In what is now the third year of our Impressions Industry Impact (III) Awards it’s interesting to see the degree to which some things have changed and some things haven’t. On the one hand, one of the things that hasn’t changed is the importance of direct-to-film, or DTF, an aspect of the decorated-apparel industry that continues to grow by leaps and bounds. On the other, something that has very much changed is the importance of print-on-demand (POD) and the technology facilitating it. Then, of course, there’s the one thing that never changes—the creativity and innovation that are so integral to what the decorated-apparel industry is all about. The following is a list of this year’s 19 winners. For a list of the awardees from 2025 click here. To see our winners from 2024, click here. Enjoy!
2026 Impressions Industry Impact Awardees
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Best Decorating Company with Sales of $1 Million or More Annually: Stakes MFG, Eastlake, OH
Founded in 2019, it didn’t take long for Ohio-based Stakes Manufacturing to become an industry powerhouse, partnering with the likes of Nike, the NFL, NBA, NCAA, Sony Music, Paramount, Nickelodeon and Disney (just to name a few) as one of the largest print-on-demand providers in the United States with a catalogue of over 130,000 SKUs. Click here for more.
Most Innovative New Decorating Facility: STAHLS’ Fulfill ONE (SF-1) Innovation Hub, Chesterfield, MI
To be clear, we’re not just talking about another apparel-decorating shop here. In STAHLS’ own words, its Fulfill ONE (SF-1) center, which opened this past fall, is a “next-generation digital decorating and heat-printing innovation hub—built to redefine what ‘modern decoration’ looks like for print-on-demand and branded merchandise.” Click here for more.
Social Media/Influencer Award: Branded Threads, Eighty Four, PA
One of the great things about an effective social media program is the way it can be the ultimate win-win. Case in point, Branded Threads, winner in last year’s best small decorating company category, which continues to grow by leaps and bounds, in large part thanks to its online efforts. Click here for more.
Best New DTF Printer: DCC Neo Flex DTF Printer
In its debut appearance at Impressions Expo Long Beach this past January, equipment supplier DCC made quite the splash, with a range of new systems on display, including the all-new NeoFlex Pro line of DTF printers. Click here for more.
Best New DTF Materials/Tech: MagicSeal
Here at Impressions, we (alas!) do not have anything in the way of any kind of lab space or testing facilities. Nonetheless, the promise of MagicLine’s MagicSeal is such that we still deemed it worthy of inclusion. In a nutshell, what the product (which is available in both sheet and liquid forms) does is work to improve the feel, washability and breathability of a DTF transfer. Click here for more.
Best New Heat Press Decoration Tech: Sawgrass VersiFlex
Drawing on its more than 35 years as a supplier of dye-sublimation materials and tech, including both printers and ink, Sawgrass Technologies recently set out to address a key customer request: the ability to decorate as broad a range of materials as possible in addition to the poly-coated products sublimation decorators typically work with. Click here for more.
Best New DTF System: Brown Manufacturing Stomper Yet-Tee
In a bid to take DTF automation to a whole new level, Brown Manufacturing Group’s Yet-Tee Stomper line enables what it describes as “single operator full production” of complete, ready-to-ship garments. Click here for more.
Best New Screen-printing Press: DCC Copperhead Matrix Di 4.0
The folks over at DCC say their Copperhead Matrix Di 4.0 automatic screen-printing press “redefines what’s possible” in garment printing.” And they may very well have a point. Click here for more.
Best New Screen-printing Tech: Avient DMC DispenseMaster
Brand-new tech is great. Better still is the day that same brand-new tech—typically out of reach for all too many operators—becomes affordable for the “little guys” out there as well. Case in point, the recently unveiled Avient DMC DispenseMaster, a scaled-down version of the company’s DM4 DispenseMaster ink-mixing system. Click here for more.
Best New Screen-printing Accessory: Bluewater Labs HP-1 High Pressure Washer
Hands down, the most unpleasant job to have to do manually in any screen-printing shop is spraying down screens during reclamation. Worse yet, because it’s a job everybody hates doing, it’s a job that far too often ends up being done incorrectly. To solve this problem, Bluewater Labs has created what it calls its HP-1 High Pressure Washer. Click here for more.
Best New Digital Decorating Tech: ROQ HYBRID PRO+
Designed for industrial environments where speed, control and consistency are critical, the ROQ HYBRID PRO+ integrates ROQ’s cutting-edge automatic screen printing with high-resolution digital decorating in a single seamless system. Click here for more.
Best New Embroidery Machine: ZSK Racer R1W
In addition to being equipped with ZSK’s “One-Touch Thread Tensioning” system, the Racer R1W is equipped with no less than 18 needles and capable of production speeds of up to 2,000 stitches per minute. Click here for more.
Best New Embroidery Tech: Melco SUMMIT Manager Software
To help eliminate the bottlenecks, guesswork and inefficiencies that will invariably begin to slow down larger shops, Melco has created something it calls its Melco SUMMIT software system, an easy-to-use digital platform designed to provide a real-time view of the entire production floor via a single intuitive interface. Click here for more.
Best New Headgear: Sportsman Cap & Bag/Pukka Tradesman Cap
Founded in 1992, Pukka Inc. has long been known for its products’ fit, quality materials and fashion-forward design. More recently, the brand has begun expanding into the wholesale space with the debut of three new styles created in cooperation with blank headgear veteran Sportsman Cap & Bag. Among these styles is the Tradesman, a somewhat unorthodox but no less great looking six-panel design. Click here for more.
Embroidery Design of the Year: Qdigitizing.com, “Color in the Rain”
In this truly unique and memorable piece of machine embroidery, a solitary figure walks along a rain-soaked city street beneath a vividly colored rainbow umbrella. Rendered in subdued charcoals and grays, the surrounding architecture recedes into a muted urban landscape, as a scattering of window lights flicker warmly from within. Click here for more.
Best New E-Commerce Store/Platform: SEDDI Decorator
The new SEDDI Decorator system consists of a purpose-built online visual platform that replaces the static digital mockups the industry has long used with true-to-life 3D digital garment representations. Click here for more.
Social Justice Award: INKclusivity
One of the great things about the decorated-apparel industry is the way it is very much an industry with a conscience—and nowhere is this more evident than in the newly released online publication, INKclusivity: Company Benefits of Disability Inclusion & How-To Implementation Guide. Click here for more.
Screen Printing Design of the Year: International Coatings’ “Medusa”
The ancient snake-haired monster that was the Medusa never looked so good as it does on this image created by the specialists at International Coatings. Good thing the resulting image won’t turn you into stone the way the original did. We can’t stop looking at it! Click here for more.
Green Award for Environmental Business Practices: Ninja Transfers
With revenue now topping $10 million for its Ninja Printhouse division alone and a host of other products and services continuing to come online, custom DTF/heat transfer manufacturer Ninja Transfers is clearly a company on the move. To its credit, though, the company’s growth hasn’t come at the cost of the environment, as was the case with so many successful companies in decades past. Click here for more.
