THE BUSINESS OF

T-SHIRTS:
A Textbookfor Success
in Marketing and Selling
Decorated Apparel
By Mark L. Venit
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION i

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ;i

FORWARD

Section One: The Decorated Apparel Industry

In Context
CHAPTER 1: Introduction- Who Am I and W!ty Did I Write This Book? 1

CHAPTER 2: The Making of the Apparel Graphics Industry 13

Section Two: Marketing Decorated Apparel

CHAPTER 3: The Marketing Process in the Apparel Graphics Industry 28
CHAPTER 4: The Eight Steps in the Marketing Process of
Decorated Apparel 31

Section Three: Apparel Decorating Technologies and

Products
CHAPTERS: The Technologies for Decorating Apparel in the 46
21st Century

CHAPTER 6: Products, Product Sourcing, Product Selection 60

Section Four: Positioning Your Company in the Apparel

Graphics Marketplace
CHAPTER 7: What is Positioning? 10

CHAPTER 8: What's in a Name? 73

CHAPTER 9: Second Names, Taglines, Descriptors, and 90

Differentiating Your Company from the Pack

CHAPTER 10: What's in A Logo? 96

CHAPTER11: Image Vs. Identity 102
THE BUSINESS OFT-SHIRTS: A Textbook for Success in Mari(eting and Selling Decorated Apparel

CHAPTER 12: Four Key Customer Concerns: Convenience, 105

Speed, Quality, and Price

CHAPTER 13: Narrowing Your Focus: Local Eco11omic Factors, 112

Geography, and Age-Specific Audiences
CHAPTER 14: The Pri11roryApplications ofApparel Graphics Products 118
Section Five: Merchandising Your Products and Your
Company - 24 Ways To Get Customers To Love You
CHAPTER 15: Leapfrogging Your Way Past the Competitio11 121
CHAPTER 16: 24 Ways to Get Your Customers to Love You 126
• Identity-Builder W2GC2•U No. I: Your Company Catalog

CHAPTER 17: 24 Ways to Get Your Customers to love You 141

• Identity Builder W2GC2•U No. 2 - Your Price List

CHAPTER 18: 24 Ways to Get Your Customers to love You 171

• Identity-Builder W2GC2•U No. 3: Your Showroom
• Identity-Builder W2GC2•U No. 4: Your Website

CHAPTER 19: 24 Ways to Get Your Customers to Love You 181

- Business Necessities
• Identity-Builder W2GC2•U No. 5: Your Company Stationery
• Identity-Builder W2GC2•U No. 6: Your Business Cards
• Identity-Builder W2GC2•U No. 7: Self-Promotion Brochure
• Identity-Builder W2GC2\fU No. 8: I.D. Garment Labels
• Identity-Builder W2GC2•U No. 9: Packaging

CHAPTER 20: 24 Ways to Get Your Customers to Love You 187

- Customer Relations Vehicles
• Customer Relations Vehicle W2GC2•U No. 10: Customer Surveys
• Customer Relations Vehicle W2GC2•U No. I1: Newsletters
• Customer Relations Vehicle W2GC2•U No.12: Customer
Advisory Board

CHAPTER 21: 24 Ways to Get Your Customers to Love You 192

- Goodwill Tools and Loyalty Incentives
• W2GC2•U No.13: Open House Events
• W2GC2•U No. 14: Christmas Gifts
• W2GC2•U No. 15: Valentine Cards & Other Special Occasion Cards
 S ECT!ON ONE: The Decorated Apparel Indus/FY in Context 15

In the 1960s, young artists took to decorating their T-shirts and sweats
with painted images and words. I was one of those early apparel deco­
rators transforming his and friends' shirts into a medium of personal
expression, though my favorite medium was a black Magic Marker™ .
But such frivolity was prohibited at school.
It was the social turmoil and antiwar protests, however, in the late
1960s that elevated the decorated T-shirt into a medium for mass expres­
sion as well as for individual expression. Until the Vietnam war, deco­
rated tees and sweats told the world where you bad visited as a tourist,
what school or college you were attending, and who your favorite team
was. With the T-shirt already the after-class garment of choice for col­
lege students, young protesters quickly discovered their T-shirts could,
with four spray painted strokes, be emblazoned with a single icon to
indicate where one stood on the question of continued American mili­
tary involvement in Southeast Asia.

