Am I being fussy about tshirts?

[Tubstar]

Hello,

I recently started a new career in the visitor attraction business. We sell a lot of tshirts through the course of the year and most of the ones we get are screen printed line drawings of things like vehicles and such. We get these from a couple of different companies and the quality is ok for what they are. They cost us about £4.80 to £5.20.

Now my wife has been building on her craft business (making stencils and scrapbooking materials and now she has another shop on etsy with the things she makes herself with these, as well as starting mugs etc and she has begun now doing other sublimation work involving a heat press.

So, I saw the oppertunity for me to get the quality of tshirts better at my work, knowing that she is a bit of a perfectionist and also supporting her build her business more. We went to the newtech show in southampton a few weeks back and TMT were their with their demo of the oki 711wt and wow 7.8 and t-one papers. They printed a couple of sheets for us to take away. I have now pu these on a couple of cotton t shirts. The WOW 7.8 we put on a dark blue tshirt but after just a couple of washies it looks quite cracked and not great. The image started off looking amazing. But would cost a fair bit to setup and I just feel people would be disappointed a week or two after buying the tshirt in my shop.

However, I have looked at tshirts in my cupboard that I have purchased or been given and some of them are the same.

We have invested in a colour laser printer which should come soon, and I am going to order the ghost white toner for that model. We needed a new laser printer anyway so the only additional cost for this is the £110 for the toner. Which should hopefully be better for some of my wives style of packaging any way. We have some samples of different type of paper coming too.

Does anyone want to share any winning combinations of tshirt and paper they use. I would like to do darks but I can start off just on lights if that really is better. Or should we just stick to sublimation tshirts which seem to wash pretty well.

Sorry for the essay, just wondered what peoples thoughts or experiences were.

Alex.

[pw66]

You won't get the same long term quality with paper as you will with screen print. Multi colour designs will work out cheaper on shorter runs.

[Tubstar]

Yes, I understand that I guess. I just was hoping they would last a while rather a a couple of washes. Do people who sell these get complaints from customers. It worth noting I washed it inside out. I have now put the t-one sheet on a white tshirt. I will see how it goes.

I also have some of the new TItanX Paper from longforte coming as samples.

[pw66]

Transfer paper fills an important place in the t-shirt market, and is ideal for low volume, on demand printing of complex images. They are generally sold as a 'bespoke' item, where the uniqueness of the product accounts for a large part of the price and the customer can be made aware of the limitations regarding the durability of the product.

Durability is one reason why transfers are rarely used for 'off the peg items'. The other main reason is that the unit cost doesn't decrease with volume produced - prices start high and stay high. The only cost savings available are those associated with artwork and set-up charges.

If you are paying up to £5.20 for simple screen printed t-shirts then you are probably not ordering enough of any particular design. Is your shop taking a 'spray and pray' approach to its merchandising - offering too many choices of design, all bought in too low a volume for a competitive price?

It sounds like you need that one 'killer' design for your main souvenir t-shirts and hoodies - simple but definitive - that you can buy and sell in volume. A t-shirt printed with an eye catching one colour design to the front with a logo to the back of the shirt shouldn't be costing any more than £3, on reasonable annual volumes. that will give a good £10 retail price (more if you are greedy). Multi colour designs would cost more accordingly, but don't underestimate how good single colour design can be. Superdry never needed a second colour...

[socialgiraffe]

Yes, I understand that I guess. I just was hoping they would last a while rather a a couple of washes. Do people who sell these get complaints from customers. It worth noting I washed it inside out. I have now put the t-one sheet on a white tshirt. I will see how it goes.

Was you given a wax sheet to seal the transfer after you had pressed it on to the garment?

Transfer these days last almost as long as screen print and there must have been something wrong with the process for it to was off straight away. I have used WOW for many things and I have friends who I printed t shirts for deliberately not telling them anything about how to look after the garment. They are all still as good as new.

Transfers are getting better and better (as is DTG) and there is no reason why it will not last as long as a garment with screen print. The only benefit to screen print these days (in my opinion) is the significant cost difference on volume.

