15/06/2010 by admin.

A problem that crops up more and more nowadays is the situation where the customer wants to supply the T shirt printing company with their own T-shirts. The customer thinks that he has managed to get a batch of T-shirts at a bargain price so he can save money on the total job. But does not realise that this can be very much a false economy.

Often people will sell t-shirts on places like eBay which are batches of poorly made T-shirts at a bargain price. These T-shirts look alright and if you just wear them a few times and not have them printed, they would probably be okay. They are meant for market stalls and probably have a manufacturing error that is not visible to the naked eye.

As a T-shirt printer it is not uncommon to receive a bad batch of T-shirts or polo shirts that start to stain or perhaps would have stiching that come undone when the garments are going through the stresses and strains of the printing process. In this event the T-shirt printer just returns the bad batch to the supplier and gets replacements sent free of charge. The problem comes when a customer supplies the T-shirts that he wants printed and during the printing process where they are subjected high temperatures, pressure and chemicals the T-shirts start to discolour or go patchy.

You then have the customer accusing you of ruining his T-shirts and wanting you to pay for their replacement. I personally find that it is too great a risk to take on. Ok you will probable have no problem with customer t-shirts 8 out of 10 times, but if it does go wrong you will either end up paying for the replacements or loose the customer for ever.

Posted in polo shirt, T-shirt, T shirt Printing | No Comments »

22/04/2010 by admin.

A change in the weather always brings about a complete change in the type of clothing that is being ordered for the t shirt printing industry. In the winter you are embroidering jackets and fleeces. In the Summer you are printing onto t-shirts and shorts. The Autumn and spring time tend to be quite similar, with sweatshirts and polo shirts.

The other factor about Spring that does differentiate it from Autumn is the type of activity that goes on in early Summer and Spring.

The two main areas we are talking about are Weddings and sports events like Marathons. Marathons are great because you don’t just have the runners with their high cost, dry-fit running vests, you also get all their supporters wearing normal cotton t-shirts.

Then the wedding season also indirectly helps the t shirt printing industry. No, we don’t decorate wedding dresses, but where there is a wedding you will usually find a Stag and Hen night do. The customization for these parties is getting more and more sophisticated, with ever more expensive tops and even more complicated decoration.

Posted in Hen night, Stag do, Spring, Jacket, sportswear, polo shirt, Running vest, T-shirt | No Comments »

27/03/2010 by admin.

If you are planning an event for your company and want to give something away to your customers, a printed t-shirt with a message about your company is a cheap and effective solution.

It might be an outdoor event with lots of staff needing to be recognizable to the customers, again an easy solution is to use printed t-shirts .

As the t-shirts will have a very short life span, sometimes just one day, you do not have to spend a fortune. The rise of the Valueweight t-shirt has come of age with the Fruit of the Looms range. This includes t-shirts in a massive range of colours and sizes for men, women and kids.

For 2010, Fruit of the Loom have increased their range to include 3 new styles, such as long sleeve, fitted shape and v-neck.

This type of t-shirts is positioned perfectly to fill the gap between “cheap and nasty” to “high quality” but too expensive to use as a give away.

So the next time you are planning some form of event for your company, consider t-shirts to make your staff easily recognizable and professional. If you need to produce a give away, the value weight t-shirt makes the perfect medium  for your company message.

Of course it is not just the affordability of the t-shirt. With DTG or Direct to Garment printing you can print the t-shirt with the same flexibility of printing onto a piece of paper, with the added benefit of cheap short runs, because of the low startup charges of DTG.

Posted in valueweight, Fruit of the Loom, T-shirt, DTG printing | 1 Comment »

09/02/2010 by admin.

There is a lot of talk lately on internet forums about building you own Direct to Garment printers. The theory has promise but the reality will be a disaster.

Yes the basic principle is the same. Both spray either ink or dye at the the surface to be printed. In some cases, both machines use the same printer head, but that is were the similarity ends.

It is slightly more realistic if you want to print onto light or preferably white t-shirts. This is because there will be no need to put a white layer onto the garment first. If you do want to print images with lighter colours or white onto darker t-shirts then the real problems begin.

The white pigment used to print onto black or darker t-shirts is much thicker than the printer head was designed to cope with. Therefore there is a great tendency for clots and eventually permanently unblockable printers heads that will have to be replaced. The is not a cheap repair. The head alone without fitting charges will cost around about £200 to replace! This problem can re-occur very often, which will wipe out any profit on the work. On top of that the job will be delayed while you repair the printer which will probably make the job late and upset your customer.

Then there is the problem of ripping software, I am not going to bore you with the technicalities of it, but needless to say you will have to have it and it is not cheap. Add to that you will have no maintenance or technical backup and I would say you are onto a looser.

If you are thinking of printing t-shirts with DTG technology, get onto the t-shirt printing forums, read what the customers of the different companies are saying and choose the one with the happiest customers.

Posted in T-shirt, DTG printing, DTG | 1 Comment »

29/01/2010 by admin.

A massive part of the process of t shirt printing is the actual t-shirt. There are many different t-shirts to choose from, for many different requirements.

As far as printing is concerned the major concern is the type of material that is used to manufacture the t-shirt. Most t-shirts are made from 100% cotton, others are made from all sorts of man make fibers.

Some processes like DTG can not print onto man made fibers such as polyester because it would not absorb the dye. Most DTG printers will cope with a 60% cotton to 40% man made fibre mixture but I would not recommend going as low as 50% -50% cotton to polyester mixes. It will look ok when you first get the t-shirt but will soon start to fade and washout.

Posted in Cotton, T-shirt, DTG printing | No Comments »