TABS Wear blog embroidered promotional clothing supplier’s news & views

Focus on brands: Regatta

In the first installment of our focus on brands we are going to take a look at one of the bigger brands we offer – Regatta.

Regatta are one of the biggest names in outdoor jackets especially within the UK promotional clothing industry.

Regatta jackets are sold to companies embroidered or printed with their own logos and corporate branding but are also found in specialist high end outdoor clothing retailers alongside Berghaus and North Face products.

In Regatta’s own words:

“Regatta has an outstanding reputation for providing our customers with quality and value for money outdoor clothing. Whether it is waterproof and water repellent jackets, fleeces, trousers, footwear or rucksacks, Regatta has everything you need for hiking and walking in all weathers.”

Today the Regatta range consists of numerous styles of jackets as well as trousers and accessories to suit all types of customers, from those looking for good quality everyday jackets, to businesses seeking a fantastic corporate image to the most adventurous outdoor enthusiasts.

Regatta outer shell jackets come in performance patented fabrics, which for most consumers rival the likes of Gore Tex but without the price tag. For outer jackets that are going to be worn time and time again it is very important that they are not only waterproof but also breathable. At the end of the day no one wants to wear a jacket for very long if it’s uncomfortable and you don’t get your logo embroidered on a jacket only for it to sit in someone’s wardrobe. This is where the performance fabrics by Regatta come in, for example the ‘Isolite 5000 lightweight polyamide micro ripstop fabric’.

One of the latest additions to the promotional leisurewear market which has bee very popular in recent years having made it’s way over from the high end specialist outdoor clothing arena has been ‘soft shell’ jackets. This type of jacket has become increasingly more popular over the last few years.

To find out more about Regatta’s products, company history etc check out their website www.regatta.com.

If you are looking at getting some jackets with your embroidered logo you can check out the embroidered jackets section at TabsWear where you will find garments by Regatta amongst other quality brands.

n the first instalment of our focus on brands we are going to take a look at one of the bigger brands we offer – Regatta.Regatta are one of the biggest names in outdoor jackets especially within the UK promotional clothing industry.

Regatta jackets are sold to companies embroidered or printed with their own logos and corporate branding but are also found in specialist high end outdoor clothing retailers alongside Berghaus and North Face products.

In Regatta’s own words:

“Regatta has an outstanding reputation for providing our customers with quality and value for money outdoor clothing. Whether it is waterproof and water repellent jackets, fleeces, trousers, footwear or rucksacks, Regatta has everything you need for hiking and walking in all weathers.”

Today the Regatta range consists of numerous styles of jackets as well as trousers and accessories to suit all types of customers, from those looking for good quality everyday jackets, to businesses seeking a fantastic corporate image to the most adventurous outdoor enthusiasts.

Regatta outer shell jackets come in performance patented fabrics, which for most consumers rival the likes of Gore Tex but without the price tag. For outer jackets that are going to be worn time and time again it is very important that they are not only waterproof but also breathable. At the end of the day no one wants to wear a jacket for very long if it’s uncomfortable and you don’t get your logo embroidered on a jacket only for it to sit in someone’s wardrobe. This is where the performance fabrics by Regatta come in, for example the ‘Isolite 5000 lightweight polyamide micro ripstop fabric’ .

One of the latest additions to the promotional leisurewear market which has bee very popular in recent years having made it’s way over from the high end specialist outdoor clothing arena has been ‘soft shell’ jackets. This type of jacket has become increasingly more popular over the last few years.

To find out more about Regatta’s products, company history etc check out their website www.regatta.com.

If you are looking at getting some jackets with your embroidered logo you can check out the embroidered jackets section at TabsWear where you will find garments by Regatta amongst other quality brands.

Just hoods

Just added to our catalogue is the Just Hoods range of hoodies by All We Do Is.

Of most note is the College Hoodie which is available in 40 colours. No longer will you have to order hoodies from several different brands due to colours not being available. Colours are not limited to the standard, red, royal, navy etc with new and exciting shades such as Red Hot Chilli, Fire Red and Cranberry offered for reds and for greens there are moss, military,  apple, lime and olive.

The range includes the College hoodie, a full zip “Zoodie” along with a ladies fit “Girly Zoodie” as well as kids hoodie and the “Street Hoodie“.

With hoodies being an ever popular piece of promotional clothing not looking likely to go away anytime soon, we expect these to be very popular.

Ebay offer!

We have just started up selling through Ebay.

As a special introduction to Eaby we are offering 6x polo shirts embroidered with text in one of our stock fonts.

The polo shirt is standard classic style polo in a nice quality, 190gsm 50/50% poly/cotton.

