Success Stories Ep 79 - "Print down with Sublimation!"

Are you a fan of sports apparel? Want to know the secrets behind building something for a brand? Well, you are in luck!

As today on the Success Stories podcast, we'll be speaking to Mariellen Auer with Custom Apparel Stores about just that. Whether you're starting a brand growing a brand or working with sublimated apparel, Mariellen can help you. 

Let's find out how she got started her philosophy of working and more on this episode. So let's get ready to have fun, kick back and hear how this expert rocks the industry for her clients daily.

Transcript

Marshall Atkinson 
Are you a fan of sports apparel want to know the secrets behind building something for a brand? Well, you are in luck. As today on the Success Stories podcast, we'll be speaking to Mariellen Auer with Custom Apparel Stores  about just that. Whether you're starting a brand growing a brand or working with sublimated apparel, Mary Ellen can help you. Let's find out how she got started her philosophy of working and more on this episode. So let's get ready to have fun kick back in here. This expert rocks the industry for her clients daily. Hey Mariellen, welcome to the Success Stories podcast.
 
Mariellen Auer 
Hey, Marshall, I am super excited to be here as you know.

Marshall Atkinson 
Yeah. So you've been listening to the show. And now you're a guest.

Mariellen Auer 
I know, I would have never thought that would happen. Whoo. Yeah, I started listening to you. And I was just like, oh, my gosh, I learned so much. And I feel like you're talking right to me sometimes. And your guests have a lot of information. And it's really I get excited every time I hit play. I never know what I'm gonna learn or hear.

Marshall Atkinson 
Yeah, well, now you get to return the favor. So it's gonna be there's gonna be a fun show.

Mariellen Auer 
I'm excited to do that. I'm excited to share what I know.

Marshall Atkinson 
Good. So let's start with, you know, I'll always kind of like starting with the origin story. So Mariellen, how did you start in this crazy industry? Let's hear all about it.

Mariellen Auer 
Well, I don't know if I think it more or less found me more than I found it. And I was always playing sports and always kind of checking out what everybody's wearing at the beach. I grew up in Lake Michigan, and I ended up working at a surf shop one summer. And I'll tell you all that cool stuff coming in, you know, Ocean Pacific, Roxy. And you know, I'm unboxing it and been hanging it up going man, I would love to be able to be a designer. And that was just me at like 17 gone. Yeah, wouldn't that be cool. So kind of fast forward is I ended up going to college, played college volleyball, and got to play at some of the best schools in the country. And with that came Mac computers. So if everyone remembers back in the 90s, Mac computers started coming out. And nobody really knew how to work with them and what to do. And luckily, I had the schools that I went to had had the Macs, and I just kind of taught myself. So I started designing and doing things kind of for volleyball teams, because every team has like a theme for the year. And we were like these practice shirts, and it's got the theme on it. So actually, one year I designed them and printed on when I learned how to silkscreen print and took a class at Western Michigan University. And actually, my first design was a guy, very bitmap looking, hitting a volleyball. And it was very crude. But I just it was just a lot of fun, you know, kind of creating your own thing and learning. And so from there, I played volleyball, I got out of college, and then I got into mountain biking and what a rush. I mean, I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie and loves sports and challenging myself and man, I started mountain bike in and I just started noticing it was a new category. You know, a lot of people were into cotton T shirts, and just just kind of haphazard and so I got to know the bike shop, and they started talking to me about how you know they don't really have any apparel for mountain biking and, and it's all just Road at the time Tour de France was really big and all the cycling jerseys and so I just started riding all the different bike companies around the country. And I'm kind of spicy and sarcastic. I think that got their attention when I wrote my wrote my letter and I said I don't know anything. I know nothing about apparel design, but man Do I like sports and man, you know, I love to talk so I'll be a lot of fun to work with. And I landed a job.

Marshall Atkinson 
and they bought that.
Mariellen Auer 
They bought it you know.

Marshall Atkinson 
So here's the thing, you don't have to be an expert. You just have to be yourself as human beings appreciate other human beings and people want to work with fun people that are interesting and and I think a lot of people People always think that they have to have a facade that they're perfect or whatever. Yeah, I think people like to see vulnerability sometimes. And like, you know, I don't really know what I'm doing here, but let's give it a shot. And like, okay, I can do I can work with that. And so that's really great. And so that's all in Michigan, correct?

