[Marcdd]

I'm wondering if the clients bring their own T-Shirts (that they bought by their own way) to get the screen printer, print on them? or if this is a strange way of working?
+
Clothing brands, they normaly get their Shirts from their own suppliers and bring them to the screen printer and place huge orders right?

Any comments would be appreciated on this
Thanks.

 

[red514]

I'm wondering if the clients bring their own T-Shirts (that they bought by their own way) to get the screen printer, print on them? or if this is a strange way of working?
+
Clothing brands, they normaly get their Shirts from their own suppliers and bring them to the screen printer and place huge orders right?

Any comments would be appreciated on this
Thanks.

not a strange way of working, just some shops bank on profiting of supplying the goods.
there's several threads on this forum discussing this and you'll find many posts about print shops saying they charge more if a client brings their own goods to be printed and some that will not print at all. others that have no issues or higher/extra charges. lots of reasons for or against.

with major clothing brands, i would say more then 90% of the print shops are just printing and not supplying goods.

 

[Mtnview]

We supply our own apparel to our contract screen printer as we both buy from the same source most of the time and we set it up for them to pick up with their daily run to the source. Now if you are talking about your off the street customer bringing in their own apparel that is a different story.

 

[Marcdd]

I just was wondering about this for street client or like (business clients) like I am willing to do
Thanks both for ur answer.

any idea how to find the ideal screen printer? how should I start my research? (finding local or world wide?) what are those small details I need to take attention to befor contracting any screen printer?

 

[hedsteve]

We've had customers do it. We tell them if we mess up their shirts we won't replace them.

 

[Marcdd]

My orders would be a lot bigger then a norm customer I want to create a clothing brand (but I guess thats something you check with the screen printer ) any signed contracts made on paper or just talk with trust?

 

[Celtic]

You would receive a written contract. I agree with HedSteve, that if you supply your own shirts that we wouldn't replace messed up prints either. Same thing, if your shirts have construction flaws and you have us print on them, that's your issue. It's out of our hands.

 

[BidsMaven]

any idea how to find the ideal screen printer? how should I start my research? (finding local or world wide?) what are those small details I need to take attention to befor contracting any screen printer?

I recommend finding a local printer who does good work and provides good service. You will be able to find printers for your area online if you Google using the terms screen printing and your city name. Be sure to check out their references and stop by the shop to take a look at the kind of work they produce. Ask about the size of print jobs they typically do to make sure it's a fit to your needs. Find someone who you like, trust, and enjoy working with.

 

[Marcdd]

I recommend finding a local printer who does good work and provides good service. You will be able to find printers for your area online if you Google using the terms screen printing and your city name. Be sure to check out their references and stop by the shop to take a look at the kind of work they produce. Ask about the size of print jobs they typically do to make sure it's a fit to your needs. Find someone who you like, trust, and enjoy working with.

is 400mm X 600mm hard to find at a screen printer? I agree local screen printers looks easier to work with but the pricing ain't it cheaper in Thailand, China, Poland or what ever country? (like all those big brands "tommy hilfiger, eleven paris, hugo boss or what ever brands" they all seems to create it there??)

 

[Mtnview]

I agree local screen printers looks easier to work with but the pricing ain't it cheaper in Thailand, China, Poland or what ever country? (like all those big brands "tommy hilfiger, eleven paris, hugo boss or what ever brands" they all seems to create it there??)

If you are going to be producing on the scale of those name brands it might be more economical to produce in those countries. Are you jumping right of the gate with those kinds of numbers? If you are going to be starting out small then having them done locally will ensure you can keep a handle on quality control.

 

[Printavo]

I just was wondering about this for street client or like (business clients) like I am willing to do
Thanks both for ur answer.

any idea how to find the ideal screen printer? how should I start my research? (finding local or world wide?) what are those small details I need to take attention to befor contracting any screen printer?

You can definitely google and check their Yelp reviews of local printers. I'd probably get a referral from a brand that you know / someone you know who has worked with a shop. Referrals are more powerful and reliable than Googling any day.

 

[Marcdd]

Well ill take the minimum quantity order that will make me just reach a reduction (I guess those quantitys should be +-100 for each apparel?) and that for each disign. so there should be a 2000-4000 apparel order for a start or some like that.

Does those reductions count only for each design or the total amounth of the order? (ex 100/1disign or total/2000-4000 ?)

Ill start calling all those 246screen printers that are in Belgium (smal country lol) to check whois realy doing it and ofc whois doing it on apparel and not on flyers... + prices, quality,...)

When should I start think of getting a screen printer in (China, Poland, Thailand,...) whats the scale that will tell me "now you should search cheaper screen printers"?

 

[red514]

Does those reductions count only for each design or the total amounth of the order? (ex 100/1disign or total/2000-4000 ?)

the reduction or price breaks are usually per design (it's due to the preproduction time, setting up the screens and press, ect.). in some cases certain garments may require an additional setup for the same design. best to talk with the print shop

 

[porkchopharry]

Biggest point of failure in any new "brand" is investing in too much product before you know it will sell. Then, they are either stuck with stuff that they have to heavily discount, and then can't afford new things and it just snowballs from there.

Which is why I print my own stuff for not only my site, but for retailers that carry my stuff. I can keep tight control over inventory and print on demand. I can also control my OCD quality requirements and make sure no shortcuts are taken. Resulting in lots of happy customers.

