Our new offices are located right across the street from a major retail shopping mall and we frequently head over there to check out the trends. We scour the internet for sure but there is something different about being able to touch and feel the newest products and methods that get us excited. One thing is certain in the industry of custom t-shirts and custom hats….what happens at retail eventually trickles down to our customers. Unfortunately, some of these decoration methods are not possible or are very difficult to reproduce domestically.

One of the more important parts of You Design It that we have neglected lately in this blog is custom hats. I recently went to the Galleria and purchased quite a few hats just to admire the different decoration methods being used at the retail level. Many of these embroidery and custom applique’ methods just aren’t possible to do with blank hats that are already sewn. So why not do it domestically before they are sewn? Because most of the manufacturing and production has moved overseas. Then why not just get them done overseas? There are downfalls to that such as 3 month turnarounds, high minimums, pay vendors up front, etc. There are also some major advantages to producing them overseas as well.

We want to start a short series on explaining the pro’s and cons of accomplishing retail styled t-shirts and hats and the best way to approach that. Specifically we are going to be looking at domestic vs. overseas and ways to get around both.

Stay tuned for that and check out a few of the pics that I took of the hats I recently purchased. I will also be posting the definition of each method you see in these thumbnails:

For custom printed hats and custom embroidered hats, visit You Design It.