Need to Register?

racefaceplates · January 16th, 2009

There is a lot of information in these forums and I have read a crap load of the posts... I am trying to figure out the best way to place a graphic to a tee or hoodie. We get a lot of requests from customers if we can place the images we create onto a tee or hoodie. From your experiences what would be the best option, here's the important part... can I take it with me on the road? My goal is to print and press while say at race... You'll see below how detail is in our designs and I am searching for people's input for which direction I should go... Thanks!

Rodney · January 16th, 2009

What color t-shirts/hoodies will they be going on?

Quote:


	From your experiences what would be the best option, here's the important part... can I take it with me on the road?

I think both DTG and heat transfers would work well on the road, but quality wise, I think the type of transfers you'd need to use to do the images on the spot (inkjet/laser) would be lower than the quality you'd get from using a DTG on the spot.

That is, unless you were just doing white garments that had a high polyester content, then dye sublimation might be a good option.

Quote:


	There is a lot of information in these forums and I have read a crap load of the posts

Thanks for reading as much as you can

Sometimes you just gotta jump in and post your question to see what is best for your specific situation. Thanks for posting!

nascarbob · January 16th, 2009

I can only speak for transfer paper. You would need a printer, paper, laptop, heat press, shirts in many sizes, scissors, extra ink. The big thing would be electric, a heat press can pull up to 20 amps.

If you had the images made up, then eliminate the printer, paper, ink.

You can easily do this for alot less then DTG.

DAGuide · January 16th, 2009

I am assuming based on the graphic style that you are talking about motorcycle / motocross events. If this is the case, I would say get a VersaCamm and use heat transfer material. The printer might be larger than what you can travel with, but I really think for this target market... it is the best device. A VersaCamm is a large format solvent printer with a built-in cutter. The solvent ink will allow you not only to print heat transfers on light and dark garments without pretreating, but you can also print stickers. If you want the stickers to last outside, you are going to need to put a laminate coating over them for UV protection. But standard stickers to go on other things don't need the coating. I have only attended one motorcycle / motocross event and stickers where all over the place. By bring the VersaCamm on the road, you can do the customization of garments onsite like dtg printing... but also customize stickers.

Just my opinion based on the assumption you are talking about motorcycle / motocross events. Otherwise, ignore the statements above.

Mark

racefaceplates · January 16th, 2009

Its definitely for motocross style races (BMX)... All advice is huge when this is entirely new to me. The guy that does our tees said DTG over transfer for quality, but I've seen some really good quality transfered tees. I still have quite a bit of research to do, especially with treated and untreated tees... I would be using dark and light t-shirts... so thanks.

DAGuide · January 16th, 2009

My preference is dtg over transfer for the hand / feel of the garment. However, if you want to print on dark shirts with heat tranfers... you have less challenges / maintenance issues, will not have to pretreat shirts (they don't come already pretreated) and it typically will take less time printing them. Not to mention printing dtg onsite can be tricky depending on what envirnoment (temperature, humidity,...) you are in. So there are positives and negatives to all the types of decorating techniques.

mrbigjack50 · January 16th, 2009

I done alot of stuff just like that for race car people all over America, and DTG has worked very well

brentonchad · January 16th, 2009

I think mark hit it on the spot with the versacamm. I assume you're not just in the garment business and the versacamm can give you some quality garments along with othe abilities like stickers, banners, signs, wraps (wrap the fenders, etc). The only advantage of DTG would be the softness of hand - but DTG can't produce the other products that could also be sold at BMX events.

Of course sublimation is a good way to go to but u can't use the dark garments then. Heat transfers can produce a quality product as well with the right combination of paper and ink.

If the funds are there I would go with the versacamm.

Daniel Slatkin · January 16th, 2009

How about outsourcing the transfers then all you would need is shirts and a press.

MotoskinGraphix · January 16th, 2009

Looking at that design and thinking you are going to do custom work (like the design posted) on site for individual folks is a pipe dream. If you are going to sell at events it would be best to have set designs either printed, produced as plastisol transfers or have the ability of a dtg printer.

In all actuallity just have designs screened and ready for sale will result in more money.

Looking at your posted design can you imagine the time and set up it would take to offer a customer something custom along those lines.

racefaceplates · January 17th, 2009

I will have to revisit some old ideas and figure out what's best and what people would want. I am close to setting up for producing the number plates on site, the tees are often requested from the parents, so taking orders and outsourcing for now appears to be the easiest. Thanks for everyone's input.

Need to Register?

Resources

T-Shirt Sites

Heat Transfer vs DTG for this type of image? Which can I take on the road?