Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
I just found your forums and, since all other efforts didn't provide an answer, I tought I asked the pros...
I've read everything about starting a t-shirt business (thanks for that!), but not exactly for what I want to do. What I want to do is sell t-shirts that are personalised to one person (with his name, city, favorite activity, etc.). For exemple a shirt could say "HOCKEY: Jessica's favorite activity in New York" with a picture of an cartoony hockey player.
I've looked at Zazzle and CafePress, but the price they are asking for a shirt, makes any chances of profit reduced to none (plus, Zazzle quality on dark t-shirt is poor, didn't try their white shirts, but the still sell them for 20$...). I think it would be a better option for me to buy a heat press and transfer paper and print exactly what I need, on demand. Would that be the best option? If so, where do I start? Anyone can point a distributor in Quebec? How about the quality I can hope to get? Do I need to cut the contour of the transfers to match the design? (Ideally, I don't want that as it's time consumming. I want something fast with a minimum of manipulation and a decent quality, could be only on white shirts altough I love black...)
Any advice would be definitely appreciated. Searching on the web when you have no clue what is good and what is not is painfull...
Hi there,
Welcome to the forums!
For personalizations, a heat press and injet/laser transfer papers will do. You will be able to print full colors, it is profitable and can be done quickly, butthey will eventually fade or crack.
You could also try a vinyl cutter plotter. Whit this you can get a longer lasting product, but graphics cant be full color (unless you have a printer cutter plotter, which is really really expensive), so designs can be one color, or various colors with little or no registration (complicated designs can be achieved also, but with more effort and experience). Let say you have a black shirt with white text and a red hockey player. I recommend you to go to the heat press and vinyl cutter sections and take a look.
I just found your forums and, since all other efforts didn't provide an answer, I tought I asked the pros...
I've read everything about starting a t-shirt business (thanks for that!), but not exactly for what I want to do. What I want to do is sell t-shirts that are personalised to one person (with his name, city, favorite activity, etc.). For exemple a shirt could say "HOCKEY: Jessica's favorite activity in New York" with a picture of an cartoony hockey player.
I've looked at Zazzle and CafePress, but the price they are asking for a shirt, makes any chances of profit reduced to none (plus, Zazzle quality on dark t-shirt is poor, didn't try their white shirts, but the still sell them for 20$...). I think it would be a better option for me to buy a heat press and transfer paper and print exactly what I need, on demand. Would that be the best option? If so, where do I start? Anyone can point a distributor in Quebec? How about the quality I can hope to get? Do I need to cut the contour of the transfers to match the design? (Ideally, I don't want that as it's time consumming. I want something fast with a minimum of manipulation and a decent quality, could be only on white shirts altough I love black...)
Any advice would be definitely appreciated. Searching on the web when you have no clue what is good and what is not is painfull...
As Joe stated the best route is a vinyl cut product. transfer paper that you print offer you a way to do what you want but are not ideal because of their limitations of fading and cracking. I will be testing and making a viddeo of the iron all for darks this weekend so we will see if that is something you can use. You can get a low end vinyl cutter for about S600. I have made hundreds of shirts with mine. But you ccan also do sign and decals.
__________________ There is a center to everything.. I found mine at.. www.heatpressessentials.com Tools to get the job done! www.tbiz101.com (New)Heat Transfer Education
Ok, I've researched just about everything there is for newby to know about the t-shirt industry (thanks to this forum...)
I'm now almost certain that the type of t-shirt printing I need (for print-on-demand, full color shirts) is to purchase all the equipment and print the shirts myself.
What I need (correct me if I'm wrong...):
- A heat press large enough for t-shirt designs (16 x 20 seems good)
- A regular ink-jet printer, tabloïd format (choice appear to be limited to Epson?)
- Good ink and Good paper (there's so much to learn there, that I will wait to see samples...)
- Good art and computer (I have these)
But now, I fear becoming obsolete quickly if I purchase the entire equipment myself. Is that a concern? Will the equipment I buy today good in 5 or 10 years from now, or it moves too quickly (like computers) and we need to upgrade often? My guess is that heat presses are a stable technology, wich shall not offer many new advances in the future (heat is heat right?). I guess that most innovations will come from the paper and inks that we will be using. I'm I right?
Printing 1 shirt on-demand? 
