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10 Things the 2 Regular Guys Would Like to See in 2018

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Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. Every year in January, Terry and Aaron take a look forward at what we would like to see in the industry for the coming year. The ideas range from new products to new techniques, to new ways of doing business. We even call out some folks from time to time. Don’t miss this lively show and listen to what the 2 Regular Guys want for our industry. Plus enjoy some new fun segments for 2018!

Sponsored by: SGIA.org | ThreadX – Palm Springs, CA February 25-28, 2018

ThreadX18Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

 

10 Things for 2018

1) Terry: I’d like to see more of the industry pros (not just a person with a video camera) produce how-to YouTube videos. And wouldn’t it be great if like in Twitter we could have the Verified User symbol attached that says, “This person actually has experience and this is good information.” Maybe an SGIA Verified logo would be the symbol of expertise for the industry.

Erich Campbell ·  Can’t agree enough about the video thing; many groups are thinking in the same way and creating groups of solid consultants

Erich Campbell ·  It’s happening in the vendor space as well, but I can see having a more independent group of experts, too.

Bruce Basen ·  Like the verified idea

2) Aaron:  I’d like to see a Sublimation Committee at SGIA. The garment committee is awesome, and they are doing some great thing with SGIA like the upcoming ThreadX and I think they have some great sublimation representation in people like Chris Bernet from Vapor. But I think Sublimation as a decorating technique of things outside of garments is growing and will continue to bridge more and more decorating challenges with things like single pass print technology and vacuum press opportunities.

Side Note – I just wanted to give a shout out to Ford Bowers and the team at SGIA. I have been very impressed with the direction of things since Ford took over and for all the staff there that has embraced his changes. You have amazing people that have been there for a while like Johnny Shell and Sondra Fry Benoudiz and Marci Kinter who continue to serve the industry and are embracing the changes. There are so many people there to list everyone, but people like Sarah Perkins who is heading up the SGIA side of ThreadX, Ray Weis, Erin Nuss and Dan Marx who are doing some amazing stuff with SGIA’s educational programs. The list goes on an on. Kudos and keep it up.

3) Terry: I think I covered this a couple years ago, but I’d love to see a reasonably priced direct-to-screen machine. Besides the film savings at about $1.00 per sheet, you would also have screens with images burned in the exact same position for all colors, and no risk of flipping the film backward. And… no storage of films, just storage of your digital files. If you can buy a commercial quality direct-to-garment printer for $15,000, why not a direct-to-screen printer.

Bruce Basen ·  Check out the Saati LTS

4) Aaron: There are some really good educational opportunities and people that do it very well. Like Terry mentioned in his first thing we need a way to sift through it all. Some of it is on Youtube, Some of it is on Facebook, some of it is in written format, some of it is seminars and some of it is actual hands-on classes. Honestly, it seems that companies are finally focused on education if for no other reason that it is a good marketing strategy. I’d like to take Terry’s “verified” suggestion one step further and have some sort of an institute that is the clearinghouse for good information and discussion on what good information is.

5) Terry: OK, this one did come up on my list last year, but it’s about to happen. Confidential conversations over the second half of 2017 tell me that more than one pretreat brand will be available in 2018 for printing polyester garments. Can we do it now? Yes. Is it practical now? Not at all.

Valencia Johnson Cooper ·  awesome news on the pretreat!

Erich Campbell · Feasibility isn’t the same as a possibility. 😉

6) Aaron: So this one is going to seem a little counter-intuitive coming from me and nearly sacrilege to Terry, but I’d like to see the barrier to entry into our industry be a little higher. I think many companies have chased the hobby market with extreme success and that has brought a ton of hobby folks to our industry. While the growth has been great, I think we have and will be dealing with some of the growing pains. People are “selling” as professionals bad products and I worry that it will give the industry as a whole a bad name. As the economy will surely ebb and flow those tarnishes will hurt some in leaner economic times.

Erich Campbell ·  The key for me is clearer education; the earlier commentary about the video space figures into this.

