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The Advantage of Adding a Heat Press to an Embroidery Business

When you own a custom T-shirt business, there are many different ways you can decorate and customize apparel. If you are an embroidery business, then you have made a significant investment in your machinery, your knowledge on how to embroider, and not to mention your time for each piece.

However, as an embroiderer, sometimes you may feel handcuffed with the limitations of embroidery by itself. There are some items that are difficult to customize through embroidery. You may get customers who prefer a screen printed T-shirt. Depending on the size of your shop, it may be difficult to turn around large orders in a short amount of time. Do you find it difficult to compete with the price of screen printed team uniforms? These are all situations where adding a heat press to your embroidery business would come in handy.

We are not saying to ditch your embroidery, but actually quite opposite. You would have the advantage over other shops down the street who do not have the option to embroider. Having additional options to decorate apparel would help you to grow your business. Instead of thinking of yourself as “an embroiderer”, expand your horizon to be a “custom apparel business”. What’s the difference? When a customer comes in looking for custom T-shirts, you can decide what the best method would be for you to fulfill the order – depending on price, quantity, and what the customer is asking for. You have more options to present to your customers. Each decorating method has a time and place. Now you can choose which one is best for each job.

That being said, here are the Top 10 Benefits to Adding a Heat Press:

1. Say yes to screen print orders
2. The easiest way to number uniforms
3. 4 second application
4. Low minimums
5. Fast turnaround – 1 color Easy Prints® ship the next day when ordered by 3 pm ET
6. It’s easy to learn
7. Add bling – glitter ink and rhinestones
8. Print performance wear
9. Print legs, sleeves, even shoes!
10. Free artwork

Let’s dive a little deeper.

Equipment
To add screen printing, all you need is a t-shirt heat press. That is your only investment. Heat presses range in features and prices. A heat press is just a fraction of the cost compared to other equipment needed for screen printing or embroidery. There is a press for every budget depending on your needs. With just this press, you have opened the door to so many more options.

Learning Curve
The process to heat print is so easy. Learn how with just your first order or try our samples. There are very little skills needed with minimal training. Anyone can do it. Be up and running immediately! Our Dealer Services department is the best in the industry in knowledge and are available for all your questions. Your embroidery equipment is much more difficult, so if you can run your embroidery equipment, this will be a breeze.

Production Time
The time it takes to heat print is literally seconds for every printed piece. I’ve seen the process and what it takes to hoop a garment. That is an art in itself! With a heat press and transfers, you can heat apply a full shirt faster than you can hoop a shirt. Apply a standard adult full size screen printed design in as little as 4 seconds in just 1 step! Print a full color design in the same size in as little as 10 seconds. That’s it! With just one heat press, you can print dozens of shirts, hoodies, pants and more in the time it would take to embroider 1 piece. Imagine your 50 piece order being done in an hour. That is very possible with a heat press.

Art
There is no need to worry about artwork or digitizing it. We have 5,000+ layout designs ready to customize with over 7,000 clip art to use as well as 130 different fonts! Use our online designer to customize your design or use your creativity to design from scratch using our clip art. Our online designer, Easy View®, is free for our customers! Customizing a design takes seconds and you can either send a proof to your customers directly from Easy View, or place your order with a few clicks. Have your own artwork? You can upload that into Easy View as well.

 

Cost
Your cost to produce custom apparel has never been less expensive with transfers. Materials and labor will drastically be reduced to produce and deliver your final product to your customers. The time needed to complete an entire order is just a portion of the time it would take for you to embroider an entire order. This reduces your cost of labor and also allows you to fulfill more orders in the same amount of time. The only materials needed are the custom ink transfers for that particular job.

Sheet Pricing
Our pricing structure is very convenient. The screen printed transfer sheet size is 11.25” x 14”. Fill your entire sheet with as many images as you can for just 1 price! With our low minimums and quantity price breaks, both small and large orders are very cost effective. If you have extra space on the sheet, fill it with your own logo or prints that you know can use later, such as local school names and mascots. You can use these extra prints to apply later for no extra cost to you.

Hard to Decorate Items
With our quick change platens for the heat presses and print perfect pads, any apparel is easy to decorate. Remove the stress and headaches of trying to decorate sleeves, bags, and other hard to decorate items, like performance wear or burnout tees. Even print on shoes! T-shirts made from thinner materials are also just as easy. Our Hot Split screen printed transfer type has a light and soft feel, which keeps the softness of a lot of the more popular fashion shirts. There is no need to lose the light feel of the shirt with a stabilizer that stiffens the apparel. Our Elasti Prints® screen printed transfer type is perfect for 100% polyester performance wear, which stretches with the apparel.

Conclusion
By combining a heat press with your embroidery machines, you become a one stop shop. Take on any order that comes your way. There is no need to turn down work or farm out your screen printing jobs. You can do sports teams, school and spirit wear, work uniforms, and fashion items. With a low investment of a heat press, you can grow your apparel business by using the most effective method for fulfilling each job.