The count down till the doors open

Well this past weekend we gained a lot of ground. It is a matter of weeks before the doors open.
David and I have been building This business from the ground up. It Started in 2001. Wow it seems like yesterday we decided to buy an industrial embroidery machine and start a business. That was just the start of the ball rolling. We had always kept our business in "HOME" so I could be the stay at home Mom. In Today's world it is so important to be as close as you can to your children. Well my baby is 11 and now it's time to leave the nest.

David and I have always talked about opening a Brick and mortar business. We would day dream about what kind of shop and atmosphere we would incorporate into our business. The typical Embroidery & Screen printing shops tend to be cookie cutter shops. Stuffy, dry, and many times messy and full of clutter. Kind of a uncomfortable place to be.

Common complaints of these cookie cutter shops are:

*The Time it takes to have something made

*They changed my original artwork
Ex. I wanted a lot of colors and was told it had to be dummed down to 4 colors

*I only want to order a few, but I was told I have to order more than a dozen

*I was hit with a very expensive artwork, set up and screen fee.

*I wanted to make a change to the artwork before it was printed and I was charged with another adjustment artwork fee.

* I had an image embroidered and wanted to change the color of thread and was charged a fee to do so.

These are some of the complaints we have heard from our customers. We knew we weren't going down this path! Why?...Because we were there once before. I was a customer of custom apparel shops before starting ours.

Lets break down the complaints above.

*Time it takes to get a garment:
We keep some shirts in stock , if there is an item you want that I don't have in stock. I can order the item and in most cases will have it in 24 hours. There are certain items that take longer like varsity jackets as they are made to order in Michigan. It takes about a week to get them. For printing or embroidery. That is about 24 hours. Please note in many cases when the item are in stock you can watch the item get made or Hang out on the couch and watch some T.V. or read a magazine, have a cup of coffee on us at Red Bank Coffee, and walk out with you item. We have even thought about bringing a nintendo Wii into the shop for our customers to use while we are producing their item.

Artwork:
I work with adobe and corel in many formats. You can use gradient colors in your image. If you designed an image even with the use of a photograph you can bring your artwork in on a jump drive or disk and we will print that image while you wait if your size is in stock.

If you have a rough sketch of artwork I will work with you do develop what your envisioning. There is no fee for this. All that is asked is for a deposit for your purchase. You can save your artwork and come back another day to work on it when you have time. Or I will finish it for free.

* I only want a few, but was told I would have to order a dozen or more
The minimum is 1 item. Your artwork will be saved for 1 year you can email, call or text a message to reorder any time. In most cases it will be ready when you get there.

* Fees , screen fee, artwork, set up, thread color change fees:
There are no hidden fees,I am not going to charge you to change the color of thread on the embroidery machine. It takes less than a minute to do. There is no artwork or set up fees.

When people ask what kind of custom apparel shop are you opening. I like to compare it to Build a bear, but in an apparel since.

We are really excited to bring this technology to Two Rivers Wisconsin. We are counting down the days till we open!