Izabela Pintarich ·  Preach it Aaron!

Added Note – Valencia Johnson Cooper ·  more resources on buying existing decoration businesses in 2018 as a growth model

7) Terry: In 2018 I’d like to see a garment decorator seminar or class for production managers and supervisors… that these folks would actually attend. I’ve tried to put these together in the past but all the folks who say they’d love that kind of class don’t sign up because they’re too busy running production. Maybe it’s a matter of coming up with such an appealing list of subjects they have to come! Maybe this will be my first video class in 2018!!

Erich Campbell ·  So necessary. Tons of shops could massively increase productivity if they worked more on process and production management! Embroidery Too.

8) Aaron: I’d like to see our industry continue to embrace a more customer-centric business mindset. Businesses should see their customers as partners, not as someone to try to steal from or someone to fear. There are just so many old-school businesses out there who are still driving some segments and it is time for them to change or get out of the way otherwise the industry will be heavily disrupted by the Skynets of the world. It is just so easy to do business with Amazon (Story about a return).

Erich Campbell ·  We aren’t doing customers favors- they are how we afford to do what we love.

Additional Topic – Izabela Pintarich ·  I’d like to know where the industry is going, with all of the print on demand online shops, automation, etc.

Erich Campbell · These techniques are available to smaller decorators in a way they have never been before.

Erich Campbell ·  Be a consultant, not a commodity!

9) Terry: OK, my last one is a little selfish. In 2018 I’d like to see my niche market book finally finished and up on Amazon. And there are a few other books I have in various stages of completion. I have some pretty big educational aspirations for this year. So this is my public affirmation that I need to get to work, not starting but finishing an assortment of projects!

Erich Campbell · Maybe we need an educator accountability group meeting. 😉

10) Aaron: Since we are being selfish today, I’m going to jump on that bandwagon and bring it right back to something I’d like to see for the 2 Regular Guys. We need a producer! A third member to step up and join us in the background who can help arrange guests, do some of the legwork or prep and bringing the technical aspects of the show together. Preferably someone with some audio and video experience. The monetary pay is terrible, but we are a lot of fun, you will get a 2 Regular Guys Coffee Mug and you will get plenty of industry exposure to grow your personal brand. If you are interested, please email us at info@2regularguys.com and tell us about yourself and your experience and why you would like to be a part of the show.

Other Events

Trade Shows

Terry’s Books

Screen Printing: A Practical Guide to Starting Your Own T-Shirt Business Just $4.95 as an e-book.

Direct to Garment: A Practical Guide to Starting Your Own T-Shirt Business Just $4.95 as an e-book.

Scheduling and Estimating Production Time for Garment Screen Printing Just $2.99 as an e-book

SubliSource

Sublimation just got easier with the launch of sublisource.com, the new US distributor for Best Sublimation. Our mission is to help our partners grow with a different way of doing business compared to all the “Me too” distributors in the United States. We will do this by:
  • Offering products as a single item instead of forcing cases on you.
  • Changing shipping standards.
  • Offering unique products from limited manufacturing partnerships.

This show is brought to you for a full hour by:

Specialty Graphics Imaging Association – SGIA will continually strive to be the foremost resource for information and education within the specialty imaging industry. SGIA supports the digital and screen printing community in the USA and Canada by providing services and activities specific to their interests. While the majority of SGIA services and activities are specific to US and Canada, SGIA will continue to partner with national and regional associations around the globe to continually develop the international community. The SGIA National Affiliation Program brings together a multinational community to enhance awareness and encourage the exchange of information. Supporting the Leaders of the Digital and Screen Printing Community

Equipment Zone, with 20 years experience selling garment printing equipment nationwide. Equipment Zone offers the new Epson F2000 SureColor direct-to-garment printer, their own VelociJet-XL DTG printer, and the all-new SpeedTreater-TX automatic pretreat machine with a full 16”x24” pretreat area. Equipment Zone also carries a full line of DTG inks and supplies. Go to EquipmentZone.com

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