Hi everyone,
First I want to say thanks to everyone who helps and contributes to those asking for help and thanks to those who set up and maintain this site. Its certainly the best one i've seen.
Secondly - Like many here - I'm thinking of starting my own T shirt biz featuring my own designs ... I'd like to produce some relatively colorful designs, photo (or ALMOST photo) like as opposed to just putting out 1,2,3,4 color shirts...
However (from what i've read) it seems that in order to get a greater range in colors for your design/picture (say 25 to 50+) you'd more than likely have to go with high quality heat transfer since they're printed out on computer printers then heat stamped on , but from what I've read they dont last as long as silk screen and tend to crack off ,"look cheap" and only last for X amount of washes ?? ... So silk screen lasts longer but limits the colors, correct??
The question i'm trying to get at is , for something like this to be silkscreened - A photo with many colors
http://www.uploadx.com/content/polyr...moonanites.jpg
How much would it cost, on average from a solid screen vendor, to produce an order of 30 T shirts, do you think... All Dark shirts price VS. All Light shirts price?
Compared to something like this -
http://www.uploadx.com/content/polyr...L/learydea.jpg
Since its less colors that means less ink and less screens which means less cost, but how much less compared to a close to or photo quality screen print?
Basically i'm starting out from my home... I'm not looking to make amazing profits...
but I am looking to put out photo (or as close to) quality designs/pictures on my shirts that ALSO last atleast 100 washes without Horrible cracking and fading to the point where you can't make out the pic ...
Would it be wiser to go with a high quality heat press set up (what type of ink ... Durabrite or Plastisol (spelling) ?) ...in order to get my quality to 100 wash ratio or professional silkscreening...
obviously the silkscreening would be more $$ so i'd either have to sell for more money (which i dont want to do) or i'd have to take a profit cut compared to investing in my own heat press set up - but how drastic are we talking ?? I dont want to put out junk quality designs that aren't very vivid and that also crack and fade after a year or so but I also dont need to put out Transnational Corporation Professional shirts... I'm trying to find the midway basically ... not cheap - halfway (atleast) professional , durable , vivid designs ...
If it seems like i'm asking alot I apologize before hand i just assumed that some of you with experience may have some ball park figures/ideas you could toss my way...
Thank you 10 times in advance for any and all constructive knowledge/advice ect...
~ATOIS