E42C>A 10B43 4<1A>834AH Pulse Mircosystem's Alex Papaioannou explains how to simply your digitizing process 6 6;>10; 42>=><82 >DC;>>: Imprint Canada highlights economic indicators for 2014 in developed and emerging markets 12 B>280; <4380 BCA0C4684B Author and social media influencer Neil Shaffer breaks down the essential components of social media strategies for organizations of all sizes 16 34B86= C> 501A82 4BB4=C80;B "Embroidery Dinosaur" Fran McAvity breaks down the essentials for quality embroidery 20 WHAT'S INSIDE =ZMVL[ KWV\QV]ML WV 9IOM ! <]JTQUI\QWV ,WV\QV]ML WV 9IOM Pricing for Sublimation Profi ts By Jimmy Lamb, Sawgrass Technologies Trends for 2014 What to look for this coming year By Adriano Aldini, Imprint Canada Pricing is one of the most challenging subjects in the world of sublimation, as there are no real standards to go by. Everyone does it differently and no two shops have the same approach. As such, there is a wide disparity across the industry in terms of what to charge. But that is okay, as long as you are actually making a profit. e sad truth is that too many business owners don’t have a scientific approach that takes into account operational and production costs such that appropriate margins can be calcu- lated and applied. For example, in the world of sublimation there is a lot of emphasis placed on ink costs; yet in reality, ink accounts for a very small percentage of overall production costs. It's understandable that when faced with spending several hundred dollars at a time on replacement inks, the costs may seem significant, but it needs to noted that inventory costs are quite different from production costs, as sublimation ink aver- ages $0.01 per square inch. us in terms of its affect on actual selling price, it’s really insignificant. e reality is that the cost to produce something is based on how many units you can produce in a given time period versus the operational costs assigned to that same period of time plus the cost of the blank substrate. e material cost (not the cost of the blank) is just a percent- age of your operational costs. Time is the key, as all of your overhead can be equated into a cost per hour figure which will then assign a portion of your operational costs to every product that is produced. For example, assume you are a full-time sublimation shop (this concepts can be applied to heat transfers and DTG printing) and you have calculated your hourly cost of operation to be $30. If it takes two minutes on average to print and press some- thing, you could theoretically produce 30 items per hour, which works out to $1 each. But that is not realistic. A Tristan Communications Ltd. Publication Volume 21, Issue 1 -DQXDU\)HEUXDU\ IMPRINT CANADA THE MARKETING AND INFORMATION SOURCE FOR IMPRINTABLE PRODUCTS THE POWER OF DECORATION UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES 30 + Decoration techniques available Experience it all online at www.fersten.com C74 =4F4BC BCH;4B 0=3 CA4=3B C> 9D<?BC0AC H>DA !# 0??0A4; 20<?086=B B44 C74 =4F4BC 8==>E0C8>=B 8= BD??;84B 4@D8?<4=C 3$*( 3$*( **Registration opens at 9 am each day** Toronto Congress Centre, North Building # cW 0]]dP[ C^a^]c^ 8\_aX]c 2P]PSP BW^f C^a^]c^ 8\_aX]c 2P]PSP BW^f Friday January 10, 2014 10 am - 5 pm Saturday January 11, 2014 10 am - 4 pm Friday January 10, 2014 10 am - 5 pm Saturday January 11, 2014 10 am - 4 pm DON’T MISS OUT!!! THE PREMIER INDUSTRY EVENT OF THE YEAR IS BACK! Every new year, brings with it a fresh start, new hope and a general feeling of optimism. As we get set to foray into another new year, we look forward and try to pinpoint some of the trends that will make an impact in our industry over the next 12 months. BRIGHTEN UP! If you haven't noticed the mass proliferation of bright colours at the retail level, then you may very well need to open you eyes and look around. From apparel to accessories, vibrant shades and tones are being featured in many product categories. ese bright colours will continue their foray into the corporate and promotional marketplace throughout the coming year. +ZQOP\ [PILM[ IVL KWTW]Z JTWKSQVO _QTT KWV\QV]M \W JM ^MZa XWX]TIZ QV IXXIZMT KI\ITWO]M[ NWZ
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Transcript
Pulse Mircosystem's Alex Papaioannou explains
how to simply your digitizing process 6
Imprint Canada highlights economic indicators
for 2014 in developed and emerging markets 12
Author and social media infl uencer Neil Shaff er
breaks down the essential components of social
media strategies for organizations of all sizes 16
"Embroidery Dinosaur" Fran McAvity breaks
down the essentials for quality embroidery 20
WHAT'S INSIDE
Pricing for Sublimation Profi tsBy Jimmy Lamb, Sawgrass Technologies
Trends for 2014 What to look for this coming yearBy Adriano Aldini, Imprint Canada
Pricing is one of the most challenging subjects in the world of
sublimation, as there are no real standards to go by. Everyone
does it diff erently and no two shops have the same approach.
