[BG Concepts]

I've got a quick question...does anyone know of a material that will allow me to heat press black texts or graphics onto a BLACK shirt? I know it seems pretty backwards, but its a customer request, and I've never really looked into it. Any suggestions?

 

[Twinge]

Uh. Black text. On a black shirt. How about handing them a shirt and saying you did it but it's really ingrained into the shirt so you can't even tell?

You can look into plastisol transfers which would work for what you want, but you'll have to order at least 6 or 12 minimum. They are basically like a screen print look & feel.
Otherwise, there are opaque transfers made for darker shirts, but they will leave the 'white' portion so you need to cut exactly to the design (so basically only workable for big blocks or cicles). Also, the opaque transfers are pretty low quality.

 

[BG Concepts]

Twinge, do you have any suggestions on place to look into getting the pastisol transfer?

I'm also interested in where to get the opaque transfers, but I'm still not sure how they'd look on a black shirt. And I'd have to get them die cut.

 

[pawmedia]

If your design is available in vector format (and not too complex), another possible option would be heat applied black cut vinyl. Looks like a screen print when applied and it won't crack, peel or fade. It's also slightly easier to apply than a plastisol transfer (the correct formula for time, heat & pressure is much more forgiving resulting in fewer wasted transfers and ruined shirts).

 

[Rodney]

I've seen spreadshirt shops do this with flock transfers.

It has a pretty neat a effect (like a brown t-shirt with brown printing).

Maybe you could look into doing it with flock or flex printing (which I think are plastisol?)?

 

[BG Concepts]

Heat applied vinyl sounds pretty cool...know anywhere I can get some? Flock transfers...we've done some flock, but it was a while back and not like this...I'll see if I can find a place that does it...

If anybody has any names of places that can do this stuff, let me know!

 

[pawmedia]

Cad-cut flock and flex are mostly vinyl based. You can view some of the available vinyl colors here:

http://specialtymaterials.com/thermoflex_plus.htm

...and some of the available flock colors here:

http://specialtymaterials.com/deco.htm

That's a vendor that manufactures the vinyl. You would then either need to buy a cad-cutter (you can get a decent cheap cutter for $999 - and they go up from there) or find someone that can cut the material for you.

Feel free to contact me for more info.

 

[BG Concepts]

Awesome, thanks for the links!

 

[Twinge]

Yeah, I keep forgetting about the viability of vinyl/flock for single orders on darks shirts.

Opaque transfers (which I would avoid and use vinyl instead if at all possible) would be gotten from www.transfertechnology.com; they will send you a free sample sheet.

You can order plastisol transfers from a few places online (again, in this case, vinyl/flock is probably a better bet) such as www.silvermountaingraphics.com or www.first-edition.com