How to make branded workwear survive a construction site
Branding that peels after six washes is a false economy. What to specify so a crew still looks like a company at the e...
Garment Printing
Screen printing or embroidery: which one does your job actually need?
WebNinja Administrator
2 min read
16 views
Almost every branded-clothing enquiry starts the same way: someone has a logo, a number of garments and a rough budget, and wants to know which method to use. There is a real answer, and it is not always the one that bills more.
Quantity decides more than anything else
Screen printing has a setup cost per colour, because each colour needs its own screen made and aligned. That cost does not change whether you print twenty shirts or five hundred. Past roughly fifty garments in one design, screen printing wins on price and keeps winning.
Embroidery has no screens, so a dozen golf shirts is perfectly economical. What it charges by instead is stitch count: a dense logo the size of your hand costs real money to stitch on every single garment, and that cost never comes down with volume.
Fabric matters more than people expect
Embroidery needs something to hold the stitches. It is excellent on golf shirts, fleeces, caps and heavy drill overalls. On a thin cotton t-shirt a large embroidered design will pucker the fabric no matter how well it is digitised, and it will look worse after the first wash, not better.
Screen print sits on the surface, so it works on almost anything — but on a waterproof or heavily treated fabric the ink will not key properly, and that is when we suggest a badge instead.
Where the logo goes
A left-chest logo is small. Embroidery suits it, and it is where embroidery looks most deliberate. A large back print across a work overall is screen printing territory, because embroidering that area would cost more than the garment and weigh it down.
The rule we use
- Over fifty garments, one or two colours, large print: screen printing.
- Under fifty, left chest or cap, on a structured fabric: embroidery.
- Photographs, gradients, or every garment different: neither — use DTF transfer.
If your job sits on a boundary, ask for both prices. Any workshop worth using will quote them side by side rather than steering you to whichever suits their machine that week.
WebNinja Administrator
Writes about building and running digital products at WebNinja.
Enjoyed this? Get the next one.
One short email when we publish something worth reading. Unsubscribe in one click, any time.