I know this topic has been talked about many times, but I am looking at it from a little different perspective than others. Let me start out by posting a blog that has been used in this type of discussion.
I am working on a clothing line/sporting goods company. Mind you, that if I hold tight to the business plan I have laid out, Screen Printing and Heat Transfer printing is going to be a big part of the business, that is just the way it is. Having said that, some of the outsourcing vs. self-printing threads make me a little uneasy.
Just a little background on myself is that I am a Mechanical Engineer and a Sports Enhusiast (I am not smart, I just worked hard in college) . I have really good relationships with the local high schools through the relationships I made while playing football. My Dad is also part of a succesful company that sells to Athletic Programs accross the state, In our state, sports are everything. There is a big market for clothing, hats, etc. There is pretty much one Sporting Goods store that everyone uses. There just isn't much competition.
Enough about that, on to the good stuff. I have been outsourcing my shirts to a respected screen printer, and it is all starting to make me question what I am doing. Here are the drawbacks I am questioning:
1. Versatility - My personal brand T-shirts are slated to push the envelope past what standard screen printers want to mess with. If it is not 15 X 15 front print, they don't want to mess, and if they do, you must buy 144 pieces. I want to push the envelope and find creative ways to get things done. Find what works, and what doesn't work.
2. Time to react and print - Don't know that I really need to explain this one.
3. New style trends - It is hard to get them to try things like foil printing, water based printing, over the seam printing
4. Price - Built in Margin (30% to 50% margin quickly outweighs the price of a medium grade printing kit)
5. Prototyping - It would be nice to make a shirt and get opinions before you go to full production. You can only get so much out of a virtual print.
There are probably many other things I have found to be "distressing" on the outsourcing market, but those are the highlights. I have a really sour taste in my mouth about outsourcing due to experiences I have had in my corporate job. We have seccesfully managed to remove any ability to react to anything because we don't hold our destiny in our own hands. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about.
Again, I see screen printing being a big part of my business going forward. I want to learn, I have a passion and love for customization. I want to make things that make people happy.
Am I way off base in wanting to screen print myself? I realize the cost and frustration that is headed my way, but isn't that where innovation and charachter begins?
We are a smaller shop. We know that we could do twice the business if we had time to get out and see people-but depending on others is tough.
We outsourced and heat printed when we first started. If you are not doing hundreds of items at the time-the large contractors will likely put you in the back of the line and it takes 2 weeks.
To remedy this you would want to heat press to turn around items quicker-but the cost is higher and some transfer mfg just are not as good as others.
The biggest draw back we have seen with transfers after we converted to 90% screenprinting is that the old transfer customers got spoiled. They could call up or come in and get another one that day. A heat press can heat up a lot quicker than you can expose a screen if you have already washed out the previous design.
All that said-I do not know the answer. My advice would be to pick a direction and be very good at the one direction.
Customers do not always understand why they can get items the same day sometimes and two weeks others. We actually lost a customer over it as silly as that sounds.
I can tell you that everytime we look at outsourcing we look at it costing $300 + on a medium sized order that I can work a little extra and get it done in house and the decision is made.
However-if you do not have at leat mid level equipment it just takes longer than you always think it will.
I know this does not really help-it is just been on my mind alot lately too. I think it really comes down to volume vs. overhead cost.
what i mean is set-yourself up with a reasonably decent set-up.
Either a manual press - direct to garment - or heat transfer set-up
do most of your experimentation on your own, your quick turn arounds if you can handle
and sub-out for the bigger jobs/ designs that you have already tested and know you have a market for.
depending on your market and budget of course you could set yourself up to be self sufficient for $10,000 to $30,000
either way has its drawbacks
self sufficient = $$ cost money (and then of course labor)
sub-contract = your only as good as the printer you hire...
My opinion is this... You need to decide what type of business you want to run. A printshop or a clothing line? They are two very different businesses. Yes, there are some circumstances where they can be one and the same, but that should come at a time when you have the resources to establish a full time printshop and have a legit retail clientele that you are selling to on a regular basis. As a startup, it is important to focus on the areas that you do best and hire or outsource the other areas to those who do those things best.
Some additional thoughts on do-it-yourself screenprinting... It is incredibly difficult. It is a skill that needs to be developed over a period of time. Especially if you intend to do oversized prints and use specialties such as foil, waterbase, discharge, etc. To prove this point, there are only a handful of printers in the country that do "all-over" screenprinting. This is because it is difficult and requires specific equipment to achieve quality results.
That said, there is nothing wrong with wanted to learn and develop a new skill. You should continue to do that if you wish. But to risk your clothing line business by using inexperienced and perhaps lesser quality printing, would be foolish. The time you will spend learning production, will take away from your time marketing and selling your brand. If you have specific needs, keep looking for printers that meet them. Check out this thread for a list of printers that do All Over Printing.
So what makes screen printing so difficult? Registration, Screen Preparation, Laying down ink, Drying? It looks to me if you take your time and a scientific approach, it is something that is repeatable and rewarding.
The market niche I am going after does not require intricate 6 color prints. Simplicity is going to be key. A big part of the target is the actual garment I am using. My marketing plan is prety cool.
When we get a larger deal-250+ pieces_ we look at the cost to outsource and I'll end up working practically all night-or all 1 day and do it myself. When you look at an occasional $500 to outsource what you can do in a day-$500 is a pretty good days work. You could not count on going out and selling another deal that would make $500 that day (or while others sleep in our case most times).