Take a look on the TMT website to see if you "sealed" the transfer after pressing. If not it will not last.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the ghost toners. From what I have heard they do not work as well as they claim (hence why they have not succeeded in securing a rights deal with a printer manufacturer), but the only true test is real people in real environments.

[Tubstar]

Thanks for the replies.

I did use the seal. I know the guy from TMT did say it has to be a good press you use. We have a BMS HP3805 which we purchased second hand off someone who bought it new 8 months ago. It does well on everything we have tried so far. But maybe it looks good but doesn't seal it enough. I guess it will be interesting to see if the white t shirt fairs better.

In terms of our shop pw66, I think you might be right. We take about £75-£80k a year on tshirts, hoodies etc. I think that may include caps TBH but I cant remember off the top of my head how much of that was them. We have some basic line drawings etc. We have a new exhibition opening next month. On something that is world famous and we expect more visitors as a result of this. For the past two years we have had 200k visitors.

So... I am looking at getting some decent T-shirts in Black and Dark blue with a decent print on it, almost like a poster style picture. I was thinking over about 200 of each black and Blue. Would this be enough of an economy to scale thing to look at screen printing, or would I be better looking at transfer paper? I guess my concern in my mind is that if someone travels from the US to come to our site, which may be the only time they ever see what they are coming to see they would probably buy a tshirt to remember it by and then if it washes badly it may tarnish the experience.

The other main thing this year is we have a massive event in June, over the weekend we expect 20k visitors and I want to do something similar with tshirts. We would hope sell over 1000 event shirts.

I am looking forward to getting the white toner and trying it out. Its not something I really intend too much use for my shop but my wife supplies several local much smaller places to. This like small scale tote bags and other product would go down really well I think.

Thanks again for you replies, Its a lot to learn after 20 years of main stream retail I have been involved in. Wow this is much more fun though!!! ;-)

[pw66]

You don't need massive opening quantities for screen print. 100 pieces is the tipping point between 'low volume' and 'wholesale' pricing, in most firms. The numbers you are talking about should get you better prices than you are getting.
What I generally do is charge the list price for the first order, at whatever quantities that might involve ( to cover the costs of set-up), and then offer reprint prices based on whatever I think the annual volume might be. For a one colour print, on front and back, the £3 price I quoted earlier is representative for reprints.This allows the customer to order on a regularly basis, at best possible price, and saves them from having massive stock holdings. They can restock within a couple of days of a busy period.
I deal with one small restaurant chain who order every week in summer, for staff t-shirts. The screens are all ready made and on the shelf, so set-up time for one colour is minimal. The customer gets the stock replenished within a few days - he generally orders on Monday and I print on Tuesday. The only proviso is that re-order minimum is 20 pieces per design, across various sizes or even garment styles. I also do the same for various building and scaffolding firms etc.

For your event t-shirts, 100 pieces is enough to get you good pricing.

The only thing you should remember, with screen printing volume reduces your costs substantially, extra colours increase them. The reverse applies with transfers - there is little volume discount, but there is no premium for full colour prints.

[Tubstar]

pw66.

I have just seen you are 20 miles down the road from me. How close is that. Perhaps we should see if we can do some business together. ;-)

Alex.

[pw66]

pw66.

I have just seen you are 20 miles down the road from me. How close is that. Perhaps we should see if we can do some business together. ;-)

Alex.

I can send you a link and a flyer if you want. Message me with your details, if you want any more detailed information.

[Earl Smith]

I have another idea that might be helpful as I use this for some clubs in my area.
Screen printed transfers. Especially if they are one colour are not too expensive. You can order two designs on an A3 sheet and get 100 pieces of each design. This will give you massive flexability so you can print onto any t-shirt, whatever size or colour is needed. You can also extend your range with sweats, hoodies or Jackets and only print onto what is needed so you dont have stock laying around doing nothing. You dont have to use all 100 transfers, you can store them and use them when new orders come in.
As I say, I do this for some clubs who are never sure of their members sizes. Whether they want t-shirts or hoodies, I can print them to order.
I also use the Oki white but that is for shorter runs.