We are on the eve of attending our industry’s big show, ISS in Long Beach, CA this week. However, I was reminded this week that if you keep your eyes open, you can learn things from outside your industry almost as well as within. My pals at Iggy’s Bread always give me inspiration on how…
The New York Times this morning is reporting that American Apparel has filed for bankruptcy. It always is a scary word, this “bankruptcy,” but at least two big equipment manufacturers and one big garment company in our industry have gone through it and come out as very strong companies afterward. There really should different words, but instead…
Bloomberg News is reporting a possible take-over bid of American Apparel by a group that would re-install Mr. Dov Charney as CEO (and resident irreverent creative dude.) The group making the offer is led by Chad Hagan who says of American Apparel and Charney: “American Apparel is a proven viable business model that needs to be…
Our pal Brett Bowden lays some wisdom on us to start the new year. Two hearty thumbs up from the Ink Kitchen on his main points: 1. Stay close to your vendors, good ones like SPSI are incredibly important to your business 2. Don’t forget to have fun, otherwise what the hell are we doing…
I’m not sure it is mentioned in Business School, but the “visions of sugarplums” effect is a real thing during the holiday season. Expect from many employees: – Increased absences – More mistakes – Not listening to you – Just not getting as much work done With visions of sugarplums dancing in your head, it…
Warning! Rant coming. People get their panties in a bunch over being told Merry Christmas when they are not Christian, or Happy Holidays when they are Christian. I’m not much about caring regarding either of those things (though I can see the insult inherent in wishing non-Christians a happy Christian holiday.) It being a Capitalist…
My pal Jon just had a fire at his shop Pop Tops this past weekend. The cause is still being investigated, but it appears to have started while nobody was there in the screen room. A few good things: – Nobody was hurt, no firefighters or employees – Sprinklers kept the fire from spreading –…
Alphabroder just announced today what has been rumored for months, that they have merged with Bodek and Rhodes. Nobody cares about a little billion dollar merger I guess if Bud can buy Miller for $106,000,000,000 (that’s right billions.) This merger makes Alphabroder/Bodek the undisputed biggest shirt distributor as Alphabroder, Bodek and SanMar were previously the…
This is an American Apparel idea for a shirt for employees to wear on Black Friday in their retail stores. It was meant to be funny and for people to ask for an extra discount they are offering. Several commentators including The Cut call them out and say the new regime at American Apparel is…
This post is from our buddy Brett Bowden of Printed Threads: It’s that time of year again. UPS and FedEx are going to be completely slammed with delivering all of the packages full of Christmas presents that your family is ordering on Amazon. We shipped out shirts to a music festival in LA last week…
