Author Archives: October Textiles Limited

About October Textiles Limited

October is a t shirt printing, screen printing, garment sourcing and embroidery supplier established in 1990. We source a wide range of clothing and accessories to fit the most demanding of specifications. Although we print and embroider for a variety of sectors, our speciality is fashion.

1. Whatever happened to all the heroes

   May 8, 2007 7:50 pm Leave a Comment

   All the Shakespearos of the rag trade? It wasn’t that long ago that I used to get a phone call every week from Harry Harris of Borovick Street, and they’d go something like this,
   ‘Paul is that you Boy, Harry Harris here and have I got some fabric for you!’
   ‘Is that right Harry?’
   ‘Right? You can’t go wrong; I’m not even going to tell anyone else about this one, because Paul, your ship has come in my son’
   ‘Last time I looked it was sinking Harry but go on. Are you still there Harry?’
   ‘It’s alright the coast’s’ clear, I’ve only got, get this, 10,000 meters of crepe de chine, and it’s got your name all over it!’
   ‘Plain fabric right?’
   ‘Better than that, it’s got a lovely floral design’
   ‘Harry I’m a fabric printer what do I want with printed fabric?’
   ‘You’re a printer; you can print it plain and then put your own pattern over the top, where do you want it delivering?’

   And so it used to go. I never bought a single metre of fabric from Harry and sadly we never met, but he called me every week just the same. I was of course tempted when he offered to cut me in on the 20,000 bread boards he had for sale. He said I’d easily shift them because they were made by the bloke who was the surfer at the beginning of the Old Spice advert on telly.
   And then one week I just didn’t hear from him. I like to think he made a pile of cash and retired with his wife Irene to Bournemouth, nice little house with a sea view. I bloody miss those calls.

   So I’m wondering who we’ve got in the industry to replace them, the men and women of character. Where are we going to find another Mr Posner? He was a tailor, old school, and we’d monogram the odd handkerchief for him. I noticed one summer in the cutting room as he was chalking straight onto the fabric without a pattern, that he had a number of truncated wasps around his feet. I enquired with his assistant the young Mr Mendelssohn (who must have been 60) what it was all about. He didn’t’ have to answer, for at that moment Mr Posner whipped a pair of scissors from his high waisted trousers and snipped a wasp in half in mid flight. Now you can’t do that kind of stuff any more, you’d be in trouble with the RSPCW, but it was damn impressive.

   So fast was he with the scissors, that when customers were considering altering the suit they were wearing from a double to a single breaster, he’d cut the lapels off as they stood in the shop, in case they decided they couldn’t afford the fee now that’s how to close a deal.
   
   There are a few more current versions. I still buy fabric and the odd garment from Vinnie, and every time I offer him a cheque he looks as insulted as he did when we first Cash or jewellery Paul, you know the rules and deal done he shouts over to his wife, ‘Mo, call the electricity board, we’re back on!

   I don’t know what he was thinking 20 years ago when he filled my Fiat Uno, (that looked like one of Clarkson’s gravel pit experiments) with so much fabric that it could hardly move, when he refused to take payment and told me to ‘Be lucky’, but I do know it’ll never happen again.
   
   I’d love to tell you about the time there was a mix up with a white chested greyhound that belonged to Sunglasses Henry. Vinnie lost it at South Mimms services and had to disguise a similar black dog with some white gloss paint but that would be going off the subject of garment decoration, which would never do.

   There’s some hope though, what about John Potter, he’s younger than me? How many people do you know, who having lost their licence would apply at Geoffrey Macpherson’s for a job as area sales rep? And what a way to apply – John sent him an A4 picture of Red Rum bearing the slogan ‘Pick a winner, pick John Potter!’ Somehow he got the job, and Geoffrey took him outside to the car park, ‘Surprise said Geoffrey, it’s the new Astra Surprise’ said John holding up his court papers, ‘Three year driving ban.’Why didn’t you tell me at the interview?’ said.’You never asked’ said Mr Potter, and so a great friendship began.

   But it can’t all be over, so here’s the thing – we want to hear your stories about characters in the game, because the colour’s not in the pot of ink, it’s in the people. So if you know any garment decorators who drive around town with a blow up doll in the car, we want to hear from you.

   Author:
   Paul Stephenson
   paul@october.co.uk
   www.october.co.uk
   t-shirt printing, screen printing and embroidery

2. Print or broke

   7:47 pm Leave a Comment

   Mind bending drugs, armed robberies gone wrong, sexual dysfunction there are many reasons why people are drawn to the garment decoration industry, and surely one of the first decisions to make is ‘Do I print and embroider it myself, or do I get some other witless goon to get their hands dirty?’ I’m a printer, but in spite of the thinners I’m not blind to the glamorous charms of the Broker; the advantages are numerous, so kick off your inky Puma’s and lets have a look at a few:

   Firstly you get to wear a nice sports jacket. Unlike printers and to some extent embroiderers, who spend most of their life in cut off denims, sleeveless Motorhead T-shirts and spattered baseball caps, the Broker prefers a blazer, champions the chino and buffs up the Grensons. This works well in the next Brokers bonus, the shiny office. There’s no plastisol on the shag pile in there my friends, there are fish tanks, mood music and air freshener released on the hour from a plug socket bearing in mind my carpet looks like a game of twister, I’m liking the sound of the alternative already.

