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Hello everyone, I'm considering getting into the printing business, and have been lurking on this as well as other forums for the past few weeks soaking up the wealth of knowledge concerning DTG printing. I've noticed that alot of posts make mention of the fact that doing bulk orders with a DTG machine is not cost effective.
I'm in a market where there are a lot of people who are starting their own t-shirt line/brand/label, and are silk screening their shirts. Average orders range from 100 - 200 shirts for these people (partly because they need at least that much to put in a silk screen order) to about 500. ALOT of these shirts that are coming out are at max maybe 4 colors, and have simple graphics (or none at all), and a lot of text. I think that because of the amount of screens and cost involved to make colorful shirts is what keeps these people from making more elaborate designs for their t shirts.
That's where I want to come in. To be able to offer full/multi color prints to clients without a minimum amount they have to order, but also not a maximum amount either. I have taken an interest in SWF East/Mesa's line of DTG machines, particularly the Bullet. I'm looking at the Bullet because of the amount of shirts that it can print in an hour (I've read that the manufactures give faster than average print times), and that it can print on darks... which most people tend to buy. Another great feature of the Bullet that I like is the ability to print larger oversize images on a shirt. There are a lot of big boys here in Hawaii, and finding t shirts for people who wear 4-6X is rather difficult; not mention the print is usually small because of the shirt size. I wanna be able to cover up the back (at least proportion wise) of these large-size shirts. I know these big boys would be willing to pay between $20 -$25 bucks for a t shirt, because that's how much they are paying now for shirts here in Hawaii... and for designs they probably might not even care for.
At about $40,000 dollars, the Bullet ain't by no means cheap... I was planning on leasing the machine, as well as leasing a HM-1 for smaller jobs. Do you folks think this is a feasible plan as far as which type/size of machine to get? Will the cost of printing on big-boy shirts, and bulk orders on dark shirts not be worth it even if I get a high-capacity machine like the Bullet? Any thoughts/comments?
I'm in a market where there are a lot of people who are starting their own t-shirt line/brand/label, and are silk screening their shirts. Average orders range from 100 - 200 shirts for these people (partly because they need at least that much to put in a silk screen order) to about 500. ALOT of these shirts that are coming out are at max maybe 4 colors, and have simple graphics (or none at all), and a lot of text. I think that because of the amount of screens and cost involved to make colorful shirts is what keeps these people from making more elaborate designs for their t shirts.
That's where I want to come in. To be able to offer full/multi color prints to clients without a minimum amount they have to order, but also not a maximum amount either. I have taken an interest in SWF East/Mesa's line of DTG machines, particularly the Bullet. I'm looking at the Bullet because of the amount of shirts that it can print in an hour (I've read that the manufactures give faster than average print times), and that it can print on darks... which most people tend to buy. Another great feature of the Bullet that I like is the ability to print larger oversize images on a shirt. There are a lot of big boys here in Hawaii, and finding t shirts for people who wear 4-6X is rather difficult; not mention the print is usually small because of the shirt size. I wanna be able to cover up the back (at least proportion wise) of these large-size shirts. I know these big boys would be willing to pay between $20 -$25 bucks for a t shirt, because that's how much they are paying now for shirts here in Hawaii... and for designs they probably might not even care for.
At about $40,000 dollars, the Bullet ain't by no means cheap... I was planning on leasing the machine, as well as leasing a HM-1 for smaller jobs. Do you folks think this is a feasible plan as far as which type/size of machine to get? Will the cost of printing on big-boy shirts, and bulk orders on dark shirts not be worth it even if I get a high-capacity machine like the Bullet? Any thoughts/comments?