[Loganb5]

Hi everyone,

I want to get something off my chest and get some opinions as well. I have been doing heat transfer shirts for about 5 years now. I transfer mostly on white shirts. I have made and sold thousands of shirts, but to this day, i still am not satisfied with the overall quality of my shirts. I know what heat transfer is probably the cheapest in both price and quality, as they fade and peel fairly quick (versus other methods). I just really want to get BETTER quality shirts out there.

The initial start up cost for my business was probably under $2,000 including the heat press, inks, printer, paper, and first cost of shirts, and i know other methods are probably going to be more expensive.

I guess my question here is, what would be my best option to go to from here? I fill orders as they come (one off).

Now obviously, screen printing is possibly the best quality out there, but what about vinyl heat transfers? Is screen printing something that i could do, and would be worth my time for customers that are only ordering 1 shirt at a time of any given design? Or would vinyl transfers be something better? What are the start up costs of both of these and how much would be my cost per shirt?

I know these are a lot of questions, and i don't expect anyone to answer them all, i could just really use some input. Thank you.

I forgot to mention that a DTG would probably be out of the question for now. Thanks.

 

[lben]

Vinyl is fine if you only want one or two colors in simple text or designs. You will need graphic software like corelDRAW or adobe illustrator. You will also need a cutter.

Screen printing is not recommended for one offs unless you print transfers to be used later.

 

[PismoPam]

Go straight to F&M, try their 15 cent one color stuff and you will not go back to printing your own.
15 cent One Color Heat Transfers
There are plenty of excellent vendors besides F&M, I'm just staying you can try them for pennies.
The quality of transfers made by silk screening is so so so much better than the ones you print yourself.
We have washed shirts dozens and dozens of times, no problems.
Print it yourself stuff doesn't last, but transfers are silk screened ink, they last.