Looking for a way to expand your custom apparel business?
Adding an embroidery machine to your setup could be one way to do it!
And if you’re reading this, you’ve probably already thought of that. After all, that’s what brought you here. You’re doing your homework.
Maybe you can already picture the possibilities: offering embroidered logos, adding another product to your lineup, or giving your customers more ways to personalize their apparel.
There are PLENTY of reasons to consider embroidery.
But before you jump in, you probably want to know if it makes sense for your business.
- Is embroidery a good way to grow?
- Is there enough opportunity to make the investment worthwhile?
- And if you decide to go for it, how do you choose the right machine?
Those are all good questions, and they’re worth taking the time to answer before you commit to a new piece of equipment.
So, let’s start with the business opportunity. We’ll look at what embroidery could bring to your business, what you should consider before getting started, and then the equipment options available to you.
By the end, you’ll have a better idea of whether embroidery is the right next step for your business and what to look for if you decide to take the plunge.
Sounds good? Let’s get into it.
Why Add Embroidery to Your White Toner Printing Business?
So, where should we begin?
We think the best place to start is by looking at what embroidery can actually do for your business.
Now, we know. When you’re thinking about adding embroidery, it’s tempting to jump straight to the machines. Which one should you buy? What features should you look for? How much will it cost? And so on.
And don’t worry. We’ll get to all that in a moment.
But before we get carried away talking about machines, let’s take a step back for a minute and consider:
Is embroidery actually worth getting into? More specifically, could adding embroidery help you grow your existing business, attract new customers, and create more opportunities to sell custom apparel?
Well, let’s see. In our humble opinion, there are several reasons why it might.
For starters, embroidery gives you another way to decorate apparel. And while that might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world, bear with us for a moment.
You see, not every customer wants a printed design. Some prefer embroidery, while others specifically need it for products like company uniforms, polo shirts, workwear, and caps.
And if you’re already in the custom apparel business, chances are you’ve come across customers looking for these kinds of products.
Now, what happens when someone comes to you looking for embroidered polo shirts, but you don’t offer embroidery?
Well, you either turn them away, refer them to another supplier, or find another way to get the job done.
None of those options is necessarily the end of the world, of course. But wouldn’t it be better to handle that order yourself?
And that’s really what we’re getting at here. Adding embroidery gives you another way to meet customer needs and capture orders you might otherwise lose.
And that’s just one side of it.
There are a few other reasons why adding embroidery to your white toner printing business might be worth considering.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
1. You can get more out of your existing customers
Let’s start with something simple.
You’ve already put in the work to attract customers to your business. You’ve marketed your services, answered their questions, fulfilled their orders, and hopefully given them a good reason to come back.
So, when one of those customers needs something else, it makes sense to see if you can help.
Say a customer regularly orders printed T-shirts from you. One day, they need polo shirts with their company logo embroidered on the chest. Or perhaps they’re looking for branded caps for their employees.
If you offer embroidery, you can take care of those orders, too.
The advantage is that you don’t necessarily need to find a new customer to generate additional business. The relationship is already there. They know you, they know your work, and they may be happy to give you more business.
Of course, not every customer will need embroidered apparel. But even if a portion of your existing customer base does, that’s another opportunity to generate sales without having to start the relationship from scratch.
Not a bad place to start, right?
2. You can expand your product range
Printed T-shirts are great. But there’s a whole world of custom apparel beyond T-shirts, too.
Think polo shirts, jackets, caps, uniforms, and other items where an embroidered logo might be a better fit.
White toner printing works well for detailed artwork, full-color designs, and graphics that would be difficult or impractical to reproduce with thread.
Embroidery has different strengths. It can give garments a stitched, textured finish that’s particularly well suited to company logos, workwear, caps, and corporate apparel.
And you don’t have to choose one method over the other.
You can offer white toner printing when it suits the job and embroidery when that’s the better option.
Naturally, not every design or garment will be suitable for both methods. Each has its limitations, and you’ll need to consider the artwork, garment, and customer’s requirements before deciding which approach to use.
But having both options available gives you more flexibility.
Instead of trying to make one method do everything, you can offer a solution that actually suits the project.
3. You can give customers another reason to choose you
Here’s something else worth thinking about.
Customers have options. They can go to one business for printed apparel and another for embroidery, or they can look for a supplier who offers both.
By expanding your services, you may be able to make life a little easier for them.
Instead of having to find separate suppliers for different products, they can get more of what they need from you.
For example, a company might need printed T-shirts for a promotional event, embroidered polo shirts for its staff, and branded jackets for its management team.
If you offer both white toner printing and embroidery, you could potentially handle all those orders yourself.
That means fewer suppliers for the customer to deal with and another opportunity for you to build a stronger business relationship.
Will that automatically win you more customers? Of course not. Price, quality, service, and plenty of other factors still matter.
But offering multiple decoration methods gives customers another reason to consider your business and another reason to keep coming back.
