The Best Cap for Decorating

Decorate Caps

Successful cap decorating requires having the right cap for the job.  There
are many choices.  The few caps that will make decorating easy will be
revealed in this article.

Caps can be embroidered, screen printed or decorated with one of several types of transfers.  Each
method of decorating has a different requirement to make the job easy.  So
knowing the requirements of each is the first step to success.

Embroidery needs a stiff cap so the cap will stay in registration when the needles are
punching holes in the cap at machine gun speed.  Cap suppliers refer to
these caps as “constructed” and “fused buckram.”  Although
these caps are usually ideal for embroidery, screen printers should avoid constructed
and fused buckram caps.

Successful screen printing requires the cap be flexible for the front panel to conform
to the platen whether it be flat or curved.  Otherwise, the cap will not
be in contact with the platen creating registration and other problems caused
by the cap moving during printing.  Screen printers like caps identified
by suppliers as “unstructured,” “unconstructed” and “half
moon stay” although one leading supplier offers a cap identified as constructed
that is actually ideal for screen printing.

There are sublimation, hot split and cold peel transfers, for example.  Sublimation
requires a man-made fiber like polyester.  Sublimation does not work
with cotton and many of the blends offered.  Sublimation also needs to
be on smooth, white fabric like a foam front cap.  Because of this and
other limiting factors with sublimation, hot split and cold peel transfers
are the most popular method of applying a transfer to a cap.

A hot split is a transfer where the paper is removed immediately after the transfer has
been applied to the cap and before the ink cools.  A cold peel transfer
requires the ink to be room temperature before peeling the paper off of the
image.  These two types of transfers, and especially the hot split, are
the most popular methods of transferring images to caps.  The reason is
plastisol ink will adhere to almost any type of fabric and color.  Even
some hot splits and cold peels can be used with some 6-panel caps.  The
key to success with transfers is making sure the front panel of the cap lays
flat on the cap mandrel which is usually curved on a heat transfer machine.

If this is all a decorator needs to know, this would be the end of the article.  However,
there is a lot more to cap construction and to cap markets to be successful
with cap decorating.

There are foam front caps, golf caps, 6-panel caps, painter caps, and more.  Years
ago only foam fronts were offered, but today they are the least popular.  Golf
caps replaced foam fronts, and today 6-panels have become the most popular
cap.  So success in cap decorating will require either selecting the
foam front, golf or 6-panel cap that you can decorate, or learning how to decorate
all three types.

Embroidery shops typically do not like foam fronts, because the cap surface can move out
of registration while those needles are punching holes at high speeds.  Foam
fronts are the least expensive blank cap to buy ($1 or less) and embroidery
is the most expensive decorating method.  Foam front caps typically are
sold to be given away by an organization that does not want to spend a lot
of money on the caps.  When the caps are sold, they are sold at the lowest
prices, and therefore appeal to older people on limited fixed incomes.  These
caps are easy to screen print or apply transfers.

Golf caps can either have a high profile standing off of a person’s head like foam
fronts, or be a lower profile, sometimes referred to as a pro fit cap.  Unlike
foam fronts which are always 5 panels (no seam in the image area), golf caps
can be 5 or 6 panel.  They can be fused buckram, unstructured or half
moon stay.  These caps stand off of the golfer’s head to keep his
head cool on hot days.  Golf caps are more expensive than foam fronts,
but less expensive than 6 panel caps.  Golf caps are frequently the choice
of parents who earn the income to pay the bills rather than higher priced 6-panels
which are the choice of their fashion oriented children.

Take a look at children getting on the school bus, college kids, and young adults,
and you will almost always see 6-panel caps being worn.  These caps fit
closely to the head, and are required apparel for young people who wear caps.  These
caps may cost the decorator slightly more than the golf caps, but the decorator’s
mark up should be the greatest simply because young people are more fashion
conscious than cost conscious.  A $12, $14 or even $20 selling price to
the consumer is not unusual compared to $6, $8 or $10 for the golf caps.

Identifying the best cap for decorating, then, might start with profit margin and markets
which the decorator can reach easily.  A sales program that targets students
without a middle man can produce the highest levels of profits with cap decorating.

There are 350 cap suppliers that our Company has called on the telephone.  Most
sell a variety of caps, although a few sell only 6-panel caps, or only caps
recommended for embroidery.  Most suppliers try to appeal to the broadest
market possible.  So most offer foam front, golf and 6-panel, and caps
for embroidery, screen printing and transfers.

The problem is the U.S. cap suppliers do not identify which method of decorating applies
to which cap, although a European supplier identifies very clearly the information,
plus more.  If U.S. suppliers would provide this information, decorators
would have greater success with cap decorating and would promote caps more.  The
cap supplier who catches on to this point first will take market share from
his competitors.\

Unfortunately, most of those 350 suppliers we talked with know little or nothing about what
you as a decorator need to be successful with cap decorating.  These suppliers
will sell you any cap blank and not advise you to improve the chances of your
being successful with their product.  As a result, decorators are not
as loyal to their suppliers as they would be, and there are 350 suppliers dividing
up the market rather than a dramatically smaller number.

