Tom and I visited the Hirsch showroom and office in NC. We received some great hospitality and we got to see some of the best equipment available for shirt decoration: Kornit Direct to Garment, MHM Automatic Textile Press, Tajima Embroidery, and Seit Lasers. Ostensibly it was to show some folks that were new to the…
On Wednesday Tom touched on the magical new Rutland automatic ink color matching dispenser. I agree with Tom wholeheartedly that it is pretty rad. Other highlights of our “field trip” to the Rutland Group were meeting the new CEO Jeff Leone and checking out the color proofing area. Jeff is a very smart guy that…
Rick and I are on a tour of North Carolina and South Carolina this week. Today we visited the Rutland Group. We’ve both been loyal Rutland ink customers for years and I must say, this being my first visit, it was really something to finally see where the magic happens. Though our hosts were more than…
In this day and age, it is not really a good excuse to plead ignorance about where your shirts are made. There is usually some information on the label, and then there is this thing called “the internet” where you can do either a little or a lot of research. In the coming weeks we’ll…
Guest Post by our good pal Brett Bowden of Printed Threads in Tejas. A few extra comments were added by the IK. The trend of foil has lasted longer than any of us thought it would. We added foil application to our toolbox at some point when one of our clients approached with an order…
Sometimes the simplest shirts are the best. This is a simple good one. Nobody likes the Jets, their coach Rex Ryan or their fans (at least not in New England.) So this Jets fan’s shirt says it all for this year when they are 1-8. Running this blog I don’t have to pretend to…
One of my first posts on The Ink Kitchen was entitled Hot Market Heartbreak. In that post I talked about the disappointment your team doesn’t win in a hot market situation (especially if you are actually a fan of the team you are slated to print for). Wednesday night, however, was a different story. My…
Ah yes, the SGIA 2014 show. In Part 1 I made the point that boring can be ok. Putting solid machines and solid supplies on display is not such a bad idea. I’m usually skeptical about new wondrous devices and magical supplies that will solve all my problems and make me a millionaire anyway. Put…
Customization is growing. That’s both good and bad. I think these guys are doing it right… https://www.see.me
SGIA 2014. Did I see anything new? Well not that much but that doesn’t mean at all that it was not worth attending. I saw friends. I talked to new vendors. I had time to talk face-to-face with established vendors. I got to talk shop with other owners. I got to see what is trending and…