@
lt was the social tunnoil and antiwar protests ... in the late 1960s
that elevated the decorated T-shirt into a medium for mass expression
as well as for individual expression.
It was the social turmoil and antiwar protests... in
the late 1960s that elevated the decorated T-shirt
Into a medium for mass expression as well as for
Individual expression.

That single icon was the peace sign. This medieval Teutonic rune of
death re-emerged in 1958 as the symbol of anti-nuclear activists. Also
known in history as "the witch's foot," "broken cross," "crow's foot,"
"Nero's Cross." and a symbol of the "anti-Christ"' (a crucifix with bro­
ken anns). this icon appealed to the anti-nuke movement for its graphic
likeness to a B-52 bomber.
Like honking your horn at cars identical to yours, wearing a peace
sign on their T-shirts enabled left-wing students to identify like-minded
friends. Led at first by these left-wing demonstrators, often wearing
the anti-nuclear symbol on their shirts, anti-war protests rapidly moved
from the left to the center of American politics. Caught up in the evolv­
ing political shift, the anti-nuke symbol morphed into the anti-Vietnam
war symbol. Associated as it was with the peace movement, it became
better known and remains known as simply "'the peace sign." Conjure
 SECTION TWO: Marketing Decorated Apparel 39

means you run your own business and do your thing -- mainly sales -­
to earn your money and pay the vendor or vendors for those services
you contract for. It also means you pay your own federal, state, and
local taxes on what you earn as well as self-employment tax, and any
other mandated employment taxes, fees, and pennits. Of course, this
arrangement means you also have to collect your own receivables and
assume all the financial risks of running a business .
.. Working as a commissioned independent sales agent. ln this arrange­
ment, your job is primarily to sell orders and develop accounts. The
company that you elect to sell for processes your orders, procures the
goods, handles getting them decorated, and collects tbe payment due.
Most of the time, the commission is paid to the sales representative
upon the company's receipt of payment, a system known in the trade
as "pay-on-pay."
As with the first arrangement, you are responsible for paying all of
your own federal, state, and local taxes on what you earn. If you earn
$600 or more per year, the company - or each company -- you sell for
is required to send you a statement as to what you received as com­
pensation. In the U.S., that's IRS Form 1099; in Canada it's Revenue
Canada's T-5 .
.. Working as a commissioned employee of a decorated apparel company
or a sales organization. In this arrangement, you have a boss -- along
with a "borne" and the responsibilities of maintaining your position.
Tbis means the company has responsibilities to support you, diligently
execute the orders you generate, and handle just about every function of
the process except for finding customers and earning their patronage.
This arrangement also requires the company to pay its share of
employment taxes, and pay its mandated percentages of your earnings
for workman's compensation, unemployment compensation, and other
requisite taxes. If the employer provides its workforce with healthcare.
retirement, and other benefits, you'll receive these advantages as well.
The company will withhold taxes as requi1·ed by law and issue a year­
end statement of your earnings as an employee - the W -2 Fonn in the
U.S. and the T-4 slip in Canada.
In this relationship you trade yom independence and most of your
risk for a more stable income, all the support functions the company
performs, more predictable hours, and what may well be a variety of
competitive advantages.
 cHAPTER

HOW TO RUIN YOUR BUSINESS -

A ND SAVE IT FROM OBLIVION

Fajita•s - Las Cruces, New Mexico

Jim and Belle Meadows were high school sweethearts in Las Cruces,
New Mexico, graduated college together at New Mexico State Uni­
versity there, and got married. On their honeymoon in St. Lucia, they
decided to live there! A few weeks later, with some help from family, Jim
opened a shoe store. Ten years later they had built a chain of high-end
shoe stores throughout the Caribbean, catering to American and Euro­
pean tourists vacationing in St. Lucia, Barbados, Ocho Rios, Grenada,
Curac;:ao, St. Maarten, Cancun, Cozumel, and St. Thomas. Despite a
wonderful life in St. Lucia, tbe couple decided it was time to sell their
business and move the family back to Las Cruces. Their oldest son Rick
was about to enter ninth grade and Jim and Belle wanted Rick and bis
two sisters to finish growing up in a place more in keeping with "the
real world," not Fantasy Island. Planning their relocation back to their
family's home town, Jim contacted a business broker in Las Cruces,
who located a custom decorated apparel company. Jim flew up for a
look-see and I iked what he saw. As do many other would-be apparel
graphics entrepreneurs, he contacted me for some insight on the indus­
try's stability, operating ratios, typical return-on-investment (there is no
such thing), and current industry trends. I didn't hear back from Jim.
It turned out that that deal fell through, but Jim asked the broker to
keep looking, especially if he could find another apparel graphics com­
pany. A fe w months later, after soliciting some local firms, the broker
brought a deal to Jim for a business that would finish the year at $1.6
million in sales.
Fajita's, a screen printing and embroidery company with 16 years of
 SECTION ElGHT: Operational Considerations 363