Mariellen Auer 
Yeah. So that was in Michigan. And I just remember, I sat down and I wrote a list. And I tell you know, I get a lot of calls a lot of college kids and interns looking for advice and wanting to get into the sports apparel industry. And I said, here's what I did. I took a notebook out. And on one side, I wrote, What are my skills? What am I good at? I'm good at graphic design, I'm good at being creative. I'm good at going against the grain. You know, just just started writing my skills, and I could type, right. And then on the other side, I wrote, What do I like? What am I like to do every day? And I'm like, sports, volleyball, mountain biking, music, and I just you kind of sit there and you start, you know, the lines start to blur, right? And all sudden, I'm like, why don't I go and be a go into graphic design for a bike company for a mountain bike company. And this is like, in 96. And so when I landed the job at the bike company, it's called Geor Dona. They had the contract to do all the Olympic peril for the mountain biking. And they were doing the Tour de France stuff. So I got to go to the Olympics for the very first mountain biking event in Atlanta, Georgia. Yeah, it was awesome. Course, cokes were like $15 each. They weren't ready for the crowds that came. But it was so cool to see. Like these athletes, he's world class athletes wearing my stuff tearing around a corner. I mean, there's, there's nothing more rewarding than somebody, you know, wearing your gear around here. There's a lot of cyclists and I'll see people wearing my jersey and I'm like, I did that. So I think, you know, that's kind of how I got there. Like you just said, It's the passion. What drove me What did? What do I like to do everyday? What kind of people do I want to work with? You know, I vet my clients to I mean, I'm a little, I'm not real, super big words and professional, and I'm just, I get it done. And I have fun. And I tell my clients, you know, it's like, we gotta enjoy the journey together. Or we're not, it's just going to be frustrating for everybody. So.

Marshall Atkinson 
So silkscreening T shirts is a lot there. sublimating jerseys, right? So. So along the way, you've had to learn and try new things. And, of course, things don't work out. And that's where your growth comes in. Right. So. So talk about, like, you know, you know, you started in history, and now you're doing bigger clients or different things or whatever. And, and how did you end up on the, on the east coast for Michigan? So kind of share that a little bit?

Mariellen Auer 
Sure. Yeah. So as I mentioned, I got hired by the bike company and moved down. And I started growing the custom apparel program. And we had a competitor called Pearl Azumi. And the people would call in who wanted their own custom clothing? Well, nobody was doing it. Nobody would say, Yeah, I'll let you private label, like put your own tag on the inside and things like that. So I got to really understand the custom side, the customer side talking them through it, because they're, they have no idea how to do the artwork, they have no idea how to put the order together. And so our factories were in Italy, and I got to go to Italy to watch how they made the jerseys. And at the time, they started doing sublimation in the United States. Never heard of it. You know, nobody was doing sublimation the United States. So then, when I had an opportunity to start my own company, I went out to California, and actually met up with a couple of bike factories out there, right along the coast of Mexico. I pull into it was called Cashes, Squadra they go Squadra they're probably gonna shoot me if it's the wrong one. But anyway, I pulled in and they're playing volleyball in the parking lot at lunch. And I'm like, You got to be kidding me.

Marshall Atkinson 
And that's my jam.

Mariellen Auer 
I know that right. So I pull in and everybody's really laid back. I'm like, This is what I'm supposed to be doing. And I walk in, and they give me a tour of the plant. They have a sublimation printer in the back. They spent $250,000 on the sublimation printer. They're like, we have no idea what to do with it. I'm like, really, you know, and in the back of my mind, I'm just always thinking how, how could how can we make this work? How can we get that machine to work, you know, and I was kind of on my own. And so luckily, you know, I think everybody has success because of other people that come into their life that are willing to take the time. To teach you to talk to you to sit down with you have a coffee, answer my dumb questions over and over. Because, you know, I think it took me five years to understand what sublimation really was. I just thought, Oh, it's just another way to make a jersey. But sublimation, as everybody knows, is creeping into every industry products, shoes, and all of that. So, like I said, I would put some orders together, and they would try to sublimate it and the colors are way off. I mean, a purple was was blue.

Marshall Atkinson
Right.

