Focus on Schoolwear
The little extras F
or much of the UK’s school children the 2020 school year ended with a bit of a damp squib. However, as Geoff Thorne at Jester Prints points out, the demand for leavers’ hoodies was as high as ever with pupils wanting to remember such a momentous year. He says: “Despite the stop-start year 2020 turned out to be and with 2021 starting in much the same way, the world is still revolving and children are still at school in one form or another – whether it's with face to face or remote learning. There will still be a market for school leavers’ hoodies, typically featuring an outline number of the year of leaving filled with the names of all the students in the class.”
Decorating leavers’ hoodies can prove a bit of a tricky task. Because the names can get very small, cutting and weeding vinyl transfers can be a very lengthy or maybe impossible task. Geoff suggests that one solution to this problem would be to buy ready to apply screen printed transfers from Jester Prints. Jester has been making transfers for 45 years and leavers’ transfers since the concept became popular in the UK several years ago.
The transfers arrive ready to use – straight out of the pack for application onto the shirts. No cutting, no weeding and no worries about fine detail.
“So instead of turning jobs away where the detail is too fine to cut and weed, which is what some vinyl transfer printers used to do, take the job and ask us to make the transfers for you. Then all you have to do is apply them to the shirts and get them to the school,” explains Geoff.
Jester can work from your own artwork or, for a modest charge, create an artwork for you from a list of the pupils’ names you supply. When the artwork is agreed and approved Jester will
Its not just the sweatshirts and the blazers that you need at this time of year, it’s all the little extras that enhance the back to school season for schools, parents and pupils.
make the transfers for you. You can use the hours saved by not having to weed by making more sales to print more T shirts.
Work safely
Another consideration during this moment in time, is the need for safer working environments. Wilcom believes it has the answer to this with its wireless embroidery solution called EmbroideryConnect.
Rob Smith explains: “In today’s world, keeping your staff safe is a priority, and our wireless embroidery solution is perfect for maintaining your social distancing protocols. Using EmbroideryConnect means staff no longer need to physically handle USB devices or move around the factory floor, keeping them safer as well as improving operating efficiencies.” Together with any full level of EmbroideryStudio e4.5 software, users can manage their EmbroideryConnect devices, view and schedule embroidery jobs for every machine from the integrated EmbroideryHub console. The EmbroideryStudio e4.5 Social Distancing Production Package delivers all you need and much more on your desktop, placing full production management control in your hands while removing close staff contact.
Streamline orders And finally, in this day and age, no schoolwear retailer would be complete without an efficient website. DecoNetwork is perfectly poised to help garment decorators manage their schoolwear orders with its affiliate website model.
Michal Gembrowicz explains: “Our affiliate model can be used to streamline your schoolwear orders with an efficient workflow system. Garment decorators using our powerful platform are already reaping the benefits. You could work with as many as 500 schools all with their own store, logos, schoolwear products and individual pricing.”
A custom decoration business that offers custom printing and/or embroidery services typically uses an affiliate website to display blank products, pricing, and an online design tool to allow a customer to place an order immediately or request a final proof before placing an official order.
A popular use of an affiliate website is for retail purposes, managed by the fulfillment centre. A fulfillment centre can diversify their business by creating niche retail websites that sell apparel and other pre-decorated products. The great thing about affiliate websites is that there are no extra costs for each website and products don’t have to be decorated until they are ordered, so there is very little risk.
Using an affiliate website is similar to selling niche retail products but it can also provide a site to a client for fundraising purposes. A fundraising website can be managed by the affiliate or fulfillment centre but features unique artwork or typically brand logo on products. Fundraising affiliate websites is very popular with schools to raise funds. Lastly, another popular way to use an affiliate website is to make it easier for clients to place team or employee orders which can often be a hassle. An ordering portal acts more like a one-page website that is very simple, uses ‘batch production’, and requires a login to access the website to prevent anyone from stumbling upon it. It makes sense to provide a client with both a fundraising and an ordering portal website so they can be making money and makes the process of ordering products for employees even easier.
Leavers’ hoodies are as popular as ever | 64 | March 2021
There you have it. These are just a few suggestions so you can enhance your schoolwear experience for schools, parents and pupils.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
