For publicity purposes, printing your business’s logo, an advertising slogan or other relevant information on clothing and banners is often a very good way of raising awareness. Whether for staff uniforms, in preparation for a trade fair, or in the lead-up to a public event, the ability to fly your colors is essential. A unified show of branding can allow your business to draw the attention of potential customers.
According to www.concordimp.com, printing your logo on items for distribution can be a fantastic way to get information and recognition out there. Businesses have used keyrings, pens, mouse pads and a plethora of other items as free gifts, knowing that whenever their customers use those items, they are promoting the business. Giving away items such as promotional polo shirts, ties and hats is even better, as every time a customer wears such an item they become like a walking billboard for your company.
What is your best option for promotional clothing?
As an example for business owners looking to get their business in the public eye, we will look at the idea of distributing printed hats; a smaller item that is easier and cheaper to produce than most outerwear, while being highly visible. Additionally, it is a practical item; on a sunny day, people will reach for a hat to keep the sun out of their eyes. If that hat happens to feature an ad for your business, then it will do you a lot of favors in terms of free publicity.
Your main options for printing a company logo on an item of clothing are screen printing and embroidery. The former refers to a method of printing where ink is literally pressed onto an item through a stencilled screen; the latter, as you may have guessed, means stitching differently-colored threads into an item to create a visible logo or lettering. When it comes to choosing which of these methods to go for, it is worth asking a few relevant questions.
Screen printed hats vs embroidered hats: Which lasts longer?
While screen printing is an effective and practical method for transferring a logo onto an item of clothing, it is widely recognized that it has issues when it comes to staying power. Depending on how much you are willing to spend, you can mitigate these issues to a greater or lesser extent but, every time the item is washed, you will inevitably lose a little more boldness in the logo. It will fade, bit by bit, until eventually you can be left with a garment where the logo or slogan is not visible at all.
Embroidered hats, for their part, will maintain visibility and legibility in the longer term. Though threads can break over time, this will only happen over a much longer time frame and you can expect a hat with an embroidered logo to deliver publicity for your company or cause for years. As thread maintains its color for longer, embroidery offers an enduring return on your investment.
Screen printed hats vs embroidered hats: Which is more cost-effective?
The process of screen printing is simpler than most methods of logo transfer. It simply involves pressing the logo onto a flattened surface and using this method it is easier to mass-produce promotional items. If you’re doing a run of, say, 1,000 t-shirts, then it’s hard to deny the advantage that is offered by this simple method. It’s trickier to produce hats in this way, as they are harder to keep flat; it’s not impossible, though, and screen printing hats is a viable approach.
Embroidery is a more complicated process and is, therefore, more expensive. If you are doing that same run of printed shirts, then the amount of thread needed to print a larger logo or slogan would present an issue and may make screen printing a better choice. With that said, hats are by nature a smaller item and even if there is a greater cost involved, you are very much getting what you pay for. Over the duration of a garment’s life-span, you are liable to make your money back thanks to the greater durability of embroidered hats.
Screen printed hats vs embroidered hats: Which looks better?
Screen printing on hats comes with one primary concern – you are using a method that depends on the garment being flat, on a garment that will by its very nature be curved when worn. This can create a distorting effect that has implications for the quality of the result. In addition, screen printing works best over a wider area and is unlikely to achieve the best results for the kind of fine lettering and detailing that a smaller logo demands. Finally, there is the existing concern about how quickly screen printing can fade; when this starts to happen, it can render the logo illegible, or simply make it look cheap.
While screen printed hats are unlikely to look great for long, embroidery carries with it a touch of quality that will reflect well on the business that uses it for their promotional items. The uptick in business that you are likely to see as a result will more than pay for any additional cost, so quality is the number one priority here. Embroidered hats will look better for longer, so from an aesthetic point of view they are indisputably the winner in this category.
Conclusion
There are specific reasons why embroidering is the right choice for printing a logo on a hat – and these reasons will not always apply in other situations; for example, screen printing could well be the right choice for a t-shirt or sweatshirt depending on the size of the logo needed. However, when it comes to placing a logo on a garment the size of a hat, there can be no real doubt that, in this case, embroidery is the way to go. It looks better, and it lasts longer; even if there is a higher cost involved, it is one that pays for itself with a clear difference in quality.
