Chris Blakeslee moves to Gap owned brand Athleta, he will take over as President and CEO. Athleta sells on-line and in retail locations and is not in the imprinted sportswear industry per se. Chris being one of the more interesting folks in our industry will be surely missed. He formerly was running Bella+Canvas and Alo…
Mark Lane, the CEO of Coed Sportswear, talks about the highs and lows of running Coed Naked, one of the hottest retail t-shirt brands of the 1990s, in this Shop Talk from the Impressions Expo in Atlantic City. He discusses how the company went from selling over 10 million shirts in 12,000 stores to nearly…
Wastewater from our factory in Pawtucket, RI is discharged to the sewer system which leads to the Narragansett Bay Commission’s (NBC) wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) in East Providence, located along the Seekonk River. The NBC regulates our factory’s discharges through a wastewater discharge permit. Compliance with our permit helps to ensure that the wastewater received…
UPS and the Teamsters union representing 340,000 workers are in negotiations for a new contract. The Teamsters are demanding some better working conditions and some higher pay. The current contract expires July 31, 2023 and the union members have already overwhelmingly voted to authorize the Teamster leaders to call a strike if necessary. Our garment…
Hiring people with disabilities can be a great way to improve your company’s culture and bottom line. Studies have shown that companies that employ people with disabilities have higher productivity, lower absenteeism and lower turnover rates. They also have a better reputation with customers and the community. Did you know that there are over 60…
A visit to Ikonics (Chromaline) illustrates some trends in the screenprinting world: 1. The screenprinting world is splitting into high tech and automation versus DIY, side hustle, small crafty shops. 2. The screenprinting world is consolidating. Kornit bought Tesoma. Alpha bought NES, Broder and other distributors. Gildan bought Comfort Colors, American Apparel and Alstyle.…
Tax season is coming up soon and there’s a lot of misleading business advice flying around on social media, so we asked Tyrone Gregory @TheSelfEmployedTaxGuy and Stan Banks @StanBanks to join us in a Shop Talk about Protecting Your Profits. Nothing is certain but death and taxes, so keep your books in order and make…
If you run Shopify stores as part of your business, you’ll probably see a new feature the next time you create a product. “Autowrite” will generate product descriptions for you based on a list of features and key words. It will even adjust the tone of your prose. I gave it a try with a…
I had a great tour of Los Angeles Apparel in Downtown Los Angeles. With barely any notice they gave me the run of the place and let me talk to anyone. Their claims of making all their shirts and treating their workers with respect are ABSOLUTELY true. Even after many years in a somewhat volatile…
Don’t worry if you missed some of the Shop Talks at the recent Impressions Expo in Long Beach. We’ll have every talk up on our YouTube channel in the coming weeks. First up is Rick’s talk with Dov Charney. Unfiltered as always, Dov talked to us about garment trends, imprintable t-shirt history, how to get…
