A reader, James McCready, left a comment on our Hard-Won Wisdom post that deserves more than a reply in a comment box. He wrote: “If we’re being honest, pricing in our space is becoming a race to the bottom, and it’s hurting everyone.” He’s right. Custom screen printing in the U.S. is a $12.8 billion…
This year’s poster printing at the Impressions show in Long Beach did not go as planned. Not even close. And yet, thanks to the extraordinary generosity of our sponsors, we were able to donate $15,000 to Care Closet LBC — which for a charity with almost no overhead, does a great deal for homeless folks…
We have about 300 handwritten press log sheets sitting in binders. Every job that runs through the shop gets logged by hand, date, order number, screens, setup time, run time, comments. The problem isn’t the logging, the operators are thorough. The problem is that once it’s on paper, it’s dead. You can’t search it, you…
If you run a shop, you know this feeling. You invest time training someone, get them up to speed, build a rhythm, and then they’re gone. Research consistently shows that only about 30 percent of employees are truly engaged at work. That means 70 percent of the people on your floor could walk out tomorrow.…
I’ve been talking to my computer instead of typing for the past few months. Once you start, it’s hard to go back. Not every app lets you dictate into it. So I’d been talking into one app that does, copying the text, and pasting it where I actually need it. It works, but it’s clunky.…
On this date in 1851, This Guy Started the Modern Garment Industry: Isaac Merritt Singer was granted U.S. Patent No. 8,294 for his “Improvement in Sewing Machines” and the garment industry as we know it was born. As with many famous inventors (Edison, for example), Singer didn’t really invent what we think he did. He…
Oliver “Power” Grant, co-founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, has died at 52. If you were around for the rise of Wu-Tang in the early ’90s, you already know: Power wasn’t just in the room, he helped build the room. And if you work in decorated apparel, you definitely know this: Wu Wear changed the fashion…
And an AI Company Just Said No This week, Anthropic, the company behind Claude, drew a line against the Pentagon. Their position: we will not allow our AI to be used for mass surveillance of American citizens or in fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon’s response? Drop those guardrails or lose your $200 million contract, get…
Creating art with AI is not the same thing as AI art. AI art is when you type a prompt and something spits out an image. You might refine the prompt, you might iterate, but the creative act is largely outsourced. The AI is the artist. You’re the client. That has its place, I use…
Custom screen printing in the U.S. alone is a $12.8 billion industry. Business is good, but growth doesn’t mean we’ve solved our fundamental problems. Here are some Hard-Won Wisdoms for Garment Decorators worth remembering. The Lies “You can save $5 a gallon on cheaper emulsion.” Evaluate emulsion by your production numbers and ease of use,…
