50 towels, zero spares, one Friday morning
Situation
LV Collective is an Austin-based developer of student housing, known for building memorable brands around its communities. Rambler is one of them, and Rambler Tempe brings it to Arizona State University. We've made Rambler merch with LV Collective's marketing team since 2025: hats, totes, sweatshirts and towels.
On a Monday morning, Kat Calzacorta, LV Collective's Director of Marketing, Residential, sent over a rush request: 50 embroidered VIP towels for Rambler Tempe's Morning Mix event that Friday morning. The blank towels would arrive at her office Wednesday. She'd drop them off at our shop that evening and pick them up at the end of the day Thursday.
Challenge
The schedule was tight, and there was no backup. Kat had ordered exactly 50 towels and needed all 50. The artwork was set at 12" wide on a 40"-wide towel, and she wanted the thread to match the navy on the towel's border.
A 12" stitch-out on terry is a long run per towel, and packing that many stitches into a towel sharply raises the risk of spoiling one. With no extras, a single bad towel meant coming up short at the event.
What we did
We laid out the tradeoffs before saying yes. Jon gave Kat two options: run it at 12" and accept the time and spoilage risk, or bring the logo down to about 7" wide. That makes the stitch-out much shorter and the job much safer. He recommended 7". Kat agreed the same morning.
The 7" stitch file was ready the same day. The artwork was the Rambler logo with new text added beneath it and a rectangle around it. At 7" for terry, the final design came in at about 17,000 stitches.
We got the matching thread right away. Navy thread matched to the towel border was at the shop the same day.
We embroidered all 50 in one window. The towels came in Wednesday evening, and all 50 came off the machines clean, with zero spoilage, ready for Kat's pickup at the end of the day Thursday.
Results
- 50 VIP towels, zero spares
- 7" logo width after the tradeoff call
- ~17k stitches in the final terry file
- 0 spoiled towels
All 50 towels were ready for Kat's Thursday pickup, in time for the Friday-morning event, stitched in thread matched to the towel's navy border.
When I'm working with experts, I trust them to tell me what's going to produce the best result—not just say yes to exactly what I ask for. Jon explained the tradeoffs, gave me a clear recommendation and helped us make the right call. That kind of expertise is what allows us to move quickly while still delivering a high-quality final product.
Why it matters
Rush jobs go wrong when nobody mentions the risk until it's too late. We tell you the tradeoffs up front, recommend the option that protects your deadline, and handle the details, like thread matching and scheduling. That way you can focus on your event.
Got a deadline that's closer than you'd like? Send us your artwork, quantities and date. The people who'll make it will quote it.