Building Your Business Identity

Owning your own business requires a lot of savvy to stay ahead of the pack. You want to stand out above the competition, you want to be remembered and you want to make a positive impression. So what does it take to keep your business in the mind of your targeted audience? An identity!

Impressing customers and driving sales get a lot easier when prospects know your name. There are easy ways to quickly and efficiently create a company identity. Here are just a handful of ways.

1. Create A Blog - Web logs or blogs are online journals that can be used to help supply your customers or potential customers with the latest industry news. Blogs also encourage the input of readers, which makes them feel a part of your business and its ideas. There are many articles online regarding how to build blogs and if you do not have the time, how to hire a content writer.

2. Put Your Name In A Public Place – Now this kind of advertising seems obvious but getting it done in perpetuity is the trick. One way is to contribute to a local charity, neighborhood project, public park or playground. Choose a group that has some affinity with your company goals to donate to. You can then send a press release jointly with the organization to announce your gift and hopefully that organization will put up a plaque with your company’s name in a public place. Discuss this option with the organization you are donating to ahead of time.

3. Stay Visible - If you can't afford to underwrite an entire project, just get involved in the community. Join a local service club, such as Rotary. Make sure you're personally connected to the community. Stay visible by serving on the board or chairing events or committees. That will get you known around town and reel in clients.

4. Identify How You Are Unique - Invest in your brand. Hire somebody to help you design a logo and then a public relations campaign to go with it, something that shows how unique your company identity is.

5. Get People to Wear your Brand - Once you have had your unique logo designed, have it either embroidered or screen-printed onto T-shirts, hats, workout gear, scarves and more. Use the clothing as premiums for favored clients or employees. Free T-shirts not only make people feel special, but they get worn on weekends and when customers travel. Depending on the identity you want to promote you can make people look fashionable, promote an adventurous life, fight for freedom of speech, or make people laugh. Your brand could go far.

6. Use Your Online Presence Wisely – Keep your website looking professional and relevant. If it is outdated, hire somebody to help you keep the content up or make changes to it. Don’t leave a half built website up, it is better to have no website than one that looks incomplete. Remember this is your identity people are checking out and judging you by. Use your website to provide information to your customers, show them you are on top of things as well as trends. When using your email, always have an e-mail signature. You can add your logo and tag line as well to your signature.

Remember that identity or brand building is the ongoing relationship between your business and your most influential audience, including customers, media, investors, employees, family, suppliers, and so on. A brand is created from the inside out, from the CEO to the administrative assistant.

So stay ahead of the pack and start building your business identity today.

Justin Morris is a Managing Partner of LEADApparel.com. LEADApparel.com offers first class Screen Printing & Embroidery services, custom clothing including printers t-shirt. Companies purchase t-shirts print services from LEADApparel.com at heavily discounted prices. For more information, visit http://www.leadapparel.com

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Custom Printers T-Shirt

It is easier than ever to have a custom t-shirt printed. You can submit a design, photo, logo or even your own artwork online and have it printed or embroidered on t-shirts, golf shirts, polos, hats, bags and jackets. You can get live feedback about your design from a screen printer or embroiderer and even request a sample. A lot of t-shirt printing companies have no required minimum purchase for custom screen printed wear or custom embroidered apparel.

T-shirt printing has come a long way and quality screen printing far surpasses the techniques that used to be standard practice. Inks have been improved, techniques have been fine tuned, color charts have been digitized for uniformity and screen printers have become more efficient. T-shirt printing prices have come down due to the use of computers for design layouts and logo submissions. You can even submit your art to the screen printer for a custom t-shirt that is truly unique.

There are a lot of reasons that you may need to order a screen printers t-shirt or custom embroidered item. If you are part of a business, organization, school, church, band or club, you may find it beneficial to design your own t-shirt. If you are using embroidery, choose a high quality custom apparel embroiderer. Especially for logo golf shirts and hats or small print embroidery, use a company that specializes in custom apparel embroidery. Whether you need to order in bulk or just one custom polo shirt, you do not want the embroidered logo to fade, pill, fray or unravel.

