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Hopefully those who have experience with making T-shirts will know what I mean.
I am about to order a Zazzle test shirt and would like to know from experienced users whether the shirt quality is "Toilet Paper" thin or whether it is of a heavier quality. About 6 months ago I ordered a shirt from Red Bubble and it was way way too thin for my clients. Everyone I showed it to thought it was extremely cheap. The shirt was by American Apparel if correct.
The Zazzle shirt I have in my cart says "The classic heavyweight t-shirt". Am I correct to assume that "Heavyweight" means that it is thicker then the American Apparel shirts? I am looking for something along the lines of the "Beefy-T" style which I believe is by Hanes.
I hope I am clear with the difference in T-shirts. My clients want to feel like they have a shirt on their back and not something super thin...laugh.
I'd appreciate any feedback from Zazzle users about shirt quality and/or recommendations before I make my order. Thank you very much in advance.
Best regards,
Jim
Last edited by ricoche; May 30th, 2009 at 05:27 PM.
Zazzle uses several different shirts. If you are looking for the more traditional heavyweight tee, choose their basic.
FYI, the American Apparels are hardly 'cheap'. Many, myself included, think it is one of the best tees on the market. Perhaps you bought the burnout model, which is made to be toilet paper thin?
I agree with Joe and Ruth. In shirts....'thin is in'.
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I received my first T-shirt from Zazzle which was printed on the following:
Quote:
Basic T-Shirt The classic heavyweight t-shirt. Tagless design for ultimate comfort. Pre-shrunk, 6.1 ounce 100% cotton. Double-needle stitched bottom and sleeve hems. Loose, classic fit, wears well on anyone. Imported.
The quality, print, and service was FANTASTIC!! This is exactly what I was looking for. For my clients, "thin is definitely not in" and the Zazzle shirts are thick enough to give you that "I got my money's worth" feeling with just the shirt alone. The print came out awesome and bright like I wanted. Plus the service to Japan took one week exactly.
Thank you Zazzle! Now I can concentrate on designs and marketing.
Also thanks to everyone for their replies and input. Much appreciated.
Everyone I showed it to thought it was extremely cheap. The shirt was by American Apparel if correct.
The people you showed it to dont have a clue about t-shirt quality. AA is one of the best brands out there and usually cost more. Just because a t-shirt is thick doesnt make it better. Personally AA is the best out there.
The people you showed it to dont have a clue about t-shirt quality. AA is one of the best brands out there and usually cost more. Just because a t-shirt is thick doesnt make it better. Personally AA is the best out there.
surely the people he showed the shirt dont have to know the ins and outs of shirt qualities but if its not liked it wont sell, the customer is always right (so they say)
I started my own store on Zazzle about a month ago. Liked the site, designs looked great on a screen, so I wanted to actually feel the products before telling anybody to buy it. I bought one black man's t-shirt, one pink girls' t-shirt and two ladies t-s (one black and one white). So, we are talking $75 (with the shipping).
Delivery: I live in Canada. Standard shipping took exactly 21 days – ok, that's long but understandable. I had to pay $16 for the customs – unexpected, but still understandable.
The products: 1) The child's t is great. Good quality, nice design. Happy with it.
2)The man's t is ok, even though not such a good quality, and the print looks like it glued on the t-shirt. To be fair – great colors.
3) The ladies t-s are the biggest disappointment. The designs are exactly twice as big as they appear on the screen, so they look totally ridiculous. The black t-shirt is very thin and itchy. Again, design looks like it was glued on, has a white outline and the edges look pixelated. My designs were 150ppi, checked all the picture sizes before ordering, no reason for bad quality prints.
So, I have one excellent, one acceptable and two bad t-shirts.
Returning those two t-shirts won't be worth the money because of the shipping and customs fees I already paid.
Now, from my experience:
1) I won't be ordering black t-shirts from Zazzle.
2) I won't be ordering women's t-shirts from Zazzle.
3) I'm not sure if I should keep me store. I feel bad for the person who bought black t with my design and now may be as disappointed as I am.
There seems to be a lot of issues with Zazzles black shirts from what I have been reading. But in general, their quality is pretty good. I found this comparison site which is pretty interesting: Point Click Apparel
The black shirts get a white base first and then the colors are printed on the white base. That is probably why you see the white line around the design.
Thats exactly the reason why I order only the so called light color t-shirts. If you stick with the basic shirts, american apparel and edun live you will have good quality t-shirts. As for the printing I suggest to stick with the light color t-shirts.
I have brought a 'TEST' T-shirt from my store. It was a basic t-shirt, as i figured this is the t-shirt people are going to be buying most. Here is what zazzle said about it:
"Basic T-Shirt The classic heavyweight t-shirt. Tagless design for ultimate comfort. Pre-shrunk, 6.1 ounce 100% cotton. Double-needle stitched bottom and sleeve hems. Loose, classic fit, wears well on anyone. Imported."
And they were right. It felt great, it is nice and loose and it wears perfectly on me.
I have brought a 'TEST' T-shirt from my store. It was a basic t-shirt, as i figured this is the t-shirt people are going to be buying most. Here is what zazzle said about it:
"Basic T-Shirt The classic heavyweight t-shirt. Tagless design for ultimate comfort. Pre-shrunk, 6.1 ounce 100% cotton. Double-needle stitched bottom and sleeve hems. Loose, classic fit, wears well on anyone. Imported."
And they were right. It felt great, it is nice and loose and it wears perfectly on me.
1) On lights, this technology is very good. Colors are usually true and vibrant. Though, issue with lights is that since the ink is basically injected right into the fabric -- and fabric is porous -- there can be sometimes and subtle "fuzziness" to the printings, as the ink slightly bleeds into the fabric. Connected to it, is how quickly images can sometimes fade. Versus traditional sceenprinting, where the graphic basically lays on top of the shirt, than being injected into it. Screenprinting is usually a crisper image; colors don't fade much, but can "chip" over time...the distressed look!
2) On darks, here's where we get into some major issues, I think Zazzle (and other PODs) were too quick to say their printing on darks is as good as (or better than) traditional screenprinting. On darks with POD printing, there's often color vibrancy and wash durability issues. Additionally, Zazzle seems to be often challenged with aligning their "flash" layer (the white undercoat), under the then printed image. That's why you get this outline / ghosting often reported.
Remember also, that as these POD shirts are done one-by-one, each individual shirt is prone to any mistakes the printing staff member makes...a common and annoying error made (on both light and dark shirts) is bad placement of the design on the shirt, which doesn't represent where he design landed on the shirt on the on-screen mock-up. This is a quality control issue, really, no shirt should go out the door with bad placement, or that looks to far off from what is represented on-screen.
There seems to be a lot of issues with Zazzles black shirts from what I have been reading. But in general, their quality is pretty good. I found this comparison site which is pretty interesting: Point Click Apparel
This was a huge help. Thanks! Im glad I saw this before making a decision on a fulfillment service.
Heya all - I got a bunch-o-Ts on Zazzle last year for Xmas, all the "Standard T-shirt", and they all shrunk up in length. My husband still wears his, but he really shouldn't. They looked FABULOUS out of the envelope, but then are useless after a few washes.
Anyone else have this problem, or have they fixed it in the last year? Or has anyone actually washed and worn the American Apparel ones, to see if they have this problem also? I love Zazzle's concept, but don't want to spend another $100 on sleep tshirts.
Zazzle T-shirt Quality 
Re: Zazzle T-shirt Quality 
