Commercial (Computerized) Embroidery Machine Comparison
Brother PR1000e compared to ColDesi’s Avancé 1501C
45 years of experience in the world of commercial embroidery, selling equipment, supporting new embroidery businesses, helping large commercial shops expand and even operating a uniform/embroidery business gives ColDesi a unique perspective on the marketplace.
ColDesi designed the Avancé 1501C specifically with its customers in mind. Those customers are entrepreneurs, small business people, and the biggest names in the apparel business too.
In contrast, many consumer embroidery machine companies began making more and more expensive machines for the embroidery hobbyist – and make them appear as if they’re made for an embroidery BUSINESS.
Today we’re comparing one of those machines, the Brother PR1000e or “Entrepreneur Pro” to the ColDesi Avancé 1501C.
What Makes a Commercial Embroidery Machine “Commercial?
It’s almost counter-intuitive, but the first way you can differentiate a commercial machine and one built for consumers is how it looks. The consumer machine almost always looks fancier!
The best machines for businesses on the market, past, and present, look very similar because the embroidery industry is very mature and the pros have figured out the design that works. Just compare images of the Toyota brand machines from the past, or the current Tajima and Avancé 1501C machines. That design is there to support the industrial components that go into it whereas a consumer machine is typically designed to be attractive to the consumer first, then for functionality.
The difference in using commercial drives/motors, belts and other components in the Avancé 1501C will make ALL the difference in your business! This is what allows the commercial machine to run all day, every day and stand up to the rigors of being the hub for your business vs. the more plastic and “hobby” machine components in the Brother.
Here are the top features that make a Commercial Embroidery Machine “Commercial”:
- 24/7 Operation – You can’t see it from the outside, but commercial embroidery machines are built for business. Heavier duty components made to run all day, every day.
- 15 Needles – It’s rare to find a commercial system with more than 15 needles, which means you can load 15 different colors of thread onto the machine. In fact, even people wanting to get into doing Monograms or that are specifically looking for a monogramming machine end up with 15 needles, that way you change your colors less often, save time and so save money.
- Large Embroidery Field – The embroidery field is how large a design you can produce, or how many embroidered patch designs you can make at once. Embroidery businesses know that this can be a determining factor in whether you GET a job – like doing jacket backs or blankets – and how much you can make on a job. After all, most embroiderers use stitch count to determine pricing so if you can make a design 100% larger, that’s more money in your pocket.
- Caps and Hats – By far one of the most popular sellers for commercial embroidery shops and start-up embroidery businesses is producing custom caps. There isn’t a mall in America that doesn’t have a storefront or kiosk selling embroidered caps! Commercial machines come with the ability AND the accessories that allow you to embroider onto hats.
- Included Parts and Accessories – When a home embroidery enthusiast decides to go into the business it’s rare that they know what they need to actually do commercial applications. For example, an embroidery business will have at least 2 of every common hoop that they may need, that way they can hoop one garment while the other sews out. The same with cap frames, one to hoop and one to sew are a must. Consumer machines like the Brother Entrepreneur Pro usually come with only 4 hoops, and never one for caps, large jackets, etc. Those are all add-ons! Commercial sellers like ColDesi know what you need to get started and make those a part of every single purchase.
Brother PR1000e Entrepreneur Pro Unique Features
So what makes the Brother PR1000e so attractive to home embroiderers interested in upgrading to commercial models? That’s easy:
- LCD Touch Control Panel – Almost the size of an iPad, the Brother unit has a great, full-color interface for entering designs and doing some pretty advanced functions. Commercial machine manufacturers have eschewed the large color touch screens as being an obvious and unnecessary point of failure. Remember, if embroidery is your business you can’t afford to be down.
- Convenience features – like automatic threading, special thread tension guides and the ability to back up 1000 stitches at a time are all geared to solve problems that people have experienced using consumer embroidery systems. If you’re using fifteen 5,000 meter cones at a time threading isn’t really an issue you’ll face often and when you do, it’s actually simpler on a commercial machine than on some consumer models. Tension guides and back up stitching are built into commercial machines too but are so standard that they’re rarely mentioned.
- On Screen Editing – the Brother PR1000e comes with 110 built-in designs that can be easily edited on the control screen, which is very useful for the consumer or if you are creating the kinds of designs that can use the flourishes that Brother provides, but it simply does not apply to regular commercial work. When you’re dealing with a business that wants caps with their logo or school uniforms, you’ll be creating designs well in advance and getting customer approval, and VERY few will ever have the kinds of designs Brother includes. The AVANCÉ 1501C in comparison comes with 4000 embroidery clip art designs, most of which may be useful for an embroidery business.
- Brother Legacy – Brand loyalty drives a large number of PR1000e sales, and for good reason! Brother makes excellent, popular embroidery machines that are perfect for the hobbyist. Many people start with a simple $100 Brother and get more advanced machines as their interest grows, so it’s only natural that they look to the same company when they want to start an embroidery business. They design with the consumer in mind, not the business person or true commercial embroidery entrepreneur so once you advance to the level where you’re spending $15,000 or so for a machine to make money with, you’ll want to look to another brand like ColDesi.
For basic info on “machine embroidery,” you can look here on Wikipedia.
7 Ways the Avancé 1501C is Right for Your Business
We’ve discussed what the differences are between commercial and consumer systems and why the Brother Embroidery Machine is so popular. We’ve also examined why those popular features don’t apply at all to the business of embroidery. Now let’s examine the Avancé 1501C vs the Brother PR1000e and what sets it apart, making it the perfect machine to base a money making company on.
- 2 Million Stitch Memory – this may hold ALL of your customer’s logos right on the machine itself.
- Training and Support – the Avancé 1501C from ColDesi comes with training, for FREE! And it’s not just any training, we train you how to use the software for embroidery designs and how to run and maintain your new equipment for your embroidery business. You also get free tech support, and everyone that responds work on these machines (not vacuums, not 10 other models of consumer systems) and they all know you need this equipment to make your income.
- Network Modular – Successful embroidery businesses GROW. We know that from 45 years of experience that as your business grows you’ll need to add more machines. The AVANCÉ 1501C is designed to grow in stages with you using network modular. Add another AVANCÉ 1501C for a 2 head configuration, add another for 3, another for 4.. and just keep growing. It’s EASY.
- Huge Sewing Field – an almost 20” x 14” sewing field means that you can do the largest jackets, the largest bags, blankets, sheets, and the most money making designs (vs. 8×14” field on the Brother)
- Cap Embroidery – You get the 2 cap frames (hoops) of course, included in the purchase price.
- Start-Up Supplies – How many times have you sat down to do an embroidery project and NOT had the right hoop? The right backing? We make sure you have enough supplies and accessories to kick off your business without having to add, add, add.
- Wheeled Stand – the best thing about the heavy-duty, wheeled stand isn’t just that it’s included, but that it allows you to wheel your whole machine into a closet, a corner or another room when not in use.
- 100% Trade up to a 4 Head or 6 Head Machine – So many of our customers grow so quickly, we’ve started the best trade program available. You can actually get 100% of the machine cost when you bought your 1501C towards the purchase of a 1504 or 1506C multi-head embroidery machine! That’s how confident we are in the Avancé and your business.
There are much more than just “7 Ways”, and you can consult the comparison graphic included here for more differences between the 1501C and the PR1000e, but one of the most important differences isn’t included on the chart and you cannot purchase it in any store – that’s ColDesi’ 45 years of experience and dedication to helping people get started in the embroidery business.