Customized clothing is great to use for corporate apparel. You can sell custom t-shirts, custom hats, custom polo shirts and custom bags on your web site to make extra money. You can also help to brand your image through promotional wear, imprinted sportswear and unique custom designed apparel. The quality of apparel, as well as the quality of the screen print or embroidery, will reflect on your business. Choose a company that offers a good number of name brand shirts and apparel to choose from. Corporate logo shirts are also good to use as gifts to your clients or can be used as employee wear.

Schools and churches probably utilize custom design screen printed t-shirts more than any other business or organization. Schools have students design class t-shirts, school spirit wear and club t-shirts all of the time. The cost is low enough that schools can benefit from bulk t-shirt printing and use t-shirts for fundraisers. Parents can buy t-shirts for students for as little as five dollars and the school will still make a profit.

Ordering t-shirts in bulk can help keep costs down. Even if you only need a few shirts, it is still surprisingly inexpensive to design your own printers t shirt and use it to promote whatever you need to.

Justin Hoehn is a Managing Partner of LEADApparel.com. LEADApparel.com offers first class Screen Printing & Embroidery services, custom clothing including printers t shirt. Companies purchase t shirts print services from LEADApparel.com at heavily discounted prices. For more information, visit www.leadapparel.com.

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Logo Printers T Shirt and Embroidery Custom Clothing

Custom clothing is an excellent idea for branding your image. Embroidery and screen print are the most popular choices for displaying your logo on polo shirts, hats and t shirts. Embroidered and screen printed shirts are used by schools, corporate entities, churches, sports teams and many other organizations. They have found that custom clothing can be used to make a name for themselves, promote their image, and make a statement about their team or organization.

Polo shirts with high quality embroidery can make people associate you and your organization with the quality and dignity that the embroidered polo portrays. Smooth pique polo shirts, name brand designs and intricately executed embroidery logos will help you to make the impression that you intend to.

Choosing from name brand custom clothing will help you to be confident in the garments that you choose. You may already have a designer in mind, depending on what organization you are promoting or which demographic you are targeting.

For example, a country club golf course would be well served to choose a high end golf brand polo shirt for their campaign. Ping, Callaway Golf, Tattoo Golf and Nike Golf would all be excellent brand choices. Not only would the quality of the shirt be top notch, but the club members would be interested in wearing these brands of shirts to play golf in. They would make great gifts, employee uniforms or inventory for your pro shop. These brands not only represent the quality of a high end golf organization, but target the demographic audience that the country club caters to as well. Associating your club name with all of these things can help you to establish yourself as a high quality outfit.

For custom clothing that needs to be less expensive or more festive, consider screen printed t shirts. These are extremely popular with schools, churches, charities and clubs. They are inexpensive enough to have specialty screen prints done for just about any occasion. Schools create individual class shirts, field trip shirts, field day shirts and graduating class shirts. If the quality is good, then the shirt can become a favorite keepsake of the students and parents.

A high quality screen printers t shirt can last for many years without peeling or fading. They are popular with sports teams, clubs, churches and many other organizations. They make great giveaways or fundraiser items as well. Choosing name brand t shirts and the right printer will help ensure that the t shirts you select hold up through many years of wear.

Justin Hoehn is a Managing Partner of LEADApparel.com. LEADApparel.com offers first class Screen Printing & Embroidery services, custom clothing including printers t shirt. Companies purchase t shirts print services from LEADApparel.com at heavily discounted prices. For more information, visit www.leadapparel.com.

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The History of Men’s Undergarments

Men’s underwear has evolved over the years. In most people’s lifetime they have seen how underwear has gone from a quite ordinary piece of clothing to something that varies in length, color and design.

So what is the history of underwear, you may ask. Is there a history to underwear? Certainly, just as there is a history to about anything, even men’s underwear has started somewhere in time. Of course the only way to trace the history of anything is through paintings, writings and art.

So, the earliest traces of underwear starts with the Egyptians and their hieroglyphics. These underwear designs date back the 2nd millennium and show Egyptians wearing loincloths. Underwear was so important to the Egyptians that Pharaohs were often buried when these garments.

