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Direct to Garment Printing—Move over traditional screen printers!
Stitches for Him, Inc. a Tampa Bay area company got its start as many companies do. “We started on a shoe-string budget out of our garage” says Tom Rumbaugh, Vice President of Stitches for Him, Inc. – “Just like Microsoft, I hear” he said with a smile. Tom and his wife Michele were expecting their first child and had always wanted Michele to stay at home with the children. Michele had undergone two recent operations and they were looking for something she could do out of the home that would serve her detailed nature. Starting an embroidery business was their choice.
“Tom called from the office one day and already had the quote for the embroidery equipment prepared” Michele said. “I was scared to death”. Beside her car, Michele had never made such a large purchase, or been without a steady income. “We stepped out on faith” she said, “and we have never looked back”.
Two and a half years later after expanding their business into St. Petersburg, Fl and shortly after the Grand Opening of their new 2053 Sq Ft. St. Petersburg location, Tom and Michele now have 8 embroidery heads and can produce up to 85 pieces of embroidery per hour. “Soon we were getting lots of customers asking us if we could print shirts” Michele said. “We didn’t want to loose any customers and we wanted to give our customers more reasons to buy from us” said Tom.
Like many embroidery companies, they put together a price list and developed a sub-contracting relationship with a local screen printer. “Our customers were happy, but we were suddenly loosing money on those jobs.” Tom said. “We would get a small order for 10- 48 shirts and would have to spend 2-3 hours driving around picking up the shirts, preparing line-art drawings, and coordinating with the printer. It was a mess! The little jobs were killing the profit of the larger jobs” he said.
Their answer like many other embroidery companies was to purchase a DTG garment printer from SWF East Inc. also a Tampa area company. “I think traditional screen printers look at garment printers as being too expensive for what they get.” said Tom. “If I had a $80,000 dollar screen print system, I wouldn’t want to spend another $20,000 for a machine to do my smaller jobs either.” he said. However, Tom believes that this line of thinking misses one important point. Small jobs take just as long as to set up as the large jobs using traditional screen printing methods.
Embroidery companies are already using complicated equipment to produce smaller jobs quickly. The DTG Garment printer can produce up to 3 different 12 piece jobs in one hour. “Traditional screen printers would still be burning screens when I’ve finished my third small job” Tom said. “There are times when the garment printer is producing nearly the same profit as my 6-head” he said.
Direct to garment printers save time on small jobs (1-72 pieces) because they print directly from raster based images. It’s often possible to print a full size shirt from a good quality scan of a customer’s letterhead. The image prints directly from any popular graphics program and the printer is essentially a desktop printer that’s been modified to accept garments. It’s easy to use. DTG owners can also send multiple jobs to the machine, and do not have to burn any screens in order to start printing. It’s even possible with a DTG to take a photograph of someone and have it on a shirt or towel in about 5 minutes.
The sophistication of direct to garment equipment matches that of embroidery and many embroidery companies are finding it irresistible to buy one. Traditional screen printers are feeling the pressure as their smaller screen printed accounts are being service by embroidery companies that they have never competed with.
Customers now have a choice when placing small orders. Instead of paying hefty screen charges per color, they can get as many colors as they want and not have to pay any set-up fees at all.& Each screen print company will have to decide how to handle this challenge to their core business. Those that are resistant to the new technology could be left behind. “Small jobs are often like seeds that grow into big jobs” says Mr. Rumbaugh. “If you cultivate and nurture them”.