How Far Away is St. Louis From You?

Visual Impressions - Now Open in St LouisYou know why we are asking right?

We’re opening up our new production facility and we’d love to get some of your screen-printing orders in the door to try us out.

Maybe you’ve heard about the awesome screen-printed apparel services that Visual Impressions provides to our customers out of our Milwaukee production plant.  One of our key leadership gurus, Kyle Petersen, moved down to St. Louis and we’ve built a shop around him.  So now, that expert level of apparel decoration that you’ve come to expect from Visual Impressions, is now available 386 miles southwest of Milwaukee in St. Louis.

Maybe that’s closer to you.

Kansas City, Nashville, Louisville, Memphis, Indianapolis, and all points around in a circle…got something you need printed?  Give us a holler!  Kyle is ready to hit home runs for you!

Maybe you are in the St. Louis area too and aren’t happy with your local t-shirt printer?  We’d love to talk shop and demonstrate what we bring to the table.

Here’s how you can get the party started.  Call Jay Berman at (414) 586-5606 or e-mail him at [email protected].  He’d love to have a casual conversation about your printing needs and our plans for our St. Louis facility.

Making Connections at PPAI Expo 16

Visual Impressions - PromoKitchen Mixer T-shirt

If you missed us at PPAI Expo, that’s ok.  We were hard to catch.  Whether walking an average of 6+ miles a day at the show, enjoying a beverage while competing in the Rock, Paper, Scissors contest at the PromoKitchen Mixer on Monday, sitting in on the wonderful Seth Godin keynote, or making time to listen to new and existing customers plan for success for this year…it’s no wonder we didn’t connect.

All is not lost though.

Most of these conversations were based on some very similar refrains.  2016 looks to be a huge year for promotional item companies and everyone wants to know how we can help them push for greater success.  To recap, here is a list of the topics of conversations we had in Vegas this year.  We would be ecstatic to have a more detailed conversation with you today.

Just reach out.

Our new facility in St. Louis

Why bury the lead?

This is big news for a lot of our customers and we’re anxious to get it going.  Our slated started day for production will be February 2, 2016.  We’re running the order admin and art through our Milwaukee facility, so the same group of fantastic creative people will be handling your order.  We’ll just use the magic of technology to shoot the orders to St. Louis, and have the inventory shipped there beforehand.

This is a super exciting time, and we’d love to have an in-depth conversation on how our new Missouri production facility can help you grow your business.

Decorating Trends

Because we’re a high volume shop that focuses solely on servicing the promotional item community, we see a lot of great ideas come through the shop.  This is an advantage that we can give you, as we can work together to develop a creative brief for your customers to ensure their decorated apparel has that cutting edge look.  Want to see some?  Check out our Pinterest page for some action shots from around our shop.  Click here.

Need some ideas or artwork?  We have you covered.  Give us a well-written creative brief and stand back for some awesome ideas headed your way.

Digital Garment Decoration Makes a Big Impact

We use a Kornit Avalanche direct to garment printer every day for our customers.  This equipment provides the best in the industry production that you need.  Some promotional item customers that we’ve talked to have had mediocre to poor results with digital, as their print partners either just haven’t understood the capabilities of digital apparel print production, or they’ve invested in inferior equipment.

So how can you use this technology?

DTG printing works fantastic for high color, low volume print runs.  Because it’s digital, it doesn’t use halftones to replicate the image.  Photographs, product shots, and images with tiny details or textures look amazing.  The colors look brilliant and the print hand is soft on the shirt.

While a lot of our orders for our DTG department are under 50 pieces, it is not uncommon to run an order of 1000 or more for a customer that needs a high end image on the shirt.  You simply can’t get this level of detail with traditional screen-printing as that technology uses halftones.  Got a project where digital could work?  Call the experts and let us help you hit a home run for your customer.

Big Orders

With our massive Milwaukee, WI 100,000 sq foot facility and two shifts of production, we can turn your large order and meet your deadline.  We produce big orders for some of the largest promotional item companies in the business, and drop ship the orders all over the world for them.  Why send that order back to your distribution center when we can take your spreadsheet and do it for you at the point of production?  Our job is to take the headache of this type of production run away from you so you can naturally do other things.  Such as breathe easier.  We got this.

Post Production

Sure, anyone can print or embroider a shirt…but what about all those order details afterwards?  One of the great services that Visual Impressions provides is our ability to go the extra mile after production with our packaging department.  We can assemble multiple items and package them for distribution for you.  Our team handles orders that need relabeling or polybagging…and we know how these orders need to be scheduled so that they can still hit your deadlines.

Let’s discuss how we can make these types of programs easier for you.  This is a value add that you can wow your customers with every single day.

Inventory – We’re One Day Away

For major apparel distributors we’re usually only one day ground into Visual Impressions.  Not only that, but because we get a lot of companies ordering and sending their goods into us, we participate in the PSST programs for alphabroder, SanMar and S&S.  (Pack Separately, Ship Together)

This is a huge advantage for you.  Check out what that might mean to your bottom line if you are still paying for freight into your current decorator.

Customer Service – It’s How We Win Together

We’re here to help.  That’s our number one job…to make you a success by being your behind the scenes partner.  Whatever you need, just let us know and our expert customer service team can work out the details to help you scale your business.

Call us today!  (800) 291-8337 or e-mail [email protected]

Double Down On Awesomeness

So, it’s the new year and everyone is asking “Hey, are you going to set any major goals for this year?”

Of course we are.  But not just any old goal will do.  Sure, some apparel decorators might be happy with learning a new skill or improving a technology.  That’s great, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  We do that all the time too.

For the team at Visual Impressions though, it just doesn’t go far enough.  When we make a stretch goal, we want to shoot for the moon.  Our goal for 2016 is a doozy.

Which is why we are opening up a second production facility in a completely different state.  That’s right.  Now there will be two shops running for our customers!  Which leaves you asking the obvious question.

So where will it be?

Ssshhh!!  That’s the secret.

Currently, we’re busy building out the space, bringing in new equipment and supplies and hiring staff.  If this was a local space in the area, you might see the windows covered up with newspaper before the sign goes up and wonder, “What do you think they are going to do in there?”

You can’t do that online, so we’ll just leave you wondering.

In the meantime, let us know where YOU think our shop should open!  Maybe you’ll guess it right, or maybe your choice might be a good spot for our third facility…you never know.

More to follow…stay tuned!

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