In Greece, slaves simply wore loincloths. The closest article of clothing worn by men in ancient Rome was called a subligaculum, which in modern terms means a pair of shorts or a loincloth and this was worn under a toga or tunic. For other Greeks, the ‘chiton’, an oblong piece of woolen cloth large enough to wrap around the body, was wore and then often fastened beneath by men who were physically active.

Pull-on underpants (not pull-ups) were invented in the 13th century and underwear started to become important garment. Of course these garments looked like baggy drawers and were called 'braies'. Knights wore 'braies' under several layers of clothing topped by their armor. The braies was stepped into and then laced or tied around the waist and legs at about mid-calf.

During the Renaissance, the braies became shorter to accommodate longer styles of chausses. Chausses were form fitting like modern hose and were typically very snug on the legs and open at the crotch. This is when the codpiece was added. As time passed, codpieces were shaped to emphasize the male genitalia and eventually often became padded and bizarrely shaped.

In America, pre Civil War, "drawers" were worn from the waist down and were typically made of wool flannel. A new design that was knee length with a simple button overlap in front and a drawstring at the waist in the back also became popular. This was also worn with an upper garment made of wool flannel, which was worn next to the skin for added warmth.

Then came the invention of water-powered spinning machines and the cotton gin during the Industrial Revolution. Underwear could now be mass-produced and for the first time, people began buying their underwear in stores rather than making them at home. The standard undergarment of this period for men, women, and children was the union suit, which provided coverage from the wrists to the ankles. The union suits of the era were usually made of knitted material and included a drop flap in the back to ease visits to the toilet. Because the top and bottom were united as a one-piece garment it received the name union suit. Hanes opened several mills producing 'union suits'.

The union suit went out of style by the 1930s and men were favoring shorter underwear again. By this time elastic was invented which replaced buttons, snaps and ties. The buttonless underwear, as it was known, had been the first ‘boxer shorts.’

The y-vent crotch on underwear was created by 'Jockey' also in the 1930s. In 1936 OMunsingwear’ developed the 'kangeroo pouch' underwear which used a horizontal vent.

During the second World War soldiers didn’t want to be too conspicuous during battles so, while washing their underwear, whites were dyed olive green. The idea of colored underwear caught on and from the 1950s on, underwear became more innovative and exciting with the introduction of color and pattern. New fabrics were introduced such as rayon, Dacron and DuPont nylon. Nylon tricot briefs were made in a multitude of colors. This was followed by the introduction of Lycra and Spandex.

In the 1970s and 1980s briefs got briefer and underwear was becoming a 'fashion' item.
By the 1990s and new millennium people saw everything from boxer briefs, Thongs and G Strings become a common choice for men’s underwear/

Today, men aren’t left with only loin clothes or long underwear as their only choice for undergarments, no, their choices are nearly limitless. And there you have the brief history of men’s underwear.


Justin Morris is a Managing Partner of LEADApparel.com. LEADApparel.com offers first class Screen Printing & Embroidery services, custom clothing including printers t-shirt. Companies purchase t-shirts print services from LEADApparel.com at heavily discounted prices. For more information, visit www.leadapparel.com.

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The History of Golf Fashion

While golf has been around for a very long time, starting in Scotland, the fashion of golf for players has evolved – from clothing to shoes.

The history of golf clothing and accessories is sketchy but records show Woolrich Co. was the first to specialize in outdoor clothing. Woolrich, who became known for hunting coats, blankets and uniforms came up with the ‘golf pants’ in the early 1920s. Some golfers even took to wearing the short, distinctive trousers called knickers (the name comes from a fictitious Dutch family, the Knickerbockers). This style of loose breeches became popular before the 1900s.

In 1904 Thomas Burberry of London introduced some improvements into the women's golf clothing sold in his store. This included the Free-stroke Coat, which had special sleeves that moved freely with the golfer's arms. He also brought back the raisable skirt, which had been popular decades earlier with croquet players. Through the use of a drawstring, the skirt could be raised up to eight inches or so above the ground.

