AMBRO Manufacturing is a custom printed t shirts and hoodies specialist. We operate out of a 15,000 square foot facility in Flemington, NJ. Our areas of expertise are: Screen Printing, Embroidery, Knitting and Bandana Manufacturing.
Garment decoration is prevalent in American society. If you are looking for branded wearables, there is no shortage of custom printed t shirts and hoodies companies. These companies typically fall into 1 of 3 categories, and it’s important to understand who you choose to work with, what the pros and cons are of each.
Category 1 – “The Garage Shop”
Typically, these companies are the weekend warriors that are doing garment decorating as a side hustle. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, as an American, I encourage this type of entrepreneurial spirt. In fact, that’s how we started. Although, we were more of a basement shop than a garage shop. I digress. Here are the Pros and Cons of working with The Garage Shop.
Pros – Small and Agile. If you need something done at the last minute, these types of shops can often get it done for you. These shops are often offering lower prices because they have lower overhead. Garage shops are a great resource when you need something in a pinch.
Cons – Most garage shops are 1 person operations, and operations that work weeknights and weekends. This means that the more business they get, the harder it is for them to balance everything. You may experience significant delays. If a shop like this makes a mistake, like a misspelling on your project. They may not be in a financial position to replace the goods and this can put you in an uncomfortable position with them. They are likely going to be hard to reach via email or phone because they are working on printing all day. When you have questions, you may not get answers until late at night, often it will feel like you are working with an overseas company in a different time zone.
Category 2 – “The Medium Sized Shop”
This is us, we have 8 employees and we operate in a brick and mortar facility. The person that takes your call, is generally not the same person that does your work and ships it out. This gives the medium sized shop an advantage over the garage shop. More hands on deck can often lead to faster production times.
Pros – Medium sized companies have the resources to juggle multiple mid to large projects at the same time. If you have a project that is several hundred pieces, large shops may not want to take an order “that small”. Mid size companies love orders in that range! You can usually reach your contractors via email or phone during business hours and sometimes after hours. They are big enough to handle your work, but not so big that you are a number to them.
Cons – Medium sized companies are not going to be your “go to” for small orders of 24 or less pieces. If they do take that order, it’s going to cost you more than if you go to a garage shop. Likewise if you start to get above 750 pieces, mid sized decorators are going to have trouble getting that done quickly.
Category 3 – “The Large or Mega Shop”
The large or mega shop are the companies that provide printed and embroidered goods for major retailers. They are huge. Hundreds or thousands of employees work for them and they have the capability of producing at the level required by big box retailers and large event coordinators.
Pros – There is no job too large that they can’t get done for you quickly. Their pricing is often low because their business model is built on volume.
Cons – It’s almost impossible to get someone at a mega company to answer an email or a phone call. In fact, you can likely complete your entire order without ever talking to a person or knowing who to call if you needed something. Since they have a volume model, you are unlikely going to get the best quality and if you have questions, you will most likely not get them answered.
When selecting the best company to get your custom printed T shirts and hoodies order completed, there is no right or wrong choice. You simply have to consider what your requirements are, and then ensure that you partner with a company that has the ability to meet or exceed them.
If you are interested in custom screen printing or embroidery for t-shirt or hoodies, please consider giving us a call (908) 806-8337 or email us today.