Anybody can give you the “top ten”, but I thought I would lay out the top eleven reasons to own a vinyl cutter especially if you are an apparel decorator.
1. Versatility – There are so many new markets that you can expand into including: Sports Teams, Signs, Decals, Applique and contour cutting Full Color Custom Transfers.
2. Value- Your initial investment is one of the smallest in this industry, yet the return on your investment is one of the quickest. In short, the cutter pays for itself in no time.
3. Durability- With today’s heat applied films, you can rest assured that your designs will look good pretty much for the life of the garment. That has been defined as 50+ washings in this industry.
4. Short Runs – The perfect way to do low quantity runs that would not be cost effective with screen printing is to cut and heat press cad-cut films. Many screen printers themselves are using the cutter so as not to turn away smaller quantity jobs.
5. Quick Turn – We live in an “on-demand” society where many customers just gotta have it now. Being able to handle last minute additions and other crises that customers have will go a long way in establishing customer loyalty to you.
6. Price Point Options – While embroidery is perceived to be the high end means of embellishment, not everyone can afford to pay the price of a 50,000 stitch design, but they still would like to have their image displayed on themselves. Cad-cut films will allow you to offer affordable alternatives to them.
7. Special Effects- No other means of decorating can give you the ability to provide such a vast array of effects in print. There are many levels of “bling” available with glitters, metallics and foils as well as reflectives, flock and even glow-in-the-dark materials.
8. Customization- Many customers can grow tired of stock, off the rack styles of personalization. While it can be a little more affordable to buy pre-cut letters and numbers, the ability to customize fonts and styles will go along way to make your customer feel that you have created something special for them…not to mention the fact that you can custom size designs to fit any size or style of garment.
9. Independence/Control – Let’s face it, most of us have a little bit (or a lot in my case) of control freak in us. Nobody wants to be at the mercy of someone else when it comes to servicing our customers. We need the assurance that the job is going to be done on time and done correctly. The only way that I know to have that peace of mind is to do it myself.
10. Profitability- As gratifying and emotionally rewarding as this type of business is, we are mainly in this business to make money. Because of the versatility of this equipment, the expanded markets you can reach and the relatively small investment, the vinyl cutter brings unmatched profitability to your business almost immediately and continues to bring in revenue for years. I don’t think that I have ever heard a person say that they made a mistake in buying a vinyl cutter.
11. Chicks dig guys with vinyl cutters - need I say more…?
Filed under: Vinyl Cutters Tagged: | cad-cut, GX-24, Roland, vinyl cutter
is there a way tp print on vinyl with a ink jet printer and then cut it with a cutter?
Two ways to go…the simplest but not as versatile and durable is to print a full color image onto inkjet transfer paper (for darks) using a standard pigment ink printer and utilize a cutter that has an optic eye to trim around the perimeter.
The second way is to make the investment in a wide format solvent inkjet printer/cutter that pretty much does all that you need. It prints the design onto a film and then rolls the design back up and cuts around the image. The solvent printer cutter provides exceptional durability as well as adds the ability to print and cut decals etc.