TAHPERD Summer Hit

TAHPERD has come and gone and we enjoyed seeing everyone at the conference! Many people expressed interest in our new designs, but there was clearly a fan favorite. PE Love sold out quick. If you are interested in getting yours, then you can order it here - http://store.rocksports.net/PELOVE.html.

Digital Printing at RockSports

The Digital Printing Process for dark garments involves a pre-treatment of the garment, so that the white ink will sit on top of the shirt. The pre-treatment must be dried via the heat press. You then get your artwork ready and send it to the printer. You then print your design. Finally, you cure the ink by heat pressing the shirt again.

To design your own shirt and order it today, please visit http://www.rockapparelshop.com or http://www.rocksports.net.

Dedication to longevity, transparency, and fair pricing

RockSports will be turning 20 years old this year. We want to thank all of our customers for their loyalty to our business. Many people know that RockSports is a family business. Whether blood related or not, we treat all of our employees and customers like family. We value traditional principles of hard work, transparency, and loyalty. Great achievement requires great leadership and a commitment to providing customer satisfaction. To stay true to our beliefs, this post is about an inevitable price increase.

Prices are going up!?!
The past year has been difficult on the screen printing industry and small businesses in general. In the last year prices from our garment suppliers were raised six different times! As a total, we have seen costs rise over 40%! In 2010 we tried to keep our prices down and bear the burden of the rising garment costs. Unfortunately, over the long term, this strategy is not going to be prudent for our business or our customers.

Who does this effect?
Everyone, with exception to the contracted bid prices - RRISD, Leader ISD, and Hutto ISD.

Why is all this happening?
Our analysis brought back four different reasons:

The price of cotton
The price of oil/transportation (yes - a common scapegoat)
Natural Disasters to Textile providers (Haiti in particular)
Labor Markets (email me if you would like some articles)

Another interesting read:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/09/news/economy/cotton_shortage_could_inflate_clothing_prices/index.htm

What this means to our customers:
Many of our customers have been with us for years and have annually ordered similar products. This year, your price will be a little higher. We want to tell you now so that you can budget accordingly. We are also stepping up our cost savings efforts. We are looking to push more of our business online to increase order efficiency. We also want you to know that we will continue to offer the best, fair prices, regardless the outlook of the future economy.

We are listening to you! If you have any comments or any recommendations, then please email us or comment on this blog post.