Mariellen Auer
And if anybody knows, even in the print industry, you know, reflex blue is like the death of a job. Because it can go purple, or it can go really wrong. So those were the same, same kind of basic print issues was going into sublimation. And then you started learning, oh, the temperature of the room, the temperature of the heat press, the type of inks that you use the type of paper, and it was just a really, you know, fail test fail test. And and I'm very picky, you know, and I'm very, let's, we got to match those PMS colors, and a lot of people really don't, it's green. I love clients that go, can you make it a little greener? You're like, I don't even want to do that me. Sent me if anyone knows the answer to that, please email me at mariellen@. But, yeah, so yeah, a lot of so I ended up, like I said, on the east coast, and I had worked with a lot of different industries. I worked in the food packaging industry. I worked for like a printer unisource I was a paper spec rep. And I went around to all the ad agencies. And this is when they still did big mailers back in the day. I even was part of like this big AOL program where they were mailing out the AOL disc, you know? Right. Yeah,

Marshall Atkinson 
Yeah, I know, people who still have an AOL email.

Mariellen Auer 
I do too. And Hotmail what is that?

Marshall Atkinson 
They're the last one. Right? So that's great. So we're talking about sublimated, apparel sublimation, right. And I think that's such an awesome term. But it gets confused is confusing to people. Because sublimation it sounds like is that the same as dye migration? You know, those are two ones, something awesome ones a problem, right? So, like, let's just talk about sublimation. Because I don't really think everybody really knows what that is. And if you're listening and you don't know what it is, it's okay. Okay, but, but Mariellen is going to set you straight right now. So, can you talk about what a sublimation? How do we make a sublimated jersey or sublimated t shirt? Or sublimated a Hawaiian shirt or whatever, right? Can you just take us through the whole journey of what that is? What just step by step? What is it? How do we do it? What do we need to know? If you're working with somebody like yourself? What are the things you can think about the do's and don'ts? Just the ABCs of the whole deal?

Mariellen Auer 
Yeah, so sublimation is basically taking your design, printing it on paper and a mirror image. And then you're gonna heat press that onto fabric at a certain temperature for a certain amount of time. So I'm kind of given a short answer. So basically, I always say it's like a temporary tattoo. So you got a temporary tattoo and you look at the image, it's smeared, you lay it on your hand, you put some water on it, you wait, because it's got to kind of soak into your skin, all those toxins and everything. Then you peel it off, and you got a tattoo. And when you looked at it, it looked really faded before you put it on your hand. And somehow the water reacts with the ink and all that. So I kind of explaine sublimation as like you said, it's dye sublimation, so you're taking white fabric, so you always start with white fabric, it has to have some component of polyester in it.

Marshall Atkinson 
Wait, stop right there I thought it has to be 100% Poly, it doesn't have to be poly?

Mariellen Auer
Not at all.

Marshall Atkinson
Okay, so it just has to have 1% Poly I mean, what is the what?

Mariellen Auer 
We call it the word Right, right. Yeah. So, polyester is a man made fiber. If you start mixing it with cotton, which is a natural fiber, eventually that cotton is going to kind of pill disintegrate, pull apart. Correct. But polyester has a really strong bond when they actually make the thread. And so yeah, I mean, I was gonna talk about this a little bit but I can print on crushed velvet, I can print on fluffy fleece. And it's sublimation printing, because as polyester in it, so when you put that ink, and you got to know what you're doing, but when you put that ink and you set up the job right and you heat press that the ink at a certain temperatures gonna form a gas and that gas is going to melt or meld with the fibers in the fabric and you're dyeing the fabric, so it's never going to fade, you don't feel it, and all that, you know, all the things you hear about. So that's the idea behind sublimation is you're dyeing the fabric permanently. And to get it really colorful, there's there's magic formulas like people kind of know about rich black, which is I think it's 60, Cyan, 40, magenta, 40, yellow and 100%. Black, you never just print 100%, black, it's going to look gray. So, but it all depends on your ink that depends on your manufacturer, what they can do, what kind of machine they have, when they output it, I think a lot of people have been kind of dabbling, right, they go by an Epson printer EcoTank. And they put sublimation ink in it, and they're printing eight and a half by 11. I do the same thing. I have one in my office, and I print out, you know, a sheet and then I heat press it on the fabric. Now if I do it on cotton, it looks really faded. So the more more of a mix of polyester and something else is going to look different. So if you took that same image and printed it on all these different fabrics, your colors are going to look different because of how the ink and creates a what do you want to call it forms with the fibers in the fabric, so very scientific.

Marshall Atkinson 
Alright, so we can, let's just say we're doing a small area on a shirt, right spot sublimation. So we can sublimate that area. But if it's a, let's say, a yellow shirt, the end, right, we're gonna take on the character riches. So the yellow. So if we're using like a light blue, now our image is green.

