I spent Thursday and Friday at PRINTING United Expo 2026 in Las Vegas, and I went into the show with a bit of a mission. If you’re not familiar with PRINTING United, this isn’t your typical craft show. It’s a huge printing and decorating industry event filled with everything from DTF and UV printing to sublimation, embroidery, apparel, heat presses and full-scale commercial printing equipment. I’m excited to share some highlights so let’s get started!
This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.
What Caught My Attention at PRINTING United Expo 2026: Embroidery, DTF, UV & More
Lately, I’ve been getting more questions from viewers and followers who are ready to take their creative businesses to the next level. You’ve been asking me which shirts I recommend for selling custom apparel, which embroidery machines are worth investing in, and which equipment makes sense when you’re ready to move beyond basic crafting equipment.
Those aren’t questions I want to answer based on what’s popular on social media or which company happens to send me a machine. I want to investigate the brands, compare the options and, whenever possible, actually use the products before I recommend them.
PRINTING United was the perfect opportunity to start doing exactly that. I wasn’t trying to see every machine on the show floor. I was looking for products, brands and technology that could actually be relevant to creators and small creative businesses that are ready to grow.
Here are some of the things that caught my attention.
Epson SureColor F370
The new Epson SureColor F370 was already on my list before I arrived. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I use both the Epson F170 and F570 for sublimation, so naturally I wanted to see where the F370 fits into Epson’s lineup.
The F370 is a purpose-built dye-sublimation printer that can print up to 13 x 19 inches. That gives you more printing space than the F170 without making the jump to a 24-inch wide-format printer like the F570. That middle ground makes a lot of sense to me, especially for makers and small businesses that have outgrown a smaller sublimation printer but don’t necessarily need a wide-format machine.
Epson also introduced something completely separate at PRINTING United that caught my attention: Sublimation Primer for Cotton. To be clear, the cotton capability isn’t built into the F370. The primer is a separate product designed to be applied to white and light-colored cotton and natural-fiber garments before transferring a sublimation print. I’m curious about this one.
Traditional sublimation has always had limitations when it comes to cotton, so I want to see what the finished product actually looks and feels like and, more importantly, how it holds up after washing.
Sawgrass VersiFlex MAX
Sawgrass also had something interesting to show. I’ve been following VersiFlex because the system already takes Sawgrass beyond traditional polyester sublimation and allows decorating on additional materials, including natural fibers.
One of the limitations, however, has been dark substrates. At PRINTING United, Sawgrass was previewing VersiFlex MAX, which is being developed to bring that technology to dark materials. Now THAT caught my attention. Because this is upcoming technology, I’m not going to get ahead of Sawgrass and start publishing specifications or making claims about something that isn’t fully released yet. But I like seeing companies approach decorating challenges differently instead of simply releasing another version of technology we already have.
VersiFlex MAX is definitely something I’ll be watching.
Embroidery Was a Big Priority for Me
Embroidery was actually one of my priorities going into PRINTING United. I’ve been getting more and more questions from viewers and followers asking me which embroidery machine I recommend, particularly from those of you who aren’t simply looking for another hobby machine. You’re looking for something that could help you start or grow a business.
I’m not ready to give you a recommendation yet. Instead, I used PRINTING United as an opportunity to start looking seriously at several different players in this space. I’m interested in more than needle count or embroidery speed. I want to know about build quality, software, workflow, maintenance, accessories, support and what you’re actually getting when you invest in more business-focused equipment.
Three companies in particular gave me a lot to investigate.
HTVRONT E15 15-Needle Embroidery Machine
First was the HTVRONT E15 15-needle embroidery machine. HTVRONT is a company many of us already know from the craft space, so seeing them move into multi-needle embroidery is interesting. With 15 needles, you can keep multiple thread colors loaded and allow the machine to move through color changes automatically instead of repeatedly stopping to change thread. That’s a very different workflow from the smaller embroidery machines many home crafters start with. But I’m not going to recommend an embroidery machine simply because it has 15 needles. The bigger question for me is whether HTVRONT can take what they’ve learned serving the craft market and deliver a machine that also makes sense for someone running a business. That’s something I want to investigate further.
