
Ben Reutter and Chris Ulrich of Transfer Express hosted an all day seminar on league business.
Doug discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the league business. The advantages are a reputation in the community, many uniforms to decorate and the stability of the league business even during down times. The disadvantage is a lot of business all with the same delivery demands, add-ons, and low margins.
He reviewed ideas for overcoming these disadvantages such as getting them to buy an extra uniform right from the start, the use of transfers so that you do have the one extra to apply in seconds and using the delivery as an opportunity to advertise for more profitable business.
He also emphasized the importance of getting 50% down when ordered, and the rest on delivery because leagues have all of their money paid when sign up ends before the season starts, and as the season progresses payment for grass cutting, lights, umpires, etc may drain an ill planned budget.
Doug from Bomark explains the ins and outs of league business at an all day Open House Seminar hosted by Transfer Express.
Doug also brought samples of the uniforms distributing by Bomark. He will be presenting this same seminar at upcoming ISS shows, so if you are at a show it is a great investment of time in your business.
Choosing Your Custom Transfer Product-Your Apparel Will Make Your Choice
Nov/110
When choosing what custom transfer to use, one of the most important factors is what apparel type your customer is requesting. If your customer wants to order a nylon jacket, your product choice is limited to the only product that works on nylon—CAD-PRINTZ™ Opaque. If your customer wants a compression fit polyester material, your product choices are CAD-PRINTZ Opaque and Elasti Prints®.
Shown here is a CAD-PRINTZ digital transfer used to decorate a compression fit polyester material.
If your customer wants a custom printed t-shirt, or anything cotton, polyester or cotton/poly blends your choices are unlimited. You will then need to consider if it is full color (digital product line) or spot color (screen printed transfer line). Another factor to consider is quantity. You can order as few as 1 of the digital transfers, but there is a 5 piece minimum when ordering the screen printed transfers using our layouts, or 10 if providing art.
Our customer service team will help you get the best product at the best price for your job.