As such, there is a wide disparity across the industry in terms
of what to charge. But that is okay, as long as you are actually
making a profi t.
Th e sad truth is that too many business owners don’t have
a scientifi c approach that takes into account operational and
production costs such that appropriate margins can be calcu-
lated and applied.
For example, in the world of sublimation there is a lot of
emphasis placed on ink costs; yet in reality, ink accounts for a
very small percentage of overall production costs.
It's understandable that when faced with spending several
hundred dollars at a time on replacement inks, the costs may
seem signifi cant, but it needs to noted that inventory costs are
quite diff erent from production costs, as sublimation ink aver-
ages $0.01 per square inch. Th us in terms of its aff ect on actual
selling price, it’s really insignifi cant.
Th e reality is that the cost to produce something is based on
how many units you can produce in a given time period versus
the operational costs assigned to that same period of time plus
the cost of the blank substrate.
Th e material cost (not the cost of the blank) is just a percent-
age of your operational costs. Time is the key, as all of your
overhead can be equated into a cost per hour fi gure which
will then assign a portion of your operational costs to every
product that is produced.
For example, assume you are a full-time sublimation shop
(this concepts can be applied to heat transfers and DTG printing)
and you have calculated your hourly cost of operation to be $30.
If it takes two minutes on average to print and press some-
thing, you could theoretically produce 30 items per hour, which
works out to $1 each. But that is not realistic.
A Tristan Communications Ltd. Publication Volume 21, Issue 1
IMPRINT CANADATHE MARKETING AND INFORMATION SOURCE FOR IMPRINTABLE PRODUCTS
THE POWER OF DECORATION
UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES
30 + Decoration techniques available
Experience it all online at www.fersten.com
**Registration opens at 9 am each day**
Toronto Congress Centre, North Building
Friday January 10, 201410 am - 5 pm
Saturday January 11, 201410 am - 4 pm
Friday January 10, 201410 am - 5 pm
Saturday January 11, 201410 am - 4 pm
DON’T MISS OUT!!! THE PREMIER INDUSTRY EVENT
OF THE YEAR IS BACK!
Every new year, brings with it a fresh start, new hope and a general feeling of optimism.
As we get set to foray into another new year, we
look forward and try to pinpoint some of the
trends that will make an impact in our industry
over the next 12 months.
BRIGHTEN UP!If you haven't noticed the mass proliferation
Jobs For LifeLast month, the Canada Post Corporation (CPC) announced it will stop delivering regular mail door-to-door to homes in urban centres countrywide, as part of sweeping cost-cutting measures aimed at improving its bottom line.
Th e increase in digital communication and huge reduc-tion in letter mail volume had put the CPC on track to lose $1 billion annually by the end of this decade (based on the fi ndings of a think tank commissioned by CPC early 2013).
Approximately one-third of Canadian households cur-rently receive door mail delivery of their mail. Transition to community mail boxes for theses households will begin to be implemented in the second half of 2014.
Coinciding with this change was the CPC's announce-ment that, eff ective March 31, 2014, consumers will have to pay $0.85 for stamps purchased in booklets or
coils, and $1 each when purchased individually (up from the current price of a $0.63 cents a stamp for a standard letter).
