Kate kindly pointed out that your secret sauce was acid dye. If she is right, then its still not embroidery and I believe you are mis-leading the public with your attempts to pull this off as embroidery.

anyways, didnt mean to slam CP. Just wanted to make a point that its a bit misleading since the word EMBROIDERY is used heavily in their advertising of this method in which they PRINT OR DYE ONTO PRESEWN AREAS

[2008.05.15 18:14:36] RyanCP: It does as some of you pointed out have it’s limitations, the main one being that you can’t embroider in any shape you want. Each product has a predetermined print area, for most products this is a circle, for the hat we sent out it is a rectangle. We maintained the same aspect ratio of buttons and lapel stickers for all of the circles, as InfiniStitch products are full bleed.
[2008.05.15 18:14:40] RyanCP: For the Military Cap we used the rectangular sticker aspect ratio. The concept was to allow everyone to cut over images that comply with the best practices outlined in the tutorial.
[2008.05.15 18:15:00] RyanCP: The hats are embroidered with traditional embroidery thread and dyed like traditional embroidery thread, so you can count on great durability when washing
[2008.05.15 18:15:00] jean / rotemgear: does Ryan’s marketing hat have embroidery on it?
[2008.05.15 18:15:17] RyanCP: Like the name alludes to InfiniStitch allows for infinite colors, so you are not limited by the number of thread bobbins in a machine. Having infinite colors allows for complex designs, images not usually available for embroidery, so we are also really excited about this portion of the technology. Again, the threads are dyed just like traditional embroidery threads.
[2008.05.15 18:15:20] RyanCP: The threads are also stitched to the cap just like any embroidered item you will find at a store.
[2008.05.15 18:24:15] RyanCP: It’s a matter of personal preference, but we obviously don’t think so — we did launch this technology and spend a good deal of time working on it. In our focus groups 9 out of 10 people thought it was “embroidery”, and the 10th person was confused as to exactly what it was, but still liked it.

So then I guess the secret sauce is acid dye? Not embroidery?

They keep saying that its not embroidery.. but then why is the word EMBROIDERY larger than the word infinistitch when it comes to the LOGO?

Also, You said:

“The white thread is embroidered on the product in reaction to the image.”

Um…. you sure about that? If you work for CP then maybe you are right since you’ve tasted the secret sauce… lol…

BUT If thats the case and they have figured out how to do this, i.e. stitch the thread onto the product in reaction to the image, what difference does it make if I want to use a solid background? They should be able to then stitch the entire background in one direction like in real embroidery. The reason they want you to use a complex background is to cover up that the stitching in fact DOESNT match up with the image. The image is just printed as you say onto this randomly stitched shape and the image then gets this textured feel and look of something that may resemble printing on a shag carpet…

You can do it on a regular home ink jet printer on silk. Just steam it and it’s permanent. It looks great, it picks up gorgeous color and great detail. I used to make fancy little art quilts that way.

The white thread is embroidered on the product in reaction to the image. The stitching goes clear through the hat fabric. There is no sticky layer on top.

You really need to actually look at something in real life before you start trying to explain it.

In this case they pre-embroider 3″ blank white circles that are stitched into the hat. They buy these in bulk as blanks if you will. when an order is placed, they then take the hat over to their modified heat press and whamo… a newly PRESSED hate that looks like embroidery… After all, they are CafePress right? They didnt call themselves CafePrint because their specialty was heat transferin images onto shirts…

I hate to burst your bubble, but they HEAT TRANSFER the image onto the blank white patch that was sewn onto the hat… This is the only way that this can happen. you cannot dye thread the way they are saying after it has been sewn onto a product, you would run the risk of colors bleeding, not to mention getting all dye all over the product. They HEAT TRANSFER the ‘colors’ of the image in order to get the effect that simulates (poorly) something they admit is inferior to embroidery…

Their secret sauce is heat transfer…

This is no different to what they were doing to their shirts before they finally caught up to the other PODs with Direct to Garment printing…

Im still waiting for them to catch up on Dark apparel printing… needs some more tweeking not to mention they still dont offer back printing…

They need to drop the ‘embroidery’ from the name… maybe call it Infinity Transfer or something closer to what they are experts at, like Infinty Press!

This is no different than a mousepad… just in this case its a pre sewn PATCH that they are transferring the image onto…

This is just as lame as the days when they were heat transferring onto shirts…

Cafepoo…just took a dump and it stinks…

It’s a very good job – it’s extremely hard to tell.