Discuss the various aspects of direct to garment printing. DTG printers include Brother, T-Jet, Flexi-Jet, DTG Kiosk, Kornit, Mimaki, Tex-Jet and others! Discuss and learn about this up and coming printing technology.
I'm working on a new start-up idea for a custom t-shirt shop, where customers can pick from my art or provide their own art (photos, scanned art, etc.). My question is on the amount of time it takes to put a finished product in the customers hands. My plan is to use a combination of DTG, heat press, simple embroidery....
From the time the customer comes in and choices the shirt and design he wants, how long should it take to get the finish product in their hands? I know by process it depends on complexity and size of the design, but lets try to generalize.
Say a 12x12 full color print on Black t-shirt through DTG printer.
Simple 2 color heat transfer design.
Or a 1 color light coverage 5x5 embroidery design.....
For each of these is it possible to the production time down to 10 minutes?
I'm only in the research stage so any info you could provide would be very helpful.
Well I don't do dtg or embroidery, but a heat press takes 15 minutes to warm up (at least) and if you're doing any kind of design work you'll have to figure that in. While I do like your idea, I personally wouldn't put that much pressure on myself. BUT if you leave your press on and they pick a transfer and a shirt you could do it in a few minutes.
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Last edited by sherlockhomer; November 11th, 2007 at 01:26 PM.
you could definately print a dark shirt with dtg in less than 10 minutes as long as you do not have to change anything in the artwork. That is something you will have to take into consideration, that you make sure the customer understands what type of file to give you and to make sure it is enough dpi to print a good sharp print.
As far as embroidery, assuming 1 person doing all tasks, by the time you setup a simple lettering design, or add letters to a stock design (5-10 minutes) , hoop the garment (2-5 minutes), run the garment (5-15 minutes), unhoop & cleanup (3-5 minutes) I would say 15-30 minutes. Of course, 2 people would speed things up, but 10 minutes would be a real stretch. Don't have any experience with the other 2 methods.
As Bobbie said, it's generally 10 minutes per dark shirt with a DTG machine. That includes, pre-treating, ripping, printing, and curing. But, be sure to fully research your DTGs ... comparing reliablity, consistancy and print speeds can cut that time down.
Very interesting post. My wife and I have been discussing this exact possibility with our store. Something along the lines of T-Shirt Express...or something like that. However, we were thinking more like a 24 hour turnaround for 6 or less shirts. But, I agree that the faster you can do it the better folks would like it.
I have a DTG & heat presses but no embroidary machine yet. However, we've discussed the possibility of adding that if we do this. We also have a vinyl cutter that can be used for this as well.
I think the key is limiting the amount of artwork time you have to do...which is what we are trying to figure out. We have a full time Graphic Designer (my brother-in-law) and another part time intern but can see how this could bog down quickly if people were allowed to do too much customization.
I think the key might be, as you suggest, to have them bring in a design / photo (in acceptable format) or have them select from a standard set of designs (which may be the tricky part). We are tryng to figure out where to draw that line.
It's possible to product a t-shirt with any of these methods, once you have the artwork completed in about 15 minutes but I think the problem comes in if you have a backlog of jobs...each being 10 to 15 minutes long. That is why we are thinking about the 24 turnaround idea. If we could do it quicker...all the better.
Something else to consider is what selection (color / type) of shirt are you going to offer them? Whatever it is, you will need to carry in stock. With the vinyl cutter, this would also apply to the color of material being offered.
John
__________________ Big Daddy Screenprinting -Affordable contract Heat Press Services & Low Volume Screen Printing up to 4 spot colors with no setup or screen fees
I've been into embroidery for over 20 years, and have always been interested in the "cap" outlets; retail stores or carts that offer just caps w/ embroidery. Nice thing about caps is that "one size fits most" and there's lots of profit to be made. Also, you can display a lot more caps in the same space it takes to display shirts, and there're easy to transport w/ a single head embroidery machine to a show. In addition to our multi-heads, we also have a single head Toyota 15 needle machine. We've done local shows & school fairs where we bring lots of blank caps (especially camos at hunting time), a laptop computer, and our Toyota (bear in mind it's fairly heavy & takes 2 people to move). It's pretty easy to get $20 for a cap we only have $2-$3 wholesale cost doing just lettering only, or a simple stock design w/ lettering added. We also bring some pink ladies caps & visors for the women, and they love it. Our shows are local, so we also hand out lots of cards & promo items (ink pens are great & cheap), and its a fantastic way to meet lots of people & advertise your store.
Has anybody else entertained or implemented a "quick turnaround" concept in their store?
__________________ Big Daddy Screenprinting -Affordable contract Heat Press Services & Low Volume Screen Printing up to 4 spot colors with no setup or screen fees
John ... are you talking about an express 24 hour job without charging a rush fee? I've done quite a few rush jobs, even needed to get a half dozen out in two hours (including artwork). But we charge for the service. Or are you thinking of a strictly dedicated 24 hour service shop?