   And it gets better – this Broker’s oak panelled lair, it doesn’t have to be very big ‚é„é¬ no worries about where to put the 58 head MHM in there, so we don’t need 10,000 square feet after all.look at the overheads coming down and smile on your accountants face. We can move from this shed on the outskirts of town, the reassuring crunch of syringes underfoot as you step out the armoured car, and work in some city centre offices with toilets that don’t qualify as a bio hazard.

   Installed in our new hoovered palace, we no longer have to worry about physically getting the job out on time ‚é„é¬ that’s our supplier’s problem. We now have time to concentrate on the really important stuff, the marketing, the web site, the improved administration, the new CRM system, the bottom line, the next five years. Customers are getting called back, followed up, advised on new products, massaged and cajoled. Surely this means they spend more money, and for the ones who spend the most you’re not going to keep the look of that sports jacket to yourself, course not. You’ve got a bit more time now, so it’s off with the client to Ascot to cement the relationship.’Oh do you like it, Aquascutum, got it in the sale, I find their summer range is really working for me this year. Meanwhile on the other side of town, a screen rips, and a young man screams.

   As for those suppliers you’re now farming it all out to, give them enough work and you’ll really be able to nail them on price. The ideal situation is when they, their staff and their families become almost entirely dependant on you now you can get some deals, it’s not a quid a print any more, you’re in 20p country. The accountant’s stopped smiling; he’s starting to chuckle.margins, margins, margins. Don’t have just one or two of them though, always keep a few in your back pocket. Surprisingly you’ve now got more production capacity than if you were doing it yourself, your lead times are quicker. More, faster, cheaper, with lower overheads and better customer service. The accountant has just wet himself – sell the auto and pour the screen wash down the sink, smash the UV lamp and pull a rubber glove on your head; we’re off to Happy Town Brokerville, right boys?

   Well yes, I guess, I’ll see you there later. Honestly I will turn up, get me one in for last orders and we’ll talk about old times, when we were T-shirt printers, there must have been a few advantages:

   Control over production if you really do have to get in a time machine and travel back to the day before the order was placed to give yourself a fighting chance of meeting a deadline, there’s no substitute for having your own kit. Not many sub contactors will take a phone call, get out of bed and print or embroider through the night, no matter how tight your scrotal grip on their supply of work.

   Having a clue what you’re on about ‚é„é¬ Brokers can learn all the terminology, but if they’ve never had ink on their pants after a mistake in the gents, do they really know the score? Only a true ink jockey can keep a straight face while informing a customer that their order will be ready just as soon as the molecules stop vibrating in their print. This level of confidence rubs off on customers, like nylobond free ink off a nylon jacket. Only the practitioner has the detailed information, so if you’re starting a new label that requires specialist print and embroidery techniques, talk to the one with ink in their hair and thread on their sweat.

   And never having to lie. My Grandmother drank pints of cheap sherry and kept a gun under the bed, but she hated liars and that stuck with me. When that inevitable customer question ‘Do you produce everything in house?’ comes around, the printer and embroiderer stand tall and say yes. The Broker also says yes, every time, but it ‘ain’t the truth.

   But there’s one real reason I’ll never get that blazer, and from a pure business point of view, it’s a rubbish one. I know I’d make way more loot in a button down collar and a pair of loafers, but it won’t happen, because of the lads I work with. When I arrived at work last Tuesday to see three grown men on all fours on a flat bed, I naturally enquired what the hell was going on. It’s a fart lighting contest Boss’ I was informed ‘Obviously’ I said, and made the coffees. Imagine a world without the soon to be Olympic sport of Loading Bay football. This doesn’t get decided on penalties, but stingers. This involves blasting a ball from ten paces at your opponents backside if you hit him, or if he flinches, you move a pace closer. The culmination is usually a twenty stone printer taking a ten yard run up to blast a football that’s three inches away from it’s target into his colleagues colon we, are the champions.

   There are down sides, like the sight of Big Dave at the end of the dryer, naked but for a high viz vest and some safety specs. But when you’re under the auto messing about with an air filter, and the safety loops are out, because you’re old school, your mate will have his finger on a switch marked ‘your life’. He may not have a GCSE to his name; he may look like he’s just had a row with Jackson Pollock, and if he hits that switch at the wrong moment you’re on the bus to the big print shop in the sky. But he won’t, he absolutely won’t, and if you had to pick one reason why you do it, putting your life in another man’s hands is mine. Now then, where are my Puma’s?

