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Summary:
The PRINTING United Alliance 2026 State of the Decorated Apparel Industry Report draws on insights from 164 apparel decorators across the United States and Canada. Participants decorate everything from T-shirts, hats/caps, and sweatshirts/hoodies to performance wear, bags, and hard goods using screen printing, direct-to-film, embroidery, sublimation, and direct-to-garment, with annual sales ranging from under $250,000 to over $20 million. Nearly two-thirds have diversified beyond apparel decoration, primarily into promotional product imprinting and graphic and sign production.
This comprehensive report summarizes how apparel decorators performed through the first quarter of 2026, focusing on sales, operating cost inflation, pricing, real sales, and profitability, along with their outlook for the second half of the year amid war- and tariff-driven uncertainty. Additionally, it addresses the concerns and business priorities shaping decorators’ strategies, shifting client purchasing habits, and the expected sales growth of key apparel products through 2028. The report also explores the adoption of direct-to-film (DTF) and print-on-demand (POD), the state of sustainability practices, and decorators’ own vision of the future of the industry, including the systems, automation, and AI they believe will separate tomorrow’s leaders from the rest.
This research is made possible by the generous support of DuPont™ Artistri®.
The Executive Summary is available for everyone to download. PRINTING United Alliance members can download the full report below. If you have any questions, please contact us at ResearchTeam@printing.org.
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