John ... are you talking about an express 24 hour job without charging a rush fee? I've done quite a few rush jobs, even needed to get a half dozen out in two hours (including artwork). But we charge for the service. Or are you thinking of a strictly dedicated 24 hour service shop?
Hey Michael..
My thoughts were to offer the concept within the existing framework of what we offer.
Perhaps letting the customer choose from within a limited selection of shirt colors, vinyl colors (when applicable), and "standardized" design layouts. I would limit the quantity to 6 shirts or less and charge a premium for the service. Perhaps a 25% premium. So, if one shirt currently costs $15 then it would be $18.75 if they wanted it within 24 hours (maybe too much...not sure yet).
Now, the reason I'm thinking about a limited selection of "standardized" design layouts (not yet sure how I would do this) is that it seems to me that this whole concept could get bogged down if the customer were allowed too much freedom in customizing the design.
Any thoughts you might have are welcomed and appreciated...
John
__________________ Big Daddy Screenprinting -Affordable contract Heat Press Services & Low Volume Screen Printing up to 4 spot colors with no setup or screen fees
My thoughts were to offer the concept within the existing framework of what we offer.
Perhaps letting the customer choose from within a limited selection of shirt colors, vinyl colors (when applicable), and "standardized" design layouts. I would limit the quantity to 6 shirts or less and charge a premium for the service. Perhaps a 25% premium. So, if one shirt currently costs $15 then it would be $18.75 if they wanted it within 24 hours (maybe too much...not sure yet).
Now, the reason I'm thinking about a limited selection of "standardized" design layouts (not yet sure how I would do this) is that it seems to me that this whole concept could get bogged down if the customer were allowed too much freedom in customizing the design.
Any thoughts you might have are welcomed and appreciated...
John
I totally agree about not giving the customer to much freedom, I have this happen quite often that customers really try to get as much work from you for free as possible. With dtg it seems it is worse hehe, they think because you can put anything on a shirt, they also think alot of times this includes you coming up with the design for them I find my self often setting people straight on this issue.
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
With dtg it seems it is worse hehe, they think because you can put anything on a shirt, they also think alot of times this includes you coming up with the design for them I find my self often setting people straight on this issue.
Agreed! We don't charge for design work so that is something we have to deal with alot. But, we knew that going into it.
__________________ Big Daddy Screenprinting -Affordable contract Heat Press Services & Low Volume Screen Printing up to 4 spot colors with no setup or screen fees
LOL ... that is one of the things I have had to stress to my wife about ... to explain that having us do the artwork, as well as, multiple proofs, needs to be charged a fee. Simple one color text, ready-made art is fine, but it must be very specific: placement, size, etc.
John ... I am still trying to get my head around this. I am trying to come up with standardized images beyond a variety of "picture frames" on a tee. I think it's a good marketing idea, but still trying to wrap my head around it. By having ready-made art that a customer can come in with a personal photo/image, and get a finished product within 24 hours ... and charging a bit of a premium, but not charging as much as (I charge 50% more) for an overnight rush job. Am I getting this right? If so, it does sound interesting.
After a little research, it appears Zazzle is doing exactly this, 24 hr turnaround through use of some form of DTG printing on all kinds of products. It sounds like they have their own proprietary process/software. You can do any artwork on any shirt, mug, stamp, etc. and get shipping in 24 hrs. So it is possible....
John ... I am still trying to get my head around this. I am trying to come up with standardized images beyond a variety of "picture frames" on a tee. I think it's a good marketing idea, but still trying to wrap my head around it. By having ready-made art that a customer can come in with a personal photo/image, and get a finished product within 24 hours ... and charging a bit of a premium, but not charging as much as (I charge 50% more) for an overnight rush job. Am I getting this right? If so, it does sound interesting.
Yep...that's the basic idea in a nutshell. I would also limit the quantity. Maybe up to 6 items...24 hours. From 7 to 12 items....48 hours...etc.
The challenge is where to draw the line on the artwork....as you said. I don't want to spend a bunch of art time drawing up a bunch of "standardized" designs to select from. Hoping to find a "standard" software package to use. I am looking at Hanes T-Shirt Maker Deluke but hoping to find others to review as well.
I thought about the possibility of perhaps not restricting the artwork but "starting the clock"....so to speak...after artwork is approved. And also stating that qualification for the Express Service is subject to our discretion with regards to artwork.
Later, when we are pushing capacity on our graphic design resources we can start limiting the free designs to maybe 2 hours or less...or something along those lines.
__________________ Big Daddy Screenprinting -Affordable contract Heat Press Services & Low Volume Screen Printing up to 4 spot colors with no setup or screen fees
Quickest turnaround for customers? 
... "you can't take the sky from me"
I find my self often setting people straight on this issue.
