cherise88

Making shirts pros/cons

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Really wanting to get into making shirts abd have no clue on it.... what is the best route to go...

Silk screen pros/cons

Sublimation pros/cons

Heat vinyl pros/cons

Anyone help a guy learn before buying and spending money on the wrong equipment. .. I have been doing vinyl decals for some time now... I don't usually do multi colored ones .... i also don't have tons of cash but don't want to buy cheap and have junk products !

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If you are doing decals then you must have a cutter, design program and the knowhow to cut vinyl. If so....all you need is a heat press and learn how to mirror images and it's more of the same with not much learning curve or real expense. Then you just work on getting an account with a wholesaler or two and only order for specific jobs. I usually require at least 50% up front which will always cover materials so you don't have to bankroll the job and you can make some sweet easy cash. Cha-ching!$!

 

Silk screen - big equipment expense and new learning experience

 

Sublimation - Printer expense (And a good heat press) and IMO a much more limited customer base. How many people really like white polyester shirts? I hardly sell any but I sell boat loads of cotton or blended shirts and hoodies done with HTV. 

 

This just one mans opinion...

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Screen Printing 

  Pros:  Can deliver high volume.  Multiple Colors. 

  Cons:  Equipment cost - Screens, Stations, Dryers, Emulsion equipment, software.  Time to learn emulsions, separations, squeegee techniques.  Labor intensive, (sweat.)  Difficult to do fine details.  Low volume impractical/not economical.  Larger space requirements.

 

Sublimation

  Pros:  Photographic like output.  Comparatively cheap, (varies, some printers are out there on price.)   Great hand.  Suited for low runs, (even one or two.)  Smaller space required.  Can sublimate things other than shirts such as ceramic or aluminum. 

  Cons:  Polyester only for tees.  Harder to do high volume.  No white ink.

 

Vinyl

  Pros:  Material costs are low.  For a bit more, unique materials, (glitter, metallic, ect.)  Glitter and metal and other materials can be high demand.  I have seen glitter screen printing ink though.  Good for low runs and or high customization. Cutter can be used for other endeavors, (signs, decals, rhinestones, ect.)

  Cons:  Poor hand, (varies with material).  Impractical for large runs or high volume.  Must learn vector graphics.  Nothing near photo output.

 

As you already have a cutter, like Wild Goose suggested, why not grab a press and branch from there?  Your half way there already.  You didn't mention DTG, which is very high cost, and has it's own pitfalls nor did you mention Laser transfers, which require a press and a laser printer known to work with the transfer material.  Outputting white ink in Lasers cranks up the cost.  There are also transfer solutions with solvent or eco-solvent print cut solutions such as the Roland BN-20, ($8500 + supplies.)  There are lower cost inkjet solutions, that can work in a print cut workflow, but most find those something of a kludge.

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Or if you can't make up your mind do like me and screen print, sublimate, transfer paper and htv. They all have their place if you have the money for the equipment and more importantly the space since screen print equipment can eat up tons of space.

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Oh and don't forget premade plastisol transfers (got a few thousands stock designed transfers sitting around too lol)

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My personal experience with HTV.

 

Pro's:

 

Not a lot of overhead: Equipment doesn't have to be expensive to make a HTV shirt, made lots of shirts on a cheap china press.

 

More on the low overhead. I buy a lot of shirts from Hobby Lobby. Mainly because I don't want to have a ton of shirts on hand that may sit for months before getting used and they are cheap. Not having a business license means I can't buy shirts at discounted rate. Jiffyshirt.com is great but at $2.75 a shirt for a Gildan 100% cotton shirt its not super practical to order a bunch of green mediums that may never get used when I can go to Hobbylobby and pick one up for $3.02 after tax. Same for the 2xl's and 3xl's, right now its actually cheaper for me to buy them at HL than Jiffyshirt. I do carry Small-XL White, Black, Red, Blue that I buy through alphabroder through my works account. May eat into my profit but it's not a ton, I calculate like $200 lost in profit because I use HL and not alphabroder for all my shirts.

 

Yet to have a HTV shirt peel even after 40+ washes my first shirt graphic still looks like it did the day I made it. Have plenty of DTG (direct to garment), screen printed etc shirts the fade and crack after a few washes. Apparently this is in relation to the maker of the shirt not doing things correctly.

 

Cost: When I started HTV I was shocked at how much more expensive HTV was compared to something like 651, now I buy it in 50 yard rolls and don't blink an eye when buying it.

 

Easy: Think it's really easy to make a HTV shirt. Made my first shirt in February of this year after only reading on forums like this and watching youtube videos, currently at 1456 shirts sold.

 

Con's:

 

Large graphics with a lot of solid material on the shirt doesn't feel as good as a screenprinted shirt, ie too thick doesn't breath well. Personally I've never had anyone complain, but I tend to design around less material transferred on a shirt. Example if someone wanted the plane below on a shirt I would make an outline of the plane instead, just an example. 

 

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Weeding time: Time is money. I try to design around ease of weeding. I like to use stencil fonts to decrease weeding time. Not having to go back and pick out the inside of letters or numbers saves time.

 

Finally, the way I look at it if I got out of shirt making tomorrow, I could sell everything and not be out of more than $600 and I've made way more than that this year alone.

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I myself do HTV right now. Since I already had a cutter and someone GAVE me a heat press so what do I have to loose. Comes in handy now when people call wanting a Birthday shirt made for their child. I'm loving it now. Don't get me wrong, I messed up a lot to start with. Not mirroring and sometimes putting the HTV in the wrong way. Though I got the hang of it now. 

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I do mostly HTV and some Dye Sub stuff.

 

HTV is very easy once u get the hang of it. Your target customer is going to be the ones that want a one-off custom shirt....and the most you will want to do is about 15, any more than that, get them screen printed (depending on the design really, if its just text, the sky is the limit)

 

The biggest order i have had was for 15 shirts for a softball team...all the same logo on front, different names on the back. I whipped them out in 3 hours, from design to cut and weed to pressing. And at $15 a shirt, it was a good profit.

 

But like i said, most of my customers just want one or two shirts...or baby clothing, etc.

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Or if you can't make up your mind do like me and screen print, sublimate, transfer paper and htv. They all have their place if you have the money for the equipment and more importantly the space since screen print equipment can eat up tons of space.

Yep, I couldn't make up my mind either, I  Screen Print, Dye Sub, and some HTV along the way! 

screen print is the best way to go since the garment will last longer, but it takes a lot of $$ to start and a lot of space! to do it right! 

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Can anyone give me ideas on equipment. .?? I think I may want to do coffee cups too bUT you need special cups for that ?? Looked at printers and heat presses but not sure which one to get ..

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coffe cuts - printer with sublimation inks and either mug press or cactus wraps in the oven.   you also need special sublimation mugs that are poly coated

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