What you need to know about the embroidery process before you buy.

There are many ways to cut corners in this business.  The average customer can easily be deceived into believing he or she got a good deal.  The better you educate yourself about the processes involved, the wiser you are as a consumer.  Quality embroidery starts with quality digitizing, equipment, thread, and backing.

Digitizing is the process of essentially "programming" x and y coordinates that tell the embroidery machine where and how to sew.  The quality of this code is of utmost importance in how the design sews.  Designs are usually digitized in different ways depending upon the type of garment to be embroidered upon.  Different materials may require different thread density, different underlay, or even different thread direction in order to sew correctly.  Hats are a different animal altogether.  Hats are, or should be, digitized to embroider  from the center out to reduce registration problems.  Digitizing, aka "setup" or "tape", prices range from about $30.00 on up and the consumer usually sees this as an inconvenience or added cost instead of a step to quality, efficiently priced embroidery.  If a design does not sew efficiently the end result is poor quality embroidery that takes longer to sew which in turn costs more to the customer in the long run.

Many smaller embroidery shops do not have the digitizing capability in house and usually contract this out to another company.  Or if they do manage to purchase a low end type of software they rarely have the skills needed to use it correctly.  Digitizing software is expensive and has dropped in price in recent years but can still exceed the $15k price tag.  A shop that has this software in house is beneficial to the customer so that changes to the design can be made on the fly and without the lag time of sending the design out to be edited or changed.

The most expensive software does not guarantee a correctly digitized design.  The employee using the software must have an in depth knowledge of the embroidery process as well as digitizing.  We recently had a customer bring us in shirts she had embroidered by a national catalog company.  The shirts actually had the embroidery falling out of some of the letters in the design.  She even sent all the shirts back to the company for replacement and the replacements had the embroidery come out after a few washings.  On the third attempt the company refused to replace the shirts and the customer was left with shirts that had only part of her logo on them.  The problem was caused by a very simple oversight that would have been easily corrected in the company's software.  This simple oversight was costly to both parties.

Digitizing embroidery logos is usually not a profit center for embroidery shops.  Actually most embroidery shops with in house digitizing actually lose money on the "setup" part of the first order by a new customer.  The design usually must be digitized and actually embroidered onto fabric in order to test for correctness and accuracy.  Changes then have to be made and then the process is then repeated until perfection (or should be).   A proof is then provided to the customer for approval and most often the customer may want a change.  Sew disks (a disk used in the embroidery machine) are created, then catalogued, and a production worksheet created.  A production worksheet contains job specific information about the design, thread colors, stitch count, run time, and other important technical information.  All of this effort is usually in hopes that the customer will reorder the same exact thing next time and the "wheel" will not have to be recreated thus resulting in a profit for subsequent orders.  

Equipment is the second part of the embroidery equation.  Technology is constantly changing in the embroidery industry and these changes result in faster more efficient embroidery machines with new features to add flexibility in the embroidery process and can help result in lower priced, less expensive products.  Quality embroidery machines are very expensive and many can cost more than an average home.  There are many different brands of machines; tajima, brother, melco, zsk, and toyota just to name a few.  Machines come in different sizes from single head (runs 1 piece at time), 2 heads, 4 heads, 6 heads, 8 heads, 12 heads, 18 head, and 24 head configurations each costing more.  The more heads a machine has the more expensive it costs.  If you ask ten different embroidery companies which is the better machine, you will get different answers from most of them.  The most expensive machine does not however guarantee quality embroidery.  The best quality embroidery comes from those machines which are the best maintained and have the most knowledgeable operators with correctly digitized logos.  Poorly maintained machines usually create poor embroidery and most shops do not know how to work on their machine to do major maintenance or make repairs when the machine goes down.  Simply knowing how to oil the machine is not enough.  (Right:  A machine operator shown correctly oiling an embroidery machine which is setup to run finished caps.)

Thread is like everything else in life in that you usually get what you pay for.  Many, many, many shops try to cut corners by using cheap thread.  Cheap thread just does not run through the machines smoothly, has more thread breaks, has poor sheen, and results in lesser quality embroidery as compared to high quality embroidery thread.  There are different brands, weights (thicknesses), and materials i.e. polyester and rayon.  Some of the most reputable brands are Gunold & Stickma, Robinson Anton, and Madeira.

Backing is the material (usually white in color) that you see if you look on the inside of the garment behind the embroidery.  This synthetic material provides a solid foundation for the embroidery.  The backing is hooped with the garment and helps to give stability.  If the garment is not stable in the hoop during operation, the result is poor registration and poor quality embroidery.  Backing comes in many varieties and weights and different weights are used for different applications.  The biggest mistake embroiderers can make is using cheap backing that stretches or gives and in turn does not provide enough stability for the item being embroidered.  Evidence of an embroiderer doing this can be embroidery that has two layers of cheap, inexpensive, thin backing instead of one layer of heavy quality backing.  

All of these things affect the quality of the embroidery.  There are hundreds of other variables that also affect quality that cannot be easily described in a few paragraphs.  The bottom line is that before you ask "how much does it cost for embroidery", you should probably ask:

    1) "How much quality do I get for the price you have quoted me?" 

    2) "Do you deliver your orders when you promise?" 

    3) "Do you stand behind your work product? 

    4) "Do you digitize in house or do you send it out?" 

    5) "Is the work actually done in your shop or do you farm it out to someone else?" 

    6) "Is the garment you are quoting me on the same exact brand and identical item as the one the other guy quoted?"

    7) "How long have you been in business; do you have the experience needed to complete this job and will you be here

            next year when I need to reorder?"

"Your logo deserves the best in the business."

                                                -call us today

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