And that can be a real advantage when you’re competing with other custom apparel providers.
4. You can reach new customers and markets
Up to this point, we’ve mostly talked about customers you may already have.
But what about the people who aren’t buying from you yet?
Adding embroidery could give you a reason to approach (and attract) a whole new group of potential customers, particularly those who regularly need embroidered apparel.
Think local businesses ordering uniforms for their employees. Sports clubs looking for embroidered teamwear. Organizations that need branded caps, jackets, or polo shirts.
Some of these customers may already have a supplier. Others may be looking for one.
Either way, embroidery gives you another service to put on the table when you’re trying to win their business.
And you don’t necessarily have to abandon your existing market to pursue these opportunities. You can continue offering your white toner printing services while exploring customers and industries that have a particular need for embroidery.
Of course, you’ll still need to do a little homework. Find out who’s buying these products in your area, what they’re looking for, and whether there’s enough demand to justify getting involved.
If you discover a market you’re not currently serving, embroidery could give you a way in.
5. You can create another source of revenue
All right, let’s talk money for a minute.
After all, as interesting as all these opportunities might sound, you’re probably not thinking about adding another machine just to have something new to play with.
You want to know whether it can actually contribute to your bottom line.
And that’s a fair question.
The good news is that embroidery can become a profitable addition to a custom apparel business. But, as you might expect, a lot depends on the numbers.
You’ll need to account for the cost of the machine, garments, thread, stabilizers, digitizing where needed, labor, and any other expenses involved in producing your orders.
Then there’s the time it takes to complete each job, along with the prices customers in your market are willing to pay.
In other words, it’s not enough to look at what you can charge for an embroidered polo shirt. You need to know what’s left after you’ve covered the costs of producing it.
And let’s not forget the initial investment. If orders are few and far between, it could take a while to earn that money back.
On the other hand, if you’ve got enough demand and can produce your work efficiently at a price that leaves you a healthy margin, embroidery could become a worthwhile source of additional income.
The trick is to work out whether the opportunity makes sense for your business before you spend the money.
And that’s an important point to keep in mind. Adding embroidery isn’t just about buying a machine and hoping for the best. It’s about understanding your customers, identifying opportunities, and working out whether the numbers make sense.
Which, conveniently enough, brings us to the next topic.
How White Toner Printing and Commercial Embroidery Complement Each Other
Let’s talk about what happens when you combine these two methods.
You see, white toner printing and commercial embroidery each have their own strengths.
And when you offer both, you have more ways to help your customers get exactly what they’re looking for.
Hopefully, the previous section helped make that clear.
But here’s the question…
But how do you know when to print, when to embroider, and when to combine the two?
Let’s take a closer look.
The strengths of white toner printing
Some designs are simply better suited to printing than embroidery.
Think about full-color artwork, fine details, small text, photographs, and designs with gradients. These are the kinds of designs that can be time-consuming, difficult, or even impractical to recreate with thread.
And that’s where white toner printing really shines.
With a DigitalHeat FX printer, you can create detailed, full-color transfers that include white toner. That means you can transfer designs onto dark garments and other suitable materials while keeping white elements crisp and visible against the background.
So, when a customer comes to you with a detailed design that needs to look just right, white toner printing gives you a practical way to bring it to life.
The strengths of embroidery
Of course, not every design calls for printing. Sometimes, embroidery is the better choice.
When customers want a logo with a textured, stitched finish, embroidery is hard to beat. It adds dimension, gives the garment a polished, professional appearance, and creates a look that really stands apart from printing.
That’s why embroidery works so well for company logos, uniforms, hats, jackets, and other items where a professional appearance and a durable finish matter.
And because the design is stitched directly into the garment, it has a distinctive look and feel that printed transfers simply can’t replicate.
In other words, when a customer wants that classic embroidered finish, thread is often the way to go.
When to use both
Here’s the good news: You don’t always have to choose one method over the other.
Some jobs call for the detail and color of white toner printing, while others are a natural fit for embroidery. And sometimes, combining the two gives you the best of both worlds.
For example, you could embroider a company logo on a polo shirt, then use white toner printing to add a full-color graphic or another detailed design.
This way, each method does what it does best, giving you more flexibility to create the right result for the job.
And that’s really the point.
Once you understand what each method brings to the table, it becomes much easier to decide which one—or which combination—makes the most sense for the design, the garment, and your customer’s needs.
Ultimately, white toner printing and commercial embroidery don’t have to compete with each other.
By offering both, you can take on a wider range of projects, meet more customer needs, and create products that make the most of each method’s strengths.
The key is knowing when to print, when to embroider, and when combining the two can deliver the best results.
Once you get a feel for that, you have a lot more flexibility in what you can offer your customers.
Expand Your Product Line with ColDesi Avancé Commercial Embroidery Machines
So where are we with all this?
Well, how about we look at some of the products you could be making with commercial embroidery.
That way, you can get a better idea of what this looks like in practice.
