Central Florida’s small businesses are racing to keep up with new demands for custom products delivered at dizzying speeds.
With expectations that nearly all consumer goods be delivered in as little as two days, makers of T-shirts, baseball cleats and more are overhauling business models and factories to make goods faster and get them out the door, sometimes the same day.
“The internet has changed everything, and now people think they can get anything in two days or less, even if it has to be custom made,” said Sean Murphy, CEO of Maitland-based sporting goods maker 3N2.
It’s true even with goods manufactured in China, or with items that include a custom finish, such as a set of college logo cornhole boards made at Orlando-based Victory Tailgate.
Company executives at Victory, sporting goods maker 3N2 and T-shirt printer Real Thread say the days are gone when they could measure business stability with a backlog of orders stretching weeks or months. Businesses say they are renegotiating shipping deals, pairing with warehouse operators and developing new technology to get products out the door faster.
Making goods to deliver in two to five days can be an expensive process, said Sherry Reeves, executive director of the Manufacturer’s Association of Central Florida. Manufacturing is still a significant part of the region’s economy, with more than 45,000 in Central Florida employed in the industry at nearly 2,000 facilities.
“It’s what people expect today, so you have to work from that,” Reeves said. “You have to learn to adapt.”
Longwood-based outdoor games maker Victory Tailgate sells good directly to consumers through its website and on Amazon.com. CEO Scott Sims said it has had to negotiate with shippers to get a reasonable price on sending items such as cornhole boards, which weigh about 60 pounds.
“In the past getting something out the door in three to five days was considered quick and acceptable,” Sims said. “Now we have to try to do it faster than that.”
Sims said the company has invested in new printing equipment to speed up the process and is now pre-stocking popular designs for the holiday season.
Speeding up delivery is not cheap, though. Victory Tailgate charges $30 for shipping on its website and Sims said that’s on the lower end of costs for its 60-pound sets for cornhole boards with bean bags. Most sets cost $170 on its website. On Amazon, it’s $200 with free shipping.
“But they are taking a sizable chunk if we ship out of their warehouses,” Sims said.
3N2 is trying to overhaul its production process to have certain products customized faster, Murphy said, while putting other products in Amazon fulfillment warehouses for custom delivery. It can be a challenge when many products, such as the company’s cleats and pants, are still made in places such as China. Murphy said they can make the product there at a lower cost. 3N2 also makes custom-designed designs jerseys and uniforms printed by two partner factories in the United States.
Sean Murphy’s wife is Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy, a Democrat from Winter Park, who drew scrutiny this week because of her involvement in 3N2 and her political advocacy for small and medium-sized manufacturers in the United States. Rep. Murphy has helped design products for 3N2, such as a line of fitted softball pants for women.
Sean Murphy said the company sells midpriced gear, about $60 to $80 for most footwear, and manufacturing in China is necessary to be competitive with market leaders such as Nike, Under Armour and Adidas. However, he said they do finish jerseys and uniforms at partner factories in the United States.
“One thing we’ve been working on is a system where customers can submit their designs and it can be printed pretty much immediately at the factory [in the U.S.],” Murphy said. “We think if we can cut down on design, we can print the same day they order and get it out the door.”
Murphy said the 9-year-old company’s cleats have been endorsed by Major League Baseball players such as former National League MVP Ryan Braun and former Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett.
Orlando-based T-shirt maker Real Thread introduced a two-day shipping option for its ink-printed custom apparel, to supplement its regular 10 business-day standard, said director of growth Jordan Schiller. Real Thread sells mostly to other businesses with a minimum order of 20, and not directly to consumers.
Real Thread has about 40 employees in Orlando who produce new designs daily and print them onto the pre-fabricated shirts.
“We decided you can spend your time educating the customer about why something can’t be done in two or three days, or you can focus your process on making it happen,” Schiller said. “We decided it was better for us to figure out how to do it faster.”
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