CPC also announced it is planning to cut between 6,000 and 8,000 jobs over the next few years, but noted that most of this workforce reduction should come natur-ally through attrition as nearly 15,000 employees are expected to retire or leave the company within the next fi ve years.
Of these three impending changes, I fi nd the state of their workforce announcement as the one which is most troubling. As I understand it, the CPC is stating that its labour cost structure of its long-tenured employees has led to higher than normal salaries aft er years of pay increases that were indexed to infl ation (whereas private sector competitors have been able to deal and negotiate with employees with free market adaptability).
A government job should not mean a job for life, nor should it be one where remuneration is completely out of line with similar jobs preformed in the free market.
So now, we, the tax payers, are being told that services are being scaled back, prices are going up and staffi ng will be diminished over time. Can you imagine what would happen if any publicly or privately-owned com-pany came out with similar announcements?
Ugh is right!I can't help but wonder how long ago the decision makers at the CPC realized that they had a recipe for disaster on their hands. And did they e-mail or mail each
other with their obser-vations? What other kind of cost cutting and effi ciency increas-ing discussions were held? Did anyone think about using bikes in the summer instead of gas-powered vehicles? How are foreign postal services managing their businesses. Go public and fl oat shares?
To accompany these announcements, the CPC should have had their detailed business plan on hand and let it be known to the public. As a Crown Corporation, the CPC should have gone public with this plan immediately; instead it decided to deal with a 'do as I say attitude', leaving thousands of tax paying Canadians with a bad taste in their mouth, and eventually no mail at the door.
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Answer: This is a process called scumming. What is happening is the emulsion around your stencil is seeping in after you have washed it. Wiping down your screen with an old tee and putt ing it in front of a fan will prevent this from happening.
A: Either you need to change a bulb in the exposing unit, or you need to make sure that the vacuum on the unit is working properly. My guess is it’s the bulbs, especially if the problem is in the same location all the time.
A: You can wait awhile if your screen is in the dark. For instance: I have burned out a screen before I left work for the day, and left it in the exposing unit until the morning. I brought it out the next day and it worked fi ne. Once exposed to light, it is best to wash it out right away.
A: What I have done is used Fiverr.com. Fiverr allows you to outsource such things as vector redraws. This is a tool that will only cost you - yup, you guessed it - $5! This allows you to get top notch artwork without ever having to produce it yourself. There is no possible way you can redraw any design for less than what you have to pay with this site.
What you decide to charge the end user is up to your company, but
as far as I’m concerned, $35 - $50 dollars is not out of the question.
A: Yes, you can use a fl ash unit, but I would suggest hitt ing them with a heat press and a Tefl on sheet to make sure your design stays
on the garment.
There is a big diff erence; water-based inks are specialty inks where the ink sinks into the fi bers of shirt, thus becoming part of the fabric.
Water-based inks are comprised of a mixture of water, co-solvents and dye (or pigment). For the print to be cured, the water needs to evaporate completely.
Plastisol is the standard, economical ink made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) particles and plasticizer which is an additive that keeps the PVC particles from clumping. Once dry, most plastisol prints sit on top of the material of the shirt.
On light-colored or white shirts, water based inks will show up vibrantly. However, on a darker garment water-based inks will infl uenced by the colour of the shirt. Plastisol on the other hand is consistent in hue no matt er the garment colour, provided a under base is used, however the feel of the print is typically heavier.
More Environmentally-friendlier; Softer hand.
Colour of the shirt greatly impacts the print; expensive; time consuming; clogs screens easily when water evoporates.
Inexpensive; great opacity, easy to use; won't clog screens
Thicker hand; can bunch around seamsIn the end, the ink you choose will depend on what your needs are,
and the demands of your customers.
Answers to these questions were provided in part, courtesy of Mike Hishon of Hishons Custom. With over 18 years experience in textile screen printing, Mike is a graphic artist who has amassed such clients as the Stratford Festival (North America's biggest Shakespearean Theatre) for which he designs and prints for their world renowned Theatre Stores.
