# Digitizing Logo for a cap & Beanie



## jay521 (Nov 27, 2011)

I have been looking around for a digitizer online for a few days now, some I have seen for a good flat rate. I don't have an embroidery machine, but I would like to get my digitizing from one person, and take it to another. Would this make any sense to do this? Instead of paying $50-$100 in a setup charge, I thought it would be easier to bring in the file and waive the setup charge completely. Would this be possible? I am very new to this, and I am looking to starting my own clothing company eventually. I am currently doing silkscreen prints, and now want to make a few hats and beanies with embroidery. Maybe in the future I will buy a machine and try to learn the programs for digitizing. If there is any one that could help me out, I would greatly appreciate it.

The design is just a cursive font with gray letters and a white outline. Nothing outrageous, I just don't think I should be charged so much for something that I see as being so simple.

Thanks in advance guys.


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## Liberty (Jul 18, 2006)

Jay,

$50 is reasonable, $100 is pushing it for a basic design. There is nothing wrong with getting your digitizing done and walking in with the file, we have a number of wholesale customers that do just that. But the policies vary with each embroiderer.

Our policy if someone walks in with a digitized file is that I will do a quick onscreen revue. In 9 out of 10 cases I can tell right away if the file is machine ready AND machine friendly. I reject about half of the files, most of which were auto punched junk. If a design has too many short stitches, if the densities are way off or if the underlay and pathing are not suitable, we reject the file. Once in a while we will take a job but require the customer to pay for a sample sewout for verification. On the other end of the spectrum I have a couple of customers that each and every file they bring in is perfect and very professionally done. So it varies wildly.

Don't minimize the amount of time involved with good digitizing, even what you think is a simple design. A lot of lettering must still be done manually, especially for hats and when there is an outline involved. And the one true test would be, do you get an actual sewn swatch of the design or just an onscreen simulation?

But the most important point of all is that when you supply the file, the embroiderer should not be held responsible for lousy finished products. If ever there were a case where the old saying "garbage in, garbage out" was applicable it is with digitizing and embroidery...

Good luck...


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## missswissinc (Feb 21, 2012)

the thing is if you have a company do everything (ie digitize and embroider) your stuck using them. If you read the fine print everyone says all embroidery and screen printing files we create are property of that company. So that means if you feel after awhile that your not happy with the current company you can't ask for the emb files because they own the digitizing files. I use a outside company to do our files since we don't have the software to do the work inhouse yet. This way you own the files and if your not happy with company A and want company C to do your work you can say see ya company A. So far we only had one customer who asked for the files back and that was through a 3rd party kind of deal. We forwarded the email to the person who gave us the contract and said you need to take care of this since we are not the original contact person.


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## jay521 (Nov 27, 2011)

thank you guys for your help, i found a local digitizer to do it for a flat rate of $25. Thats half of what I paid, and i took it to an embroidery shop that charged me $14 to embroider the front part of the hat. I think thats pretty steep but I could be wrong. Is there any embroiders out there that you can maybe reccommend me to?


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## buehrle (Jan 14, 2008)

it all depends on the stitch count. a small 3k design and your getting ripped off, but on a 20k stitch design and your not. it's all on what your doing. how many stitches ?


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## jay521 (Nov 27, 2011)

10600 stitches. I thought the digitizing price was right, but the embroidery price has to have a cheaper option, since I provided my own products to embroider on.


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## inobu (Dec 29, 2010)

buehrle said:


> it all depends on the stitch count. a small 3k design and your getting ripped off, but on a 20k stitch design and your not. it's all on what your doing. how many stitches ?


Mike,

Does the stitch count give an approximate value to price and how does it factor in. 

The way I see it there are 4 steps involved. Each plays into a price structure. (Based on run only no garment cost) 

1. Machine load. -Labor
2. Hoop step - Labor
3. Machine Run - Equipment and material 
4. Clean up - Labor

each step has its weight in the total price. 

Stitch count is summed up in step 3. are the other steps just a given? 

Why do people reference stitch count so much in the run cycle. 

Just trying to understand the pricing process. 

Inobu


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## richt74 (Feb 11, 2011)

I would say the price for the embroidery is about right. Not sure if I've missed quantity but sounds like one or two hats which is not a lot and therefore will be charged at a higher rate due to the low numbers. Also as they are your own caps the embroiderer has the dilemma if any go wrong having to replace them and could of been a factor. This is why embroiderers prefer to supply the hats/garments as they can account for any mistakes. Also when they supply they also can mark up on the garment so if needed can charge slightly less to do the embroidery.