In the first decades of the 20th century, the standard golfing costume was a blouse, jacket and skirt. Starting around 1909, women began wearing a knit cardigan sweater instead of the jacket. Also, knit jersey was introduced as a fabric choice for the golf skirt and blouse. Other improvements were pleated skirts and pleats in the back of the blouse.

By the 1920s, the sweater and pleated skirt continued to be a popular choice for women golfers. Golf dresses were rather plain, with a straight or a pleated skirt. To add some flair, women often wore patterned stockings, and rubber soled golf shoes. Starting around 1921, women golfers were sometimes pictured in knickers, but that would not have been allowed at many country clubs.

The one-piece golf dress was introduced in the mid 1920. New York's Best & Co. sold a dress they called the "Shirtmaker." This one-piece frock was perfect for golf and other active sports, and was so popular that it was widely copied and became the most popular golf dress style for the next 30 years.

Throughout the 1930s and 40s, golf dresses pretty much followed fashionable lines. Unlike tennis, where the skirt became very short, while golf dresses retained their length. Through the 1950s and into the early 60s, most women golfers wore a blouse and skirt often topped with a cashmere sweater, or a cotton one piece shirt dress. Increasingly, it was acceptable for a woman to wear a sleeveless blouse and even Bermuda shorts on the golf course.

Men’s golf clothing evolved as well from the knickers and argyle socks to the polo shirt and Bermuda shorts. Today many golf courses have a specific dress code. Golfers should inquire about dress codes at golf courses they intend to play at. Generally, municipal golf courses do not have dress codes but many private courses require that those wishing to golf wear a collared shirt and Dockers-style shorts. Additionally, most golf courses do not allow metal spikes on golf shoes.

Speaking of golf shoes, how did they come about? Some credit the Duke of Windsor with making a particular style of shoe popular for the game of golf. This design was commonly known as the reverse calf or suede shoe. It wasn’t long before the well-dressed golfer was seen wearing the saddle shoe – the one that often has a different color band on the instep.

One thing that hasn’t changed in golfing fashion and that is the desire for comfort. With companies designing more and more sophisticated fabrics, golfers, both men and women, won’t have to sacrifice style for comfort as both are being blended nicely together. Once the outfit is pieced together, the golfer can then focus on what is really important – the game.

Justin Morris is a Managing Partner of LEADApparel.com. LEADApparel.com offers first class Screen Printing & Embroidery services, custom clothing including printers t-shirt. Companies purchase t-shirts print services from LEADApparel.com at heavily discounted prices. For more information, visit www.leadapparel.com.

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The Polo Shirt and Its History

Many of us have heard the term polo shirt and many of us have worn them or still wear them. But how many of us know where the term polo shirt came from and whom it was that came up with it?

Indeed the shirt started with the game of polo. Polo started off as a sport played by Tibetan men who called the ball that they hit a pulu. In the 7th Century the Persians invented a new game, a game that made use of the pulu by riding horses and hitting it with sticks. By the time that the Persian game had become a recognized Indian sport, it was called “polo.” When the British occupied India, they enjoyed watching polo games. The British eventually learned how to play polo as well and brought the sport to England.

In the mid-1800s, sports teams in Britain began to wear knitted shirts at soccer games, at rowing matches and at other sporting events. Although they had long sleeves, their jerseys did share one feature with today’s polo shirt and that was they were made from a knitted material. By the19th century, a businessman and entrepreneur who saw the jerseys and liked them, redesigned them and sold them as “polo shirts.” Printed ads for “polo shirts” appeared in Maryland papers as early as 1887.

In 1923 the members of the Hurlingham Polo Team in Buenos Aires appeared at a match wearing the now newly labeled polo shirts. The popularity of the shirt grew and in 1920 a man named Lewis Lacey opened a clothing store in Buenos Aires and sold the shirts. The shirts now had a logo depicting a polo player on a pony.