Mariellen Auer 
Possibly, and I worked with that. The other thing too is if they died, that that fabric or whatever, and you go to heat that up again, you may get a whole big globby mass, not globby. But it may merge differently. And sometimes people go that's art. Or you're like, that's not even close.

Marshall Atkinson 
So we don't have to use this is the thing I want to think about here, right? Okay, don't have to use just a normal 100% White poly smooth. We could do a fluffy fleece, we could do a towel, we could do all types of different things, all types of different fabrics. And of course, it's a trial and error as to what you get in the colors and how crisp everything works. And but we're not, we're not limited to just one thing

Mariellen Auer 
now, but you can do small runs of 12 pieces. That's the beauty of it. And we do cut and sew so you can do the spot sublimation, like you said, and I think S&S carries sub Live, which is like a sublimated t shirt. And a lot of times sublimation, the fabric can feel like cotton. So they treat that T shirt a certain way. But if you want to do full custom sublimation, we do cut and sew. And so at that point, you're printing on the fabric. That's why it's so like, let's say you go to Target or Walmart, and you see a really cool all over digital printed shirt like your Hawaiian shirts, slip it over. And if on the inside, it's white, it was sublimated. You just know. And that's what I tell people. Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 
And here's how you tell was it sublimated after it was constructed or as fabric and then sewn. Usually it's the seams and wherever where there's a little crease or wrinkle. You know, the the the cheaper way of doing it is after the thing has already been sewn right? And then there's that little defect and some people don't even ever notice that. And some people work that into the design because it's kind of a vintagey distress looking image anyway and it doesn't even matter. So that's really just part of the characteristics of the process.

Mariellen Auer 
Correct. You can put, you know, like the pillows when you go to heat press inside the shoulders or the arms, so you don't get the creases as as harsh as they are. It fills it up a little bit. But I would say I haven't done an all over print on an existing blank shirt in about 15 years.

Marshall Atkinson 
You know what you're doing? You're the marshal. By the way thank you for shout out to our sponsor. I'm sure they love that.

Mariellen Auer 
You're welcome. Underline. Did you mark that?

Marshall Atkinson 
All right. All right. All right. So,

Mariellen Auer 
okay, so

Marshall Atkinson 
So what else do we need to know where that like, right? Like, can I do anything? Am I limited? I've got maybe a really super picky client, they're really, they're really all jazzed up about MC making sure their brand colors happen. Are we going to have a problem here? Well,

Mariellen Auer 
we always do testing. So you definitely, we can make the product, print it, send pictures, or send the actual sample out to them. So whether it's a t shirt cycling jersey shorts, if it's a large order, we need to get that right before we go into production. So never a problem with that. So yeah, I mean, that I kind of like have a checklist, you know, when a client calls. And first is, how's your what's your artwork? Is it vector? Or is it PNG? Did you make it in mid journey? teach you. You're

Marshall Atkinson 
speaking my language? Yeah.

Mariellen Auer 
You know, but a lot of people use Canva Oh, I got my logo off of Fiverr. And I'm sure a lot of people rolling their eyes when I said, Fiverr. But, you know, and that's, that's where the industry is going. And that's where people, you know, to me, they can brainstorm, get their ideas, but a lot of times, I can't reproduce what they give me, I have to recreate it at some point. And that's kind of the beauty of being a graphic designer and knowing all the ins and outs and all the mistakes that can be made. And I work with some people, like you ask a lot of questions. And I said, Well, do you want a quality product? You know, like, if you're gonna send me a JPEG, that's, you know, 10 kilobytes and you want to blow it up on the front of a shirt. What's that going to look like? You know, so it's best. That's the first point is do they know what vector is? So you know, we go from there, we see what their artwork is we put together some designs, and then they got to pick which garment they're going to use, are they going to use the same design on a t shirt, short sleeve, t shirt, long sleeve a hoodie? Do they want to make other items like a headband, a gator, shorts, jogger pants bags, I can even do footwear. So when I sit down with a client, you know, they come in with this one idea of doing a t shirt. And you know, everybody we want to upsell one we're we got our own businesses, right? So you're already putting that time into doing a t shirt. Let's let's throw in some hoodies who doesn't want a hoodie. And

Marshall Atkinson 
I think that's what makes it really unique is the fact that we can create things that nobody else has. And that adds value. And and this is how, if you're sitting there listening right now, this is how you're adding more value to your client proposition. And that's what they love. They love the uniqueness of stuff where nobody else can get this. And that's the that's creative power right there in your hands. Like once you hear so far, be sure to subscribe so you can get the latest from Success Stories. And now here's Zach shortly with the SMS spotlight. Corporate

Marshall Atkinson 
Alright, so what Won't it do? Like? I know you like ran into this before, right? So if I wanted to do sublimation, so anything whatever right what what dead stop don't even go there. What is it?

