The continuous trend of wearing personalized apparel - specifically shirts - started earlier in the 20th century, becoming increasingly popular in the1960's. Remember tie dye t shirts? From pop culture icons to movie quotes to vintage Van Halen, custom t-shirts are worn by young and not-so-young folks.
If you live anywhere near a popular vacation destination, you have seen souvenir shop displays with every possible piece of personalized apparel for sale. Visitors love to return home and subtly advertise the adventures they experienced while out of town (a/k/a rub it in that they got to go somewhere great while you stayed home).
Personalized Apparel Worldwide
According to a consumer projections created by tracking statistics, global retail sales of apparel and footwear reached $1.9 trillion USD in 2019. While the COVID-19 pandemic affected sales in 2020 and 2021, garment and shoe sales are expected to increase globally to more than $3 trillion USD by 2030.
Does this increase in apparel sales mean anything for your sign business? It can! Personalization is a popular way to make everyday apparel a walking advertisement for a business. When you wear apparel emblazoned with your business name and/or logo, you are making yourself a billboard and a webpage. You can supplement your services with personalized apparel and other wearables
Think of the potential for an additional revenue stream for your shop. And it does not mean you have to change your external advertising. Simply display a few customized shirts around your business and on your website. This may entice your online and walk-in customers into adding a few t-shirts, sweat shirts, or other personalized apparel to their orders. What a way to supplement your services!
Start with Small Personalization Projects
Personalization is here to stay. But are you not ready to fully commit to a huge apparel personalization production line? Think small! You do not have to change your business layout and crater your budget to begin creating personalized apparel. One small piece of equipment in a workable environment is all you need.
At 16" x 20", the SilverBolt 1620 Clamshell Drawer Heat Press is a full-size heat press that can be a great starting point. It's big enough for tabloid size transfers. It can even be used on rigid sublimation blanks as well as shoes, koozies, tote bags, and other assorted textiles. It handles full size and extra large heat transfer applications and has an auto-release mechanism and a pull-out drawer.
Walk Away with Confidence!
The SilverBolt doesn't need a babysitter, and you do not need one more thing to monitor at work. There is no need to worry about "overcooking" your heat transfers while you work on other projects. Program it to automatically shut off. You can also easily load and unload personalized garments because of the extendable lower platen. This threadable platen can eliminate wrinkles and the automatically releasing electromagnetic mechanism completes the press cycle.
Main features of the SilverBolt 1620CSD Heat Press:
- Backlit, touch-screen digital control panel with auto shut-off feature
- Auto-open for worry-free garment production
- Pull-out drawer for easy loading and unloading of the lower platen
- Programmable auto-shutoff sleep mode
- Even, consistent cross-platen temperature control
- Threadable lower platen
- Sturdy aluminum construction
- Advanced backlit LCD control menu
- One-year warranty
Personalization on apparel does not take long to master. It takes a good piece of equipment and confidence! Learning to use this heat press is also very easy. The user manual can provide insights into operating the SilverBolt 1620CSD.
Free Advertising
Advertising is expensive and sometimes hard to track whether you are getting a true return on your investment. You can find creative ways to advertise within your shop without paying for ad space or clicks.
One way is to provide your employees shirts advertising your business as part of their "uniform" while at work. You and they can be a walking advertisement during work hours while drumming up future sales of personalized apparel. There is a reason there are candy and small items closed to the register at stores. Impulse buying!
Another way to advertise your ability to make personalized apparel is through your kids and friends. If you make personalized apparel for your or your friends' children, they are also advertising your talents at school and while participating in extracurricular activities.
Everyone loves a gift or freebie! Why not add a t-shirt advertising your business into an existing order? Just throw in a shirt - it may stimulate thinking, as some of your customers no doubt have children participating in team sports or other school events. These clubs and teams are always looking for ways to identify and unify themselves. You could offer a bulk sale of personalized t-shirts for a local kids' team or organization. Sponsor a team with your logo prominent on the team uniform!
Personalize for Family and Friends
Are you interested in a new hobby? Do you find yourself with time on your hands and designs in your head? The SilverBolt can provide a nice way for you to start a hobby creating personalized apparel for yourself, your friends, your workplace, and more. You may find performance apparel customization is easier than you imagined!
Hold My Drink
What's summer without a cold drink? These 12 ounce can koozies are easy to personalize. Designs, text, names, business logos - all can be added to this affordable koozie blank and sold or distributed in your shop. And they are very affordable to produce
This is another item that can be personalized using the SilverBolt 1620CSD clamshell heat press.
Whether you want to ease into creating personalized apparel, start a new hobby, or expand a current apparel customization business, consider how the SilverBolt 1620CSD can be a real asset for you. The "learning curve" is not steep and our SignWarehouse product support team is happy to help if you run into any issues.
