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Getting started with some new Custom Apparel is very exciting!

Your time is valuable, so when you’re looking at organising your print run, the best place to start is with a conversation over the phone with your Apparel Consultant.

Our goal is to make the whole process an EASY and hassle free experience for you.

Check out our top 5 tips which show you how to get the most out of your apparel consultation.

That way you can focus on what you do best, and we will take care of all the fiddly stuff!

1 – BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Who will be wearing the shirts? Will they be sold, or are they a giveaway / uniform?

Understanding the needs of not only your brand, but the people who will be wearing your apparel is a key step in your custom apparel journey.

With saying that, it’s a nice idea to want to please everyone, however if you have a conservative volume of shirts (under 100) it is best to limit your garment variations to get the best bang for your buck.

We often have clients who want to look at including 4 or 5 different garment styles or colour variations, just for the sake of pleasing a handful of requests.

It’s a great intention, however it’s not so great if you end up having to sit on that stock!

Our goal is to help guide you through your decisions for your brand to ensure you can have apparel that not only looks great, but that people will actually want to wear, and reduce your risk of sitting on unwanted stock.

2 – GET CLEAR ON YOUR DEADLINE

If you have an event coming up soon, deciding on the deadline for your order is really easy. You want to ensure you receive your apparel a couple of days or even a week ahead of the event to get yourself organised.

But what if your event is a long way away? Or what if there is no event date?

In both of these cases it’s still important to work out when you’ll realistically want to get started on your production, and communicate this to your Apparel Consultant.

This way, you can leverage your Consultant’s experience and they will work out what needs to be done, by when, to keep the project on track.

Your Consultant will help guide you each step of the way, as our main goal is to make your custom apparel journey an EASY and hassle free experience!

3 – BUDGET and PROFITABILITY

Is your budget focussed on an overall spend? Or a per shirt price?

Even just working this simple metric out for yourself will allow you to get the best information out of your Apparel Consultation.

In most cases, your Consultant will be able to calculate pricing for you over the phone. Your pricing is calculated based on a combination of your order volume and your artwork requirements.

Our pricing is set, so, sharing your budget with us does not affect the pricing that we charge you. What it does do however, is it gives you the advantage of seeing how small changes might allow you to get a better deal.

Since your Apparel Consultant is an expert in understanding how different variables affect your pricing, when you communicate your budget they can identify ways for you to get better value out of your print run.

So, if your initial idea doesn’t fit within your budget, together you can work out what part of the order would you be flexible on?

Or, if your idea works out within or below budget, that might allow you the flexibility to upgrade to a higher quality option, or potentially expand your range into different merchandise items.

4 – ARTWORK

Is your design ready to go, or do you need some help from our in house design team?

Maybe you’re a bit lost and have no idea whether what you have is usable!

In any case, your Apparel Consultant will be able to work with you on determining what stage your artwork is at, and offer a full range of design services, if you need them.

Ideally, if you can provide your Apparel Consultant with whatever artwork files you have on hand for them to look over during the consultation, that is the best way to go.

But don’t worry, if you need more time to get your design ready we can still cover the project as a whole in your Apparel Consultation, give you a heap of recommendations, and potentially work out pricing for you without viewing your design.

Learn more about how our in-house Apparel Design expert can help out with your design work here – [3 EASY STEPS] Apparel Design Work That Actually Works!

5 – EXPANDING YOUR RANGE

Whether it’s relevant now or in the future, keep in mind that we do offer a range of other Merchandise items to compliment your custom apparel.

For example, our most popular merchandise items include;

• caps with embroidery or printing
• tote bags (VERY popular with the plastic bag ban – learn more here)
• towels
• stubby coolers

So if you were thinking of having some products other than custom apparel branded with your logo, talk to your Apparel Consultant so they can include it in your package.

Saves you a lot of hassle in dealing with multiple suppliers, invoices, chasing deadlines and potentially not having consistency across the branding of the different products.

Put your Apparel Consultant to work and let them do all the boring stuff for you!

This way you’ll have 1 reliable point of contact for all of your merchandise, and you won’t need to cross your fingers and hope for the best!

To discuss your custom apparel ideas now, just give us a call on 1300 853 474 or click to request a call back below!