Mariellen Auer 
What is i? Don't know, let me think. I guess they would say just the low res artwork, you know, and they don't really understand the whole process. If they want spot sublimation or cutting so much, like I said, pretty much. I've got a lot of different vendors and manufacturers that are changing every day how they do things. So I kind of like it when I get a challenge.

Marshall Atkinson 
Oh, so that's good to know. That's, that's really great.

Mariellen Auer 
A lot of times you think of sublimation as the paper. But when you get into a quarter million units, you actually have a there's a completely different sublimation process out there. That I won't get into because it's going to really be boring. But yes, you it's a different, and it's cheaper. So what we're doing is probably the most expensive way to sublimate, and cut and sew or spot. But there's, yeah, there's a lot a lot of different ways to get things done. Yeah, okay.

Marshall Atkinson 
No problem. All right. So. All right. So you've been working with brands and startups and all types of stuff, right? And that can be really hectic, right? So how do you keep it organized and simple? Because you know, your industry and they don't write? How do you make it easy for people? So they can keep coming back? Because you know, you're the expert. So how do you do that? What do you do?

Mariellen Auer 
Well, I have a work in progress form. That's an Excel spreadsheet, and I use it with all my bigger clients. So because a lot of times you're you're you're doing maybe six different products, and they all have different timelines, and you know, maybe they need the artwork approved, or we're putting a prototype together for that. So I have a work in progress, that I just sent an Excel spreadsheet out and keep that updated, they can update it as well. I have it broken down into logo, trademarking. You know, your apparel marketing, the website, e commerce, shipping, so that we're working on because a lot of times when you start a brand, you actually have to start spinning the 20 plates, you know, you don't just start with the logo design, you have to start with the apparel and looking at the fabric and things like that. So I kind of make it really easy. And you know, I've learned, look, I've been at this a long time. And I think the more transparent you are with your clients, and you talk to them about the process, because everyone just thinks, Okay, so I gave you this, and you had it for a week, did you make it your life, but there's eight other steps. And so when I give them that work in progress report, they see what the eight steps are for us to get to whatever the solution is, if that kind of makes sense to you. So

Marshall Atkinson 
you're getting up front, and you're handling the expectations, and you're using a checklist format. So they know right now there's eight steps, and we're on step two. Oh, yeah, there's gonna be some more things that have to happen. And I'm sure that you go over each of the steps. This is how long these things take. And sometimes they're, you know, handled by you and other times are handled by other people. And you don't have as much control, you know, like, you know, shipping. It's like, you can ship today. And it's I mean, you're getting it tomorrow, because it's, you know, let's not have that a whole UPS FedEx discussion, but you know, there used to be better, aka, they're not as good. But no, no, but there used to be better. You don't want to Amazon takes over for them. Maybe they'll get better when they

Mariellen Auer 
Hey, I'm for it. Yeah. All

Marshall Atkinson 
right. So you try to make things easy, right? So somebody out there this thinking, Hey, I didn't want to do this for some of my clients, right? Like, what are the what are the hang ups with those steps? Where do people kind of like if they get stuck sometimes? How can we get them unstuck with a couple of those steps?

Mariellen Auer 
What do you do? Pricing?

Marshall Atkinson 
The price? Okay.

Mariellen Auer 
You know, I think you talking money is always the tough one. People want to know how much you know, I'll be out drinking a beer with some friends. Hey, how much is it to make a t shirt?

Marshall Atkinson 
And you're like he's drink? That's what's your answer right there.

