About Us
Affiliated Embroidery Services was formed by ‘Hal’ Schmidt in 1989 after a lengthy
career in all phases of embroidery business management from the manufacturing level
(Horizon Sportswear, Elkmont, AL and Detroit, MI) to embroidery digitizing (Gunold
+Stickma, Marietta, GA). It was at Horizon Sportswear where ‘Hal’ pioneered many
of the embroidery production techniques which are commonplace today, such as linking
individual name personalization to a digitized design as part of multi-head embroidery
production.
Many years prior to the introduction of the ‘finished cap embroidery machine’, Hal
and his Company were embroidering cap panels in the embroidery department, to be
sewn into finished caps in the manufacturing department for such major clients as
Ford Motor Co., The Stroh Brewing Company, Michelin Tire, and Snap-On Tool Company.
The concept of producing a series of embroidery training video’s occurred while
Hal was engaged in embroidery consulting at various companies across the United
States. Hal observed an inconsistency in basic embroidery knowledge of many of the
machine operators whose production he was being asked to improve, so he decided
to produce The Video Embroidery School™ which he then hoped would reach and
teach many more people than he could visit.
The video’s proved to be an instant success and at the urging of Melissa Thompson
Maher, then Editor of Stitches Magazine, were translated into Spanish to become
‘La Escuela de Bordado en Video’.
In the year 2000 ‘Stitches Magazine’ recognized the value of The Video Embroidery
School™ to the industry as a whole, and honored Hal by presenting him with
the “Floriani Award”.
Today, The Video Embroidery School™ remains the preeminent source for embroidery
training available anywhere.