As a decorator you are on your own selecting caps.  Do not rely on a supplier who is
unproven in your experience.  People often ask me which supplier has the
best cap.  I suggest they go to an Imprinted Sportswear Show to touch
and feel the caps, and to mark up each supplier’s catalogue with notes
that apply to the decorating methods used in their shop.

The truth is many suppliers have caps you could use, but some caps are better than others,
and most are not appropriate to meet your decorating objectives.  Those
caps that do not meet your objectives probably meet the objectives of another
decorator.  You as a decorator will have a hard time finding any cap supplier
personnel with “hands-on” experience with embroidery, screen printing
and transfers, and therefore they cannot provide reliable technical advice
on which cap to buy.

Even worse can be the customer who brings caps to your shop to decorate.  Your customer
has no clue what is involved with decorating by any method, and therefore is
likely to bring caps that will result in low productivity and rejects.  When
you go to McDonalds for breakfast you do not take your own eggs.  If you
take a bottle of wine to a restaurant, the restaurant has a “corking
charge” to open your bottle and serve the wine.  If a customer brings
in caps, decorators should have an additional charge to deal with unfamiliar
caps and a requirement of extra caps to be the rejects.  When customers
understand the cost of their decision to bring the decorator caps they are
more likely to ask the decorator to provide the cap.

The decorator, then, needs to offer a variety of choice in cap styles and colors to meet the
tastes of different types of customers.  However, the decorator is advised
to offer a limited number of decorating specifications, although there may
be many colors available within a specification.

An embroiderer, for example, will select a fused buckram or constructed cap for students and
parents, and not seek out the “retired – gone fishing” crowd
that buys foam front caps.  Unstructured caps can be embroidered, but
may require the extra labor of placing backing material inside the cap.  Many
of these unstructured, or “low profile” caps are smaller and may
present problems to hoop.  The cap selected for embroidery to be ideal
should mount easily and quickly and without requiring the addition of backing
material.  There are many backing materials fused behind the front panels
of caps.  Some are easy to sew and others will break needles.  A
6-panel cap has material folded over in the seam which in particular should
be examined as a potential to break needles.

A screen printer can decorate foam front, golf and 6-panel caps.  Like the shop
that does embroidery, caps identified as ideal should be tested on a platen
of your cap equipment supplier at the Imprinted Sportswear Show.  Like
embroidery, you will want to find ideal caps that are both solid color and
different colors for the bill and top of the cap.  If you think your customers
want, or do not want, a braid on the bill, then this specification needs to
be observed when selecting caps.

Golfers frequently want grommets (holes) in the top of their caps, because they believe
the caps will keep their head cooler on hot days.  If the grommets are
too low on the front panel, they may interfere with decorating.  A screen
printer would cope with this problem whereas transfers and embroidery cannot.  A
screen printer would simply put a thin neoprene pad on the platen surface and
cut a hole out of the neoprene where the grommet will be placed.

The front panel of the cap you select should be measured for maximum potential image
size.  Today the fashion is smaller image, but in the past everyone used
to ask how large an image can be placed on the front of a cap.  Fashions
change, and Americans like big houses, big cars, and maybe some will want big
hats, especially if they are from Texas.  Unfortunately, the U.S. suppliers
do not provide this information in their catalogues.  The risk is the
customer wants art that is larger than the cap will permit.  Small art
can look out of place on caps with large front panels.

If printing four color process, you must specify a 5 panel, 100% brushed cotton cap to
get excellent color and image reproduction.  Look hard for brushed cotton
that is not a twill brushed cotton, because the twill texture may interfere
with quality printing.

Caps with seams are limited to line art as screen printing, embroidery or transfers (hot
splits/cold peels).  Seams come in a wide range of widths and particularly
thicknesses.  That may be a problem with transfers, but screen printers
can adjust by laying neoprene pads on the platen on either side of the seam
accommodating the width of the seam.  If the pad is thicker than the seam,
then the slot between the two pads can be built up with masking tape to a point
where a seam in the slot will be smooth like printing a 5 panel cap.

Seams can also be smooth or puckered.  A puckered seam looks like it was washed,
but not ironed.  That could present a problem for screen printing on hot
split/cold peel transfers.  A heavy ink deposit like puff or better the
new 3-dimensional inks available to screen printers will fill in the low spots
rather than leave voids in the image.  These inks also allow photographic
quality line art reproduction with sharp edges to images or twills and other
textures, even corduroy. 

Seam cracks can vary widely.  Thin flat cracks are better for any type of decorating
than wide cracks, or cracks with rolled edges.  So seams should be inspected
closely inside and outside the caps, and your observations should be noted
in the supplier’s catalogue.

By now, you must have come to the conclusion there are more choices among caps that
will give you fits decorating than make your job easy.  Once you find
a cap your customers will like and you can decorate easily and quickly, stay
loyal to that supplier.  Do not buy on price.  Buy on performance.

When you contact your competitors you will find they all decorate shirts, but most avoid
or refuse to decorate caps.  They may subcontract cap decorating, but
not shirt decorating.  Those competitors are also shops that did not know
how to select the right cap.  They got frustrated with decorating, and
quit decorating caps, declined orders or subcontracted the orders.  Those
competitors make it easier to get shirt orders from customers who also want
caps.

Knowing how to select the best cap will help you increase your sales and profitability.