serving the area, soon had its third owner, Jim Meadows.
Sales dropped during Jim's first year to just under $1.4 million. Anoth­
er year passed with the company dropping to $1.3 million and not pro­
ducing sufficient profits for Jim to stay in business much longer.
After two years, I finally heard back from Jim, who told me a tale of
great disappointment and growing concern. Juggling my schedule, J
went to Las Cruces three weeks later to help Jim climb out of his hole.
I usually get the client's financial data well before l land on site, but
Jim never got the numbers to me- until he handed me a folder with the
company's bot-off-the-press accounting reports after I got into his car
at the airport. All buckled up, I looked at the materials on our way to
the hotel. About a minute later, f knew why the company was sick and,
without mincing words, apprised Jim that the situation was far worse
than he had led me to believe. He showed no emotion as he listened
to me prepare bis soul to receive Last Rites as an apparel decorator.
A few figures jumped out at me, particularly the operating ratios for
production labor, utilities. and advertising. At 34% of gross revenue, the
production labor figure was "two times bad:' The utilities. at 3.4%. were
three times the industry's average for similarly-sized custom apparel
decorators. Advertising, at .3%, was one tenth of what I recommend
for maintaining accounts, replacing losses to attrition, and generating
sufficient inflow of new leads. Other numbers weren't so good either,
further revealing just how bleak the company's outlook was for sur­
vival. The patient's pulse was weak, its heartbeat dangerously slow.
and the body exhibiting extreme diaphoresis (sweating). The patient
was gasping for air.
The next morning, at Jim's business, we did a quick walk-through,
during which time I asked a few questions of some of the employees.
Their answers fully explained the reasons for the horrible numbers.
What 1 learned in my first fow minutes on the clock made my diagno­
sis of the illness that was killing Fajita's fast and easy. Reviewing the
financial reports on the company's performance of two years earlier,
when he bought it, I concluded he paid more than twice what it was
worth and that the debt service on his mortgage alone would be all but
impossible to meet at the current level of sales.
In the ground floor pressroom, I saw four manual screen ptinting
presses, each with a small electric dryer next to it. And there were four
J64 THE BUSINESS Of T-SHIRTS: A Textbook for Success in Marketing and Selling Decorated Apparel

screen printers on staff. Each dryer was up to temperature and run­

ning, but no jobs were being run. Huh?! Enlightened by the de facto
department head, though no one had the fonnal title or responsibility
of "Production Manager," I was told, "The first guy in, in the morning,
turns on the lights and the dryers in the pressroom."
"Uh huh," I acknowledged.
"That way," the employee continued, "when the screens are done,
we·re ready to set up the presses and roll and don't have to wait for
the dryers to heat up.'' In other words: Even though the jobs probably
won't be ready to print for an hour or two or longer, the dryers are on,
so the plinters won't have to wait the usual IO minutes for the infrared
elements to reach the proper temperature. Given that electric dryers are
usually the single, greatest juice-sucker in a screen printing shop, the
company's electric meter was racing at blur-speed. Four dryers running
at full tilt for four to eight hours of heavy energy use every morning
before a single shirt was ready to be printed made the ridiculously high
utility ratio simple to understand.
On the first floor there, one level up, was another pressroom with a
mint-condition automatic press sitting idle, covered with dust, ready
for someone to whip out a finger and write, "Wash Me!"
''When was it run last?," I asked another printer who was pulling
some boxes from shelves.
"Uh, it's been a coup la' months."
'"How come you don't use it?"
"Well, business has been real slow lately and if we were running jobs
on it, there wouldn't be enough work for everyone [the four screen
printers]."
"l see, " i replied, ending the conversation. I should have said "I see.
l see, T see, "I see" - one for each of the four printers whose labor was
sucking the company dry. But you can't blame the employees. Since
Jim gave them carte blanche io production and really took no interest
in how it was being done - only that it was in fact being done - the
employees' sole interest in Fajita's was to feed their families.
In other words: The employees running the asylum determined it was
preferable - in their view -- for the company to pay four screen print­
ers to run jobs on four manual presses with four dryers running, letting
the garments fall off the end of the dryer belt into a carton, and then for
 SECTION EIGHT: Operational Considerations 365

