In the product decoration industry, you are only as strong as your supply chain. Without quality products, affordable prices, and dependable service, it would be impossible to maintain a successful product decoration business. Pricing is one of the most important factors, but too many businesses sacrifice better and more reliable customer service for cheaper products. If your business cannot depend on timely delivery or product quality, then is it really worth a slightly improved margin? Also, pricing will change over time as the market (especially cotton) and dollar values fluctuate, but quality service and dependability do not. For instance, pricing used to be based largely on cases (twelve of a specific color and size). Today the industry standard is price per piece, with discounts available on bulk purchases of the same product.
Turnaround time is another critical aspect of the supplier-decorator relationship. It is imperative to be able to depend on your supplier to have inventory in stock, and get it to you reasonably fast for a reasonable price. Should you have any problems with an order (and over time you will absolutely have some problems) helpful, fast, and effective customer service is a necessity. The last thing to consider when choosing a supplier is the brands that you are looking to offer. Brand names do not ensure great quality, but sometimes the demand for a certain brand can outweigh the importance of higher quality. Due to the vast amount of apparel and gift product brands, it is impossible for suppliers to carry each one. So, it is important to know which brands suppliers carry or what alternatives they offer.
Suppliers have a vested interest in your success and should do everything they can to help you be a successful product decoration business. All the suppliers we include below offer their clients free websites for reselling their products or displaying available products. In addition to the websites, these companies will send clients catalogs, swatch cards, and fliers. However, they will not share these tools with just anyone. In order to even see a supplier’s prices you will typically need to share your tax ID number with them, and then they will look into your status in the product decoration industry. Suppliers will also not deal directly with schools. Suppliers do not want to harm their clients’ business by undercutting them and selling directly to schools.
There are four major apparel supply companies that merit mention here for various reasons: Sanmar, One Stop, Heritage Sportswear, and S&S Activewear. Below, we delve into what important brands each supplier offers, their shipping policies, their locations, and some of our observations about each supplier.
Sanmar
+Brands- Nike, Sport Tech, New Era, Ogio, Eddie Bauer, Gildan, Anvil, Jerzee, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, and Port & Company (Sanmar’s own product brand)
+Shipping- Sanmar offers free shipping on orders over $200.00 and has a daily cutoff time of 4:00 P.M. to ship out that day.
+Location(s)- Ohio, New Jersey, Florida, Minnesota, Washington, Nevada, Texas, and Arizona.
+Additional Information
-Sanmar has the best website among suppliers at the moment. It is user-friendly and has terrific navigation, which is essential when considering the vast amount of different products they offer.
-Sanmar also has fantastic customer service. It is rare to have to hold when calling Sanmar, and their staff is knowledgeable and motivated to satisfy your needs.
-Sanmar has the largest distribution network available. There are warehouses spread out in eight states across the country. So, Sanmar is not too far from anyone in the mainland United States.
-Sanmar has their own brands (District Threads, Sport-Tek, Port & Company, and Port Authority), which are often near-matches in quality for name brands and much cheaper because they cut out the middleman.
One Stop
+Brands- American Apparel, Augusta Sportswear, A4, Carhartt, New Balance, Izod, Badger, Gildan, Anvil, Jerzees, Hanes, and Fruit of the Loom.
+Shipping- One Stop offers free shipping on orders over $250.00 and has a daily cutoff time of 4:00 P.M. to ship out that day.
+Location(s)- Grand Rapids, Michigan.
+Additional Information
-One Stop also has a very good website. Once again, a user-friendly design and easy navigation make placing an order simple.
-One Stop carries screen printing and embroidery supplies as well. This can be useful, since many product decorators use multiple methods to decorate their products. Thus their name, “One Stop.”
-Since One Stop only has a single location in Michigan, most of their business is done in the Midwest.
-One Stop’s prices are higher than many other suppliers.
Heritage Sportswear
+Brands- Augusta Sportswear, Calloway, Flexfit, Izod, Reebok, New Balance, Badger, Gildan, Anvil, Jerzees, Hanes, and Fruit of the Loom.
+Shipping- Heritage offers free shipping on orders over $150.00 and has a daily cutoff time of 4:00 P.M. to ship out that day.
+Locations- Ohio, Illinois, Virginia, Florida.
+Additional Information
-Heritage lags behind Sanmar and One Stop when it comes to their website. The design and navigation features do not function nearly as efficiently.
-Due to their Eastern U.S. locations, Heritage does most of their business in the Midwest and East Coast.
-Heritage offers very competitive pricing for most products.
-While Heritage offers the lowest minimum order for free shipping, they have many items that will not count against that total (including items on sale). This can make it difficult to get to $150.00 even though that number is at least 25% less than their competitors offer.
S&S Activewear
+Brands- Adidas, New Balance, Oakley, Puma, Calvin Klein, Wrangler, Weatherproof, Badger, Gildan, Anvil, Jerzees, Hanes, and Fruit of the Loom.
+Shipping- S&S offers free shipping on orders over $200.00 has a daily cutoff time of 4:00 P.M. to ship out that day.
+Locations- Illinois, New Jersey, and California.
+Additional Information
-S&S offers one of the largest product lines.
-A big reason that S&S offers such a large product line is that they have more name brands than most suppliers.
-S&S offers competitive pricing, even on their name brand prices.
-S&S falls in-between Heritage and the other two suppliers when it comes to their website. S&S’s website navigates well and has a nice design, but it falls just short of One Stop and Sanmar.
As you can probably see, Print Phase believes that Sanmar is the best of the bunch. When considering their coast-to-coast reach, excellent customer service, and user-friendly website, Sanmar stands out among the rest. S&S Activewear is a good alternative supplier considering their large product line and complementary brands to those Sanmar offers.
Product decorators also have many needs beyond apparel. Office supplies and equipment like paper, pens, computers, and printers are also essential. Staples tends to be more expensive than other office supply businesses, but the convenience of their many stores makes them a good option for emergency needs. Walmart and Costco are less expensive brick and mortar alternatives. Ebay and Amazon.com are excellent options for purchasing office supplies online. Shop supplies like cleaning supplies, organizational tools, and more are available at Walmart, Costco, Menards, Lowe’s and Target for relatively low prices. Shipping supplies can be very expensive. Ebay and/or Amazon are far cheaper than most other businesses when it comes to this. Boxes, bubble wrap, and shipping labels are all likely to be much less expensive online for the same brands as major retailers.
Inventory management is an important part of the supply chain process. Embroidery, direct-to-garment, and screen printing decoration shops will typically carry small amounts of their most popular blank apparel products. There are too many available, size, color, and style variations for it to be feasible for a product decorator to maintain inventory for all of them at a given time. Also, because most suppliers offer the ability to get free and fast shipping, it is not as important as it used to be to have blank products on hand at all times. For sublimation and wide format printers it makes more sense to hold blank product inventory. Wide format and sublimation substrates have far fewer variables and are often more expensive to ship, which means that bulk ordering is necessary to keep shipping costs down on a per-unit basis.
As we previously stated, a business is only as strong as its supply chain. In today’s interconnected society, the ability to both send and receive product quickly is paramount to a product decorators success. One must thoroughly vet potential suppliers to try to find the best ones to work with. The available product line, products prices, and customer service are all important factors to take into account when choosing suppliers. The wrong supplier can set your business back, but if you take your time and choose suppliers carefully, then you can set your business up for sustained success.
