It is easy to spot Greek letter shirts, Greek letter sweatshirts, Greek jackets, and Greek tote bags at any major university. Greek apparel is by far the most common object a member of a fraternity or sorority will use to show their involvement and commitment towards a fraternal organization. With such an abundance of lettered Greek apparel, how is one to make their clothing more unique? The answer lies in the customization of that sorority t-shirt, fraternity t-shirt, sorority sweatshirt, fraternity sweatshirt, Greek jacket, or Greek tote bag.

Each fraternal organization has a number of distinctive emblems which can include a set of colors, a flag, a symbol, a mascot, a crest or seal, a badge, a flower, and/or an open motto. These emblems are used to express the unique ideals of each fraternity and sorority and can be used to customize any type of fraternity clothing or sorority clothing, resulting in a more distinct piece of Greek apparel.

Take for example, Pi Beta Phi, a women’s fraternity founded in 1867 at Monmouth College. Their vision/motto: Friends and Leaders For Life. Their colors: Wine & Silver Blue. Their flower: The Wine Carnation. Their mascot: The Angel. Their Symbol: The Arrow. Adding one or more of these emblems to a Pi Beta Phi t-shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, or bag, will result in a more meaningful and interesting piece of Greek clothing.

The most common locations to add an emblem on a piece of Greek apparel include the bicep, tip of hood, left chest, back, shoulder, and wrist. Embroidery (direct stitching of thread) offers the classiest look and is especially good for smaller emblems like the Greek crest, Greek flower, or Greek mascot. Embroidery is also ideal for the organization’s motto or message and looks exceptional when sewn below the large 4″ Greek letters or the back bottom of the apparel.

In addition to emblems, simple wording that relates to the Greek chapter can make Greek apparel more custom. A very popular personalization includes the words big or little. Other phrases that make sorority clothing and fraternity clothing custom include the family name, the class name, the season and year of initiation, the university name, and the member’s nickname.

There are endless possibilities when using emblems and/or wording of a Greek organization to personalize a piece of Greek apparel. They absolutely make the clothing more unique, memorable, and custom. Next time you’re in the market for a piece of fraternity clothing or sorority clothing, try adding an embroidered message or design, to create a truly customized look!

Of the many items that your company might select to send out to promote your business, none go over better than promotional apparel. There is a plethora of choices when it comes to emblazoning your company’s name and logo onto apparel that can be worn as walking billboards for your company. The reason that this type of promotional item is so effective is that people can actually use the item, unlike other items that might make it as far as the recipient’s trash can.

Common Apparel Given as Promos

The most common items of apparel that are given as freebies or promos include:

- jackets
- tee shirts
- sweat shirts
- hats
- windbreakers
- scarves or doo-rags
- shorts
- sweat pants

Many companies that provide branded good for you to distribute to potential customers and clients will offer these items or others, and some will offer a mixed set of several of each item. You can choose to have your logo, slogans, company information and other contact information placed on the item. When the recipient wears the item, they will be promoting your business to everyone that they talk to or pass on the street. Talk about some well-spent advertising dollars! Promotional items are also great for distributing to your employees and employees’ families, too – because they motivate the employee and make them feel like they are a part of the “team”. Most promotional items are relatively inexpensive as compared to the function that they serve, and in terms of promotional apparel, the item is well-received – unlike a pen or a stress ball that you might hand out, the person will likely wear the item – which is what you want.

Choosing Your Promo Items

When choosing your promotional item, be sure to keep in mind the colors that are implemented into your business and relate those colors in the item. You should also avoid overcrowding the item with information; after all, you want it to be attractive enough that the recipient will wear the item. You should order a range of sizes, as well, including some that are plus sizes for larger folks. In general, the most popular size for women is medium, while men prefer a bit more room, such as a large size or even extra-large. But also buy some items that are in between those two, although you’ll have less need for small sizes or really big sizes – but you should have a few promotional apparel items of each available.

A custom embroidered logo, is it the new way for you to advertise on apparel. In the old days most people would just use screen printing. Then the process of heat transfer came along, but now there is custom embroidered apparel.

As far as screen printing, that used to be the only thing available. Since it was the only thing available that is what everyone went with. The only problem was, after you washed it a couple of times; the picture would start cracking and peeling off. This is not what you want especially when the shirt is still good.

Next, the process of heat transfer came along. This pretty much took care of the screen printing side of the business. So then heat transferring became the new thing when it came to shirts. As a matter of fact, heat transfer is still the majority of what is being used when it comes to very large print on shirts. Like, if you go to a kiosk in a mall or somewhere that sells shirts with pictures on them; more than likely they will have been done VIA heat transfer. Not to mention, they probably already have something printed on them and you just choose something you like.

Then custom embroidery comes along. Well actually custom embroidery has been around a long time. At first it was usually older ladies or men with sewing machines. The only problem with that was the amount of time it took. So, they were not able to handle to handle big orders. This left the client either not getting the shirts at all or going with heat transfer.

It was not until recently that the technology came along that made mass producing a custom embroidered logo possible. The appeal that embroidery has over the others is the Look, the feel, and the durability. Being that the logo is sewn on; it is going to last as long as the shirt does. In order to insure this you need to get the work done at a place that has state of the art embroidery machines and quality apparel.

Really it comes down to a few things. First, screen printing is a thing of the past. Second, heat transfers are still around, but they are mostly used for pictures on shirts. Finally, they came up with a way to mass produce a custom embroidered logo.