Two of the driving forces behind every successful business are credibility and quality. The two, as with the many other factors of success, go handⁱ-in-hand though they are both equally individual. Quality—the creative, unique and professional products you produce—affects your credibility, how creative, unique and professional the services you offer are. And, to those who are painfully aware, it only takes one sub-quality product out of a million to ruin years of hard-earned credibility.

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The term “walking billboard” has never been more literal in our industry with the emerging trend of customized footwear making noticeable tracks in the realm of decorated apparel. With this segment trying hard to shed its specialty-market stigma, personalized shoes, socks, slippers and work boots are appearing in more mainstream programs, and making considerable margins for their sellers. 

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) has an immediate, broad-reaching effect on the screen-printing industry which has led to considerable confusion and uncertainty. Textile screen printers faceⁱ a series of challenges ranging from understanding what the act covers to how they can be certain they are compliant with requirements for product certification and labeling.

With a mission to create global public awareness of the threat posed by high-carbon-footprint living, Carbon Teeshirt Limited’s climate and carbon-neutral Ts sport a simple footprint design on the front and footprint-reducing message in back. Making their way into celebrities hands during last year’s Emmy Awards and onto the Discovery Channel’s Planet Green series, all within its first year of business, the T-shirts help the company achieve its earth-focused initiative while employees strive to set an example, getting a handle on their own planetary impression.

This country was the only country born, not of chance and tribal warfare, but as a rational product of man’s mind. This country was built on the supremacy of reason—and, for one magnificent century, it redeemed the world.”

No matter how superior you believe your product quality to be, or how dependable your delivery record has been, a decorated-apparel business is only as good as its people—the good folks who interact with your clientele and give your company its reputation. One can appreciate the fact that many employers are making tough fiscal choices to deal with the economy these days but, unfortunately, some of those decisions are shaking the confidence of the very people that could buoy a business to deeper, safer waters.

When it comes to the environmental buzz of late, T.S.Designs’ Tom Sineath has a lot to say and even more to show for his company’s persistent commitment. A T-shirt decorating and dyeing company, its CEO’s viewpoint as it relates to apparel is threefold, encouraging patrons to ask: “Is this shirt’s fabric sustainable? Is it made by a socially-responsible manufacturer? Is it decorated in an environmentally-friendly method?” Breaking it down even further, Sineath describes a sustainability spectrum of sorts on which each eco-component can be plotted. Between, for example, choosing between 100 percent organic produce or simply fruit from factory farms, everyone makes choices within a set of extremes. Sineath hopes to skew people toward better choices. “You’re picking some point along the way.  -Read more-