Available in 10 colours, sizes S (36-38″ chest) up to 4XL (52-54″ chest).
Please note that sizes 3XL and 4XL are priced at an extra £1.00 each

School / kids wear

We offer many leading print-wear brands with good ranges of kids wear. Jerzees and Fruit of the Loom are just a couple of the brands we can offer.

Both Fruit of the Loom and Jerzees have ranges for kids including polo shirts, sweatshirts, fleeces and more. These garments come in colours to match with the brands adults sizes. Our most popular brand to date, Uneek also have a kids polo shirt, sweatshirt, fleeces and t-shirt available in the same colours as their adults range.

We can offer school wear in small quantities as well as larger. Our minimum order is just 12 items per embroidery design and this goes for kids wear as well. So it doesn’t matter if you need to kit out the whole school or just a sports team. We are happy to supply to schools, PTAs, sports clubs or parents.

Some of the kids clothing is already up on our website and we will always be happy to quote for anything you can’t find online in our catalogue.

Framing for embroidery

Almost everything in our catalogue is priced to include an embroidery in the typical position. We try to mention the standard embroidery position for each garment or item on it’s product page. Polo shirts for example are usually embroidered on the left breast.

We can also embroider in other “non standard” positions such as the sleeve of a polo shirt for example and are often asked about doing things like this.

To put a garment into the embroidery machine it has to be framed. Embroidery frames are round hoops and come in various sizes with the smallest having a 6cm diameter. Where we can and can’t embroider is down to the framing of the garment.

The maximum size we can possibly embroider is determined by the largest frame we can get into the garment.  A polo shirt, t-shirt or pretty much any garment you would embroider on the left breast has nothing obstructing it from being framed. For left breast embroideries we usually use a size 15 frame which allows us to embroider at whatever size is needed.

We are limited to smaller frame sizes on smaller items like golf towels or visors for example. Golf towels are only big enough to accommodate a size 12 frame, therefore we can only embroider at up to 10cm wide on them. Visors are very fiddly to frame up and only allow us a certain amount of room to embroider on the front as shown in the picture. Head wear such as caps and visors are actually framed differently with specific frames.

Zips and seams on items like bags for example restrict framing. A frame can not go over a zip so the top of the frame can only be placed as high as the zip allows. That means that there is also less room left for the frame, forcing a smaller one to be used. Sleeves can be embroidered so long as we can fit a frame inside them, for adults sizes this is not a problem but for children’s sizes as they get smaller there is less room for the frame. Shirt pockets can be embroidered but the size is again limited as we have to hoop through the pocket, unless we want to stitch the pocket closed to the shirt.

The frames themselves are about 1cm wide and we need to leave around another 1cm clearance so that the machine doesn’t hit the frame. So if the largest frame we can get into, say a shirt pocket, is a 6cm frame then the largest embroidery design we can fit inside it is 4cm wide.

It gets complicated so the best thing to do if you have a requirement is just to ask us.

One off items, embroidered samples

From time to time we get enquiries from new customers asking for one off single embroidered items.

Our minimum order quantity is 12 pieces per embroidery design but this can be a mix of different garments. You could have 6 t-shirts, 4 polo shirts and 2 fleeces for example.

We always run a sample “strike off” embroidery for approval before going to production on new orders. We do this on a piece of fabric, in a similar colour and material to the garments then email it over for customer approval. It’s a standard part of our service which we don’t charge extra for but it’s only done once an order has been placed.

If you are looking to order a sample only, we can do this but we have to charge for it. As much as we would like to offer a free sampling service, it just isn’t viable for us due to the various costs involved.

First of all there would be the usual set-up charge to get the design digitised for our embroidery machines to run. A design can’t be embroidered without having been “digitised” so we have no way around this charge. Digitisation is a one-off charge as once digitised a logo will be kept on file for use in repeat orders. So if you are ordering a sample garment with a view to placing a proper order later on then the set-up cost shouldn’t be a problem. Set-up would only be paid for once in any case.

Samples of the plain garments themselves can be sent out without embroidery at the single item base price plus postage. This allows the garment to be seen before being embroidered so you can make sure it’s what you are looking for. The minimum charge for embroidery is £25 so this is what it would cost to embroider a one off.

In total then to order a single garment with an embroidered logo could cost up to £85 + VAT.

Disk @ £40
Embroidery @ £25
Garment @ £10
Delivery @ £10
+ VAT

Our suggestion would be to get the disk made (logo digitised), as this will need to be done anyway and order a garment sample to check out. If the value of the garment isn’t too great we might even send this out free of charge so long as it is returned. That way sampling cost is kept to a minimum.