Mariellen Auer 
Yeah. Right. So really, it depends on deadline depends on quantity. And it depends on price. So if you have 10 weeks to do something, I can probably get your price down 30% Because we can make it in a different location. And we have time and everybody's it's working into a schedule when you rush something. There's always something that's going to happen that It's gonna go wrong. So I would say the biggest obstacle. I know it sounds weird, I think we all know it is, is is kind of dialing into their price point, you know, and if people want to do it domestically, but they want the, you know, they want the champagne, but the beer budget, as we all say, and, and then they'll always come to me, but I don't care if I make money or not. And I just I laugh WHO, WHAT? Like, I just want to make it in the United States, and I want all my fabric and when everything's made here and everything, and I'm like, Well, you know, that's gonna cost double. Oh, well, what else could we know? And it's like, yeah, so I that's the conversation. You just, it's, it's hard to come up with what that price is? Because I don't know, either. I mean, there is no magic number that I can say, you know, depends on the fabric, the weight of the fabric, what, you know how many? It's real estate, you know, how much ink Are you going to be using overall? You know, same thing with screen printing, it's, it's really real estate, right? If the, the larger the print, the more you're going to charge, the more pieces you have in a pattern, the more that pattern is going to cost to develop, the more that items is going to be to make. So like I'm working on a hat right now. It's a six panel hat. And I said, Why don't you go to four panels? Well, why would I want to do that? Because it's going to cost less. And it's not going to affect what we're trying to do. Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 
So the part of your role is really educating. Because nobody knows the end. So I think that that's, that's some of the magic that allows you to be the leader, right? Because you're educating people about what to do so they can make better decisions. So do you have a little video? Do you have a PDF? Do you have a thing like, here are the most common things, this is what I recommend? And that way, it's like the starter kit or something to get people going? And that way, they know, like, okay, that makes a lot of sense. Let's just do that. Or that makes a lot of sense. But I want a crazy town over here. And let's have that discussion, because I'm not what is in the back of my mind isn't on your page, we have to do something completely different. Do you? Do you give them you're arming them with this stuff? First? Yes.

Mariellen Auer 
So what I do is, you know, you have a usually 1520 minute conversation just to qualify him that it's a good fit. And then we meet again, and they share, you know, because it's all about confidentiality, I sign NDAs a lot. So I'm working on a lot of products and a lot of brands. So once we kind of go through those basic steps then and they come on as a client, they sign a contract with me, I have a client assessment form that they fill out. And they're not they may not have answers to everything, but it starts with what's your logo colors? Have you created your logo? Who do I ship to? Who do I build to have you made this before what happened, and it's like a three page assessment and it digs deep into the line. And if you know, no one's even started yet, that's fine, too. So I basically have them, they got to fill that out. And you know, it's really good if they've have some kind of a business plan or a marketing strategy. But usually, I'm working with people that are really just starting out and want to know, can this work. And that's okay, but I want them to know that we're going to fill in those gaps later on down the line for you to be successful. And then on my website, I actually offer free downloads and resources to get started. One is a Pantone color, the most popular Pantone colors because they don't know what PMS colors are. And that's perfectly fine. They can download that I have a print location guide. And then I have like order forms and stuff like that. So as we're moving forward, not everything's custom, you know, some things are kind of, you know, a team or whatever we're working on, but I do try to offer some resources, but I am working on. Like you said, there's kind of like a 21 step blueprint, I call it. And again, when you become my client, you get a binder and we start filling in that binder in the different sections as we move forward with your your apparel project in

Marshall Atkinson 
so you mentioned Pantone colors that made me think of an idea here, right so are there a Pantone colors like always work like 26 Red or something? Are there Pantone colors? Like, you'll never get that to ever match? Like, just stay away from that color? He's not going to work?

Mariellen Auer 
Pretty much I think we started I started this this interview saying reflex blue so I'm going to circle back it's a sigh I filled up. But yeah, I mean, you know, we we printed a job. I worked with a lacrosse group. And we did all the lacrosse teams and pretty much the whole state of North Carolina. And man, we have this royal blue. And my factory I just bought a half a million dollar sublimation printer, and they had it in the factory in its own room, you know, with no dust and they have that quality temperature control. They're like, this first Jersey just cost us $3,000 Trying to dial in that color. So Ben, we're good. Did they hit it? They did. And then And then oh, you're gonna love this story, because he liked the fails. This is my favorite. This is Charlotte. And we, you know, we freak out. When we get two inches of snow, I grew up in Michigan, two inches of snow, it's just another day. So we have this crazy storm, the order comes in, it gets shipped directly to the client. Now we were making these in Guatemala, she opens up and they must have been 200 jerseys. So lacrosse, you have like a jersey, it's kind of cropped, and it's bigger. And it's it's made a certain way for the pads to be underneath. Somehow they put different numbers. So the front might be 55. And the back could be 24.

