About Marshall Atkinson
Decorated apparel industry consultant, author, speaker, and educator.
You're working harder than you ever have, and the business still feels like it's running you instead of the other way around.
Orders rush through production. Pricing is a guess dressed up as a number. And somehow every problem in the building ends up on your desk, because you're the only one who knows how everything actually works.
Here's the thing. That's not a you problem. It's a systems problem. And systems can be fixed.
I've spent more than 30 years in this industry. Designing graphics, running a production floor, sitting in the COO's chair, and now working across the table from owners who are ready to stop guessing. The shops that turn it around aren't smarter or luckier than yours. They just decided to look at how they operate honestly, and build the systems that let the business run without them.
That's the whole job. I call it Clarifying Effective Change.
"Since working with him, he's helped set clear, targeted goals with defined milestones. This allows us to stay focused on the right tracks, the right people on the right priorities."
Tim Smith — LogoBoss
Three decades in the industry, most of it on the floor
Marshall Atkinson's career in decorated apparel began in 1993 at T-Formation of Tallahassee, a Florida contract decorator, where he spent fourteen years as Art Director leading the creative team and working directly with the shop's biggest accounts.
He moved from running the art department and into operations, becoming T-Formation's Vice President of Operations in 2007. He was responsible for art, embroidery, print production, quality assurance, and shipping across more than 24,000 orders a year.
In 2011 he took the Chief Operating Officer role at Visual Impressions, Inc., a national contract decorator in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He managed a staff of more than 100 and ran operations for over 38,000 orders a year, with a relentless focus on lean efficiency, sustainability, and cost control. Five years on a high-volume floor at that scale taught him exactly what separates shops that grow from shops that just stay busy.
He founded Atkinson Consulting in 2010 and went full-time in 2018. Today he works with shop owners across the world, diagnosing bottlenecks, fixing pricing, building leadership teams, and putting in the systems that let an owner finally step out of the middle of everything.
Known for the work, not the noise
In 2020, Marshall was inducted into the Academy of Screen and Digital Printing Technologies (ASDPT), the print industry's highest honor, reserved for people who've made a lasting contribution to the craft and business of printing. Membership is by peer recommendation.
He has served on the boards of the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership and the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association, and on the advisory boards of Screen Printing Magazine and Wearables Magazine. He's been named to the ASI/Stitches Power 75 and the Online18 Most Influential People lists, among other industry honors.
You'll find him on stage at ISS, PRINTING United, and Shirt Lab events, and in print regularly across Impressions, Screen Printing, Graphics Pro, the Apparelist, and Images magazines.
Where most coaches stop, and where Marshall started early
There's no shortage of people who can talk about running a print shop. There are very few who can connect that operational experience to what artificial intelligence is about to do to this industry, and Marshall is one of them.
He publishes the Midjourney Experience, a YouTube channel and newsletter on using AI image tools for professional creative work, and hosts the Midjourney Experience Academy on Skool. His coaching leads with practical AI adoption. Not hype, not someday, but the tools a decorated apparel shop can put to work this quarter.
1,200+ articles, and the books shop owners actually keep on the shelf
Marshall is the author of several books written specifically for decorated apparel shop owners, each one focused on a practical piece of running and growing a shop:
- Price for Profit — the definitive guide to pricing in screen printing
- Moving Past Disaster — resilience and recovery for shop owners
- Top 10 Workflow Tips — practical workflow improvements for production teams
- T-shirt Texture Tricks — print technique and specialty decoration
- 2026 Thinking — strategic planning for the near future of the industry
He's also a co-author of INKclusivity, a guide to the business benefits of disability inclusion in the print industry, written with teams from Stakes Manufacturing and Spectrum Designs.
Beyond the books, Marshall has published more than 1,205 articles, podcasts, and educational resources, making him one of the most prolific educators the decorated apparel industry has produced.
Shirt Lab and the work of teaching the industry
Marshall is a co-founder of Shirt Lab and co-leads the Shirt Lab Tribe mastermind, an educational community built specifically for decorated apparel businesses, bringing shop owners together for the kind of practical business education that typical trade-show programming never gets to.
He also hosted the Success Stories podcast, featuring in-depth conversations with shop owners and industry leaders, and co-hosted the live Q&A with Alan & Marshall show with Alan Howe.
Areas of Expertise
Pricing Strategy
Value-based pricing that builds real margin, not just covers cost
Operations & Workflow
Throughput improvement, constraint elimination, floor efficiency
Profitability Systems
Job costing, overhead allocation, and profit-first thinking
Leadership Development
Building teams, accountability systems, and shop culture
AI Implementation
Practical AI tools for artwork, admin, marketing, and production
Strategic Growth
Market positioning, sales channels, and sustainable scaling
Training & Education
Staff training, SOPs, and building a learning organization
Production Efficiency
Reducing waste, improving turnaround, and maximizing capacity
Want to know where your shop actually stands?
You can read about systems all day. The faster way to find out what's really going on in your shop is to measure it. The free Shop Diagnostic walks you through a structured look at your business and shows you exactly where the gaps are. Pricing, throughput, leadership, growth. Takes about five minutes. No obligation.