For more tips and tricks, please visit www.thescreenprintersguide.com
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Many company leaders understand that their business requires a social media presence, but to the detriment of many organizations, strategy is lagging behind.
A recent survey by Social Media Examiner showed that creating a social media strategy is still a major concern of 83 per cent of marketers.
Author and social media strategy consultant Neal Schaff er stresses that companies engaging in social media need a strategy because, among other things it: standardizes messaging, determines how resources are used, defi nes which tactics to pursue, serves as a road map, and will carry on its purpose through personnel changes.
When no strategy is present, says Schaff er, here’s what typically happens: individuals from diff erent departments tweet at will, using the company’s offi -cial handle. Some of these 140-character messages will be loaded down with cum-bersome language from the company’s Web copy guidelines; others are peppered with abbreviations like “u,” “r,” and “2.” On Facebook, users who “like” the company’s page fi nd that their news-feeds are bombarded with promotions, surveys, and so called “news.” Meanwhile, clients are posting positive and negative feedback. Sometimes these comments receive responses; sometimes they don’t. (And that’s not even taking into account LinkedIn, Pinterest, the company’s blog, and others!)
“In using such a scattershot approach, organizations are missing major opportunities to engage with poten-tial and current customers, and they may be alienating social media users in the process,” says Schaff er. “Without a social media strategy, how do you know what you’re trying to achieve, what you should be doing, how well you’re doing, what you should be measuring, and what the ROI of your social media program is?”
In his book, Maximize Your Social: A One-Stop Guide to Building a Social Media Strategy for Marketing and Business Success, Schaff er explains how companies can create a strategic social media framework, lever-age opportunities that each social media chan-nel off ers, and implement a data-driven approach to monitor the success or failure of their social media programs.
In the following, Schaff er shares essential compon-ents of a comprehensive social media strategy.
Branding: Be consistent across all channelsBranding is about consistency; most businesses already
have brand guidelines (including naming, color scheme, and imagery), and these should be applied to social media as well. Th e challenge, though, is that most brand-ing guidelines don’t include any guidance for the most important part of your brand in social media conversa-
tions: your voice.“Although your brand guidelines might make mention
of tone and vocabulary for use in Web copy, social media will challenge those guidelines when you need to have a conversation with an average person,” Schaff er points out. “In most instances it’s okay to be less formal on social media channels—just make sure that your updates, statuses, and comments ‘speak’ with a unifi ed voice.”
Content: Engage and share in meaningful
conversationsSocial media is really about
the convergence of com-munication and information.
Content provides the medium to help you engage in conversation—and cre-ating content that is truly resourceful and shareable can have many long-term benefi ts to your company’s social media presence.
“Keep in mind that content isn’t just about blog posts, photos, and videos,” reminds
Schaff er. If you’re just talking about yourself in social media, no one wants to listen (much like regular conver-sation). It’s only when you begin to curate content that is of interest to your followers and promote it, together with your own content, that your social media accounts begin to breathe new life.
“If you work in a business-to-business (B2B) company, this will oft en come down to content that you might already be sharing with your current and prospective clients on sales calls, in newsletters, or during informative webinars,” Schaff er shares. “If you work for a company that sells directly to consumers, it might mean sharing more photos and videos of who is using your product, or stories about your brand that have never been pub-licly discussed.”
Channels: Join the right networks for your company Th ere are currently more than 50 social networks
with more than 10 million members. You can’t—and shouldn’t—have a presence on every single one of them.
Deciding which social networks to engage in,
and creating internal best practices and tactical plans for each of these networks, will form a siz-able part of your social media strategy.
While most compan-ies concentrate on the more established social networks, depending on your industry, the new emerging social net-
works of Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram might be equally important.
Frequency: Post strategically, not constantly No two social networks are alike, and with limited
resources, you’ll need to decide how much time you are going to spend on each platform, as well as what you’ll be doing there.
Is Your Company Posting without a Plan? Essential Components of a Successful Social Media Strategy By Neal Schaff er
Design to fabric, why do we need to understand this concept?
