Screen Printing and Embroidery for Benton, TN Teams and Crews

Nobody in Benton calls a print shop because they cannot decide on a color. They call because they have 34 names on a list, 11 of those people have not answered a text in six days, two of them are youth larges pretending to be adult smalls, and somebody already collected money.

That is the actual job. Custom apparel in Benton usually starts as a spreadsheet problem before it ever becomes a printing problem.

Express Screen Printing & Embroidery has been sorting out size runs for Polk County ball teams, church groups, volunteer crews and small businesses since 2001. Family-owned, veteran-operated, and located at 15 Broad St NW in Cleveland, about a half hour from the Benton square. Not headquartered in Benton, and we will not pretend otherwise. We just serve it constantly, and the drive up Highway 64 is short enough that plenty of Benton customers handle the whole order in one trip.

Here is how a size run stops being chaos. You send the roster in whatever shape it is in. A Google Sheet, a photo of a legal pad, a text thread you copied and pasted. We build the count. Youth sizes get separated from adult sizes so nobody ends up swimming in a shirt. Tall sizes and 2XL and up get flagged early, because those carry an upcharge on most garments and you want that in the number before you go collect money, not after. Then you approve a proof, and the 10 to 14 business day clock starts.

Twelve pieces is the minimum on screen printing and twelve on embroidery. If your Benton crew is smaller than that, DTF transfers start at a single piece, and so do laser engraving and sublimation. So a six-person landscaping outfit outside Benton can still get custom work shirts without being told to order double what they need.

Artwork gets handled the same way. Send whatever you have. A logo file, a phone photo of last year's shirt, a rough sketch on the back of a scorecard. We clean it up, size it for the print, and send back a proof showing exactly where it lands on the garment and how big. Nothing goes on press until you have looked at it and said yes.

Color counts matter on screen printing more than most Benton customers expect. Every color in the design is its own screen, so a two-color team shirt and a six-color team shirt are not the same price even at the same quantity. If you are working against a budget for a Benton fundraiser or a booster order, say the number out loud at the start and we will build the design to hit it instead of quoting you something you have to walk back.

One more thing worth knowing before you order. We are closed weekends. If your Benton tournament, festival or fundraiser lands on a Saturday, count backward from Friday and build the 10 to 14 business days in from there.

Twenty-plus years in business is the part that matters when you are the one who collected the money.

Express has been running since 2001, family-owned and veteran-operated, with a 4.6 star average across 71 Google reviews. Not a pop-up account taking orders through a social media page and disappearing after homecoming. There is a building, a phone number, and someone who answers it.

Being the primary sports-apparel supplier to Cleveland-area schools and the Boys and Girls Club means the roster-and-sizes problem is the one we solve most often. Youth mediums and adult 2XLs on the same order. Numbers that have to match the roster exactly. A coach who adds three kids after the count was locked. None of that is unusual and none of it derails the job as long as you tell us before the proof gets approved.

"Shop Local. Get It Fast." is the whole idea. Benton is close enough that you can hand off artwork, look at a garment sample in person, and pick up finished shirts without shipping anything. An online printer cannot let you hold the blank before you commit 40 of them to a Benton fundraiser.

Turnaround is 10 to 14 business days from approved proof. That clock starts at approval, not at the first email, so the fastest thing a Benton customer can do is answer the proof the day it arrives.

The reorder is where the local shop really pays off. A Benton business that got embroidered polos in the spring and needs six more in the fall does not start over. The artwork is already set up, the stitch file is already made, and the second order is a phone call about sizes. Same for a Benton team that keeps the same logo and swaps the roster every season. That is a lot of saved back-and-forth for anybody who has been through a season of chasing sizes once already.

My roster keeps changing. When do the sizes actually have to be final?

Before you approve the proof. Once the proof is approved the count is locked and the 10 to 14 business day turnaround starts. Add a kid after that and it becomes a separate small order, which usually means DTF at a one piece minimum rather than a whole new screen setup.

Half my Benton team wears youth sizes. Is that a problem?

No. Youth and adult sizes run on the same order all the time for Benton rec leagues and school groups. Tell us which names are youth and we will separate them on the count sheet so nothing gets mixed up at pickup.

What happens if I only need eight shirts?

Screen printing and embroidery both start at 12 pieces. Under that, DTF transfers, laser engraving and sublimation all start at 1 piece, so an eight-shirt Benton order still gets made. It just gets made a different way.

Do I have to drive to Cleveland to get this started?

Not to start it. Send the roster and artwork through the quote form and everything up to the proof happens without a trip. Most Benton customers come to 15 Broad St NW once, either to look at blanks or to pick up the finished order.

Can I get a real number before I go collect money from parents?

Yes, and you should. Run the count through the live pricing calculator or send the roster through the quote form. Get 2XL and up counted before you set a price per shirt, because those carry an upcharge and you do not want to eat the difference.

Will my design still be on file next season?

Yes. Once artwork is set up for a Benton team, club or business, the reorder is a phone call. Same design, new sizes, no starting over.