frequently
asked
questions

D&S is a Wholesale Promotional Products Decorator.  We work with Marketing Agencies all across the United States.  Our pricing is exclusive to these “Distributors”.  Please contact a Distributor in your area and ask that they contact D&S Specialties for their printing needs.

D&S produces orders based upon a production cycle.  These cycles vary with seasonal volume.  Typically screen printed orders are produced in 5 working days, embroidery orders are produced in 7 working days, and patch orders are produced in 10 working days.  All production cycles begin after your artwork is approved and all products has been received and checked into our facility.  Rush services are available.  A rush charge is a guarantee that your order will be produced/shipped on the specified date requested.  When an order drops below 5 working day production in our facility due to late proof approval or product shipping delays, we will contact you about moving your production date or adding a rush charge.  In some instances, adjusting shipping method is all that is needed.

D&S will send a proof on all orders.  We do this for several reasons, mainly to ensure that you are getting the exact imprint that you are expecting.  We will not begin printing on your order until we have a signed off proof.  Please check your proof carefully as what you see is what you get, and we will not alter art once you have approved your proof.  In the case where we have to alter your artwork after the initial proof approval, we will request a new signed proof reflecting the art change.  In this case the order will be placed on hold.

D&S has a 5 point internal quality control program.   We want your imprint and order count to be the best it can be.  We strive to check in and reconcile quantities, sizes, color, and style of your garments that you provide to D&S.  WE have 3 checks on garment quantities, sizes, color, and styles; once in receiving, one before printing, once after printing.  Your imprint is checked once as an “on press” proof and again as a final check before production.

D&S has a “Do it Right Guarantee” we strive to make sure you order is right before we print your project. Occasionally we get things wrong. In the case where D&S is at fault on decorating your order we will discount or replace your order as necessary. Photos and evidence of the error are required for training purposes so that we may correct mistakes as they arise. We are not responsible for your apparel supplier mistakes.  Please check your order immediately upon arriving to you or your customer. Orders after 30 days from date of delivery to you or your customer are not eligible for return, replacement, or discount.

D&S has options for tagging, bagging, stickers, banding, boxing, folding, custom size tags, etc. Please contact us with your project details and we will put together a quote to meet your needs.

Different types of fabrics may require different types of ink. To determine if you need different ink types, we look at the content % of polyester, nylon, or rayon in your particular garment. Without going into a lengthy chemistry lecture, these particular man made fabrics do not handle heat well and will either melt or release the dye in the fabric or even transfer the imprint to other parts of the garment. Some manufacturers apply a coating to the fabric to prevent dye migration or sublimating of the dye or ink. If your garments have this coating then regular inks can be used. In the case of nylon, we may need a catalyst added to the ink to make it stick to the nylon. If you mix different kinds of fabric we may charge an ink change charge or price the project using low temperature ink on all garments.

2 different logos may be combined within one order as long as the “logos” are related to each other in some manner. Combining orders just for the sake of combining is not allowed. When different logos within an order are combined the order is priced at total quantity of prints with a “copy change” charge added. The amount of the copy change is determined by the number of screens used in the logo. Using a copy change charge is almost always cheaper overall then splitting the order up into two separate print prices.

Combining shirt colors and using different colors of ink on them is a common practice. We charge a $33.34(r) per “ink change” charge to wash the screen on the press and usie a different color for the imprint.

Light ink prints on darker garments require a flash charge. A flash charge is an “under base” of, usually, white ink to make your imprint POP. Although it makes the print slightly heavier on the garment it changes the look of your imprint to a bright, vibrant imprint that is opaque to cover the garment color almost completely. Flash charges can be waived, see “soft Hand printing” on our price sheet, we will not guarantee opacity of the print using soft hand.

D&S has a complete art department. We have an on staff Graphic Designer available for all your art needs. If you need art, or D&S has determined that the artwork for your project needs altered or cleaned up, we charge by the hour $83.34(r) with a ½ hour minimum. Most simple designs or tracing will fall within the ½ hour minimum. Quotes are available and encouraged. Mixing of Vector art (outlines) and Raster art (bitmaps) will not work for screen printing and will require an art charge.

