hobby

I have seen people discussing working outdoor events such as a fair. What can be done outside? Do you bring transfers and heat press them in front of the customer? Or, can you find a clean area to do your printing and take custom orders where you might have a printer set up in a clean room. Obviously if you are absolutely sure you have a winning shirt design you can print 100 of them and feel there is no risk. I guess if you had an office close by you could email the designs and have someone print and deliver them every couple of hours...

 

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splathead

The main issue with outdoor events is electricity-the lack of it. Certainly, if it is available, you will pay a premium to get it.

How do you produce your products now?

A "clean room" is pretty much out of the question, both from a cost and logistics standpoint. If, say, it is a street festival, you could possibly make arrangements with a storefront business on that street to use their power and space.

Generally, your best bet is to have available your more popular products, have plenty of brochures (or samples) for your entire inventory, and take orders on those products you don't have available on hand.

 

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HannahKate

 

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greyhorsewoman

It depends, too, on whether you plan to do this once or twice or plan to make a regular endeavor of it. Is this to be a way to 'get out there' or a regular way to supplement your income?

We run the dog show circuits and print-on-demand on a variety of garments with any of our 2,000 designs (we carry transfers). If I only had a small inventory of designs, it would be easier to carry a variety of premade items, but with the selection we offer that is unrealistic.

Actually, because we are so much geared to 'print-on-demand' I can hardly give away a premade shirt~! (We have a box of first run premade shirts, errors, wrong size, wrong color at HALF price and might sell one at any given show!)

Some outdoor locations provide electricity (usually very reasonable/free) and when none is available we bring our own generator.

There are things we have become accustomed to, since we do LOTS of outdoor events. We fold and bag all our blanks against dampness/dirt and store in homemade shirt racks and plastic tubs. You never know what type of weather you will encounter -- could be nice the first day you set up and rain, wind, and even SNOW before the last day~~~!! (Yes, last year we scrapped SNOW off our outdoor tent -- that was a first.)

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Rodney

Quote: Originally Posted by hobby I have seen people discussing working outdoor events such as a fair. What can be done outside? Do you bring transfers and heat press them in front of the customer? Or, can you find a clean area to do your printing and take custom orders where you might have a printer set up in a clean room. Obviously if you are absolutely sure you have a winning shirt design you can print 100 of them and feel there is no risk. I guess if you had an office close by you could email the designs and have someone print and deliver them every couple of hours...

There's also some great tips about working events here:
events related topics at T-Shirt Forums

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dirtykaps

I'm trying to start up my own t-shirt business. I'm just curious, do you have to pay to get a stall or just register somewhere. I'm guessing most likely you have to pay for a stall and anyone know the general cost? I attended one in New York on Broadway that's actually where I got the idea to do my own. Thanks guys.

 

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HannahKate

 

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dirtykaps

Thanks for the info. That's a lot cheaper than what I expected but I am taking into consideration that you said Maine. I'm guessing that's going to be quite different from Manhattan NYC. Anyone else got info?

 

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2STRONG

Quote: Originally Posted by HannahKate It was poorly attended and the organizer booked five businesses that specialized in t-shirts! None of us did well and the cost was 3 times what we paid for other shows. We will not book that one again!

I was just woundering about that. how does that work when booking is there only a certain amount of the same type buisness is aloud and is this first come or do you have to know someone to get in also if there is one or more of the same vender do you guys get together to discuss pricess or do try to lowball the other im sure there;s some sort of unwritten rule that you guys follow or not.

 

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greyhorsewoman

Quote: Originally Posted by 2STRONG I was just woundering about that. how does that work when booking is there only a certain amount of the same type buisness is aloud and is this first come or do you have to know someone to get in also if there is one or more of the same vender do you guys get together to discuss pricess or do try to lowball the other im sure there;s some sort of unwritten rule that you guys follow or not.

Yes/no, yes/no, yes/no, no/yes, no/yes, respectively.

There are so many types of 'vendor-style venues' that there really isn't a hard and fast rule. As someone else noted, things might be different from Maine to New York to Arizona to Florida.

My son and I do about 30 weekends a year at some type of event - mostly AKC all breed dog shows, but we have also set up at agility trials, specialty shows, pet expos, garden shows, and even a flea market. We are also involved in our local county fair, but not as a vendor (though I check out vendor row).

Wherever you go, you need to find out who is in charge of the vendors. Sometimes it is the event coordinator, sometimes it is another designated individual. Almost all events have some sort of structure as to fee/space/electricity/location/etc if they are expecting vendors. Some need to be contracted months in advance, some need practically nothing but a phone call a week prior to the event (I personally would never consider showing up, though, without some sort of contact.)

At dog shows the fees can go from a donation to $2,000 for a weekend, so we have had to do some homework as to which shows are most advantageous to us (and we aren't always right). Most events are looking to FILL whatever vendor space they have and most give preference to returning vendors.

Since a LOT of events are hosted by non-profit organizations, you are often dealing with folks who only do this ONCE a year for their event and there is a wide array of experience (or non-experience). Unfortunately, these folks don't always quite 'get' that this is a business for you and their decisions, good or bad, will seriously impact whether or not you make money at any given event.

Some shows may limit types of vendors, but many times, if space is available and a vendor is willing, they will sell the space. We have attended some events where the vendor chair thought 'grouping all like vendors' was a PLUS. too!

I don't 'get together' with the other shirt vendors or try to 'lowball' them on prices. I have a standard that I follow for MY booth. I have a quality line of designs, quality apparel to put them on, and a great attitude. My prices are reasonable and consistent and my repeat customers know this. I've had some vendors try to come in and sell 'stock design' t-shirts BESIDE me for $10.00 and I'll still have a better weekend that they will.

Because we do shows regularly, we know a lot of the regular vendors and made a lot of friends (some with full line t-shirt booths too) and it's a nice little community. Vendoring is a lot of work, though, all at once. Drive to location, set up, sell all day, tear down, drive home. Most of our shows are 3 days, but we do one, two, three, and four day events.

Hope that helps!

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