Need to Register?

Peace2TheRest · March 10th, 2008

I am really in a bind in making a decision on which direction my brand is going to do in.
I have been talking with two different companies, one a smaller company out of Kentucky, that offers DTG printing at 2.69 a shirt give or take size of design and if they need to lay down a white undercoat plus 1.00 dollar for fulfillment packaging, shipping, (customer pays) .85 cents for retagging....with my shirt supply around 3-4 dollars this translates to around 11-12 dollar profit if I sell at $20. Also I checked references which were good and am awaiting a sample shirt from her.
Secondly a screenprinting company that will retag.85, screen 4 colors around 40 shirts for 2.00, but with a $10 color set up $10 color film charge per color, .25 per location for flash cure, $5 ink charge per color,
This translates to around 5-5.50 a shirt for printing....this seems good. 1.50 fulfillment and packaging, shipping charge, This all said and done leaves me at around 8.89 profit.

My question is the added profit of print on demand worth sacrificing the shirt quality I get from a professional screenprinter??
If you are branding are you going to be more successful with DTG or Silkscreening? Especially if you go to a boutique or a retail store?
Also what would happen if I later was doing enough inventory to warrant a switch to screenprinting? Will this endanger the intergrity of my brand??
Should I just take the 3 dollar per shirt loss and get screenprinting? Or is print on demand better for unproven designs??

Confused! Thank you for the help.

splathead · March 11th, 2008

Are you assuming a dtg print is not as good as a silkscreened one?

I think your costs on a dtg print is good. I always thought they tended to be more expensive than silkscreen.

Certainly, if you have proven designs that you know will sell, silkscreen in the long run will cost you less to produce once you increase your volume above 40 items per run. Otherwise, why pay for 40 shirts per design unless you know they will sell. Use dtg instead and print as needed.

Also, when you are doing your comparisons, don't overlook the cost of both maintaining and storing inventory. 40 silkscreened shirts times 10 or 20 designs means you have the cost of 400 to 800 shirts sitting in some space. That's what, $1,500 in shirt inventory costs? What's the cost per square foot for the space the inventory is using up? Whereas with dtg, depending on your source you may not need any inventory at all until the order is received.

What type of labeling are you getting for 85 cents? I get mine done for .25 (not including the cost of the label which adds another dime).

Finally, while your dtg costs seems very reasonable, your silkscreening costs seem high to me. I would get other quotes if you haven't already.

Peace2TheRest · March 11th, 2008

Thank you very much, I have been doing a lot of reading about DTG and think it is a solid printing method, I just do not want to struggle getting wholesale sales if the method scares off potential carriers.
EX. If you did well, went to magic show had someone hypothetically like HotTopic want to buy a shirt would they shy away from you because you were DTG manufactured or would they want you to have your orders silkscreened? Sorry I am learning quickly but still have tons of holes.
The .85 is for removing the tags and printing or screening in a new label.

I thought the SilkScreen prices seemed high, but it is a bulk deal from a established company so no worrying and no inventory space would be charged.

splathead · March 11th, 2008

I don't know as much about the quality of a dtg print as I would like to. But from what I have read, because it has a soft hand, retailers prefer this print style (waterbased soft hand) over plastisol. So if you are worried about what your retailers would prefer I would 1) ask them and/or 2) visit their store and see what they are selling.

Silkscreen fulfillment houses definitely have their advantages. especially for smaller orders. However, depending on the size of the wholesale orders you expect to get, you may want to use a different source for these orders and save yourself money.