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## Riph (Jan 11, 2011)

//begin rant:

"I just don't think I should be charged so much for something that I see as being so simple."

No embroidery is "easy" and cap embroidery is particularly hard. What you see as being "simple" is only simple because you don't know anything about how it's really done. You are not personally having to tweak the files and sew them out several times to get them to work right. You just see the final result, not all the steps that were taken to make the file actually sew correctly on the cap. On an unstructured cap, sewing an outlined font can be a nightmare. 

What one sees on the screen in the digitizing software and what you actually get when you sew the file on a cap are usually two very different things. Thread and fabric are not pixels. They have physical properties and behaviors that have to be accounted for. A good digitizer/embroiderer knows how to translate those properties into the digitized design to get a good result. A hack doesn't.

If I were you, I would go to an embroiderer that does the whole process and takes responsibility for the final result. We all want a good deal, but expertise is not usually free.

If you brought me a pre-digitized file to sew for you, I would make you sign a waiver that says I am not responsible for the final result, and I would make you pay up front so that I would not waste my time unless I knew I was going to get my money - because if you bring a random file from some digitizer that may or may not know what they are doing, I have no way to guarantee quality. 

Then you bring your own cap to be embroidered on. Waiver number two comes out, the one that says I am not responsible if your product gets ruined. When someone orders 100 embroidered caps from me, I order 105. A couple are for finalizing the design, and a couple in case there is a mishap. Just like in screen printing, there is a "duff rate" for embroidery. When you bring only one, I have to be perfect on the very first try. You get to pay me for that skill. 

Oh and one more thing. The embroiderer probably has $25,000 or more tied up in software and equipment to do your cap job. He needs to get paid a reasonable rate in order to stay in business. When you break up the job into parts and try to squeeze all the profit out of it, don't expect people to want to do the work for you. I don't think you should have to overpay either, but stop acting like this is a commodity service that takes no skill and can be done for pennies by a trained monkey.

//end rant


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## jay521 (Nov 27, 2011)

I'm sorry if I offended you, my intentions of the post was just to get some information about this stuff. Like I posted before, I am new to the embroidery field so my aspect could be seen totally different. I never "acted" as the service takes no skill or should be as cheap as pennies. I do respect every business and every field of business so please do not put words in my mouth telling me how I think an embroidery shop would run things or how easy it should be. Your right, I do not know much about embroidery. But I have been there to watch the process of it. My digitizer has done an excellent job. And the embroider as well made the hats and beanies with ease. He just threw it on the machine, cut a few snips of thread here and there and the machine took care of the rest. But paying $14 for each sewn product "12 beanies and 12 hats", I think it's pretty steep. The digitizing fee I am fine with, the embroidery, not so much. Good thing I sold most of the product already, but I honestly only made a few bucks back. Rant or not, I'm just looking for a better alternative and was wondering if anyone could point me into the right direction. I do like to get my digitized file from another company instead of the embroidery company doing everything and owning my design. Again, these were just some test prints, and I will be doing a bulk order soon, so I was willing to experiment with other companies. If anyone could find me an embroidery shop that sells two-tone snapbacks and does embroidery, then I'm all game. I did some research myself and stumbled across ottocap but I need to find my paper work for my ein number. I have the actual numbers but not a physical copy to email them. Again, I'm sorry if I offended anyone, my intentions were never to do so.*

-Jay


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## Riph (Jan 11, 2011)

Yes, $14 each for a qty of two dozen seems high, but for 10,000 plus stitches it is not completely out of the ballpark. All pricing is regional, if he has no local competition, then he can probably get it.

For that order, I would charge $10.90 each, I digitize for free for customers that place an order with me, and I have no minimum order size and no order setup fee. Maybe that gives you a data point. I live in a small town but I have three local competitors. Also, I would ask you to provide at least two extra caps. 

As for my rant, it was just that. Don't take it personally. I'm sorrry I wasn't more helpful. I guess I've had a long summer of people wanting me to work for peanuts.

Good luck.


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## jay521 (Nov 27, 2011)

hey riph, where are you located, and how would i contact you for a quote?


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## Xposedigitizing (Aug 28, 2012)

Hello Jay,

I worked at digitizing company. Generally our customer give the logos for digitizing, and we send the files to him, they will find the embroidery factory or shop in local or have his own embroidery factory. If you have digitizing problem, you can ask me, i hope can help you.

Rudy


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## sassystitches (Sep 16, 2010)

Jay, I would like to discuss this with you. Your PM box is full.


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## jay521 (Nov 27, 2011)

Thanks guys for the help and support! Just emptied my inbox if you were to contact me privately.


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