6 Questions to Ask before Choosing a Custom Embroidery Shop

If you’ve been looking for a company that offers custom embroidery Sydney is like a one stop shop. With so many schools, businesses and individuals seeing the value that is provided by custom embroidery, there is now a rather large number of companies that provide this service.

It’s great that we have so many options to choose from. But if you don’t know what to look for in a custom embroidery shop, making the decision can be difficult because of the overwhelming number of available choices.

To help you make the best decision possible and ensure that you award your business to an establishment that deserves it, here is what to look for in a custom embroidery shop.

When Is Custom Embroidery Used?


Before we dive into what questions to ask that’ll help you decide if an embroidery company is right for you, let’s determine if custom embroidery is even what you should be looking for.

Custom embroidery is commonly used for the unique embroidery found on:

  • The uniforms of sports teams
  • Promotional items
  • Personalised clothing
  • Novelty gifts
  • Labeling school uniforms and bags
  • Badges, labels, logos

Depending on the quality you’re after and what you have in mind, custom embroidery might not be what you need. Another branding method might be better suited towards your requirements.

A few of the commonly used alternatives to custom embroidery include screen printing, heat pressing, laser etching apparel, silk screen printing or sublimation printing.

6 Questions to Ask a Custom Embroidery Shop

People turn to custom embroidery for different reasons. But that doesn’t mean that one person deserves a higher standard of work than someone else.

To ensure you work with the custom embroidery business that is right for you, be sure to ask these six questions.

What is the Lead Time Required?

It’s always important to find out what the turnaround time of your items will be. Typically, turnaround time is between five and 10 days. Remember that embroidery is an art form and that a lot of work goes into it, so if you’re looking for a slap-dash speed job, you should consider an alternative to custom embroidery.

If you desperately need an order that doesn’t fall within the typical turnaround time, often an embroiderer will accommodate your schedule and charge you rush order prices.

Can I Supply my Own Items to be Embroidered?

While you can purchase garments directly from the embroiderer, sometimes you won’t find what you’re looking for in a catalogue. This means that you’ll need to embroider on your own items. Most embroidery shops will accommodate such a request.

Is there a Minimum Order Requirement?

More and more frequently, we’re noticing that companies are only accepting jobs that require a large amount of embroidery needed. Larger orders typically mean a lower cost per item, but that doesn’t help if you don’t need a lot of embroidery.

Because there is such a high demand for the quality embroidery Melbourne service providers provide, we recommend avoiding companies that have a minimum order requirement. Their focus is evidently on quantity and not quality.

What Materials do You Use to Embroider?

Any good embroidery shop will be able to embroider using many different types of materials. Common examples of materials used to embroider include

  • Wool
  • Linen
  • Silk
  • Cotton
  • Rayon
  • Ribbon

Do you Offer any Services on top of Custom Embroidery?

In today’s ever competitive market, it’s not uncommon for one company to offer more than one service. Many custom embroidery services are able and equipped to handle other aspects of branding like screen printing, heat pressing, digital thermal transfers, pad printing, laser engraving & more.

What is great about one company being able to handle of these needs is that you can turn to one company for all your branding needs, which often saves time.

Where are You Located?

Although this seems like a silly question, it is an important one that is often overlooked. Sometimes, the very company you’re dealing with has another branch that is located closer to your area and you are none the wiser because you never thought to ask.

If you don’t want to reach out directly, turn to a search engine of your choice or even your navigation system to figure this out for you. A simple search of ‘embroidery Melbourne’ will bring up the different embroidery shops found in Melbourne. Many people prefer to search for shops by area as opposed to brand name.

Final Thoughts

As you can tell, quite a lot of thought needs to go into which embroidery company you award your business to.

By asking the questions we’ve outlined above, you’ll be able to narrow down your search. Vet them properly and find the vendor that will benefit your business.