I feel like this comes up every year.

I have emails in my inbox from 2016 about Alpha’s ‘Primeline’ where they would do embroidery and heat seal.

The distributors have always had a hand in our business.

The last big news was big distros selling transfers along with the blanks.

Quote from: repogolfer on April 03, 2026, 04:59:13 PM

Just for shits and giggles yesterday I ran a dummy order through the website and picked someone about 20 minutes away from me in Sacramento.  50 shirts with a 3 color front print.   All in I would of made about $150 still just by sending the order in through them and not printing it. 

I'm about 10 years away from stepping away and my plan was just to keep my embroidery machines and sign making equipment and just keep doing the things I still like doing from home since I'm not setup for retirement very well and I'll need some $$ still.  This might give me an extra revenue source without having employees or dealing with the printing side of the business anymore.  Who knows this might work in some of ours favor.  I could always do it the old way too though as there are a lot of shops 20-30 minutes away that I could farm stuff out too.

Jon

Or you could send the work to a contract decorator and skip paying Sanmar…

naw, too much work. It's right there in one spot on one invoice, we are a society of convenience.... we'll gladly pay for convenience, look at door dash and all that jazz....lazy society if you ask me

Just for shits and giggles yesterday I ran a dummy order through the website and picked someone about 20 minutes away from me in Sacramento.  50 shirts with a 3 color front print.   All in I would of made about $150 still just by sending the order in through them and not printing it. 

I'm about 10 years away from stepping away and my plan was just to keep my embroidery machines and sign making equipment and just keep doing the things I still like doing from home since I'm not setup for retirement very well and I'll need some $$ still.  This might give me an extra revenue source without having employees or dealing with the printing side of the business anymore.  Who knows this might work in some of ours favor.  I could always do it the old way too though as there are a lot of shops 20-30 minutes away that I could farm stuff out too.

Jon

I'll take this over Alpha running their own sewing machines in Kansas.  That was BS.

Hmm, do you think this a long term play to eventualy let general public place orders with decoration @ sanmar.com. look at all the consolidation the last 18 -24 months, the landscape will be much differant in a short amount time of for many printshops.

The form to become a sanmar customer says "State Sales Tax License # for Garment Industry is required." so it's not like Johnny Landscaper is able to get an account with SanMar - unlike S&S who will sell to anyone with a pulse....

I tried to place an order for 24 tanks, one color pdf for art, it's super easy to do, this will work for anyone doing more volume than they care to with DTF...jussayin