When people hear custom apparel, the first thing that usually comes to mind is a screen-printed T-shirt.
We certainly print T-shirts. But today, custom apparel and branding go far beyond putting a logo on the front of a shirt.
At Snider Custom Apparel, we work with businesses, schools, sports teams, organizations and individuals to turn their logos and ideas into products people can actually wear, use and remember.
Screen Printing, Embroidery, DTF — What’s the Difference?
One of the questions we hear frequently is: What’s the best way to put my logo on this?
The answer depends on the product, artwork, quantity, number of colors, desired appearance and how the item will be used.
Screen printing remains an excellent choice for T-shirts, sweatshirts and larger quantities. It is durable, economical at volume and produces vibrant colors.
Embroidery gives polos, jackets, hats, workwear and corporate apparel a professional, dimensional appearance. But good embroidery involves more than simply sending a logo to an embroidery machine. The artwork must be properly digitized for the garment, fabric and size.
DTF (Direct-to-Film) has opened up another option. It allows detailed, full-color designs to be applied to many different garments and can be particularly useful for smaller quantities or artwork containing numerous colors.
There isn’t one decoration method that’s best for everything. Our job is to help determine which method makes sense for your particular project.
Your Logo Doesn’t Have to Stop at Apparel
Branding can extend throughout a business or event.
In addition to custom apparel, businesses can use their branding on items such as:
- Hats and workwear
- Banners and signs
- Decals and stickers
- Tents and event displays
- Table covers
- Promotional products
- Employee and customer giveaways
The goal isn’t to put your logo on everything possible. It’s to put it on the right products for the right audience.
A useful promotional product that someone keeps for two years can continue advertising your business long after it was originally handed out.
Good Artwork Matters
This is one of the most overlooked parts of custom printing.
A logo that looks good on a computer screen isn’t necessarily ready to be screen printed, embroidered, enlarged for a banner or reproduced on another product.
Low-resolution images, screenshots and small JPG files can create problems when they’re enlarged or converted for production.
That’s why artwork preparation is an important part of what we do. Depending on the project, artwork may need to be recreated as vector art, adjusted for printing, separated into colors or digitized specifically for embroidery.
The quality of the finished product starts before anything reaches the press or embroidery machine.
The Cheapest Product Isn’t Always the Least Expensive
Price matters. But so does getting the right product.
A shirt nobody wants to wear isn’t much of an advertisement.
A promotional item that immediately gets thrown away isn’t inexpensive marketing—it’s wasted money.
And replacing apparel because the wrong garment or decoration method was chosen can cost considerably more than doing it correctly the first time.
We believe the better question is:
What are you trying to accomplish, and what’s the most cost-effective way to accomplish it?
Sometimes that’s a simple printed T-shirt. Sometimes it’s an embroidered polo, a full-color DTF transfer, a banner, a promotional item or a combination of products.
We’ve Seen a Lot Change — But the Basics Haven’t
Decoration technology, fabrics, apparel styles and printing methods continue to evolve.
One thing hasn’t changed: your name and logo represent your business, team or organization. They should look good.
At Snider Custom Apparel, we help our customers choose the apparel, decoration method and products that make sense for their project—not simply whatever happens to be easiest to sell.
If you have an upcoming project and aren’t sure where to start, bring us your idea, your logo or even just a description of what you’re trying to accomplish.
We’ll help you figure out the rest.