We have on occasion addressed the topic of sensitivity to what sometimes appears on t-shirts and how it can come back to haunt and possibly ruin a textile screen printer. The latest case involves swimsuits produced in Australia using the image of a Hindu goddess.

The lesson to be learnt from these incidents is that if you . . . → Read More: Religious sensitivities and textile printing.

This is the fifth week of referencing extracts from Rafi Mohammed’s book, The Art of Pricing. This time the topic is market share. In North America (and particularly our neighbours to the south) it is almost taken as a given that a business can only be successful if it grows, and the faster the better. Unfortunately, . . . → Read More: “The Art of Pricing” – weekly extract number 5

CTV is reporting that “Environment Canada says we could be in for a warmer-than-normal summer across the country. Senior climatologist David Phillips says preliminary forecasts indicate June, July and August will be warmer than normal from coast to coast”

Okay, since warm weather is t-shirt weather, let’s hope that the man . . . → Read More: Encouraging news…

Distractions like the election and the brutal winter, are over. Would it be too much to ask that you now get out and do your patriotic duty by helping to get the economy moving? Here’s a great idea… how about hitting the mall for a few . . . → Read More: Dear distracted Canadian public…

We have addressed the issue of suspected scam emails directed at our industry before. Having received these recently though, just minutes apart, we thought that it was time to post a reminder that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is probably a duck.

First one…

 “Hello

This is . . . → Read More: More scam emails directed at our industry?

It was announced late last week that Weston Presidio had sold its controlling interest in Toronto-based Trimark Sportswear Group to Polyconcept North America. Trimark was founded in 1975 in Markham, Ontario.

Polyconcept is a U.S.-based manufacturer of promotional products such as stationery, travel accessories, planners and appointment books.   

There has been no indication yet as to whether . . . → Read More: Controlling interest in Trimark sold.

We noticed an announcement yesterday that Gildan had acquired the U.S. head-quartered sock company, Gold Toe Moretz, for $350 million.

We recall fondly the time when Gildan was a Montreal cut-and-sew operation and a textile screen printing shop printing mostly licensed major league sports garments. They grew steadily and, as Canadians, they made us proud; but then they . . . → Read More: Good for Gildan, but what will the job impact be?

The old topic about whether or not something is appropriate to print on a t-shirt came up again recently. We thought that it might be time to once more give the topic some mention because it is something that could confront every t-shirt printer sooner or later. 

Quoted below is a blog entry posted by ParentDish.com that deals with a particular incident. This . . . → Read More: Abercrombie and Fitch’s “offensive” t-shirts.

For most Canadian textile screen printers that we informally surveyed, the winter (also known as the slow season) has been too long. The good news though is that most also say that they finally see things “beginning to stir out there.”

There are many theories about why the economy is good or bad at any one time. . . . → Read More: The 2011 busy season… are we there yet?

Dear Maria:

You know how much we like you. You also know how much we enjoyed working with you while the large retailer that you work for was still having its screen printing done in Canada.

You will recall how for years we matched ink to your designers’ seasonal colour choices free of charge and how we then . . . → Read More: A letter to Maria (and her employer)

Last week we brought to your attention a current online scam. As we mentioned then, doing that post reminded us of a number of frauds and scams that we have encountered over the years. Here is one of them.

This happened a number of years ago, but we have a pretty good recollection of how the scam worked. A . . . → Read More: Credit card scam.

We have seen every type of textile screen printing shop from those that are absolutely spotlessly clean, to those where everything is covered in a layer of lint or “fuzz”, as some people refer to it.

If you have fuzz adhering to anything in the shop, we suggest that since spring is in the air and the . . . → Read More: Spring clean the shop to prevent fuzz fires.

You might or might not have come across this particular online scam, but in case you have not, we want to share it with you because we have noticed it popping up more and more lately.

The approach is received by email and in each instance the wording just differs slightly. The company name and country of origin . . . → Read More: Online scams.

Here is an article by Malcolm Moore that appeared in The London Telegraph on 26th February 2010. Given the devastating impact of low-cost offshore production on our industry over almost the past decade, we think that this article should be of interest to anyone involved in the Canadian textile industry. It is longer than our usual . . . → Read More: The end of China’s cheap textile dream?