Independence doesn’t have to mean alone.
STCH is the network for independent shops in decorated apparel, signage, and specialty graphics. Peer groups that tell you the truth, training built for the trade, supplier partners committed to the STCH community, and a Hub where the industry actually talks.
Now acceptingfounding members
The Four Pillars of STCH
Peer groups, training, connections, and the hub. What a single STCH membership actually gets you, and why the four work together.
Watch the full seriesEvery shop is fighting the same six battles. Separately.
The independent shop has never been more capable, or more on its own. Costs climbing, technology turning over, talent scarce, and every owner solving the same problems solo.
Peer groups, shared training, trusted supplier relationships, and a place to gather: every one of these is a solved problem somewhere else. Just not here. Not yet.
Rooms you can’t build alone.
Owning a shop is the best job in this trade and the loneliest. Peer groups fix the lonely part: confidential small-group sessions with non-competing shops, where the real problems get discussed with people who have the same skin in the same game.
- Confidential. What’s said in the room stays in the room.
- Non-competing. Owners who aren’t chasing your customers.
- Facilitated. By people who have run owner groups before.
- Accountable. You say what you’ll do. The group makes sure you do it.
- Members only. Supplier partners are never in the room.
STCH is forming its first Peer Groups now.
Mark Pomerantz, STCH Market Advisor, on peer groups as a board of directors for shops. PRINTING United Expo 2026 · 0:36
“I just stayed alone.”
A sign company owner, 17 years in business, on why she’d never been to an industry event. As told by Wendy Graves, STCH Advisor.
Watch the panel highlights
Get better at the work and the business.
Industry-specific education covering both production and business management, built for the work you actually do.
- Quarterly lunch and learnsLed by industry experts, not a vendor with a slide deck.
- Speakers on equipment and techniqueThe people who know the machines, talking about the machines.
- Shop management sessionsPricing, cash flow, hiring, succession. The owner’s side of the job.
- A monthly newsletterPractical insight in every issue, whether or not you made the last session.
The right partners, already vetted.
Every shop sorts through the same supplier pitches alone. Connections replaces the guesswork with a curated bench we stand behind, and access to whatever those partners choose to put on the table.
- Partner incentivesThe special deals and pricing our partners choose to offer members.
- Never a mandateUse the programs that fit your shop. Ignore the ones that don’t.
- Your suppliers stay yoursIf a supplier you already use joins, that’s a bonus, not a requirement.
STCH is developing its initial network of Founding Supplier Partners.
The industry’s home base.
The members-only community site: the directory, the resources, the conversation, and the calendar. It’s where the network lives between sessions, and where the events get built.
Earn your patches.
Embroidered badges for the things that make the network work: answering questions, taking on overflow, finishing courses, bringing in good shops.
- Founding MemberAmong the first shops to join STCH.
First AssistYour answers earned 5 Useful reactions.
Overflow AllyCompleted an Overflow job, confirmed by both shops.
First ClassFinished your first Academy course.
ConnectorReferred a shop that joined the network.
Certified TechnicianCompleted the Screen Printing Technician certification.
Simple economics. Shared success.
One membership covers all four pillars. No per-pillar upcharges, no tiers, no fine print.
- A seat in a confidential peer group. Small groups. Non-competing shops.
- The full training calendar. Lunch and learns, speakers, and the monthly newsletter.
- Every supplier partner program. Yours to use or skip.
- Full access to the Hub. The directory, the resources, the conversation.
Joining takes a few minutes.
- Tell us about your shop
- Review and sign the agreement
- Step into the HubMeet the network and get placed in a peer group as groups form.
We’ve done this before.
Our founding team has spent decades building the kinds of member communities, supplier partnerships, and business infrastructure that help independent companies grow stronger together.
We won’t claim to have run a screen printing shop. We haven’t. What we know is the other side of the table: how these agreements actually get made, and what it takes to get a room of owners to trust each other.
Keith KirkSupplier Strategy & Partnerships
Daniel BendeleMembership & Growth
Tyler KirkCapital & Finance
Mark PomerantzSTCH Market Advisor · Sales Wisdom
Wendy GravesSTCH Advisor · Make It Happen Signage Academy
The trade press took notice.
- PRINTING United AllianceIndustry news
- WhatTheyThinkIndustry news
- Sign Builder IllustratedFeature
- ApparelistVideo feature
One agreement. The whole network.
Sign once and you have a standing position across all four pillars, funded by a 1% network fee on member volume. Whatever you offer members beyond that is your call, not ours.
Members-only rooms stay members-only. Partners meet members through training, events, the Supply Room, and requests members choose to send.
Plainly answered.
A confidential small-group session with owners from non-competing shops. You bring the challenges and the opportunities of your business to a room of people qualified to weigh in, work through the operating problems that have been sitting on your desk, and set goals the group will hold you to. What's said in the room stays in the room. Think of it as a board of directors made entirely of people who run shops like yours.
Quarterly lunch and learns led by industry experts, speakers on equipment, technique, and shop management, and a monthly newsletter with practical insight in every issue. The work and the business, both. All of it is included in membership.
No, and you never will. STCH curates a bench of supplier partners we stand behind and vets every one of them before you see a name. Those partners decide what incentives and special pricing to offer the network, and you decide which of them are worth using. Nothing is mandated. If a supplier you already work with joins, that is a bonus, not a requirement.
The Hub is the members-only community site we host: the network directory, a place to put questions to people who have already solved them, a library of resources worth keeping, and the calendar. It's where the network lives between sessions. Events are built there too, from lunch and learns through to the annual meeting as it comes together.
$1,455 to start, then $1,455 a year when your membership renews. That covers all four pillars: your peer group seat, the full training calendar, every supplier partner program, and the Hub. Supplier partners fund the network's operations through a 1% fee on member volume, which is exactly why the member price stays simple.
Yes, any time. Cancellation is one email. There is no clawback, no exit fee, and no hard feelings. STCH has to earn its renewal the same way its partners earn your orders, by being worth it.