Chicago-based screen printer and embroiderer cranks out apparel for promotional products industry to the tune of $9 million annually.

It all began when a screen printer botched a simple T-shirt order. Naturally, the client was upset. But in hindsight, it was the best thing that could of happened to him. The client, George Kilian, took matters into his own hands and printed the T-shirts himself. Sixteen years later, the former manager of a rhythm-and-blues band owns and operates Sharprint, a contract screen print and embroidery business that grosses more than $8 million annually. "Sharprint started in the basement of my band's house, says Kilian, who initially built his own equipment and taught himself screen printing through trial-and-error. "We printed T-shirts for our band, and when other bands saw them, they wanted some too. Then nightclubs wanted wanted some, and soon everyone was coming to us and we had done very little marketing or sales. Kilian changed his tune on a career in the music industry when he realized the lucrative potential of screen printing, eventually calling it quits as a band manager. By selling to his music contacts, he instantly hit a high note, creating more business than he could've anticipated. "It seemed like we were moving every three years (to a larger facility)," he says. Today, after relocating five times since 1985 to accommodate its steady growth, the Chicago-based business resides in a 40K square-foot warehouse, which houses two new state-of-the-art 12-color automatics, two fully automated 16-color automatics, and one brand new all-over 18 color giant, as they like to call it, which has enabled Sharprint to produce gigantic prints.

Sharprint also has three eight-color manual presses for those smaller jobs under 100 units bringing the total number of screen printing machines to 8. Those machines can crank out over 30,000 prints a day! Impressed? That's not all... don't forget Sharprint moves more than 5,000 embroidered garments a day through this same shop with just over 100 embroidery heads running 16hrs - 24hrs a day. Sharprint's average order size has also grown steadily to between 288-500 shirts (yet they still do as few as 36 pcs), with its largest order coming in at over 900,000 shirts!

 

Today, this thriving company's client list of over 1,200 partners extends far beyond the music world to include such heavy hitters as Threadless, NFL, NBA, MLB, VF Knitwear, Cintas, Harley Davidson and The art Institute of Chicago, for whom Sharprint has reproduced famous portraits by Monet and Renoir on T-shirts sold during art shows. The key to landing such high-profile clients has been Sharprint's unwavering focus on high quality and service, and innovative specialty decoration, Kilian says. "When we started, we had a lot of small runs, and it was important that every shirt look absolutely perfect. In the long run that's helped us because we have always maintained our standard of quality." Today, Sharprint is a full-service company offering contract screen printing and embroidery services, predominantly serving the promotional products industry. "Our customers turn to Sharprint to be educated on the latest trends in apparel decoration because they know we're a leader in our industry," Kilian says. "Rather than providing just T-shirts, we also offer suggestions on other items that might work for their programs or marketing plans. We suggest graphics that we can help design as well as ways to use their existing logos in a more creative fashion on apparel. We work with clients on their whole package." One example of Sharprint's creativity is its self-promotion slogan, "Get a grip... on your image." The design, which features a pair of pliers that appears to have a piece of the shirt twisted into its grip, was printed on T-shirts and distributed to prospective clients. The design also included Sharprint's name and phone number.

Just how important is this kind of self-promotion to a decorator's success? "I think it is everything right now," Kilian says. "This business is getting more competitive, and you've got to get out there and see people. It's not like the old days where you could sit back and let customers come to you." To attain its goal of 10% to 15% yearly growth, Sharprint employs an account management staff of 6, all of whom are experienced graphic designers. George feels it's best to have experts talking to his customers. Led by George himself, his sales staff also visits as many potential clients as possible with a full on apparel presentation showing all the latest and greatest innovations Sharprint is famous for. "We are fortunate because there are lots of promotional product distributors in the Chicago-land area for us to partner with," notes George.

ASI distributors are attracted to Sharprint because it screen prints and embroiders under one roof and offers a wide variety of finishing and fulfillment services. "For example, if we embroider a bag, they can send us a pencil and a mug to package together and ship it out for them," Kilian says. "Because it's such a competitive industry, the difference between earning a customer's business and losing it to a rival often comes down to turnaround time," Kilian says. Sharprint strives for quick turnarounds without sacrificing quality or communication - two of its mainstays. "Service levels have gotten outrageous lately," he says. "A lot of our distributors' clients are very demanding. They want things done in three days, sometimes one day, and that's hard to do. You've really got to communicate with your clients," he continues. "There are so many variations that can go wrong in decorating a garment that you have to ask a lot of questions." The secret in speeding up turnaround is in the production process, which runs like a well-oiled machine. "It all comes down to the efficiencies of how you run your equipment, making sure there is no downtime, and inspiring ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results," Kilian says. "We are sticklers for watching our sales-to-labor ratio numbers and report each crews daily efficiency record in the lunch room. If they are lacking at all, we immediately find out why. If you run your shop efficiently, and measure EVERYTHING consistently your profit margins should stabilize and enable you to grow at a steady pace."

The emphasis on fundamental business practices also spills into our customer service philosophy. "We answer our phones properly and make sure that we get back to clients in a timely manner," he says. "It's not a big secret. You would think, What's so special about that? Everyone does that. But I don't think a lot of people do. We're just really good at the basics." Even though they're good at the basics, that's not all they stick to. The company's 150 employees welcome the new technology that is changing their industry with the addition of digital direct to garment printing and in house applique development and vinyl cad cutting to expands their product offering in a major way. Sharprint has also recently added a brand new state-of-the-art 18 color all-over print machine called the Alpha 8. This machine, one of only 2 installed in US so far, enable Sharprint to print all over the entire shirt with multiple colors to create those unbelievable retail looking prints that are so popular these days. Still, their area of expertise is large volume, high quality screen printing and embroidery - a point made evident when Sharprint won a Golden Image Award for Stimulated Four-Color Process on Dark Fabrics at the Screenprinting & Graphic Imaging Association(SGIA) show.

The entry was Sharprint's first to any contest, Kilian says, because so much of his time is devoted to satisfying customers, which he calls the best reward. "I guess we just don't toot our horn enough," he admits. "I love going to galleries at the screen printing shows and seeing the incredible work some companies do with the new technologies. It's phenomenal." And as long as Sharprint continues to efficiently produce quality products, Kilian can be assured of continued success. And thats music to his ears.