FAQs

• 1Can I order less than the minimum quantity specified?

  This question applies mostly to promotional items as our minimum for most embroidered items is one.  Yes, some of our suppliers allow you to order ½ of the minimum quantity specified.  Orders with less than minimum quantities are subject to additional charges that are very close to what the minimum cost would be.  Call our office for additional details and availability on the item(s) of interest.

• 2Can I order products from EmbroidMe online?

  Absolutely. Our online store contains a wide variety of apparel and promotional merchandise but with over 850,000 different items, please contact us for a personalized consultation. 

• 3Do I have to buy a product from EmbroidMe in order to have it customized?

  No. You may walk into any EmbroidMe franchise location with your own apparel and EmbroidMe will be happy to provide you with quality custom embroidery.   There are some specialty items that are not sold through our industry, for example.  If you have a large quantity to order for your company, we are happy to do the ordering and heavy lifting for you! 

  For non-apparel items such as pens, mugs, and flashlights, you will need to purchase those items from the supplier as we don't decorate this type of item ourselves.

• 4Is Shipping included in the per unit rates?

  For shirts, caps, and other embroidered products, we include inbound shipping in the pricing.  For most promotional items, prices do not include shipping charges. All products are shipped F. O. B. factory. Freight will be prepaid and added to your invoice.

• 5What are Overruns / Under runs?

  Most of our promotional product suppliers start with 10% over the required quantity to ensure they get at least the minimum quantity of items.  If any errors or blemishes occur during the imprinting process, the supplier will not ship those.  As a result, your final quantity shipped may be over or under by 10% of the quantity ordered.  If you must have no fewer than a certain number, ask us to pad the number slightly or request 'no fewer than' pricing.  Receiving fewer than your desired quantity is rare.

• 6What are the washing instructions for my new decorated item?

  Garment printed shirts should be washed according to garment directions.  However, we recommend cold water and mild detergent.  NEVER use bleach on these shirts as the imprint is a water-based dye and will fade quickly when bleached.  You may notice some slight surface fading after the first wash. The effect of a dark garment printed design on a sport grey t-shirt, for example, creates an almost instant vintage look and feel.

  Heat pressed items should be washed according to garment directions.  We recommend turning the item inside out so they do not rub on other items in the wash.  Remove the garment from the dryer promptly; do not overheat or apply a direct iron.  Do not pick at a heat press treatment while it is warm.  If you must iron, use low temperature and place a t-shirt or other soft item between the iron and the garment.  If there is no fabric pre-treatment (non-wrinkle, non-stain, water repellent, etc.) the heat press treatment should outlast the garment. Heat pressed items will not chip or fade over time, but do occasional come loose.  We are more than happy to repress items.  If you launder them well, you will have several long years of happy use.

  Screen printed shirts should be washed according to garment directions.  We recommend turning the item inside out to avoid having the design rub on other items in the washer/dryer.  Screen printed items may begin to crack or chip after several years of use/washing.

  Embroidered items require no special treatment as we use color-fast polyester thread.   If you have a large fill area on a cotton item, you will want to take extra care to use cold water and low temperature drying to minimize shrinkage so the logo remains flat.

  Drinkwear and other screen printed food or beverage items may be diswasher safe, if indicated on the item.  NEVER put a stainless steel or metailic painted item in the microwave.  For longest use, non-ceramic items should be hand washed.  This includes plastic and metal water bottles as well as other items.  Many ceramic items have been kiln fired so it is not possible to wash the design off in the dishwasher.  Etched glassware may be dishwasher safe;  check the bottom of the individual item.  if in doubt, handwash the item or ask us to research for you.

• 7What are your holiday hours and closures?

  We are closed for most major holidays or the Friday before or Monday after when the holiday such as Independence Day falls on a weekend.  We have longer closures for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years to allow staff members to travel to be with family members.

  Our 2011 Fall/Winter closures are as follows:

  November 23 -- Closing at 3pm

  November 24-27 -- Closed for Thanksgiving

  December 23-26 -- Closed for Christmas

  December 31-January 2 -- Closed for New Years

  We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.  Please plan your pick up times accordingly.

• 8What do the per units rates include?

