The Apparel Decorating Company (ADC), has built its business by doing the work that many others pass by.
Based in Cambridge, Ontario, ADC stemmed from a small operation founded by Adam Thompson as a side project to screen-print band merchandise. Soon, other bands wanted merch too. Then the businesses where those musicians worked started asking for uniform shirts. Over time, screen printing grew from a side business into its main business, incorporated around 2015, and today, Adam says contract wholesale decoration accounts for about 90% of their work.
Adam attributes ADC’s growth in part to taking on several smaller jobs that bigger print houses turned down. The company has also continually focused on building a smarter model that prioritizes speed, consistency, and the efficient handling of smaller orders. Nik Rajput, Project & Systems Lead at ADC, has also helped focus on these efforts by implementing both Printavo and InkSoft into the business’s daily operations.
Building a niche by thinking differently
Rather than compete head-on for those giant orders like other Toronto-area shops, ADC carved out a different lane.
“Nobody wanted those 12- to 24-piece orders; everyone wanted the 50,000-piece ones,” explains Adam. “My philosophy was to go after as many of those small orders as I could.
Ultimately, the shop’s volume would be measured in the number of orders, not in the number of pieces per order.
Today, ADC still focuses on smaller, repeatable jobs and maintains healthy margins through efficiency. The shop rarely has orders of more than 500 pieces, but it often has hundreds of active orders in the system at once.
But that strategy only works if the business can move quickly. By keeping their printing in-house, Nik and Adam say they can maintain quality control and meet tight deadlines.
“We want to be industry-leading in turnaround time,” adds Adam. “We’re doing a five-day turn for most of our work.”
Why information flow became the real priority
As ADC grew, the biggest constraint was order setup.
Purchase orders often arrived in different formats, creating extra manual entry and too much room for interpretation before a job was ready for production. That challenge led ADC to adopt Printavo first, then InkSoft.
“With InkSoft and Printavo, we have a uniform way for our staff to see everything that comes in the door,” says Adam.
With their current setup, ADC ensures every order arrives in a format the team can understand and act on quickly.
How ADC uses InkSoft and Printavo every day
ADC uses InkSoft for its online stores, as well as how the company sells, organizes, and collects order details.
For proofing and pitches, ADC is using InkSoft stores as an entry point. In some cases, the team builds a store page before the quote is even finalized. That gives customers a live view of decorated products with logos already displayed, plus a QR code or link that takes them straight into a more structured ordering experience.
“We’re trying to use InkSoft now as that first point of contact,” explains Nik. “It’s a great sales tool for new customers, as well as the best ordering system for us.”
For wholesale clients, ADC is also building ordering portals through InkSoft where customers can upload artwork, quantities, and other job details in a format that compiles all necessary details for their production team. Since information comes in cleanly, the production team can move faster afterward using Printavo, reducing manual re-entry and the risk of mistakes.
“The amount of time saved from data entry with Printavo was ridiculous,” says Nik. “It’s already pre-done, pre-formatted. The files are there, and it immediately goes into our production system.”
That kind of time savings reinforces ADC’s focus on fast-turn, small-quantity orders. Together, Printavo and InkSoft tools support the fast, repeatable workflow the company has been building toward.
Turning speed into a bigger opportunity
Nik and Adam say they are using tools like InkSoft and Printavo as a foundation for future growth, especially for recurring ordering portals, team stores, and uniform programs.
Eventually, the duo says they see a workflow in which customers place orders, and the production and fulfillment teams can operate with minimal manual entry. That setup, they say, opens the door to new service revenue through store setup, repeat ordering programs, and fulfillment support.
“Having the front end of InkSoft feed right into the back end production-ready side of Printavo, we see a path to running the cleanest, most uniform program possible,” Adam adds.
Rather than simply print decorated apparel, Nik and Adam say they want to reduce friction for customers and create a smoother system from order placement through production and delivery.
Ready for the Future
ADC saw value in the kinds of orders other shops were turning down and built its success on tapping into them. Today, InkSoft and Printavo support that business model by helping ADC bring cleaner order data into the business, reduce manual entry, and move jobs toward production faster.
“The biggest bottleneck in our place is getting accurate data into our systems. From there, we can do anything, and quickly,” says Adam.
That smarter workflow gives The Apparel Decorating Company an edge. Plus, ADC is showing what can happen when a shop knows its strengths, builds around them, and uses the right tools to make growth more repeatable.
InkSoft and Printavo help shops streamline order intake, improve visibility, and move work through production with less manual effort.
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