Boost Your Sales Revenue with Contract T-shirt Printing

Auto Press Squeegee Stroke with Light Blue Ink

According to the December 2015 issue of Wearables Magazine, 2016 is going to be “the year of the t-shirt”.  So, if you are a promotional item sales person what exactly does that mean to you?

If you do it right, basically more money in your pocket.   Want to learn how?  Here are some tried and true methods that come across our shop on a daily basis:

Use a trendy shirt.

Right now that’s a heathered tri-blend.  The incredibly soft feel of this type of shirt, partnered with a creative piece of artwork can really get things going for you.  Want to really add some value?  Let us relabel the garment with a custom tag or neck print, and then polybag the shirt for easy distribution at that trade show or event for your customer.

?What else is trending right now? Performance t-shirts.  This is a tricky blank to print on, so if you’ve been burned before by a printer that didn’t know what they were doing…why not use the shop that other’s turn to for this type of job?

It’s all about the art.

Did we mention our team of rock star designers?  Let us loose with a creative direction and we can bang out some killer concepts that will win you orders.  All we really need is an in-depth conversation and some basics on what’s needed.  Add some creative ideas and shake.  Boom.  More sales for you this month.

Get funky.

We’re the experts at thinking things through and adding some pizzazz to your program.  Ever think about adding foil to your art?  What about a high density gel or other specialty ink idea?  Thinning the inks out for a softer or more retail look?  What about a side wrap placement or something off-center?  Funkify your customer’s look for something show-stopping that’s bound to get the smiles you want.

Sustainable Printing

These days your corporate clients are looking for ways to tighten up their supply chain by going “green”.  Has anyone reached out to you about this?  It’s more involved that just using a t-shirt made from recycled plastic water bottles.  Visual Impressions has worked hard to achieve their sustainability certification from the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership.  What does this mean to you?  The value is that we’re a trusted source to help you navigate these waters and guide your client into making better decisions.  Why stop short with just ordering an eco-t-shirt?  Why not use a sustainable printer too?

Click here to learn more about our sustainability program.

Custom finishing.

Sometimes there’s more to an order than just printing the shirt.  Folding, poly-bagging, hang-tagging and adding custom neck labels or hem tags are essential for some programs.  Want to add a retail ready, high-end value to your client’s orders?  Get some help solving the challenge with the A-Team that has the skills to make it easy.

Drop shipping.

Who has a distribution center anymore?  These days that 5,000 piece order has to be broken down into 1,473 drop ships from a spreadsheet.  Who is doing that pack out?  You?  Why not let the same pros that decorate the shirt handle the drop shipping program too?  We can send these out in your packaging, on your third party account, and still hit your deadlines.   Ssshhh.  We won’t tell anyone that you didn’t do it.  So while you are closing more deals, or rounding the back nine at the club…we’re getting that order ready to ship.

Multiple Production Locations

Our main 100,000 sq ft production facility is located in Milwaukee, WI.  We contract screen-print, digitally print and embroider apparel for promotional item distributors all over the United States.  Although we can handle just about anything thrown our way, we’ve also just opened up a 10,000 sq ft production facility in St. Louis, MO.  Our goal is to make it easier for you.

We’re on everyone’s major PSST list (Pack Separately Ship Together) – so if you order your goods from SanMar, alphabroder or S&S they will ship free into us in one day ground usually.

 

Want to see more?  Take a quick tour of Visual Impressions by checking out our Pinterest page – just Click Here.

 

If any of the above sounds like something that you’d like to partner with us on, please give us a shout and let’s get the party started!

(800) 291-8337

 

 

 

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]