Mel Meibers of Great Garment Graphics has his own blog and he does an amazing job of sharing information that can really save garment decorators time and money. The thing about Mel is, he has so much experience in working with artwork, he really knows all the ins and outs, especially when it comes to creating artwork for cutter output or for full color digital printing on a Versacamm or other printer cutter. http://melmeibers.wordpress.com/2009/07/
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I know it sounds too good to be true, but if you haven’t tried Cadworxlive.com yet because you’re not a GroupeSTAHL customer, now we are offering a FREE trial membership to anyone who wants to see what all the hubbub is about. All you have to do is go to the website, www.cadworxlive.com and answer a few short questions. Then you’ll be able to start designing vector artwork that’s ready to output to a cutter or printer/cutter. Normally this free service is only available to registered GroupeSTAHL customers, but for a limited time, we’re letting anyone take it for a test drive. So sign up and then let me know what you think about it. I’ve invested many, many years of time and money in developing Cadworxlive to be the most intuitive, easy to use software out there. People say I’m crazy for letting people use it for free, but that’s another story. Let me know how you like it. When I owned several retail jewelery stores many years ago, it wasn’t in the age of the internet, so I didn’t have to worry about nationwide competition. Back then, my main concern was generating foot traffic to get people into the store to see the merchandise. I’m not saying I had it easy, but I certainly didn’t have it as tough as retail stores do today, with the added competition on the internet, giving shoppers more alternatives than ever, and giving many an excuse never to set foot in a brick and mortar store again. Of course not everyone shops on the web. There are still the old-fashioned types who enjoy driving, touching the merchandise and hearing the cash register ring. I’m actually one of them myself. But I must say I am amazed at the innovative companies in the personalization industry that are breaking new ground and making it easier and more convenient than ever to order custom t-shirts online. I learn something new everyday when I visit these sites, such as who’s ordering what, what style t-shirts are popular, who’s spending money (t-shirts for bachelorette parties?), trends in lettering and so much more. What sites am I talking about? Well, everyone’s heard of www.zazzle.com, but I do keep an eye on www.customink.com and www.designashirt.com and there are several others out there as well that have some very amusing t-shirt designs and fantastic web-ordering interfaces. So if you are a brick and mortar operation that sells custom shirts, don’t forget to keep abreast of what your online competition is up to. Sure, some people don’t want to pay for shipping or don’t want to shell out $20 for a custom t-shirt. But from the looks of things, it seems like there are quite a few people out there that do.
One of my goals for this blog is to get feedback from readers, so please don’t be shy about leaving comments or offering suggestions. It doesn’t even have to be about heat printing. People do business with people, and everybody has a story. At Stahls’, we are always trying to build stronger relationships with our customers by getting to know them a little better everytime we speak with one of them on the phone. Busy garment decorators don’t always have time to chat, but when we know that your best employee just called in sick and you have a huge team lettering order to fill that you have to heat press on your own it two days, we’ll do whatever we can to make sure you have what you need, when you need it. Want to know more about our story? There’s a video we produced in-house about the history of Stahls’. It was put together in 2004, and a lot has changed since then, but it still does a good job of sharing who we are and where we came from. Here’s the link.
I drove past a personalization shop the other day and I was very tempted to pull over and offer a bit of friendly advice to the owner. But instead I’ll just post it here so everyone can read it… The store had a sign in the window that read: “We Do Screen Printing and We Do Embroidery.” Shirts for Family Reunions Here Personalized Team Spirit Shirts and Jackets Here We Put Player Names on Jerseys for $5.00 Add Your Name to Any Item–While You Wait! Team Lettering in Less Than 24 Hours And so on…just think of all the things your customers count on you for…they really don’t care if the item was screen printed, embroidered or applied with a heat press. What’s more important is the finished item. Let people know that you can print just about anything….they don’t need to know if you used CAD-CUT(R) materials, a custom transfer or actually had it screen printed. Sure, some people will ask, but most people just want a good looking finished item at the right price.  Try ThermoFLOCK instead of embroidery You can’t really tell from the picture, but the golf towel and all the items in it have been decorated with CAD-CUT(R) Thermo-FLOCK(R). If you’ve got a client who needs golf towels but who doesn’t want, can’t afford or can’t wait for screen printing or embroidery, Thermo-FLOCK(R) is an ideal solution. It seems like I’ve been promoting this idea for over 20 years, but it is a message that bears repeating. Once you work with Thermo-FLOCK, whether you cut it yourself, order it from our custom cutting services or use pre-cut lettering, you and your customers will be amazed at the soft, raised texture that isn’t scratchy like embroidery. It’s actually perfect for use on towels and it’s a heck of a lot less expensive. Plus, you can do any quantity and still make a profit. If you’re doing a golf tournament, you could personalize each towel with the participants name or initials for a great registration gift. Or with a sponsor’s name, even if it’s a last minute sponsor. There’s no reason to be afraid of trying Thermo-FLOCK(R) if you’ve never used it. It is truly one of the easiest heat transfer materials to work with and the results are always wonderful. It is one of our biggest What you will learn:
I hope you are able to attend this 45 minute session and find out why thousands of registered CADWORXlive.com users are actively creating art with the powerful system on a daily basis. Click here to register for the June 9th Webinar presented by Patrick Boyle of Great Garment Graphics.  Ted Stahl using CADWORXlive.com One of my passions for the past 10 years has been the development of an online software program that GroupeSTAHL customers can use to easily create the graphics they need, with either a cutter or a printer/cutter, for garment decoration. If you haven’t heard about it already, it’s called CADWORXlive.com and it has exceeded my expectations in terms of ease of use and the artwork capabilities it provides. You can learn more about using CADWORXlive™ at an upcoming Great Garment Graphics seminar on June 9th. |
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selling products in Europe, where it is widely used for soccer uniforms and many other sports. But once you get to know Thermo-FLOCK, you’ll see how many uses there are for it. It’s also great for layering or using in multi-media designs. From towels for bowling and golf to personalizing baby clothes (it’s so soft and there is no scratchy background like with embroidery), to classy looking raised corporate logos on polo shirts or caps.
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