Creating personalized products one stitch at a time

Heather Graves

Staff

July 21, 2025

RIVER FALLS/PRESCOTT – River City Stitch has seen a lot of evolution since starting in 2007. 

What started in a 750-square-foot building in Prescott, Owner Kim French said, has grown into a two-location operation, one of which received an expansion earlier this year.

“When we first opened, we offered embroidery and heat transfer print on site,” she said. “We started offering screen print[ing] a few years later and then started screen printing in-house in 2013.”

During that same year, French said the business moved locations – out of the 750-square-foot space to a 2,400-square-foot suite.

The company’s growth continued in 2017, French said, expanding into River Falls following the buy-out of Treadmill Embroidery.

“In 2019, we moved to our current location, and we finished our expansion [earlier] 2025,” she said.

A little bit of everything

At both locations – 1415 North Acres Road in Prescott and 128 N. 2nd St. in River Falls – French said River City Stitch offers on-site custom embroidery, screen printing, promotional items and logo/graphic design services.

Customers, she said, range from small business owners to school organizations/clubs to sports teams to large businesses with hundreds of employees.

For printed apparel, French said River City uses a variety of printing methods – including screen print, DTG (direct to garment), vinyl and sublimation.

Furthermore, she said the company offers specialty effect options, such as glitter, metallic, foil, silicone, puff and gradient prints.

As far as its embroidery services, French said River City can embroider just about anything – from hats, jackets and polos to pants and other soft material.

Another aspect of River City’s service line, she said, includes promotional products.

French said the company carries a wide variety of options, such as can coozies, pens, ice scrapers, calendars, lip balm and aluminum mugs.

The last portion of River City’s business, French said, is its logo/graphic design services.

River City, she said, has an in-house design team that offers customer design work based on customers’ needs.

She said they also have an extensive design library customers can browse through.

Business evolution

In the last nearly 20 years, French said the industry, and therefore the business, has evolved to meet the needs of customers.

The biggest evolution, she said, is online ordering.

“We now offer various options for customers to offer online stores for teams/employees/special events,” she said.

All these options, French said, are available on River City’s website (rivercitystitch.com).

Another change for River City, she said, has been the capability of DTG printing. 

“We are now able to do full-color prints very quickly/inexpensively where that wasn’t possible a few years ago,” she said.

Prescott expansion

Planning for the recently completed expansion of River City’s Prescott location, French said, started about two years ago.

“[We] worked back and forth with our contractor and engineering firm and then [received] state approval,” she said.

Breaking ground last August and wrapping up the project in January of this year, French said the expansion increased the size of the Prescott location by 4,700 square feet.

“The new area is used for production and storage, and [it] also houses offices, a breakroom and a bathroom,” she said. “[It has] allowed us to have the room for washout and screen rooms and a full garage door for large shipments.”

With the expansion, French said across River City’s two locations, the company has 9,100 square feet of space – 7,100 square feet in Prescott and 2,000 square feet in River Falls.

Both locations, she said, have on-site embroidery capabilities.

“We screen print on site in Prescott for both locations and have a daily transport of completed orders,” she said. “We really love being able to produce on site as we can make changes if needed.”

Doing that work on site, French said, “wasn’t possible years ago” when they had to rely on other companies to decorate some of their orders.

“All of our artwork is also custom,” she said. “We have a design link that can help customers create the link they would like, but we are able to recreate and create anything our customers have in mind.”

Hometown proud

Having been born and raised in Prescott, French said it’s important that her business supports her community.

“Seeing the growth here and support from the community is so great,” she said. “[Although] we expanded into River Falls and now [offer Hudson-area products] – which are bigger cities – the small-town feel is still there. We love to hear the positive comments from our customers.”

To further support the community, French said River City is part of the Hudson, River Falls and Prescott chambers of commerce and is “a big part of Prescott and River Falls high school athletics – being a large donor for the booster clubs.”

French said one of her favorite parts of owning and operating River City Stitch is helping customers achieve their vision.

“I love being able to help customers with their logos – that is always very special to them,” she said.

Furthermore, French said one of the things that helps River City stand out is its no-minimum order size policy.

“A lot of shops don’t allow that anymore,” she said. “We pride ourselves on this. Many new businesses don’t need or can’t afford 24 T-shirts or hats, so it’s nice to be able to offer them one, if that is all they want to get started.”

The future

Looking forward, French said the plan for now is to take a break from expansion/building for a bit and “catch our breath.”

The next step in the company’s growth, she said, will come in the form of raising awareness.

“We are putting a larger focus on marketing and showing off our great employees, jobs and work space,” she said.