the printer to dump the shirts on a table to stack or fold them. instead
of: a.) running the jobs on the auto press, b.) running one dryer, and c.)
cutting production labor costs to the bone -- enough to at least enable
the company to get some oxygen into its lungs.
Later in the morning. Jim explained that incoming orders were way
off from the previous year's figures, which were down from the previ­
ous year, too. Jo reviewing a census of the staff and their pay rates, r
saw the highest wages for printers in New Mexico -- and maybe for all
the land west of the Mississippi. Average homly wage for production
employees: $12 to $13 per hour, gross. costing the company $14 to
$16/hr. per pressman- in 2002 ! After lunch I innocently (yeah, sure)
asked the de facto printing manager, "When was the last time you guys
got a raise?"
"Right before Jim bought the company from Choppy."
investigating payroll records, I found that the previous owner awarded
$2-per-hour raises to eve,y single employee in the company two weeks
before the sale to Jim. I presume it was a parting gift from him to the
staff. Yessiree . . . Choppy gave the gift and got the thank-you's, Jim
pays the bill and gets hosed. Veterans, you read it right: two bucks
an hour. For everyone. With a staff of 11. not counting Jim, that was
$22 per hour per employee extra. times 40 (hours per week). times 52
(weeks). Or, a whopping $45. 760 in added payroll per year. not count­
ing employer-paid taxes, workman's comp, unemployment, and benefits
(one-half medical premiums). Cost over the two years Jim had owned
the business. including payroll costs and fringes: $110,0000 extra before
deducting what would have been at most about $10,000 in normally
scheduled wage increases. So, there was another $100,000 worth of
·splainin' about Faj ita 's '·two times bad" production labor ratio.
Advertising totaled $3,600 a year for a shrinking company, but one
still doing $1.2 million. And that was all in Yellow Pages advertising
and donations to a few high school yearbooks and church bulletins.
'·Why so little in advertising. Jim?," I asked.
"Well. basically, Choppy said it wasn ·t really necessary. since every­
one in town knows us and we're right across from the high school."
Good or Choppy. He also told Jim the company didn't need a sales­
person. nor that Jim would have to do any real selling, himself, proudly
noting. ··1 rarely have to leave the shop.'" To Cboppy·s way of thinking.
366 THE BUSINESS OFT-SHIRTS: A Textbook for Success in Marketing and Selling Decorated Apparel

the company was well established, ergo it needn't need much in the
way of marketing or advertising and it could run forever just the way
it was. Perhaps once upon a time it was so.
With the patient in critical condition, going into a coma, and now on
life support, late that first day, I outlined for Jim exactly what Fajita's
would have to do to survive.

1. New Rules for Screen Printing

a. Two of the four screen printing production folks would have to
be laid off the following day, indefinitely. One would have to be
reduced to 20 hours a week. and would get additional hours of work
as needed. The company would, however, continue paying half his
medical insurance premiums.
b. All screen printing orders over two dozen pieces would be run on
the automatic press. All orders of any quantity for multicolor work
would exclusively run on the automatic.
c. Screens for the following day's production all would be completed,
taped and retouched by the end of the day, and the first job for the
following morning's production would be set up and registered by
day's end as well.
d. A new minimum-wage employee would be hired to handle screen
reclaiming, folding, and other lower-skilled tasks as assigned. (Note
that none of the laid off printers was willing to work at a reduced
rate).
Fo1tunately, the embroidery department was functioning well with
one full-timer and one part-timer, who also could help out in other
depa1tments when necessary.

2. Name change
As agreed to by Jim as a condition of my accepting him as a client,
the company's name would have to be changed. ··Fajita's" was a major
impediment to repositioning the company. Jim, who never really liked
the name. was justifiably concerned that after 16 years of business, the
name was known in the community- or so he thought. As name chang­
es are part of my stock in trade, I explained that rus existing accounts
knew it and that customers who left knew it. But new customers didn't