In 1926 Rene Lacoste, a famous tennis player, brought the polo shirt to the public eye in a new way, showing his audience that the shirt could be worn for more than just polo.
Lacoste’s shirts were white, which was typical of tennis clothing then, short-sleeved, made of loosely knit piqué cotton with an un-starched, flat protruding collar. It also had a buttoned placket, and a longer shirttail in back than in front. He first wore the shirt at the 1926 U.S. Open championship. Beginning in 1927, Lacoste placed a crocodile emblem on the left breast of his shirts. The American press had begun to refer to him as “the alligator”, a nickname that he embraced.

In 1933, after retiring from professional tennis, Lacoste teamed up with André Gillier, a friend who was a clothing merchandiser, to market that shirt in Europe and North America. Together, they formed the company Chemise Lacoste, and began selling their shirts, which still included the small-embroidered crocodile logo on the left breast.

By 1972, Ralph Lauren took the ideas of Lacoste’s and Lewis Lacey and included his “polo shirt” as a prominent part of his original line called Polo. While not specifically geared for use by polo players, Lauren’s shirt imitated what by that time had become the normal attire for polo players. Lauren prominently included his new attire as the “sport of kings”. On the shirts he kept Lacoste’s crocodile emblem. This worked well as a marketing tool, for subsequently, due to the immense popularity of Lauren’s clothing, a majority of English-speaking westerners began to refer to Lacoste’s tennis shirt as a “polo shirt”.

Over the latter half of the twentieth century, as standard clothing in golf became more casual, the polo shirt became adopted nearly universally as standard golf attire. Lacoste’s “tennis shirt” in various golf cuts has resulted in specific designs of the tennis shirt for golf, resulting in the moniker “golf shirt”. Golf shirts are commonly made out of polyester, cotton and polyester blends, or mercerized cotton. The plaque typically holds three or four buttons, and consequently extends lower than the typical polo neckline. The collar is typically fabricated using a stitched double-layer of the same fabric used to make the shirt, in contrast to a polo shirt collar, which is usually one-ply ribbed knit cotton.

Now the polo shirt is worn as standard attire due to its comfort. The shirts are worn by students and adults, athletes and non-athletes alike. It seems the little crocodile is here to stay.

Justin Morris is a Managing Partner of LEADApparel.com. LEADApparel.com offers first class Screen Printing & Embroidery services, custom clothing including printers t-shirt. Companies purchase t-shirts print services from LEADApparel.com at heavily discounted prices. For more information, visit www.leadapparel.com.

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Promotional Shirts that Market Your Logo

Promotional shirts that display your logo can help brand your image. Promotional t shirts and polo shirts are great to sell for fundraisers or to give away to your clients and employees. Additional items to consider are sweatshirts, shorts, jackets and children’s clothing. Some of the most effective promotional items have historically helped many companies brand their image.

T shirts screen printed with your logo make excellent giveaways. They are very inexpensive and will help spread awareness of your business every time it is worn. Most people will wear high quality t shirts for years, so make sure that you get a good name brand, quality t shirt for this. Remember that the quality of the shirt will reflect the quality of your corporation, so going with higher quality, name brand t shirts can be important.

Another way to get your company name out there and market your logo is to have it embroidered on polo shirts or other custom clothing. You can get nice pique polo shirts, cotton polo shirts or climate control polo shirts for sports. People can generally wear polo shirts to the office, for golf, tennis or just about any other sport or event.

Polos with an embroidery logo look very nice and say something about your company. Nice, name brand polos will hold up well through many washings. They will always make a good impression. Associating your corporate logo with high quality shirts will help make a good impression on potential and existing clients. They can also help your employees and customers network and advertise for you.

Custom clothing designed with corporate clients in mind can help you say exactly what you want to say about your company. Some t shirt printers and custom clothing with embroidery logo manufacturers will have a large variety of name brands to choose from when you are ordering. Be sure to order from a trusted company that has a big variety of custom clothing to choose from. This way, you can simply place an order whenever you need more without having to set them up with your logo every time.

Some companies make the mistake of going with a screen printer that only does t shirts. They later decide that they would like sportswear, jackets or children’s clothing. Ordering from different printers can cause your logo to come out looking slightly different each time. Go with a high quality printer for your custom clothing, make sure that they have the selection of apparel that you may need now or in the future.