Marshall Atkinson 
Well, hey, that's called our stealth strategy. 55 Why don't matter, I'm 30. And

Mariellen Auer 
I didn't think of that I need to do. So the client had a stroke, about a month before all of this, and she gets this order. And she's just livid with me. And I'm like, Well, what's Is there any pattern? Is that a certain size? Like? How could not all of them, mind you? Not all of them were screwed up? But can you imagine trying to figure all that out. So she had to make a list. And she told me which ones we needed to redo, which I still don't even know how she did that. We redid the order in less than a week and got it to him and stuff. But it was. Yeah, that was interesting.

Marshall Atkinson 
I'll tell you, I've done so many orders and stuff over the years. And the if you do a good job of solving the problem it chances are you have that customer forever. And is because problems happen and how you deal with it is how that's what makes people stick. Because people bump into problems all the time. You know, I ordered a salad and non french fries, you know, or whatever. And it's just a how they deal with it makes it you know, what makes it right how you make it, right. That's what people want is the fact that you understood my problem and handled it for me and it with grace and you know, in a smile on your face. And it wasn't just an argument. You know, that's

Mariellen Auer 
yeah, you know, I stopped saying I'm sorry. I used to say I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Now I'm like, How can we fix it? What can I do to make you happy what, what needs to be done? And you know, what's funny is I lost that client because she wanted us to basically redo our patterns and for free. And we're like, even though I was making pretty good money in the fact we were we were doing 15 orders a week. And lacrosse is like a full time sport down here in the south. And I understood where she was coming from, but we would have to put a lot of money into that. And we said no. And so she went to warrior and she used other brands. She was gone for a year. Guess what? Hey, Mary Ellen, you want to go to lunch? I don't know, do I? Let me take you to lunch. I'm like, okay, so we go to lunch. And she goes, I have to tell you, I went and worked with all these other brands and they don't give a shit about us. They don't think, you know, they'll mess up an order. They'll miss a deadline and we don't hear from them. She goes at least you cared at least if I needed to talk to you eight o'clock at night or had an artwork change, you know, I mean, I did, I worked a lot. I definitely got a lot of gray hair doing that. But I learned a lot and it was very stressful. And and you know, I think that was really rewarding to have her come back and go. I really do appreciate everything you did more than ever. And you're like really? So nice. Yeah, I mean, like you said, it's how you handle the client. You gotta have some fun with it. And and look, it's I always say kind of my team were like a dysfunctional soprano family. And when you work if anyone works like with Guatemalans or anything like that, they're very spicy. And I've learned to let them vent they'll get really mad about something because like they messed up that one order and they vent to me. And then I let them vent and we hang up on each other because we get mad and then an hour later we're like okay, so now what

Marshall Atkinson 
All right, so let's wrap up the show here. And let's talk about the future. Right with Yeah, yes. So my new technologies, fabrics, decoration, methods, software, whatever. So, what is so exciting right now? You can't even believe it? And what are you thinking about just around the corner? What's going on? What, what is exciting for you right now for what you're doing in your business? I

