All Decoration Methods Have a Purpose

It’s a loaded question! It’s hard to give a blanket “silver bullet” answer to that question. While we specialize in screen printing, we do offer some embroidery services as well. Outside of those two, you also have direct-to-garment (DTG), heat press, vinyl applique, foil, and on and on and on.

Screen Printing

Here’s why we specialize in screen printing: it is a very universal decoration method for apparel that will provide vibrant and long lasting results, and is super economical at scale. If you want to order just 1-10 pieces of apparel at a time, screen printing will not be for you. It’s simply too expensive to setup on the backend which makes the apparel prices very high for the customer. We can do it, sure. It’s just not optimal and we will likely steer you to another option – even if that’s not with us. Custom screen printing can also achieve some SUPER cool results. You can really get creative with your artwork and designs and almost always we will be able to get that to translate on screen and on apparel.

Embroidery

Embroidery is another, although completely different, popular custom decoration method. It is entirely different from screen printing – from the artwork that is acceptable, to the production process, to the pricing model, and to the finished results and look. We recommend embroidery for simple artwork or logos, and it often pairs well with items like hats, polos, dress shirts, or other high-end garments that call for a more professional final appearance. Most people are pretty familiar with embroidery and how it looks. It can be a little complicated, though, when it comes to fine detail or even lettering if it’s too small. Embroidery literally requires stitching logos thread by thread, so if your logo and artwork have really tight spaces, sharp angles, or fine details, that’s going to be super tough to achieve with embroidery.

Direct-to-Garment (DTG) and other Decoration Methods

There are plenty of other decoration methods available in the promotional products industry. Each method has its place and function. If the above descriptions on screen printing and embroidery don’t sound like they will fit your needs, it’s likely that one of these alternate options will be what you’ll want to look into. Direct-to-Garment (DTG) is a common one because it provides a lot of flexibility with artwork, colors, and quantities. It’s essentially like using an oversized desktop inkjet printer, but instead of printing on paper, it prints on apparel. Since there’s no custom setup for DTG, there’s typically no minimum order quantity requirement. Additionally, since, like an inkjet printer, colors are not isolated and applied one by one, you can typically print in full color without paying a premium. However, the print quality and longevity on DTG printing is noticeably reduced compared to screen printing. Colors will not be as vibrant, bright, or bold, and the print will fade much more quickly.

Hopefully this helped shed a little light on the different custom decoration methods available to you! There are pros and cons to each, and a time and place for each one to be utilized. If you have additional questions, please reach out with a Contact Message or start a chat today to consult with one of our team members on the best decoration method for your project.