Software advances and a shift in perspective have increased resilience, improved customer relationships and reduced fixed costs at Pentire Branding, explains founder Chris Dart, who argues that customer demand is now driving a leaner garment decoration model
After more than 20 years in the industry, I’ve seen garment decoration evolve in all sorts of ways. I’ve worked through different software eras, different production models and different ways of serving customers.
For a long time, the thinking was simple: if you wanted more control, you kept more of the process in-house. Like many in the industry, I believed expansion came from adding capacity, bringing more processes under one roof and building the business around in-house production.
Covid changed everything. It forced me to rethink cost, structure and resilience. It exposed how much risk sat inside fixed overheads, staffing and operational complexity. Around the same time, direct-to-film (DTF) was beginning to mature properly and that opened the door to a different way of thinking – one that was leaner, more flexible and better suited to changing customer demand.
For me, that is the real starting point. The biggest driver of change has not been machinery. It has been the customer.
Speed and flexibility
Customers today want speed, flexibility, lower hassle, easier repeat ordering, consistent branding, and no MOQs. They’re not asking how many machines we own. They’re not especially interested in how much of the production process sits under our own roof. They want the right garments, branded properly, delivered on time.
Once I started from that point, the old production-heavy model began to look less like the obvious answer and more like one option among many.
That shift matters because it changed the way I think about growth. The question is no longer: “How much can we keep in-house?” It is: “What does the customer actually want and what is the best way to deliver it consistently, efficiently and profitably?”
At the same time, the tools available to our industry have moved on dramatically. Software used to mainly help decorators with admin and job management. Newer platforms now connect storefronts, order capture, artwork approval, production workflow and fulfilment.
Decoration methods
Decoration methods have changed too. DTF in particular has altered the conversation. It has made shorter runs, multi-colour graphics, faster turnaround and more flexible fulfilment far more viable. Screen print still has an important place, especially on larger-volume runs, but the balance has shifted. DTF is no longer an interesting add-on. It is a serious commercial process and it is forcing many businesses to rethink how much production really needs to stay in-house.
That leaves many garment decorators at a crossroads. For years, growth meant adding more equipment and more labour. But that model comes with a price. Fixed overhead rises. Staffing becomes more demanding. Downtime hurts more. Capacity has to be fed. Management time gets dragged further into the day-to-day detail of production.
And then there is the broader reality every business owner is feeling: everything is going up. Wages are rising. Employer costs are rising. Pension obligations keep increasing. Employment law and compliance add further pressure. Rent, rates, utilities and day-to-day overheads do not stand still either. The old answer of adding more people, more machinery and more fixed cost every time a business wants to grow starts to look far less attractive.
DecoFlow helps Pentire Branding to manage its outsourced production
The ‘portal in a box’ – a curated box of blanks sent direct to customers
Portal in a box
Our response has been to build a leaner model around what the customer values the most.
That starts with the showroom. I still believe in the value of customers being able to see, touch and compare garments in person. Quality, feel and fit still matter. But the showroom no longer has to be a dead end. It can be the start of a connected workflow.
In our case, QR codes in the showroom help bridge the gap between the physical and digital experience. A customer can move from seeing and feeling a garment in person to a more structured online ordering environment, where products, branding and approved ranges can be handled far more efficiently. Instead of the showroom being just a browsing exercise, it becomes the front end of a smoother ordering journey.
That same thinking also extends beyond the physical showroom itself. Not every customer will visit in person and not every account needs the same route to purchase. That is where the idea of a portable showroom, or ‘portal in a box’ comes in. In simple terms, it is a curated box of blank garment samples sent directly to the customer, with each sample carrying a barcode or QR code that links straight to their own branded portal ready to order.
Digital ordering environment
It gives the customer the chance to see and feel the garments in real life, while also moving them directly into a structured digital ordering environment built specifically for their business. They are not flicking between catalogues, email attachments and random links trying to work out what is approved. They have the physical samples in front of them and each one takes them straight to the relevant item within their own portal. In effect, it is a portable showroom that can be delivered to the customer rather than relying on the customer coming to us.
From there, the order moves into DecoNetwork, which provides the engine behind that structured order environment. Products, branding, approvals and workflow can all be handled more consistently. On top of that sits DecoFlow, the internal control layer we’ve developed to help manage outsourced production more effectively. It helps organise the handoff, generate supplier-ready outputs and maintain visibility across DTF and embroidery jobs being fulfilled externally.
Customers can order garments from their own branded portals
Connected chain
That connected chain – whether it starts in the showroom or through a portal-linked sample box – has become a major part of how we have streamlined the business and moved to a leaner garment decoration model.
And that, to me, is where the real lesson lies. Outsourcing does not have to mean losing control. Done properly, it can actually improve control. The old assumption was that owning the production equipment automatically gives the strongest grip on the workflow. My experience has been that this is not always true. Control can just as easily come from clarity of process, stronger systems, better supplier relationships, and better visibility over what is happening at each stage.
The practical benefits are obvious. It reduces fixed costs. It removes some of the pressure that comes with trying to keep every part of production busy in-house. It creates more room for expansion without immediately needing more machinery, more labour or more space. And it frees up time to focus on the things that often make the biggest difference to the customer relationship: better service, better presentation, smoother repeat ordering and more consistent account management.
For the type of business we now want to build – one based around repeat work, approved ranges, dedicated portals, branded ordering environments and key customer accounts – that matters a great deal.
This is not an argument against in-house production. There are still many businesses for whom that model is absolutely right and there are still applications where it makes perfect sense. But I do think the industry is moving towards a broader understanding of what a modern decoration business can look like.
Today’s opportunity
The opportunity now is not only to produce well. It is to design a business that runs more smoothly, responds better to the customer and scales with less friction.
The customer is buying more than a decorated garment. They are buying convenience, consistency and confidence. They want to know their brand will be handled properly, that ordering will be easy and that the process will not become a headache every time they need more stock.
Once that becomes the starting point, the logic of a leaner, more connected model becomes much clearer.
After two decades in the industry, my view is that the most resilient businesses in the years ahead may not be the ones that try to do everything themselves. They may be the ones that listen more closely to what the customer actually wants and build the right workflow around delivering it.
