January 26, 2017
Decoration Tips
How do you outsell promotional apparel competitors?
Show prospects apparel that competitors can’t replicate. Simply choosing garments – even great ones – isn’t enough. Use decoration to set your proposal apart. The experts at Vantage Apparel share five ways to leverage the power of decoration to win more bids and increase profit.
- Go one-of-a-kind. It could be a new decoration or embellishment technique, innovative material, surprise logo placement or all of the above. Get creative in your requests for decoration and work with suppliers that offer an array of options.
- Suggest multimedia decoration. This kicks your recommendation up a notch. Mix decorative methods and fabrics. For example, two techniques that work well together are embroidery and laser etching. Decorators with the right equipment can do this efficiently and cost-effectively on the same machine, allowing you to either keep your quote down or your margin up.
- Talk to your clients about texture and dimension. Consider decoration an extension of the garment. Felt laser-appliqué provides visual depth to a logo or mascot as well as a soft hand – engaging more of the wearer’s senses. Look for twill and new performance tech appliqués, or choose a reverse appliqué that’s made with a cotton rib fabric for texture.
- Reintroduce heat transfers. They’re trending partly because of performance apparel and its need forlightweight applications and shortrun orders. Today’s transfers are thin, flexible and endure through wear and wash. They’re used with many fabrics, from 100% poly to cotton to fleece. Choose based on the look your client desires. For example, a die-mold transfer creates a 3-D effect that you see on performance apparel at retail.
- Sell at full margin. A creative decorative method allows you to avoid discounting and commodity selling. Buyers who simply go online and choose a basic T-shirt with a screen print can shop price. With unique decoration, you’re providing an elevated option that isn’t easily shopped around.
In addition to decorating its own apparel, Vantage offers award-winning contract embroidery services with more than 1,200 embroidery heads throughout its national facilities. Click here for the most decoration options in the industry.
What’sTrending: Laser Tech Appliqué
This fashion-forwardembellishment technique produces an upscale branding option for bonded jackets and other performance garments. Tech patches have a smooth hand, flex with the garment and can be designed in a variety of simple shapes. Your client’s name orlogo will have a tonal mark on the patch with details as fine as 0.3mm. Tech appliqué can also be used as an under-layer to another fabric to boost the logo and add dimension.
Dunkin’ Runs on Deco:
A Case for Creative Logo Applications
The Challenge: Create a consumer-friendly garment with a distinct decorative element drawing attention to the respected consumer brand. This multimedia Dunkin’ Donuts design by Vantage Apparel combines two fabric appliqués – twill and tech – for a stylized, fashionable look that fans of the brand would love to wear.
The Solution: Instead of starting with the company’s main corporate logo, Vantage’s design team suggested using a secondary image that could be interpreted as a multimedia, full-chest logo. The combination of appliqué fabrics created a high-impact logo, with a 3-D effect with retail appeal. Virtual samples were created to pitch the creative logo application. But Vantage didn’t stop there: Garment spec samples were completed for the distributor to show at client presentations.
The Result: The garment concepts delivered a more upscale look and gave the client the ability to promote their brand while differentiating employee uniforms from customer fan apparel. All of this came without a high price tag. Vantage kept the stitch count down and offered a low minimum on the multimedia piece. It also created flyers with a customized order form that was sent to other franchisee locations to generate orders of a great new custom brand ambassador product.
For more information, click here.