High quality screen prints will not fade or peel for many, many washes. High quality embroidery will not pill, unravel, fray or appear blurry when complete. Choosing a company that offers the right, high quality custom clothing, high quality screen prints and top of the line embroidery services will ensure that you are always happy with the product you end up with.

Justin Hoehn is a Managing Partner of LEADApparel.com. LEADApparel.com offers first class Screen Printing & Embroidery services, custom clothing including printers t shirt. Companies purchase t shirts print services from LEADApparel.com at heavily discounted prices. For more information, visit www.leadapparel.com.

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Performance Apparel’s Special Performance

When we exercise we sweat, we smell, we overheat or get uncomfortable. But when it comes to clothing with today’s technology, one can choose materials that now breathe or wick away moisture. Fabrics are so sophisticated that they are now called Performance Apparel.

Performance apparel represents one of the fastest growing sectors of the international textile and clothing industry – and market growth is being fuelled by the emergence of new fibers, new fabrics and innovative process technologies. The market is also being boosted by changes in consumer lifestyles. People are living longer and spending more time on leisure activities. New high-tech fabrics are being developed for a wide range of active sports such as aerobics, athletics, ballooning, cycling, hiking, mountaineering, parachuting, sailing, skiing, snowboarding, swimming, and windsurfing.

Companies like Dupont's CoolMax and Nike's Dri-Fit are two of the most popular types of performance apparel and their representatives say their clothing line keeps athletes comfortable by keeping them drier. Dupont stated that, "The whole goal of moisture management is to keep the surface of the skin as dry as possible . . . to help the whole thermal regulation process of the body. If you wick moisture away (from the skin) you help the heart work less hard."

So how does this wicking work and what, exactly, makes the material so special. Dri-Fit isn't any one kind of material or fabric treatment, so this isn’t it. A Dri-Fit shirt could be made out of nylon, polyester, spandex or a mix of all three. And there's no single process that "moves" the moisture away from your skin, according to the company. The synthetic materials used in Dri-Fit are made up of very thin strands called microfibers. These microfibers are manipulated in a way that gives them their special power.

What is a microfiber? In the industry, anything less than one denier (a measure of the diameter of material) is considered a microfiber. That's far thinner than the average human hair, strand of silk or filament of cotton. Sweat is wicked away by these tiny fibers and quickly transported from the inside to the outside of the shirt. Liquid is drawn through the material. Plants drawing water from the ground to their leaves uses the same scientific principle. Forces between the molecules in the fabric and the water molecules in your sweat pull the sweat along.

The fibers that make up Dri-Fit and CoolMax clothing take advantage of capillary action - they want to move that sweat as fast as possible along those fibers. The small diameter of the fibers plays a role here in creating the ideal levels of surface tension and adhesion between the molecules, as does the distance between the fibers. The fabric’s ability to move the moisture to the outer layer of the garment so that it can evaporate is what Dri-Fit and CoolMax shirts do best. With the use fibers of varying deniers, the juices are kept flowing, spreading sweat over a larger area of a garment for faster evaporation.

Dri-Fit’s technology doesn’t stop here. A special chemical treatment is also used to enhance the performance and some fabrics are constructed of two layers of material, one hydrophobic (or water-hating) and the other hydrophilic (or water-loving). Like the other techniques for moisture management, using two kinds of fibers helps draw from skin and to the garment's outer layer.

This of course is today’s technology as fabrics are always in a constant state of evolution. Whether it is sweat or bacteria, fabrics are being analyzed and treated in ways that are getting smarter and smarter of bacteria.

No, these elaborate fabrics are not your old-fashioned sweatpants and t-shirts, but really, how comfortable were those materials?

Justin Morris is a Managing Partner of LEADApparel.com. LEADApparel.com offers first class Screen Printing & Embroidery services, custom clothing including printers t-shirt. Companies purchase t-shirts print services from LEADApparel.com at heavily discounted prices. For more information, visit www.leadapparel.com.

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