   Author: Paul Stephenson
   paul@october.co.uk
   www.october.co.uk
   t-shirt printing, screen printing and embroidery

3. THE DARJEELING DELUXE

   2:43 pm Leave a Comment

   I’ve seen her on fire; stood alone at night and wondered at all the switches valves and wires; watched her lying idle, not a single job to do and wished she’d pay her way – and then seen the monster awake, hissing and banging at speeds that would blow Fred Dibnah’s cap clean off. I am of course not referring to my wife, oh no, this month we’re going to have a look at your equipment, because when the smoke has cleared and the screens have stopped snapping, when the monster sighs and lays down her arms for a while we all wonder…..’Have we got the right kit?’ The honest answer as usual is I’m not sure, but what do we have to consider?
   Life isn’t a cabaret, it’s a carousel, so we may as well start there. Is big beautiful? Depends which women’s magazine you’re reading, but generally in this case I think not. It’s very tempting with all the cheap second hand machines on the market to go out and buy a 24 head threshing machine, built in 1840 by a man with un-feasible side burns and a top hat. They can look impressive (I’ve got one with a flashing red light on top), but sadly you then need a football pitch to house the thing, and England will have learnt to play the game by the time you’ve set your first job up. It’s not for no reason that machinery suppliers are focussing on small but quick automatics, so unless Esso decide it’s a free T-shirt with every litre and you’re getting the order, maybe steer clear of models called Elephant or Ark Royal.

   That’s if you decide to go auto of course, which leads us to the most fundamental business decision. Automate and no matter how hard you try, you’re likely to go in search of volume – which means when pricing you’re in a gloves off ring on the wrong side of town with a big bloke from Turkey. This can end up with your customer smugly informing you that not only can they get the print for 15p, it will be delivered by dancing girls out of an exploding cake – can you beat that? Choice of kit can secretly lead you down these roads, so maybe another reason to keep that auto small and affordable, or stick to a few decent manuals and concentrate on low volume high margin end user business, in a word.

   So it’s straight off those spinning plattens and onto the dryer; now contrary to what the lads at my place will tell you, a good dryer is not measured by its ability to evenly warm a Ginsters pie, or quick dry your pants after you’ve blasted 30 screens into next week. It has to keep up with the carousel (so get the right belt width), and it has to answer the question gas or electric.
   There are enough affordable gas dryers knocking about these days that I really can’t see the case for the more expensive to run electric (although they’re cheaper to buy) – unless of course someone has worked out that electric are more ecologically sound and kill fewer polar bears. Careful to get second hand dryers fully inspected though, and not just to avoid going blue and being found gassed with a smile on your face. I once saw an unfortunate woman have her skirt fully removed by an externally mounted fan. I say unfortunate because she was wearing XXXL harvest festivals, with everything gathered in – not happy.

   And then there are all the ancillary bits and pieces:
   Flash Curers – just what you need for setting fire to those garments while you’re having a fag and looking out the window. All you need to decide really I guess is free standing or integral in the case of autos ( I find free standing more versatile Margery), and whether you want them on all the time or to flash on with a sensor – other than that it’s sometimes easier if they have a cartridge style element, so when it inevitably blows you can just slide in a replacement.
   Compressors – screw not pump, if you can afford it.Screen cleaning machines – I’d love one – pop in the screens, have a quick flick through the Racing Post and ping, they’re nice and clean. Only thing between me and one of those babies is 30 large.

   Light sources – just get a good strong lamp and try and dissuade the staff from using them as a cheap tanning salon.

   Wash out booths – nice and big so you can get a couple of screens in at the same time. I dream of having one that’s back lit so I can see any screen blocks, but then I don’t get out nearly enough these days.

   Krebs gun – a must. A good printer can print a square of plastisol and then then blow the design out with cleaning fluid – also useful for taking out annoying insects mid flight.

   Screens – I won’t bang on about them here, you know the score – aluminium not wood, and if the mesh in any way resembles Nora Batty’s stockings, it’s time to go. Get a good range of mesh counts, some yellow for your process work, and keep them squeaky clean people, it’s the only way – having said that, if there’s anyone out there who has ever worked with me, I know, you’ve seen me try and set up 10 colour prints through screens that look like they’ve been stretched with a trucker’s grundies – just don’t tell anyone OK.

   You could get clever and also go for some kind of screen stretching device or a left handed squeegee blade sharpener; or even invest in one of those Bond villain mechanical hands, that removes the T-s from the carousel and drops them on the dryer – but if you want to show off that much just get yourself a 200 quid car and then spend 12 grand on plastic skirts and a bean tin exhaust – girls will think you’re really clever.

   But above all this there is one piece of kit that must be chosen more wisely than all the above Рthe tea urn. I refer you to my proudest possession, the Darjeeling Deluxe, capable of 600 cups an hour if you get the tension right on your tea bag. We saved £842.50 in down time last year by having readily available hot water. The printers talk nostalgically about the age of steam, when a man could happily watch a kettle for 10 minutes while climbing the intellectual peaks of the Daily Sport, but that my friends, is progress.

   Author: Paul Stephenson
   paul@october.co.uk
   www.october.co.uk
   t-shirt printing, screen printing and embroidery