The Ins and Outs of Embroidery for Team Sports

One of the most common applications of embroidery is the customization of sports apparel such as adding logos or names to warm-up uniforms, gym bags, or similar items. When a team customizes their warm-ups or uniforms using embroidery, it creates a sense of unity and gives the team a sharper, more professional look.

One of the most common applications of embroidery is the customization of sports apparel such as adding logos or names to warm-up uniforms, gym bags, or similar items. When a team customizes their warm-ups or uniforms using embroidery, it creates a sense of unity and gives the team a sharper, more professional look. A significant percentage of customers who shop RobbinsSports.com for sports apparel want to have more than just a blank warm-up jacket or a plain duffle bag. To complete their décor, they know that signing their sportswear with their team’s logo is imperative. However, especially for those who have been given the charge of outfitting the team for the first time, the details of what’s involved in adding embroidery to their order are not clear. Here is some helpful information for understanding the process and the pricing for adding customized embroidery to your next sports apparel purchase.


Artwork

If you just want to add personalized names to the left chest of a jacket or to the side of a gym bag, you won’t have to worry much about artwork. However, if you need to have a logo (usually these are done as left chest or full back arrangements on jackets or placed on the side or end of a duffel bag) added to your sports apparel, you should come prepared with a digital copy of the logo you want to use. Most embroiderers charge an artwork fee for any significant changes they have to make to your logo to get it ready for digitizing (see below). If you want your embroiderer to start from scratch to create your logo, be prepared to pay about $100.00 or more, depending upon the complexity of the logo you want.



Digitizing

Digitizing involves transforming a digital image into a file that can be read and interpreted by an embroidery machine. Typical charges for this are about $10 per thousand stitches. So how do you know how many stitches your logo has in it until you get it digitized? Most digitizers can give you a pretty good estimate before they begin digitizing your logo. Getting an estimate on the cost of digitizing your logo will help you keep your expenses within the range you expect when you actually place the order.

After you have had a logo digitized, be sure to keep a copy of it on file for the organization you’re representing. Doing so will enable the team to avoid the digitizing expense when placing future orders. Digitizing can become expensive quickly, especially if you are only placing an order for a small number of uniforms, so it’s obviously best to try to avoid that overhead.


Pricing

Pricing with embroidery is most often done based upon the stitch count of your logo, which determines the time it takes for any particular embroidery machine to complete the logo. Usually embroiderers give price breaks according to the quantity you are ordering. Of course the pricing varies from one company to another. Here are some benchmarks. If you want to have a left chest logo put onto a typical windbreaker jacket and you are ordering twelve of them, you’ll likely pay about $5.00-$6.00 per embroidered logo for logos that are under 7,000 stitches. If you are ordering less than that quantity, you may find that your embroiderer charges a setup fee as well. Pricing beyond 7,000 stitches usually goes up on a per thousand basis. You can normally expect to pay an additional $0.50-0.60 per thousand stitches beyond 7,000.

For an order of hundreds of jackets compared to just ten or twelve, you should get a price break from your embroiderer. Most companies will go down to a threshold price (say for instance $3.00 per logo for a 7,000 stitch logo) based upon a certain quantity – say 200 articles. Beyond that number of embroidered logos, the pricing will stay the same no matter how many more you have done.


Lead Times

We find that many of our customers contact us in a rushed hurry, often times asking for miracles. Many times we are able to meet their demands. However, to be a preferred customer, it is best to allow one and a half to two weeks for your order to be embroidered and delivered. Most embroiderers don’t keep an inventory of all the products listed in their catalogs, so you need to plan a few extra days to have those shipped from the manufacturer to your embroiderer. Planning ahead can save you and your embroiderer a lot of headache and stress.

Richard Robbins is one of the owners of Robbins Sports, a retailer of sports apparel and accesories such as gym bags, sports uniforms, and warm-up outfits.