I rarely print for others, but I wouldn't accept somebody bringing in their own tees if they did. People have no value of other peoples time so it's too hard to justify it to them. For the very few "jobs" I do a year, I give a price and there is no haggling. Take it or leave it. I'm too busy printing my own stuff, fulfilling and packing orders for customers that have already paid for a shirt or hoodie to play that game. Funny thing is the few people that have tried to insist that they bring their own product find out they will pay way more for the blanks than I could have given them to them in the first place.

 

[20vK]

I'll print customer shirts, but I HAVE to know what they are beforehand. And not just what the customer says, because they are so often wrong.

Lots of poly performance shirts - many of them expensive. So I only offer simple prints on those.

We have a reject % rate per print location, (standard is about 2% in the industry, I believe), but I'm normally pretty good at nailing 100% on a manual press.

For normal shirts, we offer a like-for-like replacement over our reject %. Basically the closest thing we can get our hands on from our suppliers.

For expensive shirts, I'll discount the print cost by 100% for any misprints, but won't be held accountable for shirt
cost.

 

[Marcdd]

Biggest point of failure in any new "brand" is investing in too much product before you know it will sell. Then, they are either stuck with stuff that they have to heavily discount, and then can't afford new things and it just snowballs from there.

Which is why I print my own stuff for not only my site, but for retailers that carry my stuff. I can keep tight control over inventory and print on demand. I can also control my OCD quality requirements and make sure no shortcuts are taken. Resulting in lots of happy customers.

I rarely print for others, but I wouldn't accept somebody bringing in their own tees if they did. People have no value of other peoples time so it's too hard to justify it to them. For the very few "jobs" I do a year, I give a price and there is no haggling. Take it or leave it. I'm too busy printing my own stuff, fulfilling and packing orders for customers that have already paid for a shirt or hoodie to play that game. Funny thing is the few people that have tried to insist that they bring their own product find out they will pay way more for the blanks than I could have given them to them in the first place.

Wow ur a hard guy in business lol, My demande is not made as a simple custommer with his 1-30shirts but for big orders... first order would be +-4000shirts...(Clothing Line) if I couldn't bring my own tshirts that i've bought from my supplier or tshirts that are own designed and created by manfactors, then in that case, I would never work with you...

1: ur taking some of my profite on something I don't like/asked due ur a screen printer not a supplier of tees.
2: You wouldn't have the same large amounth of tees selection like a tee supplier or suppliers.
3: Just with ur way of telling/thinking things, I wouldn't work with you. (It's business, but you may accept or refuse doing business with some one if you don't like/trust some one attitude or his way of work) --> This is said on a friendly way to make you understand, that business is business but it has to come from both sides to do business together. (you need to be flexible)

 

[porkchopharry]

Not sure exactly what you are saying, but any decent screen printer with the correct permits has access to more shirts from the suppliers than you ever will. Usually for better prices than you can. All business are in the business of "making a profit" Weird that way. The printer will get his profit one way or another.

I'm actually really easy to work with. At least I don't lie, hide cost. And most importantly, I don't undercut my fellow printers.

I run my own "clothing line" and sell "thousands of shirts" so I'm pretty aware of how it works and understand perfectly. I print everything myself though so I can keep inventory and quality under control.

I can give you some friendly advice when it comes to a "clothing line" though. You may envision ordering thousands of shirts to have and be printed at once, but I would recommend finding a printer that is more flexible, that will print less quantity per batch on a more flexible schedule.

 

[Marcdd]

Thanks for the advice and yes i'm actually searching for a local screen printer like that, for a first step I would not do those screen printing my self but outsource them due it's a bigger invest and I prefer invest more in stock, those -+4000 shirts would be some thing like 40-80 different designs/models (might be more or less, just a fast calcullation) ... do you have a website I could check? wondering how ur doing (you may send it by pm if you prefer) ... btw don't take my first reply on you wrong, it realy was said friendly (I'm a sharp shooter^^)

 

[porkchopharry]

I'm doing great, I design, sell, print, pack and ship all my own line of shirts. I no longer need to work a second job. It is what I do full time. I have my shirts on some popular retailers as well which brings me more business.

BUT, I still have a long way to go, it's never over. I am always trying to learn.

Why do I print my own shirts, hoodies and tanks? Simply because I want to know the quality my customer receives and want to keep it in house. And as my business keeps growing, I will hire people. I cannot expect them to be good at printing or any other aspect of quality if I don't know how to correctly train them.

It also cuts out the middleman and I know exactly what is going on.

Only other advice I can give again is on quantities. I personally know a lot of companies who fail by bringing out too much product at once. You never know what will sell until it is available to buy. Some of my favorite designs that took days to create have sold the worst. Some designs that took 20 minutes to create sell the best. You never know. It makes more sense to release a few at a time, and in small batches. You can always go back and have more made. What do you do if you make 500 shirts and they don't sell? If somebody doesn't want it, it doesn't matter how much you discount it, they won't buy it. Discounting items is a red flag that you are hurting to make a sale. And customers don't like that.

As you release things you see what is working, you keep those designs, and remove the rest and replace them with new ones. After time you build up a catalog, it takes a lot of time and work.

It's a different world than printing for somebody else, but I think it is a rewarding one.

Never count on sales until you have the money in hand. People will promise and promise they will buy something. 1000 people will tell you "Oh I'd definitely buy that!" Forget it, don't even think about it until they actually do. Because most people will not.

 

[20vK]

^^ great advice.

Start small and put the profit back in to grow. Most businesses die because of cash flow. You want to keep as much money in the bank as possible and hold the minimum amount of stock printed that you can get away with. 4000 shirts sitting on a shelf makes you $0 profit. Better to have less designs and grow organically based on successful sales.

As mentioned, you never know which are going to be the big sellers, so let the market and your shirt sales guide you.