Hey got a big question that I need as much advice on as possible. First thing is that I am using a unique 100% bamboo jersey, which is what I want to print on (bamboo fabric is comparable to cotton in durability characteristics, although it is slightly thinner or lighter in terms of weight, also much softer). Second, I want to create as much quality with regard to high end fashion as possible. Third, I would like to do the printing myself to lower per unit cost although the initial investment may be high (ideally I would want to spend around $1000).
I am aware that dye sublimation is among the fanciest form of print, but this seems out of the picture because there is no polyester blend in my fabric. What then might be a good option considering all three of my agendas?
Also would anyone be able to recommend outsourcing print production as a better alternative? As you may be able to tell my blank garments are much pricer and therefore any mess up during printing would be a huge expense. If a printing service did this for me I would hope they would assume liability for mistakes.
In addition, my garments are dyed from a range of light to dark, the darks I will want to print with white ink while the lights with black. The actual prints are: 1. the clothing label on back of neck and 2. designed images to printed untraditionally along side seam.
okay lots of issues to tackle so if you can help me with just one, your advice will still be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance to all.
I bought one of the monstee tshirts from Rodney that was discharge printed and it was a really soft hand to it, maybe Rodney could tell you more about it.
thanks for the reply, but unfortunately this doesnt really offer me any insight, what print technique did you use in that case? do you operate said printing method yourself? I am manufacturing my own shirts and they are extremely high quality, so i really want to prevent any mistakes being made, but because my raw materials cost is so high i really need to minimize printing cost. any advice gurus?
Discharge printing is a method of screen printing, I believe they add something to the ink to make it thinner and softer to touch. you could also use the search funtion on the board and search for discharge screen printing and you should find many threads about it. I am not a screen printer but I do know that the discharge printing feels really nice. Maybe a screen printer will jump in here and explain it better than I can but if you search the forums you will find info.
ah sorry i overlooked that discharge printing, yes i actually went to a screen printer and they mentioned adding something into the ink to soften the transfer, this would definately create a higher quality good. Unfortunately that printer also said it would cost greater. They were charging roughly $2 a print and for the two prints i mentioned $4 a shirt. Set up fees for standard screen probably letter size were $40 and an oversize at $60. My quantites are small right now only about 50 shirts, but i still think these prices are kind of high. Thanks sunnydayz.
The bamboo shirts are very very soft. The ones that I get wash great without shrinkage although some from what I have read do shrink quite a bit. The ones I get, the fabric is prewashed before it is sewn so they dont shrink, but definately a nice shirt.
yea i was asking a ton of questions, lemme try again.
1. what is the best recommendation for printing on 100% bamboo fabric a very soft seemingly thin fabric, about 7.5oz. Dye sublimination is not possible?
2. is it safer to print myself or outsource, based on: creating less mistakes, saving costs, and easier manipulation of print areas. I guess the biggest concern would be to minimize cost keeping in mind quantities will increase.
3. are the following pricing estimates good prices: $2 a print, $4 to print a label and graphic, $40 a screen, $60 an oversize screen. Slightly more to add thinner to ink and create what i now think is 'discharge'
I suppose i could have been clearer, just trying to ask as much as possible. Yes I can certainly learn printing, I am aware there will be a learning curve but these skills will certainly pay off to minimize cost down the road.
yea i was asking a ton of questions, lemme try again.
1. what is the best recommendation for printing on 100% bamboo fabric a very soft seemingly thin fabric, about 7.5oz. Dye sublimination is not possible?
2. is it safer to print myself or outsource, based on: creating less mistakes, saving costs, and easier manipulation of print areas. I guess the biggest concern would be to minimize cost keeping in mind quantities will increase.
3. are the following pricing estimates good prices: $2 a print, $4 to print a label and graphic, $40 a screen, $60 an oversize screen. Slightly more to add thinner to ink and create what i now think is 'discharge'
I suppose i could have been clearer, just trying to ask as much as possible. Yes I can certainly learn printing, I am aware there will be a learning curve but these skills will certainly pay off to minimize cost down the road.
thanks in advance.
1. How do you want the print outcome to look? Do you know the differences between screenprinting, DTG printing, heat transfer pressing and other options to get an image on a garment? If not, grab a seat, and do a lot of reading here about those print options to find what you want to use. When I initially learned about the soft bamboo fabric, I wanted to use water-based screenprinting because the image soaks into the fabric and does not have a "hand" vs. plastisol-based screenprinting where the image would sit on top of the fabric and have a "hand." However, others have used other printing methods, as well as discharge. One bamboo supplier feels that discharge printing is caustic to this fabric.
2. Depends on the print option you want to use. See answer to #1. If you decide to screenprint, contract it out if you are unaware of how to do it and do not plan to setup a screenprinting shop.
3. With what you've stated, that leads me to believe that you want to screenprint images. Since I've gotten out of getting prices for screenprinting currently, I can't answer this one but I'm certain someone else may.
You mentioned about quality and high end fashion. A source of inspiration, if you're looking to provide high end bamboo fashion, is to visit the site Panda Snack. They are truly dedicated to high end, bamboo fashion as well and price it as such.