Brother Entrepreneur Pro W PR1060W 10-Needle Embroidery Machine
Brother was another important stop. I spent quite a bit of time talking with the Brother team about embroidery and their Entrepreneur Pro W PR1060W 10-needle embroidery machine. Brother is interesting because they’re certainly not new to embroidery. They’ve been in the sewing and embroidery space for years, so they provide a very different reference point from some of the newer companies entering multi-needle embroidery. The PR1060W has 10 needles, an 8 x 14-inch embroidery area, a built-in camera system for design positioning and speeds up to 1,000 stitches per minute. But what interested me most wasn’t simply the specification sheet.
I had an opportunity to talk extensively with the Brother team and learn more about their equipment and how they’re approaching creators who want to move into more serious embroidery. That’s exactly the kind of conversation I went to PRINTING United hoping to have.
If I’m eventually going to recommend an embroidery machine to someone investing thousands of dollars into their business, I want to understand more than what the machine can do during a five-minute demonstration. Brother is definitely a brand I want to investigate more closely.
Ricoma 15-Needle Embroidery
I also spent time looking at Ricoma’s 15-needle embroidery equipment. This was an important stop because Ricoma is already established in the commercial embroidery market.
As more craft-focused companies move into multi-needle embroidery, I think it’s important to also look at brands that have been serving embroidery businesses for years. Seeing Ricoma’s equipment in person gave me another reference point for what a production-focused embroidery setup looks like. And that’s ultimately what I’m trying to determine. I’m not looking for the cheapest embroidery machine. I’m looking for the point where spending more money actually gives a small creative business a meaningful advantage in workflow, reliability, support and production capability.
Between HTVRONT, Brother and Ricoma, I came home with quite a bit of embroidery homework to do.
Procolored F13X DTF Printer
Of course, I couldn’t go to PRINTING United without checking out DTF.
One machine that caught my attention was the Procolored F13X. The F13X is a 13-inch DTF printer with dual printheads and several features designed to automate some of the maintenance involved with owning a DTF printer. And maintenance matters.
It’s easy to focus on print speed when you’re shopping for DTF equipment, but anyone considering bringing DTF printing in-house also needs to understand what comes with maintaining white ink and keeping a printer running consistently. That’s why I’m particularly interested in improvements that make DTF easier to own, not just faster to print. The F13X also supports both Windows and Mac, which is another important consideration for creators who don’t necessarily have a dedicated Windows computer in their workspace.
DTF continues to be a category I’m interested in following, particularly as manufacturers work to make these machines more practical for smaller creative businesses. The F13X was one of the machines at PRINTING United that I wanted to take a closer look at.
LogoJET UVx40R PLUS-SE Tabletop UV Printer
One of my favorite machines I saw at the entire show was the LogoJET UVx40R PLUS-SE Tabletop UV Direct-to-Substrate Printer.
I’ve been watching UV printing closely, and this machine immediately caught my attention because of its tabletop format. There were some enormous UV printers at PRINTING United. This wasn’t one of them.
The UVx40R PLUS-SE offers an 18 x 24-inch printable area and can accommodate objects up to 5 inches high. It prints full color along with white and clear ink directly onto compatible objects and materials. And that’s what makes UV printing so interesting to me. Instead of printing a transfer and applying it afterward, you’re actually printing directly onto the product. That opens up possibilities with acrylic, wood, glass, signage, promotional products, personalized gifts and all kinds of hard goods. More importantly, it changes the way I think about product development.
Instead of asking, “What design can I put on this blank?” I start asking, “What can I create that I couldn’t realistically make with the equipment I already have?” That’s where things get interesting. The LogoJET was easily one of my favorite finds at PRINTING United.
ColDesi 12H1R UV DTF
I also stopped at ColDesi, where I saw the ColDesi 12H1R UV DTF system. Most of us associate UV DTF with full-color adhesive transfers for hard surfaces. You create the transfer and apply it to the finished product without having to put the actual object inside a UV printer. That creates all kinds of possibilities for tumblers, glass, acrylic and other hard goods. But something on ColDesi’s PRINTING United display made me stop. They were showing the 12H1R for both self-adhesive transfers for rigid goods and 3D Flex textile transfers. The textile application was particularly interesting because it pushed the technology beyond what I normally think of when I hear UV DTF.