  The answer depends on what type of product or service you are talking about.  For promotional items, prices are per piece based on quantity ordered. Normally, prices include a one color one location imprint. Embroidery pricing includes up to a 12 color logo in one location.  Inbound shipping, setup, and color matching fees may also apply.  Pricing is subject to change without prior notification. Please call our office for verification and a formal proposal.

• 9What forms of payment do you accept?

  You can make the payment by check, money order, American Express, Discover, Master Card or Visa. We do accept Purchase Orders from Major Corporations, Government.

• 10What happens if I trim this white stuff on the back side of my shirt?

  In general, nothing happens if you trim the white backing on your shirt.  We do our best to trim every shirt close to the embroidered logo before we give it to you.  We are human so there may be one that we miss or leave too much white behind.  Take care to cut away from the shirt so you don't cut the shirt along with the backing.  That backing was used to help keep your garment from stretching or puckering when it was embroidered, but may not be too comfortable to wear.  If your shirt has a very large embroidered item such as an applique' on it, it is OK to cut out the backing from the 'white space'.  Just take care not to cut a hole in the shirt as you do so.  If you prefer, bring your item back to the store and we can trim it for you.

• 11What is Camera Ready Artwork? What kind of artwork do you need for my order?

  Camera-ready artwork is any professionally prepared black and white rendering of your logo, emblem, line art or copy. The quality of your imprint depends upon the quality of artwork supplied to us! Artwork can be submitted via E-Mail, by Mail on disk (3.5 or CD) or FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Laser copies of 1200 DPI resolution are also acceptable.  
  
  Artwork can be accepted from the following programs:
  

  • Adobe Illustrator - AI 9 or higher
  • Photoshop - All EPS, TIFF files (layered if possible). They must be 600 dpi or higher at 100% of final size or larger.

  
  Please Note: Vector Art is preferred. It provides the best quality and allows images to be resized without loss of sharpness and detail.
  
  If you don't have camera ready art, our art department can prepare your artwork, please email / fax or call for quotation.
  
  

  ARTWORK GUIDELINES

  Artwork requirements vary by type of service we are going to provide.  See below for some tips on providing us with your logos and other content in the appropriate format.  Artwork files can be divided into two major types:  bitmap and vector art.  Bitmap art is divided down to the simple pixel or dots.  A vector image is based on a combination of shapes.  It is hard to tell the difference outside an actual drawing program as you can save bitmap files as .eps, .pdf, and .ai but they are NOT vector images.

  We use Corel Draw X5 for PC at our store.  A large part of the promotional industry also uses this program.  Artwork created with Corel Draw from scratch is generally vector art.  To be sure, we ‘convert to curves’ prior to saving anything in .pdf format that goes to one of our suppliers.  Most graphic designers and some members of the promotional industry use Adobe Illustrator.  Artwork created with this software is also generally of a vector format.  If you are sending us files from Adobe Illustrator, please DO NOT save compressed.  It is best to convert everything to outlines and save as a .pdf.  We often have trouble opening .ai files created on Macs that have been save compressed.

  
  Our DESIGN E-MAIL is design@embroidme-austinsw.com.  We can receive files smaller than 10MB at this e-mail address.  If you have a file that's larger than 10MB, you will need to provide us with either an FTP site or mail it using one of the many free 'sendit' websites for large content.
  
  EMBROIDERY SET UP:
  Artwork for embroidery can be delivered in nearly any format including a scan of the back of an envelope!  However, files in .jpg format under 1MB are preferred.  We will also need information on your color choices.  We can help you select thread in person, or let us know what your PMS (Pantone Matching System) colors are.  We prefer NOT to get colors in RGB or CMYK formats for embroidery.
  
  GARMENT PRINTING SET UP:
  For garment printing, we require your photo quality images to be at least 600dpi.  We can take files in a variety of vector art formats such as .ai, .eps, and .pdf.  We can also use files in .psd, .tif, and .bmp and even files from Microsoft Office. For garment printing, we will be literally printing onto your items with a printer similar to an ink jet printer but on a much larger scale.  Our direct to garment printer uses water-based inks.  We can take color references as PMS, RGB, and CMYK.  Since we are printing these items, we are unable to guarantee a 100% color match.
  
