Before you can start marketing custom printing services to potential customers, you must understand your available product line and be able to communicate your knowledge with your customers. Having samples that your customers can see and feel will greatly help your chances of getting the order. Whenever you are meeting with a customer, it is a good idea to have both blank and printed samples, along with swatch cards, price sheets, and a product catalog for them to look at. There is no such thing as being too prepared!
The first thing to understand about creating an apparel product line are the brands of products. Print Fundraising primarily offers four brands: Gildan, Port & Company, District Made, and Sport Tek. These brands all have good inventory, quality, and fit. Gildan and Port & Company offer what are essentially the same exact shirts. They fit, feel, and are priced almost identically, but the colors available are a bit different. District and District Made shirts are higher quality shirts that come in a variety of different cuts. District shirts have a slimmer fit than any of the other brands and are primarily juniors and young mens cuts. Sport Tek is primarily athletic performance wear, which can be more difficult to print.
Print Fundraising’s products are primarily broken into 4 categories, and then broken down further into subcategories. The four main categories are Unisex, Ladies & Juniors, Youth, and Accessories. The three apparel categories all include “Good,” “Better,” and “Best” quality t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, and sweatshirts. Years of industry experience has led us to this specific product line. We only offer products that are well-priced, have good inventory control, include a wide variety of colors and popular fits, and, of course, feel comfortable. Most of the products are either 100% cotton or a blend of cotton and polyester. Blends are typically a little softer and lighter than 100% cotton.
One of the big things to understand is what the product codes and shirt weights represent. The weight of a shirt is determined by the total weight of one square yard of the material being used to create the shirt, not the weight of the finished product. Most of the value, specialty, and long sleeve t-shirts are either 5.4, 5.5, or 6.1 oz. Obviously the higher the weight, the heavier a shirt will be. Also, lighter shirts are typically softer. Both Gildan and Port & Company offer a 6.1oz t-shirt. For Port & Company it is called a PC61 and Gildan calls it a 2000. These two shirts have nearly the same amount of colors, fit, feel, and are priced almost identically. Port and Company product codes are easy to understand. A unisex 6.1 oz t-shirt is called PC61, the ladies' version is LPC61, with the L indicating that it is a ladies shirt. A LPC61LS indicates that it is a ladies' 6.1 oz shirt with long sleeves, as indicated by the LS at the end of the code. Gildan primarily follows a numerical system with their product codes.
With a solid understanding of available products, you will be able to better assist your customers in choosing the right products.
If you have any further questions, please check out our FAQ, send us an email, or give us a call.