No one just runs an embroidery machine; no one
just digitizes designs; no one just sells or takes orders
for embroidery.
It is crucial that every person involved in the embroid-
ery process clearly understands the design components.
Th is means understanding more about the construction
of the design and how each stitch or group of stitches
aff ects the fabrics to which they are being applied.
It follows that the person who takes the order under-
stands the limitations of design to fabric, and can com-
municate this clearly to the buyer as well as the artist/
digitizer/embroidery programmer and machine operator.
Th e artist/digitizer/embroidery programmer provides tech-
nical skill combined with creative talent, producing effi cient
running designs helping ensure the “wow” for the buyer.
Th e machine operator has the fi nal bow – producing
fi nished projects using embroidery threads and aids
with skill and profi ciency.
Remember that no one makes money until the order
is off the embroidery machine.
THE DESIGN: What is a design? Designs may be looked at from
three perspectives:
1. Keyboard lettering - which you create yourself. (YES, keyboard lettering is creating a “design”)2. Stock designs (Th is is defi nitely the “buyer beware” section!)3. “Original” designs - these can be ones you digitize yourself, or ones that you order from a digitizer.
Key Questions Regarding Design:• Do you know where the design came from?• For which fabric the design was digitized?• Did you watch the new design sew out?
Th e stitch length, density, underlay, stitch direction,
and compensation are the fi ve components of a design.
Density is described as the number of stitches per inch
or per millimeter and can be called the “cover stitch";
underlay is best thought of as the “foundation” stitches;
the stitch angle or "direction" of the stitches provides fabric
control.; Compensation says that embroidery is really the
art of “distortion”; and lastly, stitch lengths, which are the
single most abused factor in the wheel.
THE FABRIC:Fabrics have construction components such as yarn
size, texture, weave, stretch factor, and “other”, and each
fabric requires design attention.
Try to categorize your fabrics. Th e chart below will
help you visualize how a thread of only 0.4mm size will
behave on diff erent structures and which embroidery
aids you will need to overcome fabric challenges.
Note: Can you fi nd the mistake in this chart?
- Did you test the design on the fabric you will use?
MARRYING DESIGN TO FABRIC: EMBROIDERY AIDS Backings, toppings and adhesives are your embroidery
aids. Th ey are designed to assist in stabilizing fabric for
the embroidery process. Th ey will not overcome design
to fabric gross errors such as vertical fi lls on a stretch
fabric, or a design with a density that is far too high for
the fabric to hold (i.e. too many stitches).
In order to provide proper stitch registration, the cor-
rect combination of embroidery aids should be applied.
BACKINGS: should be of high quality and consistency.
If cheap tear aways are tearing before the embroidery
process is fi nished, then they are not providing proper
stabilization for the process. Inappropriate backings will
also look ‘thick and thin’ and provide uneven stability.
TOPPINGS: Stop stitches from getting “lost” in tex-
tured or stretch fabrics. Water-soluble toppings such as
Solvy® is the most common. Toppings can also be a light
tear away backing or a ‘heat away’ material.
ADHESIVES: Temporary and “absorbable” adhesives
are perfect for holding fabrics in their own natural lie and
also for hoopless embroidery. You may get the same eff ect
from a “sticky” sided backing such as Filmoplast®.
FABRICS MUST ALWAYS BE STABILIZED IN THEIR OWN
NATURAL LIECorrect hooping is critical! Th is means that all
fabrics – even seemingly stable ones – MUST NOT be
stretched in the hooping process. Fabrics must be “drum”
tight not “stretch” tight.
• Stabilize stretch fabrics BEFORE hooping. Th is will preserve the natural lie even during the hooping process.• NEVER pull fabrics tight aft er hooping. Th is stretch-ing action will produce waved embroidery on any fabric as well as holes in stretch fabrics – particu-larly in the closed parts of letters such as “B” or “R”.• ALWAYS cover the entire area of the hoop with at least one layer of backing.
