We often get requests to analyze shirts for manufacturers. I can tell you that some folks like Hanes and SanMar actually do care about you printers out there and try to make sure their products can be decorated. They don’t always fully succeed but they are definitely trying hard and often with great results. Other…
That shirt was made a few years ago by Georgia Tech. It is called the smart shirt, and is for use on the battlefield to diagnose where a wound occurred. It was the start of what will be coming to the marketplace sooner than we could have imagined, computerized clothing. Google is ramping up their…
Besides seeing rocking shows by the Pixies, TV on the Radio, St. Vincent and Ben Harper at Boston Calling this weekend, we also saw how interested people still are in screenprinting. They were printing pennants on site, and a long line indicated just how interested folks were in screenprinting. Most of our thoughts right now…
This week The New York Times covered on the front page the relatively recent phenomenon of sports teams giving everybody that comes in the door a free t-shirt of the same color. It basically puts the whole crowd in uniform. The Winnipeg Jets were the first team to do this type of thing when 20 years…
I cannot understand how somebody could be so stupid as to put out a shirt to the general public as the Under Amour company did this week (see below.) Call a spade a spade, this was a moronic move. Under Armour removed the shirt, but somehow I wish we could sentence those responsible to a…
The New York Times today had an article about bootleg shirts adding to fan frenzy about the Memphis Grizzlies NBA team. Honestly I think it is a good idea. So many bands that allowed bootleg recordings actually boosted their sales of recording, and I think this is an analogous situation. Let a little creativity and…
If you embroider a waterproof jacket like you embroider any old thing, it won’t be waterproof any longer. Water will wick through the threads and the holes you have made. There are products you can buy to waterproof the jacket after you are done with the embroidery. We buy ours from KYS embroidery supplies but I imagine…
I just spent some time in New Orleans at the Jazz and Heritage Festival with 460,000 other music lovers, most of them wearing t-shirts. Then I was in Nashville at the ISS show with shirt vendors and fellow garment decorators. Add in a few forays into gift shops and airport stores and I have a…
This is the end of an era, or end of another chapter anyway. The New Buffalo Shirt Factory was the gold standard for shirt printing, specializing in highly detailed sports and rock images on black shirts. The owner Jon Weiss had a license plate that said “King of Black.” Jon sold to Gildan a couple…
This year the Ink Kitchen and our sponsors and with a little help with our pals at Sam Adams will host the second annual Nashville Honky Tonk Hoedown on Thursday May 7th right after the show. Drop by any of our sponsors booths for details. Speaking of sponsors, here are a few of our sponsor’s booth…
