[MAYBTMRW]

I normally had someone else do my printing for me after I designed my shirts but now I am setting up shop and cutting out the middle man so is what I have to ask is:

I was thinking about starting to stock up on shirts so when I design something I can print it that day rather than waiting to order them.

Do you order what you need when you need it?
Or do you keep stock on your blanks?

Wholesale obviously.

 

[BGSSUB]

I keep a stock of the basic shirts in inventory ... youth and adult sizes, white and ash, short and long sleeve. Since we do sublimation also, I have those on hand, also. For quick jobs it is definitely convenient to have inventory at your fingertips.

The consideration then becomes "the investment vs the convenience" ... I am lucky enough to have the resources to keep an inventory on hand ... For colors or specialty shirts, we do order those in as required, but it definitely slows down the turn-around time ... especially when my sales people order the "exact" number, leaving me no accident-proof back-ups ... and we all know, accidents do happen ... that's where my "test-pieces" box came from!

 

[TshirtGuru]

No inventory what so ever...We have enough overhead costs to worry about. Unless you're buying pallets full of blanks to stock up on, you won't find much of a discount versus "case pricing."

I suppose this will also depend on where you are located, we have one local supplier (which we actually rarely use unless its an emergency as they are rude), but we use several other vendors only 1 state away which means if we order before 5PM, the shipment arrives next day by 12 noonish.

(the only blanks we have stocked are the ones we ordered by mistake and forgot to return )

 

[SunEmbroidery]

Only some whites are kept for stock because I don't want to loose free freight on an order when I need just a few whites. We don't have the space and its extra work keeping track of what is in stock. Sometimes I'll some extra colored T's that I know I'll need later on to avoid a freight charge. I wouldn't keep stock unless I knew that it sold and held up well.

 

[nascarbob]

We only order what is sold, but I have next day delivery from quite a few suppliers. I guess we take that for granted, being so close for delivery.

Is your location a problem for next day delivery? If so I would find the fastest company for delivery to my warehouse.

It is hard to stock extra, too many colors, styles, sizes etc,.

 

[badalou]

depends on your turn over. If you are pumpin out shirts every day you might keep a few on hand. I like others get one day delivery so I order as I need them. Inventory sitting around is money sitting around. You might want to get some basic colors to show clients,

 

[pukingdeserthobo]

will u be printing just our own designs or are u gonna have customers as well?

 

[MAYBTMRW]

These are all Great tips! I realize now that having the overhead of shirts sitting around would clearly be money collecting dust that could be spent on marketing, inks, more products. Speaking of Inks.. the same for those, Do you usually order matching ink to your PMS colors in your design? or try and keep them in house?
I'm placing my order from Ryonet for the premier shop setup with the 6 color 4 station and think I'll just wait on ordering inks until I have the PMS color nailed in my design.


John, I'm going to take on some customers after I get the swing of it to pay it off using it for my own brand here and there. Once it is paid off I'd like to say I'll be using it for myself full time.

So I think maybe I'll just order one of each color shirt to have them available to see/ touch in person and then order what I need when I need it.
(I live in Northern Maine Nothing is Close)

 

[pukingdeserthobo]

Do you usually order matching ink to your PMS colors in your design? or try and keep them in house?

So I think maybe I'll just order one of each color shirt to have them available to see/ touch in person and then order what I need when I need it.
(I live in Northern Maine Nothing is Close)

i have a shelf full of inks, and if i dont have a color there looking for ill just mix one up,

i think it a great idea to not to have money just laying around. samples are great to show to ur customers.

 

[stuffnthingz]

I vend at events and have blanks on hand because I make my designs to order. I tried to have only what I need at an event per event and I gave up on that idea. Now I keep 5 to 10 whites all sizes Unisex and Ladies. Pink Ladies and youth all sizes. 2 zip sweatshirts SML and 2 each of hoodies S-2xl. it allows me to always be ready for an event, an online order or a friend stopping by who needs a special shirt. I also have over 150 designs and 50 or so rhinestone designs to choose from, all very specific designs for horse showing, RVs and online gaming.