Discuss the process of getting your t-shirt line into brick and mortar stores and selling offline. Topics include industry tradeshows, events, line sheets, sales reps and other retailing tips and advice.
So here it is, a few pics from the Charlotte Printwear Show 2007!
The pics explain much of what you see and printers were happy to do test prints on the spot which was exciting! For the print samples I had done on bamboo fabric (which were all done using a digital print process on swatches only), I shared who did them and using what printer/ink. If anyone wants to see a larger or more close up version of the samples, shoot me your email in PM. NOTE: None of my samples have been washed as of yet.
There were mostly Epson's, Brothers, DTG Digital, T-Jet and Embroidery machines at the show, with a few screenprinting machines here and there. The only samples I do not show pictured are those from a T-Jet and those using the Sawgrass Technologies DirectAdvantage printer/ink package (waiting for them both in the mail).
As you can tell in looking at the digital samples, everything done with ChromaBlast has a border, which I was advised of in advance. I will see if the border disappears after washing. The other thing I noticed is that on a couple of the Brother GT-541 samples from two different printers, a slight border or spots printed in areas just outside of the graphic (you may can see them in the samples). I will have to find out what caused this.
Let me also point out that forum member DAGuide (Mark) who was with The Paper Ranch at the show educated me on the Heat Transfer & cutting process which was cool! I knew nothing of this. He was very helpful and through each step of his process, he explained what was done. I'll admit, a few steps I missed but I got a chance to interact. Oh - and I got some free heat transfer paper!!!
Enjoy and if you have questions, I'll do my best to answer or direct you to who can.
AB
Last edited by AdriaticBlue; June 10th, 2007 at 01:49 PM.
Thanks for sharing those. Going to show in Long Beach in August.
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Good to see the pictures. Just so others know, the square sheets of fabric are made out of bamboo. It has a really nice feel to it.
The extra ink from the Brother printer is a result of the fabric either touching the printheat or some other part of the printer. This most likely happened since you were not putting a full shirt on the printer and it was hard to get the fabric to lay flat.
The pictures of the Joker are a print-cut application using a hybrid printer and the Roland GX-24 cutter. It is a pretty easy process to pick up. I believe that Josh from Imprintables has a video on this forum that goes over this process as well. The white fabric Joker was using ImageJet Lite II paper (light transfer paper) and the green fabric Joker was using ImageJet Dark II paper (dark / opaque transfer paper).
I am curious to see the results of the ChromaBlast wash test. I have heard some rumors about being able to remove the window by repressing or steaming it (putting water on the design and repress it). I tried it at the show and it did not work. Some people believe that the window will go away on white and light grey shirts only. I would be interested in seeing how the yellow ChromaBlast sample will look after the wash test.
Hopefully, you will be able to samples from the different DTG companies on your fabric. If you can, you will probably want to know what process (i.e. pretreatment or no pretreatment) and settings they used so you can duplicate it if you decided to go down that path.
Hope you found the show valuable and worth while. Best wishes with your research.
Thanks for sharing the pictures. Look forward to seeing the ones after you test wash them. I would have loved to go to this show, but didn't have the funds or time.
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I've attached an updated pic of a ChromaBlast print sample after I washed it in warm water, with a tiny bit of liquid detergent (Sun), air dried it then ironed it (on a consumer iron).
The border is still there on this bamboo sample, unfortunately. I don't know if this will be present on a cotton, polyester or other fabric.
Pictures From The Printwear Show Charlotte NC 
For the print samples I had done on bamboo fabric (which were all done using a digital print process on swatches only), I shared who did them and using what printer/ink. If anyone wants to see a larger or more close up version of the samples, shoot me your email in PM. NOTE: None of my samples have been washed as of yet. 
Extreme Metal Art and more @ 
