Managing a Resort "pre-print" line

[tonypep]

Fascinating subject but perhaps only for me. Could go on for volumes as aspects of this applies to many but I'll refrain from over typing unless there is an interest

[T Shirt1]

Interested here!

[sweetts]

Go for it


RT Screen Designs
www.rtscreendesigns.com

[tonypep]

OK so heres part one. Our Gravity line sells across the country and all across the Carib. Custom dyed garments for kids, womens mens. Just got through hell week of Spring buyers placing initial orders. Technically it is not a Preprint line as it is namedrop driven and the sales options are virtually endless. These are by no means award winning graphics; just kind of a wink and nod fun little tourist line. All discharge (of course).
When scheduling, it is of course ideal to gang up as many orders of the same design as possible for efficiency reasons. But wait, these garments aren't necessarily sitting on a shelf. We dye and bring in by order based on a timeline. Keep in mind many Carib  customers and others pre-book as far as three months. So as much as we would like to gang orders the garments might not be here. Plus we don't want to sit on unpaid merch.
As far as namedrops and left chest icons we have found that more options lead to increased sales. Which in turn leads to increased opportunities to make mistakes.

Much much more but gotta go and maybe it would be best to answer questions rather than babble.  www.liveslow.net

[Ron Pierson]

Amazing!!

How do you keep from being ripped off (designs). You are right - pritty generic - but VERY EFFECTIVE - I like them very much!! Can slogans be copyrighted - or is it the style they are written that keeps the rip-off guys away from you. All in all, I must say that this is a GREAT CONCEPT!!

Tony - I read your posts very carefully. You have alot to offer all of us. Thank you!!

One more question - what software do you use to keep all this production going in the right direction?

[brandon]

Awesome, thanks Tony. I would for sure like to hear more about the dye process and any issues to watch out for in regards to printing. I have this coming down our pipeline later this year or in Spring of next year. One of our largest clients and I need to start doing my homework now.

[alan802]

I've always wanted to get a retail line going with a ton of cool (but very easy to print) designs and use the slower time of year to print them.  But the last few years have proven that the slow time of year is getting shorter and shorter to where this past year it never even happened.  We would need a second auto if we had a retail line with our regular custom work.  Good info as always Tony.

[tonypep]

Thanks Ron. The line is as simple as it is complex. 48 piece minimum and you can mix and match styles and colors within the 48. We purposely design our graphics this way, allowing the buyer maximum creativity. Thats part of the appeal I suppose. The line is 15 years old and buyers are quite loyal, some of them police their market and report knockoffs which we address with a cease and desist. We don't worry too much about that however. It just doesn't happen that often and if it does it has zero impact.
All the "Talkie" slogan screens are libraried and pulled as needed as well as all the top twenty sellling designs (we track this carefully). This is partly why DTS won't work for us. Hence the newfounded popularity of the GT6/8. Three manuals also support this. The Quick Ship program is geared toward proven designs with long history of sell through. We guarantee these in ten days.
For those who request it we supply merchandising fixtures and material like signs, billboards, and even stuffed toy replicas of popular items. Often free of charge.
With Resort its all about turn. If you're on time at the beginning and everthing sells through the buyer will put in a relacement order, sometime several.We track graphics, body styles, colors, demographics.....everything. Twice a year the line is culled and added to, although no design is permanenly archived. Production (me) Sales, and Art meet each week and review all of this. Everything is tracked and run through the Impress apparel software program with fifteen users
and this

[Spreading Ink]

Very cool info Tony.   We have looked at trying to do something similar in the past, but we have found it would be hard to do as we stay pretty busy and the marketing and sales aspect of this is a bit outside of what we normally do around here.  Very interesting all the same though and really appreciate the insight from someone who is doing it!  Thanks - I'll be reading with interest!

[tonypep]

Thanks all. You're right it takes a huge comittment. Four trade shows a year for starters and its a 50 ft booth. We establish budgets for marketing and merchandising and have contests (the talkie  contests are really popular) and interesting stuff to help keep us in front of the buyers. And yes we have territorial reps as well.
Some interesting notes on design. A Gravity piece of apparel costs exactly the same no matter how many colors are printed. Obviously no film/screen etc charge but gross margin is around $6.00 per unit. So the Talkies are fat and happy. We also over print DC colors (no halftones) like red over yellow to create orange without adding a screen. On the designs that are outlined the outline art is spread by around a point and a half to speed up registraition The dark color (usually navy, reflex, or black) covers up the others without a blur. Heres a pic of the war room.

[tonypep]

One of our other lines is Our Shirts Don't Suck (www.ourshirtsdontsuck.com) Whole other team of people but it's the same model as Resort except theres more custom art involved for obvious reasons. Still we have templates to keep that cost down. In the Gallery you'll see several of those blends which is all the rage with the kids. Also all DC prints

[brandon]

Hey Tony,
Good morning. (It's still only 7:30 AM on the West Coast) So with you doing you own custom dying I have some questions that could really, really help me out later this year. Alright, here goes :

1. I assume not to expect to be able to match any pantone the client wants

2. Any difference between cotton and organic cotton for the dye process (I am assuming bleach is in the non organic)

3. Anything to watch out for in regards to printing discharge on what we are going to dye

4. Shirts will be 100%. Anything else I should be aware of?

Again, I have plenty of time but the end of the year will be here fast. Might as start researching now. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

[tonypep]

Hey Brandon. Most dye houses can hit Pantones but in the Uncoated section. And most use greige goods (unbleached and not organic). I have set up dye hoses in the past with DC testing stations in their facilites to chk before goods leave the building. If not they should dye in their sample machine and you'll need to test.

[ZooCity]

Brandon, we sold one of our pre-print lines early this year to one of our wholesalers who is doing this exact thing and we'll be printing.  Organic cotton Ts from a smaller op in LA, Groceries.  So far they are discharge friendly and actually guaranteeing no overdyes and single dye lots for the deliveries!  We'll see how that goes, sounds too good to be true considering the dye runs are not huge.  I'll let you know what I learn through them vicariously on this. 

My goal, and our client's, is to be able to take in a large drop ship of these goods a few times of year for their main, seasonal stock supply to ship for wholesale orders, run DC sampling on each color before production and then rip it all out with WB/DC for a fast turn and very low cost. 

Tony that is a really good idea to have them setup a little DC station to test.  How did you standardize that?  I would probably send them some D-Base and activator, instruct them to mix to 6% and swab or print test and cure and then include a swatch that has examples of pass/no pass maybe?  Or I guess just test in house with the lab dips or whatever they call those samples they send out before a dye lot happens.   This place sounds like they are savvy to DC but it may not be top of mind when they are mixing a dye color.

[tonypep]

I built them a one color jig with jiffy clamps and a kickstand. Set some screens etc. Instead of base we sent yellow as it is most prone to shifting. They would cure with the industrial hair dryer.