All embroidery machines work with a computer program that tells the machine where to go and when to sew. Making your design sew right on your apparel is truly an art form. Much like a CAD program, a tape tells the machine to move to an X,Y point on a 2D grid and at that point the needle will make one revolution, dragging the thread with it to make your design. All embroidery machines have to have this “Tape” to operate. This is made by converting your image into X,Y points (digitizing) with color changes and trims to make your design awesome! This is what Is meant by a “tape” and all artwork must be “digitized” into the machine’s computer language to work. We can make this for you for $66.67(r) for the first 6000 stitches and $10.00(r) per 1000 after 6000. We will sew out your image on similar fabric to test the design, scan the sew out and then send to you for approval. Our digitizer has been making tapes for over 15 years understands the challenges with various fabrics and applications and is quite good.

Some of our customers like having an outside service do their digitizing due to cost as there are many services out there that will digitize(make a tape) of your design for cheap. We warn you that these outside services rarely ever sew out the design to see if it even looks good. For this purpose, all provided tapes will have a $25.00(r) sew out fee to make sure the design runs properly and looks good on our machines. If there is a problem with the design, most of the time we are unable to alter or fix the issue and you will have to have the service that you used to make the tape fix it. While we will happily accept your already digitized tape, we encourage allowing us to make the tape in house.

Yes, you may mix hats and shirts together with the EXACT same imprint for a $33.34(r) change over fee to switch the machine from shirts to hats. All other charges such as thread changes, etc will still apply.

Embroidery machines run much slower than a screen print machine. On average, a hand printing screen printer can print a 1 color design at 72 pcs. an hour. An embroidery machine on average runs at 900 stitches per minute, but with thread breaks and hooping time averages 600 stitches per minute. That means that a 6 head embroidery machine sewing a 6000 stitch design will produce 6 runs per hour or 36 pcs. an hour. This makes production times for embroidery much slower thus longer to produce your project.

Yes, you are able to change the thread color of a design on in a part of the design depending upon the color of the apparel we are embroidering on. The charge to change thread is $20.00(r) per change.

This is a piece of “backing”. It is a stabilizer to make sure your design doesn’t have 1 of two problems. 1. We don’t want your design to curl or distort with washing. 2. The registration and/or the lettering can be distorted without the stabilizer. On shirts and other apparel we use a “cut away” stabilizer that we cut out around the design, the small edge you see has to be left behind so that the stitching will not come out or not cut to close to risk cutting a lock stitch and having the design unravel. This backing material will soften in the wash. On hats we use a tear away backing since the front of a cap is usually very stable; we use this backing to prevent stretching of the design during sewing.

D&S’s maximum imprint size on a hat is 2.25” tall. The width of the design is usually not an issue but the height of the design is very limited. All embroidery machine brands are different on what imprint sizes they can sew, we have found with our machines that limiting the height of the image on hats gives the best quality. Also, with global changes in the supply chains we have seen a wide variation in product, sometimes within the same brand depending upon which factory it came from. Especially on a hat, if your lettering size is smaller than 1/4 “ there is a possibility that it will not sew well, we encourage designs that are more big and bold when choosing to embroider your product.

Patches are generally no larger than 4” wide x 2.25” tall (maximum size for a hat). We have had requests for much larger patches, even up to 12”x18”. We do not recommend going that big on a patch but we are able to accommodate most requests. Please call us for a quote on patches that are bigger than 4” x 2.5” (9 square inches).

No. We have the option to use a heat seal for application. However, if possible we do not recommend using just heat seal.  We have found our heat seal to be very strong, almost to the point of ripping the leather patch before it will release from a hat; but overtime we are not sure how long just a heat seal application will last. The only way to ensure that the patch will not release is to sew it on.

Yes, we have hook or loop that may be sewn onto the back of a patch or product. The cost is $1.67(r) each for a 4’x3’ square. Bigger sizes of Velcro please contact us for a quote.

There are all kinds of different types of patches out there; some of the most popular are PVC and Woven patches. Maybe you see a style that you like, or a company you have worked with for many years. We have a solution, D&S will sew on your provided patches. We have priced our sewing based upon how many “turns” it takes to sew your patch on. For example, a rectangle patch is only 4 turns (4 corners). Please see our provided patches sewing fees.

Absolutely not, we strongly dislike fake leather. Nothing beats the feel and smell of real leather. We only use real Veg-tanned bovine leather.  We oil our leather after lasering for color and longevity. Over time your leather patch will “darken” as it absorbs oils and impurities from the air and skin contact. We do offer leather dye if you are interested in a particular color of leather. Real leather will absorb dye and oil “unevenly”, this will give it more of a craftsman style of look. Over time the leather will even out in color.