1. what is the best recommendation for printing on 100% bamboo fabric a very soft seemingly thin fabric, about 7.5oz. Dye sublimation is not possible?
Dye sublimation will not work for you. It only works with synthetic fibers. Bamboo is organic (like cotton). Because the fabric is soft and you don't want to take this selling point away, you would either be looking at some type of waterbased printing. Plastisol ink typically has too much hand to it. Discharge printing is the process of removing the dye color in the fabric of the shirt to start back with a natural color of the fabric (which is almost never white). Direct-to-garment (dtg) also uses waterbased ink (although very much different than what is used in screen printing).
It is hard to say based on your description if you are only printing one color on the shirts (i.e. all light colored shirts get black ink and all dark colored shirts get white ink only). If so, screen printing might be a valid option and would probably have the best longevity. If the shirts have multiple colors, then dtg on light shirts would probably be the best way to go. Some people like the prints from a dtg machine on a dark shirt and others are not happy with it. The key is how the pretreatment will work on them and if it will stain the shirt at all (not something you want with a high-end shirt).
Quote:
Originally Posted by sharps
2. is it safer to print myself or outsource, based on: creating less mistakes, saving costs, and easier manipulation of print areas. I guess the biggest concern would be to minimize cost keeping in mind quantities will increase.
No matter which way you go, there are going to be mistakes - whether you do it or someone else contracts the work for you. Mistakes are a price of doing business! You need to build into your MSRP price for mistakes from day one or you are not going to happy. When doing your tests on which printing method to go with, don't use finished garments. Usually you can get the same exact fabric in cut sheets that will allow you to do some testing and it will be much cheaper. The cut sheets are what you will give the decorator to see how it comes out.
From your post, it does not sound like you are currently doing any decorating yourself - correct me if I am wrong. So, you are probably better off letting someone else that has experience do the decorating for you. The time it takes for you to learn the skill and the capital investment that you want to make ($1000.00), is not the most profitable thing for you at this point. Once you get your quantities up to a much higher level, then you should think about doing the decorating in-house. 50 shirt quantities is no where near enough. Do the safe thing and contract it out untill the demand for the product is high enough.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sharps
3. are the following pricing estimates good prices: $2 a print, $4 to print a label and graphic, $40 a screen, $60 an oversize screen. Slightly more to add thinner to ink and create what i now think is 'discharge'.
Pricing depends on several things: location, how fast you need the order, what things have to be done to your artwork to make it happen, the location and number of prints, what application is being done, what exactly do you want when it comes to the label (i.e. printed on the back outside part of the shirt, printed on the inside of the shirt, printed on label fabric and then put into the shirt,)...
Bottom line, at this point the price is not your largest concern. Focus on finding a decorating technique that gives you the desired result. You are selling high-end fashion - so there is always room to increase your price to cover the cost. You are in L.A., so contact Justin at www.contractdtg.com and see what the cost would be to run some sample prints using the Kornit dtg machine on light and dark bamboo fabric. Then, find someone that runs any other dtg machine that prints white ink (i.e. Flexi-Jet, DTG, Anajet,...) in the area and ask them to print samples on light and dark bamboo fabric. The difference between the Kornit and the rest of the white ink machines is the Kornit uses an activator solution to help the white ink bind to the shirt and the rest use a pretreatment / glue-like solution to bind the white to the shirt. You could get to two different types of hands (i.e. the feel of the print). Then, find someone that prints waterbased inks / discharge printing and get them to do samples. You should understand that you are going to have to pay for these samples, but in the long-run...it will be worth it because you will know that you are decorating your shirts with the best possible method and will get the highest profit as well.
wow terrific responses, thank you DAguide, AdriaticBlue and others. I will certainly start planning to create reference print samples. I also think yes it is better to outsource this step in production at this point so this was very helpful. Im still uncomfortable setting a high price for just a tshirt, so im gonna create another thread discussing cost vs. pricing. Also thanks for reference to pandasnack, hadnt seen them yet, but great to know about.
continental clothing sells 100% bamboo t-shirts for a very decent price (as do many other bamboo t-shirt wholesalers). I think getting the garments custom made in such a small quantity (50 pieces) is going to raise your costs unnecessarily.
To get a soft hand, you would just need to find a screen printer that does water based ink screen printing.
The t-shirtforums bamboo t-shirts are discharge printed with a fashion soft ink, and they have a soft hand to them after they are washed (and before they are washed, the feel is still softer than just regular plastisol). You can buy one of those if you want to see a sample of that type printing on bamboo t-shirts.
But for truly no hand, you'll have to get water based ink printing or 100% discharge screen printing done.
To feel a 100% discharge screen print, you could buy the monstee design and notice the hand is almost zero.
Just out of curiosity do you know what their wholesale prices were on bamboo blanks? or does anyone know some quote for that matter? I would love to compare costs.
Just out of curiosity do you know what their wholesale prices were on bamboo blanks? or does anyone know some quote for that matter? I would love to compare costs.
You need to contact the companies directly to get the wholesale pricing. It's pretty easy to get setup with an account.
Wholesalers don't want their pricing shared with non registered customers or posted in public forums.
Best printing method advice for bamboo 