Here is a test for a design on a stretch fabric: First, stabilize – meaning STOP the mobility – of the
stretch fabric to one piece of good 2.5oz cutaway back-
ing. Don’t skip this step; stabilizing can be achieved
with temporary adhesive spray or by using a pressure
sensitive sticky backing, or an iron-on backing. Th en,
once the fabric is totally stable, hoop it with a piece of
water-soluble topping and run your design.
If you experience any problems - such as holes in the fi ll
stitches, or fi lls leaking out under your satin stitches, or
“waves” of fabric being pushed out of place, or any other
fl aw that leaves your embroidery or your fabric out of
shape – then you do not have a good design to fabric fi t.
It is time to head back to the “design” table and deter-
mine what is doing the damage.
Remember that if you “technical” and “aid” variables
are controlled and constant, then you only need to focus
on why this design doesn’t work with this fabric.
Always think Design to Fabric and test, test, test before
you run! Embroidery is not rocket science. When your
embroidery is not running well, head back to the design
variables and see if they are appropriate for the fabric.
Design to Fabric EssentialsBy Fran McAvity
This article was provided courtesy of Imprint Canada's resident "Embroidery
Dinosaur." Fran McAvity is the President of Gunold Canada. She has lectured
for Stitches magazine, the Imprinted Sportswear Shows and Imprint Canada
since 1995. She is the developer of the “Embroidery Wheel” seminar and has
written a series of embroidery articles for Imprint Canada. She is also the
Recipient of Imprint Canada's Robert L. Scott Award.
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Wholesale sales up third month in a rowWholesale sales were up for the third month in a row in September, rising 0.2
per cent to $49.8 billion.
Sales increased in four of the
seven subsectors, account-
ing for 45 per cent of total
wholesale sales in Canada.
In terms of overall volume,
wholesale sales were up 0.2
per cent (see Figure 1).
Increases were realized in
the miscellaneous subsector
(+1.3 per cent), the motor
vehicle and parts subsector
(0.6 per cent), and the farm
product subsector (4.8 per
cent). Th e largest decline in dollar terms was in the food, beverage and tobacco sub-
sector (-0.4 per cent). Th is drop was the result of a 0.6 per cent decrease in the food
industry, which accounts for 90 per cent of the subsector’s sales.
In Ontario, sales rose
0.7 per cent which repre-
sents a sixth increase in
seven months (see Figure
2). Wholesale sales were up
in Saskatchewan (4.6 per
cent) as a result of higher
sales in the farm product as
well as the building material
and supplies subsectors.
In September, three of
the four Atlantic prov-
inces reported gains.
Newfoundland and
Labrador was the lone Atlantic province to post lower sales (-3.1 per cent), its
third consecutive decrease.
Following seven gains in eight months,
sales in British Columbia fell 2.5 per
cent in September, mainly attributable
to lower sales in the building material
and supplies subsector; sales in Quebec
decreased 0.6 per cent in September.
Sales and inventories of Textiles, Clothing & Footwear are up Wholesale merchants’ sales of tex-
tile, clothing and footwear rose 9.4
per cent from the same period last
year to just over $1 billion, while inventories also rose in kind, up 10.6 per cent
from last year to $2.04 billion (see Figure 3).
Retail sales increase for third consecutive monthRetailers reported sales increases of 1.0 per cent to $40.7 billion in September,
a third consecutive
monthly increase. Th is
advance was largely
attributable to higher
sales at motor vehicle
and parts dealers.
Gains were observed
in 6 of the 11 sub-
sectors, accounting for
55 per cent of retail
trade, however fol-
lowing gains in July
and August, sales at
clothing and clothing
accessories stores were
down 0.6 per cent in
September.
While this decrease in September was largely attributable to lower sales at
clothing stores (-1.0 per cent), 2013 retail sales of clothing and clothing acces-
sories are up 5.2 per cent and 4.8 per cent, respectively from the same period last
year (see Figure 4).
Sales of Clothing and Clothing Accessories at large retailers drop slightlyIn Statistics Canada’s most recently released survey of Large Canada Retailers,