Our original intention was to only do the 1 and 2 color simple prints (we are primarily athletic) in house and send everything else out.
I think we have outsourced 2 screen jobs last year that was more difficult art. (We only outsourced 3 embroidery deals and they were not done on time-so we bought another used embroidery machine)
As for difficulty-pick a supplier (or better yet a rep at a supplier) that has the experience and patience to help with advice and be loyal to them.
The biggest problems we had at first was exposing screens and curing shirts. Curing with a flash unit they way many suppliers say will work has issues. Most of the time these flash units are not large enough to cure the whole print and a corner someplace will not cure.
We will not go back to outsourcing as a regular business plan-we will likely look to hire an experienced printer that makes about $500 a week rather than spening $500 on a mid sized order once a week.
Like everyone else would say though-your perfect solution would be unique to yourself and your business.
If you have not bought equipment yet-I would outsource first and establish a client base. If not-you'll be looking to sell some used equipment in about 6 months like a lot of other folks out there.
Great thread! My opinion is, if you can afford to start up a shop with all the appropriate components (press, flash, ink, dryer, screens, etc.), then go for it! Now is probably the perfect time to pick up some cheap machinery from a failing print shop. That being said, also keep in mind that you have a lot of work in store for you. Printing isn't as difficult as most people make it seem, however, there are many variables and each order is different. There will be a lot of learning (and mostly messing up), but if you can get through that, I feel like it will work better for you. You will have a lot more freedom to print what you want when you want it.
Also keep in mind that if you get your own equipment, you may have to do some outside jobs (you becoming the printer for other people) to help pay for your machinery and loans. Unless you are so busy that you can't handle your own work (which is incredibly rare), you will inevitably have to do this. Just make sure that you've really thought about everything before you take the plunge. And also, make sure to get good deals on all your equipment! Don't get inferior equipment, just shop around for it. Good luck.
So what makes screen printing so difficult? Registration, Screen Preparation, Laying down ink, Drying? It looks to me if you take your time and a scientific approach, it is something that is repeatable and rewarding.
The market niche I am going after does not require intricate 6 color prints. Simplicity is going to be key. A big part of the target is the actual garment I am using. My marketing plan is prety cool.
Basic spot color plastisol printing isn't really difficult, but screen printing is still an artform that takes months to get comfortable with the whole process, and years to become really good at. There are endless variables in which there may be several answers for each situation, and you have to have experience attacking the problem with every possible solution to know which would work best. You mentioned that you would like to use waterbased inks, foil, over the seam printing, etc. These are advanced techniques that most printers never care to take on. Having a very good understanding of the entire screen printing process helps tackle these types of techniques, but I wouldn't jump right in and try to use all of these techniques. I wouldn't try to print my own line unless I had an extra 20 hours a week set aside to learn and practice, $10,000 to buy decent equipment, confidence that your clothing line won't flop, and determination to continue after many failed attempts. If you can handle all of these, it will be a rewarding experience. If not, you may want to find a new printer. It seems to be common place for shops not to challenge themselves and explore new techniques. We are only a 3 year old business, but 90% of what we do is not done in a single other shop in our entire state, and very few regionally. I guess to each his own.
I absolutely understand where you guys are coming from. I tend to get excited and want to conquer the world all at once... I have stated in the corporate world "I can do anything." Then I have to actually deliver.
I went ahead and purchased a table top 4-color 1-station press. I have 2 weeks off of work for Christmas, so I am going to have a come to Jesus meeting with myself and my press. I am probably going to find a ton of pitfalls to my plan relatively quickly. I did not get crazy on what I purchased. I am going to concentrate on standard center printing with plastisol at first. If that works out and I can repeat the process time and time again, I will move on to the next challenge.
I did go ahead and get an Epson 1400 so I know I will have solid exposure films. I am eager to get cracking.
I will let you guys know how things are moving along once I am up and printing.
Sold my embroidery and screen print production gear a couple years ago. I picked up a brother printer, a vinyl cutter and a single head embroidery machine for small jobs, samples and marketing pieces and outsource virtually everything. I find it much easier to close the sale know I don't have to produce the work and much easier to deliver the job knowing I didn't produce it.
A. Is it better to be OK at most things or great at 1 thing? If you are good at art work or sales would you make more money doing either of those than the savings you would get from learning to print. If it takes you tha 1 day to print and make 500.00 instead of 300.00 it sounds great unless you spent that day and instead of printing and got another sale of making another 300.00. Maybe a sale of 1000.00 would be even better.
B. Can you hire the expertise internally. This allow you greater control but you need enough work to justify the added expense.
C. Look at other successful companies. Do the everything or do they hire experts for areas and do what they do well.
D. Is it better to work harder or work smarter. You really need to figure out what you like to do, and better yet what you are good at and do that. As I always compare it to building a house. Most of us know how to hammer, saw, some electrical, plumbing, dry wall work, but would you build a house or hire the experts at each craft to do it right.
Printing Yourself vs. Outsourcing. 
. I have really good relationships with the local high schools through the relationships I made while playing football. My Dad is also part of a succesful company that sells to Athletic Programs accross the state, In our state, sports are everything. There is a big market for clothing, hats, etc. There is pretty much one Sporting Goods store that everyone uses. There just isn't much competition. 
