Hey friends, Dave here with Transfer Express and today, we are talking about the huge
profit packed potential in designing and selling employee uniforms. Now, uniforms are a large
market in the apparel decorating industry because almost all businesses need them, today we're going
to talk about the do's and don'ts for creating uniforms for all businesses big or small. So,
are you ready? Let's get to work! if you are new to transfer express we are the world's largest
supplier of custom screen printed and digital heat transfers heat presses free customizable
designs wholesale apparel and expert advice to help grow your t-shirt business if you haven't
already subscribe we are kicking out new videos like this one every single week now the most
important thing that you need to do as a decorator before you begin designing a company's uniform
is to learn as much about the business as you can it's very important to ask your customer
for details about their type of business what the employees wearing the shirts do day to day
and where the shirts are going to be worn now these questions are crucial because it's going to
impact both the design and the material decisions for your garments that are going to make up this
job for example if the shirts are only going to be worn at one location like a coffee shop restaurant
or store then just printing the logo is going to be completely fine however if the business
is mobile like contractors or landscapers you're probably going to want to add more information as
the shirts typically act as a walking billboard advertising their services so adding those bullet
points of the services they provide contact info maybe the area that they service the logo of the
business if they have one and definitely the name of the business is super important so be sure to
make the text big enough too so that people could read the information from a distance
another aspect to consider when designing employee uniforms is what type material you should select
for the garments for their business so if employees are working indoors at say a retail
store and it's pretty light work or you want them to look fashionable you're going to get away with
something lighter and more premium however if the work is labor intensive then you probably don't
want to be printing on those premium garments like a bella canvas 3001 you'll want to choose
cheaper or more durable garments like the port and company pc54 that can be replaced very easily or
ordered in bulk quantities for a down low price or even withstand heavy laundering if they're
a commercial contractor that's getting dirty at work every single day now if the work is outdoors
you're also going to want to think about choosing possibly a moisture wicking garment for those hot
summer months for the employees to stay cool now these are all things that you could suggest as
a custom decorator that can help you show that you know what you're doing to your customers or
prospective customers and also help you win more print jobs now you do want to think outside the
box of just t-shirts so for food service jobs the baristas or the restaurants like
you could have aprons that you provide as well or just suggest to your clients as
ad-on sales being able to offer additional accessories could really help you upsell your
customer into buying more from your business as an example check out this gang sheet that we made
in the free easy view online designer for a customer with a custom car business so you can
see here we were able to fit artwork for a left chest and a full back on our t-shirt and still
had room on the gang sheet to add this hat print right here and an inside tag now that we've talked
about the do's and don'ts let me show you how easy it is to actually create an employee uniform
with just a t-shirt so we'll be taking this port and company pc 150 ring spun cotton shirt super
soft as well as durable and affordable and we're going to be coupling that with our hot split retro
screen printed transfers from here at transfer express you can see all of our artwork here on
the gang sheet we're going to be printing a left chest and a full back print so the first step is
going to be cutting our images out from our gang sheet super easily with just a pair of scissors
first step is going to be loading our heat press here i'm just going to open the shirt up like
it's a pillow going on a pillow case and push it all the way back that's how i know it's straight
because i see these seams right here on the front of the platen that are straight then i'm just
going to wheel this off and pull it all the way off until no collars our seams are on our printing
area it's great i could check each side and make sure that we're nice and even with the seam
now for left chest prints typically a lot of people have trouble with placement but it is so
super easy to nail the left chest placement all we're going to do is to even help we can
move this one up so we could see where this top shoulder seam meets the collar of our shirt and
we're gonna trace the line straight down all the way straight down right there now that's
gonna be the center line of our graphic so we'll place our graphic right there on the center line
for the distance down from collar we'll do about four fingers to the top of the graphic
i'll just check here and see that the top of our graphic pretty much comes to the top of the paper
so maybe we're just down right where that line is now this graphic is at a skew but these grid
lines on the back of the paper with our goof proof and hot split transfers like we have here
make aligning this super easy so i'll just gauge that right there we look great the center line
comes right through the center of our transfer and now we'll pull the collar off the platen so
we have a nice smooth flat even printing surface to print now we always recommend pre-pressing
your garment before pressing we've already pre-pressed this one and now we'll just go
ahead and print now hot split retro transfers apply at a little bit higher temperature than
our goof proof the 365 to 370 with an 8 to 10 second dwell time just because they don't have
that adhesive powder for a super smooth and soft hand feel on the garment itself so we're
actually liquefying those inks so they sit into the fibers of the shirt and now let's press it
hot split is in fact a hot peel transfer so we'll remove the carrier immediately when
the press opens once we are all set with our front print let's rotate it around to the back
now the quick slip pad protector that we have on our lower platen makes this so easy
that we literally could just rotate the shirt around and push it right back on up we don't
even have to remove it from the press now we'll want to make sure that we're all straight and
centered again by pushing all the way down and then rolling back off you want to make sure
any collars or seams are off again and make sure that we're aligned on the platen just like we are
now let's take our back graphic and we're going to place this one down about four fingers down
from the collar to ensure that it's going to be right in between the shoulder blades you
could always grab your sleeve seams and look and gauge where exactly that's going to lie
so we'll be right here smack dab in the middle of our back in between the sleeves right there
four fingers down and the graphic starts right there at the top of course now that
because we didn't pre-press the back of our garment it's time to pre-press
without pre-pressing that moisture is fighting up when it's evaporating with the heat while you're
trying to push inks down into the fibers so you may see some premature wear or cracking on these
transfers if you aren't pre-pressing we'll line it back up to the four fingers where we had it
right where we were even checking with the sleeves again to make sure that we're right centered in
between sleeves on the back and we'll press this one again 8 to 10 seconds and we'll peel it hot
right when the press opens we'll grab our carrier and peel it away in a nice smooth and even motion
you'll notice that goof proof and hot split transfers almost fall
right off the carrier because of how well they attach to the shirt
we're going to pull our shirt off the press and there you have it an awesome back print an
awesome front print and you may notice a slight discoloration on this red shirt and it's very
typical when you're printing reds or heavily dyed 100 cotton shirts that you will get a little bit
of discoloration but that's the difference in moisture that's why you pre-press well i
hope this video made you feel more confident in doing employee uniforms and putting more profit
in your pocket make sure to subscribe here to our youtube for tons of helpful tips and tricks just
like this one that we're dropping every single week but until next time i'm dave happy pressing