Future of the Home Embroidery Industry

For quite some while now, I have been watching the introduction of all brands of new embroidery machine models introduced this year, or to be introduced in the near future. I believe it was the Pfaff “Dream Machine” that started the trend of newer, better, bigger, and expensive machines…..the key words being bigger and expensive, they all are definitely that.

A trip to various dealers and doing a test drive on them really makes me wish that these were around when I first started machine embroidery. As machines go, they are all Top of the Line machines with amazing features and lots of improvements. The only drawback with all of them….they make me wish I had deeper pockets. When I had first purchased my Deco about 10 years ago, I had thought $1700 for a machine was an extremely high price (but then the value of dollar was quite high too…). When I sold it to purchase a ULT for about $3000 I believed that I had arrived at the apex of embroidery machines. That was a short lived thought until I purchased the PR 600 for $10,000! I do believe DH believed that my machine purchasing days were over and I did too….that is until I saw a commercial machine in action, LOL. That put a dent of a mere $12,000 in my pockets…Surprised! I was. A semi-commercial machine being equivalent to the cost of a commercial machine!

My first ever embroidery machine had a hoop size of 4×4 which upgraded to 5×7 to 6×10 in the ULT and then to 7×11 with the PR. See the trend….larger hoop size. And, why ever not! However, with the latest prices of the embroidery machines, I had to sit back and do a bit of thinking. I can still remember making a 34″x34″ table topper using the 4×4 hoop and with designs from the retired Cross stitch Borders collection. True, there was a bit of calculating and a bit of work involved in making such a large design with only the 4×4 hoop, but the end result was phenomenal. The largest hoop size that my SWF can accomodate is 20″x14″ and I do love it. The PR 600 purchased six years ago with a smaller hoop field is almost equivalent to the price of the SWF. True, I cannot move the SWF at all, it has to stay put where the PR can be moved by two people very easily. Bigger hoop size has been a dream for many many home embroiderers…however, dreaming something and getting something are two different things. What is the perfect hoop size for a home machine embroiderer….the bigger the better, LOL. Unfortunately, in my opinion, I believe it is this wishful thinking that has produced another greater problem….higher prices.

So…friends…what is going on. The TOL new embroidery machines in the market range from $8000 to $12,000. Those prices can very well be a down payment on a car! Why are the prices so high and is there really that much demand in the home embroidery industry? I am not too sure about the answers but I can certainly put a few gray cells to work, LOL. Well over twelve/thirteen years ago, home embroidery machines were introduced as a hobby machine and few were interested in them. With internet came a lot of changes…people could communicate, learn and share ideas. I can still remember embroidering for three days straight (without any sleep) on my Deco, anything and everything that came in sight. I had a folder of all the built in designs in several color schemes!! True, I was drawn to it at my Bernina dealer but it was on the internet that I learned all types of things that could be embroidered, embellished and enhanced with the machine. Not only did I purchase the machine from my Bernina dealer but I was also encouraged and coaxed to purchase the PE Design as well as the Customizer. I knew that the PED would help me make my own designs but had no idea what the Customizer was about until two years later. With about $3500 invested in the machine and software, I embarked upon my embroidery journey. I have never regretted a moment of it and have enjoyed it tremenduously.

In the past, and even now I have always maintained that the home digitizers have developed the machine embroidery industry into being something that was never thought about nor dreamt about. A handful of commercial concerns were the only ones who sold designs when I first came on the scene…until I discovered the internet and home digitizers! The low prices were certainly a great attraction and one learned to cope with the digitizing irritants. With time, the ideas and imaginations of the home digitizers have grown to such great extremes and became in high demand by the home embroidery industry, that for the past seven years, the commercial companies have felt the hurt and the need to compensate. Whole catalogs of commercial companies with thousands of designs once sold for high dollars are now being sold for a pittance…recent ad of one of the companies which sold their entire catalog for a mere $300! Not just that, commercial digitizers started seeking home embroidery shows and dealers to promote their products….aha, a picture starts to form.

It is my belief and opinion that the rising costs of the home embroidery machines and the supplies is due to the fear of the commercial industry “biting the dust” so to speak in the face of the home embroidery digitizers and enthusiasts! Big words, you say, yes they are indeed. But, how far am I from the truth? Embroidery supplies and machines were expensive way back when and in the course of time became easily accesible and therefore became the “thorn” for the commercial industry. Raise the prices, less people will purchase and the commercial industry will regain its lost caliber. Spending well over $10,000 for an embroidery machine with well over hundreds every few months for supplies is a high cost hobby. If the hobby is high cost, then few will partake of it and when few partake, somebody loses but someone also gains. And in my opinion, it is not the home embroidery market that will boom with high prices of supplies! Where is this going to lead to and what will eventually happen? My guess….the end of a wonderful hobby for thousands. I do hope that time has come for the commercial embroidery market to realise the co-existance of the home embroidery digitizers and their influence in the market. Meanwhile…will these high cost machines sell? Absolutely yes but not as much as before. The real question will be when these high tech and high cost babies require maintenance.  My mother had a Singer sewing machine which lasted her for well over twenty years….when she sold it, it was still purring when it ran. I sincerely hope and believe that the best thing for the home embroidery machine companies is to better the products already in the market. This should be done by electronically upgrading the existing machines rather than flooding the market with embroidery machines which few will be able to afford and maintain especially when there are limited use clauses on them.

And where does this lead yours truly and many of my other fellow digitizers. Just like before and with better and newer techniques and ideas. It is definitely a time for recognition and in my humble opinion, recognition is not made with $$ rather with quality and imaginative products.