Placket Shirts II Embroidery Project

All of the designers and manufacturers have an influence on what you do. As such, concepts that gain popularity in the retail marketplace invariably spill over into the imprinted sportswear industry, so it makes sense to pay attention to what is happening in the department stores. Yet this industry tends to resist such trends as long as possible. Why is this?

A lot of the resistance is due to the limits on imagination and creativity. Too many embroiderers get into a “rut” about how to do things and are reluctant to think outside of the box. They ignore what is going on with retail trends until smacked in the back of the head by their customer. But more realistically, it comes from the challenges of production required to support new ideas.

A prime example goes back to the early days of placket shirts, when the pique mesh version was first introduced. The texture of the fabric caused the stitches in a design to become distorted, which affected the quality significantly. The response of most embroidery shops was to simply not sew on pique mesh shirts. However, others rose to the challenge and experimented with digitizing and sewing techniques in order to find a solution to the pique problem. One simple technique was to use a little known material called water-soluble topping to provide a smooth base for the stitches to rest on while sewing. Prior to pique, this topping material had been relegated to towels and corduroy. Now it had new life and a major problem was resolved. For those shops that adapted, they saw success and more profits while racing past those that resisted. (Unbelievably, there are still embroiderers today that avoid pique mesh with a vengeance.) This same concept came into play with shirt sleeves. They were hard to hoop, so many chose not to.

Regardless of where or how you hoop, one thing that remains constant is accurate placement of the design, especially when multiple shirts are being sewn with the same logo. A common trap that embroiderers (and printers) fall into is to use a physical reference point for lining up the logo. In regards to left/right chest applications, this point is usually either the bottom of the placket or the bottom button in the placket. Unfortunately, each brand and even each style within in a brand all have different measurements and layouts, so there is not a guaranteed fixed reference point. As an example, I took four different brands of placket shirts (each the same size – XXL) that all looked similar in design and made some measurements and came up with some interesting results.

Unfortunately, each brand and even each style within in a brand all have different measurements and layouts, so there is not a guaranteed fixed reference point. As an example, I took four different brands of placket shirts (each the same size – XXL) that all looked similar in design and made some measurements as shown here (click to enlarge image to the right). The Button to Bottom refers to the distance from the lower most button to the bottom of the placket. The Button to Shoulder refers to the distance from the lower most button to the shoulder seam. As you can see, there are significant differences in the shirts. If you used the lower most button or the bottom edge of the placket has reference points for logo placement, then the logos would not be consistently placed between shirt brands.

Then I made a second set of measurements. I took three identical shirts of the same brand, style and size and measured the length of the placket and the distance between the lowermost button and the bottom of the placket. In the case of the placket length, they were all identical. However, with the measurement of the lower most button to the bottom of the placket, I found that two of the shirts were 2 ½” while the third was 2 ¼”. Once again, the concept of using the lower-most button as a reference point is proven to be questionable.

All of this information points to one simple fact: you can’t depend on the placket or buttons to be viable reference points for logo placement. Instead, you should be measuring down from the shoulder seam. This measurement stays very consistent between different brands, styles, and sizes. In addition, you need to measure over from the placket in combination with down from the shoulder seam to identify the proper location for placement.

What those measurements should be is not set in stone. Every embroiderer has his own set of own opinions. In fact, if you go on the Internet and search for placement charts, you likely will find a lot of conflicting information. The numbers listed here (again, click chart to the right to enlarge) are used successfully by many embroiderers and I list them here as a reference.

It’s important to note that the logo should not be centered between the placket and the sleeve. Rather, it should always be closer to the placket. A centered logo may look fine when the shirt is hanging on a rack, but once the shirt is on a human body, it will appear that the logo is closer to the sleeve than the placket due to the way the shirt fits the body.

A lot has changed in the embroidery industry and there are so many new tools available, that it is ridiculous for modern shops to resist new trends or deliver unsatisfactory quality.

So what is next for the veritable placket shirt? Perhaps embroidery on the collar and/or placket? Too hard you say? No doubt someone is already taking advantage of the tools of the trade to create a simple method that makes this quick and simple. While you are busy saying “can’t do it” they are counting their cash. Imagination and innovation will make your business grow; stagnation will not.