Mariellen Auer 
would say, I'm really getting into the direct to film concept, because I have a lot of people that, you know, the sublimation is your full color. But nobody wants a cut and sew product. So I've been working closely with the transfer company that I deal with, in working on that, because a lot of people here transfer and they think it's a heat transfer. And those that know about, you know, DTF I mean, it's changing everything. I even have silkscreen printers that they were hard silkscreen printers, right. Now they've gone and bought their own machine. And I like it, because you can do one or two z's, you can do a gain sheet up to 20 feet, you can put whatever you want on that game sheet. So you can combine your your orders, they come, you got to cut them up, and then you know, you put it on the shirt. And if you mess it up, you do another shirt. So I'm really excited about that. I know, we don't want to talk about sublimation too much. But I'm really excited about all the different fabrics that are becoming more and more available. And if you guys want to come out and see me, I have a showroom. And I've got this eight inch binder that I got two weeks ago for one of my fabric sources, and it's all f what is it called p F p it's it's for you know, printing. And so you had a client come in yesterday. And he was he's like, wow, that's all he did. He's like I'm so he got goosebumps looking at all the different fabrics and stuff. The other thing I'm excited about is something you and I have been sharing as mid journey, creating ideas and graphics and concepts. And I think I shared with you I had a plumbing company and they wanted a trophy made out of pipes. I think I shared that with you. I don't remember. But yeah, yeah, you know, you're like I would have never been able to. I mean, I'm an illustrator. And I can kind of make stuff I don't necessarily make everything as we all piecemeal things. But you know, just type in some prompts, and mid journey comes up with all these great ideas and maybe something you didn't even think about, like even just taglines or phrases. So I'm really excited about the AI design. But I'm also excited about the chat chat GPT. Because I've completely rewritten my website, I've completely approached people typing in an email, and it'll regurgitate it back to me. So I think saving time we're work on been working on more efficiencies. So I'm trying to find more quicker ways to invoice people. And just different ways to communicate quicker, and everyone has the they want to text. I had some people, they just want to use Facebook Messenger. So I'm developing something on my website right now, like a client portal, that'll just have all their files there all our communication in one spot. So I'm excited about, I'm excited about a lot of things. I think the apparel industry is almost as exciting as technology right now. I mean, apparel was so stagnant, I would say the last 15 years kind of right, you know, just screen printing or whatever. And now you've got all these social media influencers, making their own brands, and making their own merchandise, you got all these breweries opening up, and everybody wants their own merch, whether it's a t shirt, or a coffee mug, or a beer mug, or whatever. Um, I think there's a lot of places for us to help out the little guys and the big brands. So I think I think there's a lot if, if you take a step back and take a deep breath, and look around, I think you need to figure out your lane or your category. Like for me, it's sports. And for me, I like to help startups because I like to teach and, and then, you know, I'm just excited about things like that, where technology brings a lot of people together and how that infuses now with the apparel industry, and how that's all coming together. That's

Marshall Atkinson 
just fantastic. And I love all of that. And I'm playing around with all of that stuff and, and what, just for what you do, think about how we could use mid journey to create a pattern that could be the basis for the t-shirt that other things could go on top of it. And it could be a million different things palm trees or waves or birds or geometric patterns or, like whatever it doesn't have to be a scene And then it could just be something very subtle. And mid journey does such a good job of that. And, and so thinking things through and developing products that nobody has ever seen before, puts you over the top in that sales category, because if they're looking at a couple of different vendors and whatever, and you're doing something so unique and creative, people are going to be looking at you more than if somebody is just doing some off the shelf stuff that everybody's seen a million times, I don't have a catalog, right? And I think doing something unique individual to them listening to what they want or their story, or maybe they have a little icon or something. And we can develop that into a pattern that's really subtle in the background, you don't really notice, but they will. Right. And I think that that is where the gold is, don't you think? Yes,

Mariellen Auer 
I do. I agree. And it is about listening to your client. And a lot of times they a lot of people have you know, they come in with, I have this idea. And I'm like, Well, can I I'll do that. But do you mind if I do something over here in left field 90% of time, they'll pick what I did over there in left field? Because they didn't know they didn't know they could do that. So yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 
What they see is they see all the vanilla, right? Yeah. And we you come at them with waffle cone chocolate chip fudge.

Mariellen Auer 
They're like, what is this? Yeah. Like

Marshall Atkinson 
everybody else. Yeah, I think that that's where the fun part is. And you can say, You know what? Not only that, but we can invent our own flavors. Right? Exactly. Are all on before seen flavor of ice cream, would you like?

Mariellen Auer 
Well, I can even put a scent on garments. Speaking of flavor, yeah. Yeah, I've been working with scented apparel. And I've worked with like Victoria's Secret and gas and X deodorant. And, and I'll tell people, you can make your own custom signature. Because smell is such a such a sense. We don't think about with apparel.

Marshall Atkinson 
smell right?

Mariellen Auer 
Do that too. So all right.

Marshall Atkinson 
So thank you so much. for spending time with us today. It's been great. So if somebody wants to reach out and hear more about you, or ask questions about this process of whatever, how can they get a hold of Mariellen? Yeah,

Mariellen Auer 
Yeah, I mean, I welcome calls or text, actually at my phone number 704-236-0568. And email me at Mary Ellen Ma, r i e, Ll. E. N, and it's @customapparelstore.net, I have an Instagram, Facebook, I'm starting YouTube. So you know, trying to get out there in different ways. But the best thing is just reach out. And let's let's have a 10 minute conversation and talk about what you're looking for.

Marshall Atkinson 
Right. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time today. It's been a fantastic chat. I've learned so much and I can't wait to see what else you're going to be doing. So it's can be wonderful to keep track.

Mariellen Auer 
Well, thank you. I look forward to it myself. All right, thanks.

Marshall Atkinson
All right, thanks