[Swing Easy]

I have an order to fulfill for my brother’s plumbing/heating company.

I am making a logo for him to be silk-screened on some stuff, and embroidered on other stuff, by a third party. He wants me to handle all of the ordering of the stuff as well as the design. He needs the following:

T-shirts - 24 or more, screened (he specified Beefy Ts)
Hats - 12-24 or so, embroidered
Sweatshirts - At least 12 or so, embroidered OR silk screened
Actual Carhardtt jackets (or equal quality) - 12 or so, embroidered

All in all he wants to put about $1500 into it to outfit his guys AND as gifts to his clients, and to basically get as much quality stuff to spread around as he can.

Being as I’m an artist, only in the process of getting into clothes, I have some questions:

1. Is there a ONE company any one knows of who can do all of this at a good price?
2. Is embroidering DIRECTLY onto this stuff going to be prohibitively expensive, and would patches sewn on be a more realistic option?
3. Is there anything else I should be aware of?

BTW, the company is in CO, and I’m in MA, so shipping/not shipping could be a factor.

 

[T-BOT]

may be try a union place that works with making/printing/emb. uniforms/corporate etc in CO. .....they are not cheap cheap, but they put out quality work/corporate wear. Sort of like what you need.

 

[Rodney]

1. Is there a ONE company any one knows of who can do all of this at a good price?

Since many of our members are printers, we try to stay away from screen printing recommendation posts that might encourage self promotion.

You could try posting a SERVICE REQUEST post in our classifieds area to see if any members who own print shops can handle the job for you.

You can also try the forums at http://boards.screenprinters.net (lots of screen printers visit those forums and they have a free classifieds area where you can post job requests).

2. Is embroidering DIRECTLY onto this stuff going to be prohibitively expensive, and would patches sewn on be a more realistic option?

For the stuff you listed:

T-shirts - screen printing would be best
Hats - embroidery would be best option
Sweatshirts - if it's a simple logo/one color design, screen printing would probably be best/less expensive.
Actual Carhardtt jackets (or equal quality) - embroidery would work best and not be cost prohibitive.

3. Is there anything else I should be aware of?

If cost is a concern, then when you create the design, you may want to try to keep it to 1-2 colors for the quantity he is trying to do. If cost isn't a concern, they go for it

Since you're a designer, any vector file you provide should work fine with just about any printer you select.

 

[Comin'OutSwingin]

If $1,500 is his budget, I don't think you would have a problem getting all of that done with $1,500.

 

[Swing Easy]

Thanks Lucy & Rodney for the suggestions. I thought that maybe there was someplace that was sort of an industry standard for this type of work. Sure didn't mean to incite a slef-promotion riot. If anyone has any ideas they may send me a private message.

If $1,500 is his budget, I don't think you would have a problem getting all of that done with $1,500.

Right, of course, but if he wants to max out that amount, then I want to get as much quantity as I can for him (whilst keeping quality in mind). Being as he IS my brother, I plan on searching VERY thouroughly for the best deal.

 

[Solmu]

1. Is there a ONE company any one knows of who can do all of this at a good price?

If you go to a large screenprinter they may well be able to provide you with all the different services you require (i.e. embroidery as well as printing). Even if they can't do the embroidery for you, there's a good chance they can recommend someone who can.

2. Is embroidering DIRECTLY onto this stuff going to be prohibitively expensive, and would patches sewn on be a more realistic option?

As far as I understand it with embroidery you have the digitisation cost to get the artwork ready for stitching, and then the per product cost. I believe the digitising is quite expensive, and the per item cost quite cheap. So in other words you have a high setup, but then a cheap per item if you want to keep getting more done. I don't believe it's any cheaper to get it done onto patches than to do directly.

 

[Rodney]

As far as I understand it with embroidery you have the digitisation cost to get the artwork ready for stitching, and then the per product cost. I believe the digitising is quite expensive, and the per item cost quite cheap. So in other words you have a high setup, but then a cheap per item if you want to keep getting more done. I don't believe it's any cheaper to get it done onto patches than to do directly.

Sometimes you can get the digitizing done pretty cheaply (or free) depending on the complexity of the logo and the size of the embroidery order.

Patches sometimes require large quantities to get run (like 100+). Patches are more of a bulk printed item.