Josh’s daughter patiently waits while her dad photographs heat presses.
Josh Ellsworth, one of our CAD-CUT heat transfer materials experts and well known industry educator, forwarded me some photos from his recent trip with his daughter to the American Girl store in Columbus, Ohio. He knew that American Girl Headquarters in New York City had purchased quite a few 6″ x 6″ Hotronix heat presses and he finally got to see them in action. According to Josh, they are using digital transfers to print onto mini tees. In keeping with the American Girl “dress alike” lifestyle, this allows doll owners to design “made to match” tees during their shopping experience. American Girl has realized that customers truly enjoy creating their own custom shirts and they have developed a system to make it possible with heat printing. Think about how you can incorporate heat printing into your selling experience, to get your customers involved in the act of creating their own shirt. It’s much more fun to design and print your own shirt than just choosing one off the rack.
Here are a a few ideas on how you can encourage sales of more than one shirt by offering on-site heat printing :
- Big Sister, Little sister
- Best Friends Forever
- Just Married or Established or Marriage Years across two shirts
- Pet & Owner
- Baby & Parent or Grandparent
- And of course, Baby Doll & Child
Thanks for the photos. If you’ve seen a heat press at work someplace you didn’t expect to see one, let me know. Heat printing is everywhere!
Josh Ellsworth noticed these Hotronix heat presses on duty at the American Girl store in Columbus, Ohio.
Doll owners are encouraged to design their own “matching” tees in the Amercian Girl store in Columbus, Ohio. Heat printing makes it possible.
What a great idea to personalize the shirts while you wait.