That’s one of the reasons I like going to an industry show. I can research machines online all day long, but walking the show floor gives me an opportunity to discover companies experimenting with applications and technology I might not have even known to search for. This was one of those finds.
Finding Better Shirts for Your Apparel Business
Machines weren’t the only thing on my research list.One of the questions I’ve been getting A LOT lately is:
“What shirts do you recommend?”
That’s actually a much bigger question than it sounds. As more of you start selling DTF, HTV, sublimated and embroidered apparel, the quality of the blank becomes part of the quality of your finished product. You can create an amazing design and decorate it perfectly, but if the shirt doesn’t feel good, fit well or hold up, that’s what your customer is going to remember. So I specifically wanted to start talking with apparel manufacturers while I was at PRINTING United.
Next Level Apparel
One of my stops was Next Level Apparel. Being able to actually see and feel different garments was much more useful than trying to choose blanks from pictures and fabric descriptions online. I’m becoming increasingly interested in the entire apparel workflow, not just the machine we use to decorate the shirt. Fabric, fit, consistency, color selection, decoration compatibility and cost all matter when you’re creating something to sell. And the right answer may change depending on what you’re making. The shirt I’d choose for a premium branded apparel line might not be the same shirt I’d recommend for a large event order where price is a major factor.
Next Level is one of the brands I want to investigate more closely as I work toward giving you better recommendations based on what you’re actually making and selling.
JERZEES
I also spent time talking with the team at JERZEES.
JERZEES is obviously not a new name in apparel, but I haven’t personally spent enough time with their current lineup to tell you which shirts I’d recommend for your projects or business.
That’s exactly why I wanted to learn more about the brand while I was at PRINTING United. I’m interested in looking beyond the name on the label and evaluating the things that actually matter when you’re creating apparel to sell: fabric quality, fit, consistency, color selection, how well different decoration methods perform and, of course, cost.
I want to print on the shirts. Press them. Wash them. Wear them. Compare the fit and feel. And see how they hold up over time. Because I don’t think there’s going to be one “best shirt” for everything. A great blank for DTF may not be what I’d choose for sublimation or embroidery. A premium blank may make sense for building your own apparel brand but not for a large event order where keeping costs down is more important.
JERZEES is another brand I’m interested in investigating as I work toward answering one of the questions you’ve been asking me most: What shirts do I actually recommend for a creative business? I want that answer to come from actually using the products, not simply reading a spec sheet.
My Biggest Takeaway From PRINTING United
I went into PRINTING United looking for new machines. I came home thinking much more about where the industry, and Michelle’s Party Plan-It, are heading.
The line between crafting and small-business production is getting blurry. Companies traditionally associated with craft equipment are moving into DTF and embroidery. Sublimation companies are exploring ways to decorate materials traditional sublimation couldn’t touch. DTF printers are becoming more automated. UV technology is becoming available in increasingly accessible formats. But something else is happening too.
You guys are growing. You’re not only asking me: “How do I make this?” You’re starting to ask: “What should I invest in if I want to take my business to the next level?”
Those are very different questions. And they’re questions I want to spend more time answering. That doesn’t mean I’m going to start telling everyone they need expensive commercial equipment. Quite the opposite. I want to figure out where spending more actually gives you a meaningful advantage and where it doesn’t.
Which machines can help you work more efficiently? Which materials actually improve the product you’re selling? Which investments give you capabilities that could generate additional revenue? And when are you better off keeping the machine you already have or outsourcing part of the process?
Those are the questions I’m interested in investigating. PRINTING United gave me a pretty long list to start with. And I’m just getting started!
Stay tuned. There’s definitely more to come!
Pray, create and celebrate!
- How to Emboss Acetate and Composition Notebook Covers
- How to Make a Reusable Sticker Sheet from Sticker and Laminate Backing Sheets
- DIY Clear Acetate Composition Notebook Cover
- Peel-A-Pocket™ Adhesive Pockets for Journals, Scrapbooks, Bibles and More
- How to Customize a Half-size Composition Notebook for Bible Journaling
- DIY Bible Notes Journal from a 50-Cent Composition Notebook