There is an article in the New York Times this past Sunday about the human toll and the environmental toll of the international garment industry in Savar, Bangladesh. That’s the location where the Rana Plaza factory collapsed and killed at least 1,129 workers and injured over 2000 others, many permanently. Today will mark the fifth…
A tip of the hat to Garrett Kaule who posted in a Facebook exchange the link to Gildan discharge ratings on the TSC Apparel website. I personally have not tested all their shirts but they rate them A for great for discharge and C that they don’t discharge. They give a few C+ and B-…
There is a bill currently in the CA legislature on the topic of polyester microfibers. They have proposed legislation mandating by 2020 that garments with 50% or more polyester or other synthetic fiber warn you to wash them by hand and not wash them by machine. This is on the heels of studies indicating that…
Most of us communicate color information using the Pantone Matching System or “PMS”, (though not to be confused with the condition PMS or Premenstrual Syndrome.) Pantone also every year announces the “Color of the Year.” They scour the globe and come up with a color. This year it is Pantone 18-3838 Ultraviolet. The Pantone Institute…
The PPAI Promotional Products Expo starts tomorrow January 16th. Well it started yesterday if you are into seminars. The product area opens Tuesday January 16th at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. I’ve been exhibiting or attending for a long time and it actually seems to have improved in that it is now…
Gildan has decided to close their garment dyeing facility in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Gildan bought the plant from Comfort Colors in 2015. It will close now as of February 28th, 2018 and 90 workers there will lose their jobs. The facility originally was opened in 1995 in a cavernous former armaments factory by the then…
From our pal Brett Bowden at Printed Threads in Texas comes this tale of woe. It doesn’t seem right to publish a story about a “bedeviled” Christian shirt on Christmas (this coming Monday) so we put this out today, a Friday. The joys of printing on Triblends (cotton, polyester, rayon) that are 100% black… Our…
I proudly printed the Farm Aid 2017 shirts this year, most of them organic cotton and some also union made and nearly all USA made. So it is extremely disturbing to see a host of companies selling designs stolen from Farm Aid printed and embroidered on a bunch of crappy shirts. Repeated emails and filings…
On boards related to screenprinting and shirts and in discussions on Facebook I run into lots of people that shop around for the “best price.” As one person said today, $.10 on 50K shirts is a big deal. However, more often I see people going across the road for two cents on 100 shirts. Even…
BELLA+CANVAS has started a youtube channel and just released videos on three of their garments being printed with specialty inks: triblend printed with adhesive and then foil applied, slub being printed with metallic ink, and black heather being printed with reflective ink. They are simple and to the point and worth checking out. Look for them…
