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Originally Posted by Rodney |  | | | | | | | | | Howard Sportswear Graphics Express, Inc
I initially emailed Howard Sportswear and got an email back from them a few days later asking me to call them for more info. I'm normally an email kinda guy, but I had heard good things about their company from posts here in the forums, so I gave them a call. | |  | |  | |
That's unfortunate, I've actually had the best results with them so far =) I emailed them and they asked for my info to send out a nice sample pack pretty quickly.
I haven't tried many plastisol vendors yet, but I can add my 3 to the list, copying Rodney's format:
Silver Mountain Graphics Website: http://www.silvermountaingraphics.co...Transfers.html Presentation of Sample Package - N/A
Customer Service -
Transfer Ease of Use For This Newbie -
Likelihood I'd Use Them on Future Orders -
Quality -
Price -
This was the first company we worked with, about a year ago. They came pretty highly recommended on the HTFDP board, so we gave them a try. We never asked for a sample pack - just sent off our own designs to go ahead and have them made up. These were extremely hard to transfer correctly, taking several tries to get it right.
We just kind of figured that was simply 'how it was'. Our next order wasn't so bad - we think they improved their formula between those two orders. We still ocassionlay had problems - and we did need to use a rolling pin to get the transfer to adhere properly - but they were pretty good.
Since then we have had some problems getting any response from them. We had some transfers that rubbed off a bit in shipping so we emailed them asking for replacements. We never heard back from them on this issue -- but they DID send us new transfers, without saying anything. Pretty mixed customer service there =)
First Edition Website: Custom Transfers - First Edition Presentation of Sample Package - N/A
Customer Service -
Transfer Ease of Use For This Newbie - Unknown
Likelihood I'd Use Them on Future Orders -
Quality - Unknown
Price - 
Next most recommended company, both here and the HTFDP board, and the 2nd one we tried. After the mediocre customer service from Silver Mountain, I sent off an email to First Edition to try and work with them. I sent over a 300dpi raster image (as I had been using with Silver Mountain) - again, skipping asking for any samples because of their good reputation.
They told me they needed it in vector instead, so I worked on getting it made into vector in a way they could use. I was trying to order them before Thanksgiving for a show we were doing (I know, it was foolish to switch companies at this point, but...), and they said they could have them done in time if I got a vector version made up.
Anyway, I finished my vector version the Thursday before Thanksgiving, asking them to make sure it was fine and what method of payment they wanted. I didn't hear back from them at all on Friday. On Monday morning I sent off another email asking if they'd be able to ship it that day so that we might still be able to get it in time. I never heard back from them since :/
I left a '2' on use them again just because other people have had good results, and I may try them again, but we'll see.
Howard Sportswear Website: Howard Sportswear Graphics Presentation of Sample Package -
Customer Service -
Transfer Ease of Use For This Newbie -
Likelihood I'd Use Them on Future Orders -
Quality -
Price -
And next on the list to try was Howard Sportswear. Again I emailed aiming for an order instead of asking for a sample package - probably not the wisest method, and I'll probably ask for samples in the future. They wanted to send us a catalog and samples first, which they did.
The sample pack was impressive. They had several different types of transfers to try, a catalog with their products, etc. I haven't really had any other sample packs to compare against, but it was nice based on my expectations =)
Samples worked well. Our press is a bit on the fritz and isn't quite pressing evenly, and considering that they transfered very well with the included time/temps. Very small dots on the 'Regular Hot Peel' didn't transfer 100%, but everything else did. Even the smallest detail transfered fine on their 'Super Hold' variety, though the hand on the Super Hold was a little bit stiffer.
We went ahead and did an order of their 'Super Hold' with them. We went with this instead of the Hot Peel since we had some small detail and the hand wasn't that important. Their prices are higher than most companies, and that's really the only thing I can fault them on. They still aren't unreasonable, though.
A few days after we got our order and pressed some shirts, they gave us a follow up call to make sure we got the transfers and they worked fine, etc. Quite professional.
On our ganged sheet, we included a few sample patches for testing in the whitespace on the sheet. This included very fine lines and a gradient effect. We were very impressed with the results - even the tiny 1 pixel lines and tiny dots in the gradient all transfered perfectly, without any extra hassle or tweaking. 'Super Hold' indeed!
If I remember, I might get some pictures of the samples up here, to show the fine detail. We'd been looking for a way to do some gradients with one-color designs and this will work well.
The only other 'odd' thing about Howard is that they are definitely geared towards athletic transfers. This made their pricing lists and such feel a bit weird to us, but it worked out well enough once we figured out the type of transfers to order.
Re: a review of 8 different custom plastisol transfer screen printers - samples followup 
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