The Sunset Hat (S2C26270) from Sunday Afternoons (asi/90134) is fun, fashionable and functional. Made of a breathable polyester braid, the UV-protective hat features a wide, shapeable brim, corded leatherette headband with decorative bead accents and an interior grosgrain sweatband.

The nice thing about fashion hats, says David Goldman, vice president of Philadelphia Rapid Transit (asi/77945), is that few women go out and buy them on their own. “Yet, if they’re given a nice hat, they seem to really appreciate it,” he adds. “It fills a niche in people’s closets.” In the promotional space, wide-brimmed hats work well for landscaping and garden centers, country clubs, resorts, golf events, destination-based events and corporate gifts.

When choosing a style, don’t overthink it. “Fashionable basics always win, when it comes to best-sellers,” says Meadow Lacy, vice president of sales and marketing at Sunday Afternoons (asi/90134). Goldman recommends the classic straw hat in a natural color, since bright corporate colors run the risk of clashing with the intended recipient’s outfit, limiting the item’s appeal. He doesn’t advise traditional decoration methods for straw hats, partially because the “curvature of the crown” makes them difficult to imprint, but also because an obvious corporate logo turns the hat into a “novelty item,” rather than an appreciated gift. There are creative ways to get around this, though. Pins or buttons are a subtle and removable way to include a logo. Custom hangtags are another method. For their grand openings, restaurants, for example, have given away floppy hats with hangtags that doubled as coupons for a free appetizer on the next visit. “Those kinds of promotions bounce back,” Goldman says. “It kind of brings the item to life a little more than a static logo.”

Still, if a client insists on traditional corporate branding, there are plenty of fabric-based styles that are easily imprinted, often with the added benefits of being packable and water-resistant. Sunday Afternoon’s Quest hat (S2C02261), for example, is made of performance fabric, is easily embroidered and weighs in at an attractive price point, Lacy says.

Wide-brimmed hats offer another big benefit, besides fashion appeal. They provide unparalleled protection from the sun’s damaging rays, something worth emphasizing to clients, with skin-cancer prevention an ever-present concern. All hats offered by Sunday Afternoon, Lacy notes, come with a UPF 50+ sun-protection rating, the highest achievable.

The trick, then, to firming up summer sales? Go floppy.

The portable heat press laser alignment system from Stahls’ Hotronix is designed to be used with any heat press brand and allows the user to position and align graphics with precision prior to heat printing to ensure accurate placement.

They allow a decorator to shoot vertical and horizontal beams in a grid or other formations, to help with positioning garments and logo placement. “It’s a no-brainer,” says Greg Kinney, a veteran printer out of Ogden, UT, who developed Laseit, which offers an array of alignment systems. “You’ve got a map that you’re looking at to load everything from.”

“It’s a no-brainer,” says Greg Kinney, a veteran printer out of Ogden, UT, who developed Laseit, which offers an array of alignment systems. “You’ve got a map that you’re looking at to load everything from.”

Laser systems are often incorporated into automatic screen-printing presses, but they’re useful for heat transfers, embroidery hooping and any decoration technique where precision and uniformity are a necessity. Stahls’ Hotronix, for example, offers a portable laser that works for both clamshell and swing-away heat presses, along with a Laser Alignment Wizard (LAW) preprinted with five popular design layouts, plus rulers for custom design placement, to help with heat printing, says Ben Robinson, general manager. “We tell everybody to follow the LAW,” he adds. To use the wizard, place the template on the heat press, then adjust the independent laser bulbs accordingly. Once setup is complete, remove the wizard and begin heat printing.

There are many benefits to using lasers, as opposed to using rulers “which takes forever,” or eyeballing it, which is quick, but lacks precision, says Robinson. Lasers cut down on costly mistakes and make cross-training easier. “It’s the same for everybody, so you as a manager can set it up in a shop and teach everybody to put ABC-123 the same every time,” he adds. If you’re on the fence, consider testing one out, perhaps at a trade show. Once you do, Robinson says, the laser system is likely to “hook you like a UFO.”

A&P Master Images (asi/702505) embroidered this Flexfit baseball cap (C865) for Eternal Images Tattoo.

The owner of Orange Tattoo Co. in Annapolis, MD, isn’t complaining, though. “We’ve had a lot of success with merchandise. We really take a lot of pride in it,” he adds.

To Orange, a former screen printer, the value of promotional apparel is obvious, and there’s no reason a “room full of artists” in a tattoo shop shouldn’t be profiting from this additional revenue stream, whether by marketing original tattoo art on apparel or selling hats and other items adorned with the shop logo.

Besides basic black, tattoo shop clients tend to favor fitted styles in ringspun cotton or blends with a soft hand, says Nick Barry, owner of Pylon Press Screen Printing in Fort Lauderdale, FL. “They usually don’t mind paying a little extra for discharge printing and quality work,” he adds.

Erich Campbell, e-commerce manager at Black Duck Embroidery and Screen Printing in Albuquerque, NM, agrees that tattoo clients are looking for trendy garments, particularly dark T-shirts and tank tops that set off the ink on the wearer’s arms. Many shops, however, operate on small margins, and name-brand apparel isn’t always the best option, he adds. “They’re artistic people who have an idea of what they want,” Campbell says. “You want to help them do something that resonates with people and is out of the ordinary, but still maintains their budget.”

In addition to tanks and tees, consider pitching hoodies and headwear. Embroidered baseball caps are a good choice, but don’t neglect the knit. Every fall, Orange Tattoo Co. orders logoed beanies, and by winter’s end, those knit hats are invariably sold out. “We try to stay ahead of the seasons just like a retail store would,” Orange says.

Another reason to keep an eye on the calendar, though, is due to the large tattoo conventions that spring up regularly across the country. Barry says his clients are always looking for new T-shirts to show off their shop at the convention. “It’s a good chance to sell a lot of shirts in a weekend,” he says.

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Barry Lipsett, president and CEO of Charles River Apparel (asi/44620) discusses how the supplier has grown 35% over the last two years and is on-track for a robust 2015. The family company’s secret? “We really look at culture,” Lipsett says. “We treat employees like they’re part of the family.” Listen to the podcast on Stitches.com.