Trust Newsletter: New Equipment and a New Space to Put it In!
Backyard Trade Show
This month we continued our annual tradition of packing the team up and taking off on an intense 5-minute road trip to the Fort Worth Convention Center for the Imprinted Sportswear Show (ISS). We certainly count ourselves lucky to have this show so close to home. Because of the convenience, we were able to get almost the entire team out there to meet people, explore new technology, and get inspired by award winning prints.
Our first stop was the M&R booth so the whole team could see our exciting new piece of equipment in action (we’ll touch on that later). Then we caught up with our old friends at Ryonet to check out their latest and greatest. My personal favorite booth was the exciting innovation of XpresScreen’s emulsion-free, water-free, darkroom-free screen making process. Screen printing is an old art at this point, so it’s always fun to see people rethinking something as basic as the screens themselves.
After the show, we headed to the awesome GSG after-party on the Reata’s rooftop. We had some great food, drink, and conversations, listened to some cool music and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Afterwards the party animals of the group met up with our friends at Ryonet at Conlon’s Pub for some late-night pool/ping pong. The screen printing community is an awesome, tight-knit group and we are already looking forward to getting back together at the next trade show.
A New Space
For the past few months our warehouse has felt as if it’s bursting at the seams. Since adding our fourth press and several new team members the space that seemed so massive a year ago is suddenly constricting. We mentioned a couple months ago that we had acquired the space next to us, and as of this month it is officially in use!
Originally the plan was to open up a doorway between the two spaces, but we eventually landed on a more open concept, knocking out most of the wall and leaving a short barrier for separation. The clear sightlines really amplify the open vibe and makes the new expansion blend beautifully into our existing warehouse.
We never expected to fill our original space so quickly, and I’m sure it won’t be long before we are maxed out again. That’s an extremely exciting idea; also exciting is the immediate impact the expansion has brought. Moving our finishing department into the new space has already opened up a bunch of breathing room for the quality control department, and when a very special new piece of equipment arrived we had a perfect space laid out for it…
The Amscomatic
The Amscomatic is an automatic folding and bagging machine and the centerpiece of our new expansion. We’ve had our eye on this machine for a while, working closely with M&R to assure it would meet our (probably frustratingly) high standards. We were so excited when the truck pulled up carrying three massive crates. We were even more excited a week later when the first shirt went down the conveyer belt and came out seconds later folded and bagged perfectly.
This machine signifies a huge efficiency boost in our constantly growing Finishing department. The demand for retail-ready packaging has grown significantly in the past year, mostly due to online sales. The shift from several people crowded around with plastic tri-folders and loose poly-bags to a 1-2 person team outputting up to 700 perfectly folded garments per hour is dramatic. We are ecstatic about this new technology and how it expands the capabilities of our finishing department.
Print of the Month
Lake Pointe Church — Encounter 2016
5 Color Plastisol – Black Gildan 5400
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The print of the month for October is a great print for an old friend of Trust. We have been producing great shirts for Lake Pointe Church for many years. They consistently have great design and this month’s is no exception.
This design has a beautiful painted texture split up into bars with a bright white logo at the bottom. We love how the colors blend together, mimicking the look of paint on canvas. It’s always exciting when we get to the point in the year when long sleeve shirts start coming in. The Gildan 5400 is a great, solid garment that prints exceptionally well.