  SCREEN PRINTING SET UP:
  For screen printing on t-shirts and many promotional items, vector art is required.  While you may have a file with an .eps, .ai, or .pdf format, it may not actually be vector art.  We can open your file and test for whether or not it's really vector art or just someone saving a bitmap in another format.  We can get a color match with screen printing on t-shirts or promo items using the PMS system.  However, exact matches generally involve an additional fee.  We charge $35 to convert most artwork from pixel-based to vector-based formats.

• 12What is the Standard Production Time?

  For items produced in house, our normal lead time is 10 days.  This can increase to as much as two weeks (14 days) during our busy times (such as back to school and just before Christmas) or if your order is very large.  Normal production time for most promotional items is two to four weeks. However, certain products are available at a faster turnaround time. We even have access to items that can ship the same day when submitted with artwork before noon for a fee!  Rush service is available on both in-house and supplier provided items.  Remember that rush orders may also require expensive expedited shipping, so we advise you to plan ahead as much as possible.  Please contact us directly for current lead times. 

• 13What is your policy for LARGE stitch count items?

   

  Large stitch count designs are accepted but subject to availability based on the store’s workload at the time the order is placed. We reserve the right to refuse any design we have done in the past as well as new designs based on workload.

   

  Embroidered names on martial arts uniforms are usually welcome

   

  . Most names will use our Cambridge or Helsinki block fonts and tend to be fewer than 50,000 stitches. For other types of designs, we also charge $1 per 1000 stitches for a single item. We do offer a discount on more than 1 item. If you require more than a few items with large stitch count embroidery, we may recommend creating a patch that we can outsource to a company that exclusively creates patches. This may also be recommended for you if we need to create a small number of patches with non-geometric shapes (rectangle, triangle, circle) as non-standard shapes are hard to create without a dedicated patch edging (merrow) machine.

   

  Additional Details:

  One-time set up charge of $125 at a minimum, depending on the size of your design. Digitizing is still largely done by hand. Set up fees waived if you provide a usable stitch file such as a *.dst file. Stitch files from outside may be subject to an edit fee to adjust size or quality of the work. We prefer to use our own digitizer, however.

  Stitch file editing at $45/hour, minimum of $15 for existing designs

  Our maximum embroidery size is 11.5" by 18.5". We are unable to create anything larger with our existing equipment.

  Special thread colors may be ordered for $15/color. At our discretion, we may also charge a small fee for sourcing patch fabric for non-stocked colors. We stock black, white, royal, and red. We are unable to create patches that can be ironed on with our in house equipment.

  Normal lead time is 5-10 business days. Rush orders requiring completion in less than five (5) working days will be subject to an additional fee as listed below. Rush service is subject to availability and order size. We may not always be able to provide rush service. Please call ahead for current availability.

  Rush fees:

  We are unable to complete large stitch count items with fewer than 3 days notice. We prefer at least 5 days if we are also doing a logo setup. Note that rush pricing for large stitch count designs is greater than for other types of orders. This is to compensate for employee overtime as well as the business we cannot complete while your design is completed. A 100,000 stitch design will take about 2.5 hours per run to complete when the design is well digitized. We can run up to 4 items per run.

• 14What is your policy for returns?

  Once an item has been decorated, we are not able to take the item back unless it was done incorrectly, we made a documented spelling error, or the item is defective.  During creation process, we will get your approval on logos and can provide a proof to you for other types items as well.  We can also call you when a blank item arrives so you can try it on or see the color prior to decoration, if you request we do so. 

• 15What's the minimum order of a custom embroidery job from EmbroidMe?

  There is no minimum order at EmbroidMe. Our stores will customize any job, no matter how large or small.

• 16When will I receive my proof?

  If you have a new design or you requested a proof of a more simple gift type item, you will receive your proof in plenty of time for us to make any necessary changes before your order is due.  We ask that you get back to us as soon as you can after a proof has been sent.  If you have not received your proof within two days of your order due date, please contact us by phone at 512.892.1300 or e-mail our production team at design@embroidme-austinsw.com.  We'd be happy to check on your proof.  To be sure our e-mails don't get caught in your spam filters, please add design@embroidme-austinsw.com, info@embroidme-austinsw.com, sales@embroidme-austinsw.com, and austinsw@embroidme.com to your safe lists