Key technology decisions can affect your business for many years and it is important to take a long term view and choose the right technology to keep ahead of your competition.
The right partner changes what’s possible!
Look at any new technology or software from a 5 to 10 year perspective, as to whether it can meet your needs today and continue to stay relevant several years down the line. Equally important, choose a vendor-partner that truly understands your business – both manufacturing and technology.
If your core business revolves around team apparel and custom sportswear manufacturing, choose a vendor you can rely on to be the domain expert. Your vendor-partner should deeply understand your business and various aspects of apparel manufacturing: garment printing, pattern making, grading, color matching, one-off custom and small-batch production. In short, you need someone you can lean on for their deep technical knowledge and domain expertise to grow your business with. We suggest looking at five important aspects: front-end designer, setup and launch, ongoing operations, production automation and domain expertise:
- Product Designer
- Is the 3D configurator manufacturing aware (e.g: understand seams, bleeds, etc)?
- Can I control what aspects of each design are customizable by my customer?
- Does the designer support all-over prints that cross seams/align across seams?
- Can I visualize size grading?
- Is there a mobile-native version?
- Product Setup
- What is the process to publish new designs to my e-commerce? How easy/fast is it? Remember, you’ll be doing this thousands of times!
- Are there design automation tools to help me speed up the design process? e.g: automated colorway builder, etc?
- Can I create complex designs and have it auto-grade across sizes (e.g: A text on top and bottom that does not get cut-off as I grade from XS to 4XL)
- Operations
- Is it easy for me to change my apparel pattern at a later date and still keep all my designs?
- Does the visualization faithfully reflect fabric shrink, seam allowance, bleeds, print dpi, color correction and other manufacturing attributes?
- Can I easily change my e-commerce two years from now and auto-migrate all my designs?
- What is the quality and turnaround of customer support?
- Production Automation
- Does the platform support full variable data automation?
- Do rosters work with size-grading, even with multiple text/logo in a single design?
- Can I define grade rules for each logo/text to comply with my team/club/league requirements?
- Does the print output automatically match the set grade rules?
- Can I upload a roster excel and have it auto-generate print-ready-files?
- Can the system handle color matching from design all the way to print?
- Does the system support automatic error-correction of PMS/SPOT?
- Can the print-ready output be optimized, rotated, nested and edge-packed
to my marker to optimize fabric yield and conform to my roll width?- Can this be changed at a future point of time without losing all my design assets?
- Does it accurately convert designs across sizes (automated size-grading) without manual work?
- Does it support different grading methodologies for production automation?
- Does it natively support multi-stroke text?
- Expertise and Turnaround
- Does the vendor have domain expertise in CAD, CAM, DTG, Dye Sublimation?
- Does the vendor understand the different aspects of my core business: garment printing, pattern making, grading, color matching?
- What is the quality and turnaround of customer support?
The proof is in the pudding!
Adding a new technology to your business is not an easy decision and can affect your business for many years to come. So, don’t take anybody’s word for granted and test everything.
- Do a test run to make sure it works as advertised
- Test if the output is truly production-ready
- Test if you can go directly to print
- Test run multiple sizes, with grading of complex designs:
- E.g: Text on collar and hem; Logos on left and right edge to see how grading performs across sizes
- Test rosters to make sure it works across sizes & varying character lengths
- Test if the print output be customized to match your manufacturer’s requirements for each product:
- E.g: roll width, seam allowance, markers, nesting, pantones & laser cutters
- Test if it accurately grades designs across sizes (automated size-grading) without manual work
- Do a grade-test run to make sure everything works as advertised
- Test if it support different grading rules and methodologies for automation
- Check the quality and turnaround of customer support
We are here to help
If you are in the custom apparel or team wear business, we are here to help. From consumer personalization, print-on-demand, bespoke fashion to custom sportswear and sublimated teamwear, we are the #1 technology platform for on-demand production.
For more information or to schedule a demo, visit https://www.vPersonalize.com or email us at hello@vpersonalize.com