We’ve already mentioned a few possibilities along the way, but it never hurts to look at a few more examples.
Below, we’ve pulled together a more extensive list of products, items, industries, and categories to give you a better idea of just how many different directions you could take this.
Let’s take a look.
- Apparel and clothing: T-shirts, polo shirts, hoodies, jackets, hats, caps, workwear, uniforms, and sportswear.
- Accessories and everyday items: Tote bags, backpacks, duffel bags, beanies, aprons, towels, and other fabric accessories.
- Home and lifestyle products: Cushions, blankets, decorative pillows, table linens, bathrobes, and personalized gifts.
- Business and promotional products: Branded uniforms, corporate merchandise, promotional bags, embroidered patches, and customer giveaways.
- Hospitality and service industries: Hotel linens, restaurant uniforms, chef jackets, spa robes, and branded towels.
- Sports, clubs, and organizations: Team apparel, club merchandise, sports caps, fan gear, and embroidered logos.
- Specialty and niche markets: Baby clothing, school uniforms, workwear for specific trades, personalized clothing, and products for weddings and special occasions.
Quite a list, isn’t it? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
As you can see, commercial embroidery opens the door to all kinds of products, customers, and industries.
Of course, you don’t need to make everything on this list. You might find your next big product idea right here. Or perhaps one of these examples will spark an idea you hadn’t considered before.
The point is that you have plenty of options.
All right, we’ve kept you waiting long enough. Let’s look at the equipment that can help you make commercial embroidery part of your business.
Choosing the Right ColDesi Avancé Commercial Embroidery Machine
The Avancé 1201C is a 12-needle commercial embroidery machine designed for small businesses, startups, and home-based studios that want commercial-level results without investing in a larger (and more expensive) industrial machine. Compact, fast, and surprisingly capable, this model proves that big capabilities can come in smaller packages.
The 1201C can sew up to 1,000 stitches per minute, which is impressive for a machine its size. Measuring 23 x 23 x 63 inches and weighing about 176 pounds, it is actually the smallest and lightest model in the Avancé lineup, but don’t let that fool you. It’s built to keep up with demand.
That lightweight design also makes it one of the easiest commercial machines to transport, making it a great choice for trade shows, pop-up shops, and other live events where portability matters.
Despite its compact footprint, the 1201C is packed with features that make embroidery easier and more enjoyable.
Up front, there’s a 10.1-inch full-color LCD touchscreen control panel that makes managing designs and settings simple. You’ll find 28 built-in fonts and a library of up to 4,000 designs, so you can start creating on day one!
An extended LED lighting system keeps your work area well lit, thread break detection helps prevent mistakes and wasted production time, and its exceptionally quiet operation makes it a comfortable fit for home studios and retail environments.
To make getting started as easy as possible, the Avancé 1201C comes with everything you need right out of the box. You’ll receive five hoops, one cap frame, essential accessories, a one-year warranty that’s upgradeable to five years, and access to some of the best embroidery training in the industry, so you’re supported long after your machine arrives.
Considering everything that’s included, the 1201C offers outstanding value and comes in at a more accessible price point than its larger sibling, the Avancé 1501C, which we’ll look at next.
For complete specifications and technical details, check out the full product page.
The 1501C is also built for higher-volume production. It can sew at speeds of up to 1,200 stitches per minute and features 15 needles, allowing you to keep more thread colors loaded and spend less time stopping for thread changes. The result is faster production, greater efficiency, and less downtime between jobs.
At 197 lbs. (excluding the stand), it’s every bit the commercial-grade machine it looks and feels like.
Another advantage is that the 1501C can grow with your business. You can start with a single machine today, then add additional units as your production needs increase.
By networking multiple machines together, you can build a modular embroidery setup with two, three, six, or even more machines.
If you’d like to learn more about how a modular embroidery setup works and when it makes sense, be sure to check out our in-depth guide.
For complete specifications and technical details, view the full product page for the Avancé 1501C.
The 1501C is also built for higher-volume production. It can sew at speeds of up to 1,200 stitches per minute and features 15 needles, allowing you to keep more thread colors loaded and spend less time stopping for thread changes. The result is faster production, greater efficiency, and less downtime between jobs.
At 197 lbs. (excluding the stand), it’s every bit the commercial-grade machine it looks and feels like.
Another advantage is that the 1501C can grow with your business. You can start with a single machine today, then add additional units as your production needs increase.
By networking multiple machines together, you can build a modular embroidery setup with two, three, six, or even more machines.
If you’d like to learn more about how a modular embroidery setup works and when it makes sense, be sure to check out our in-depth guide.
For complete specifications and technical details, view the full product page for the Avancé 1501C.
Ready to Expand Beyond White Toner Printing?
Your DigitalHeat FX printer is already helping you serve the customization market. Discover how adding a ColDesi Avancé Commercial Embroidery Machine can help you offer more products, reach new customers, and grow your business.
