[ANKT]

Me and a friend are attempting to create and sell our own t-shirts in our city and surrounding areas..we are just beginning to get our feet wet and are pretty much a-ok on creating designs. The only problem is how to make them

Should we make them ourselves to start out?
or
Should we ask surrounding screen printing shops to do it it for us?


Doing it ourselves might be difficult since we are just high school students and have limited knowledge (except i am taking a class on SP)

Doing it at a shop might make them real professional looking and good quality but might be more costly in the long run even when just starting out.

Any advice?

 

[TshirtGuru]

Me and a friend are attempting to create and sell our own t-shirts in our city and surrounding areas..we are just beginning to get our feet wet and are pretty much a-ok on creating designs. The only problem is how to make them

Should we make them ourselves to start out?
or
Should we ask surrounding screen printing shops to do it it for us?


Doing it ourselves might be difficult since we are just high school students and have limited knowledge (except i am taking a class on SP)

Doing it at a shop might make them real professional looking and good quality but might be more costly in the long run even when just starting out.

Any advice?

Those are questions you can only answer. Do you have the budget? Have you asked for an estimate on what you need?

 

[tdigital]

Save up, wash cars.. do whatever you need to do to try and purchase a single station 4-color screen press and design around that until you can expand. Even if you need higher-capacity printing, you will need to have your own equipment for prototyping one/two designs until you're ready to send it off to the big boys, should you choose to not be the "big boys".

You have the time and capability to learn and become masters at printing/business now being in HS and should take full advantage of it.

Do it and don't take no for an answer.

 

[ANKT]

Where could i find the single station press? or should i make a DIY set up?

 

[tdigital]

Where could i find the single station press? or should i make a DIY set up?

Craigslist in your area. You can probably come across one for around 250/300 bucks with everything you need to get started, probably even t-shirts.

Purchase some books on screen printing and do your homework. The difference in success and failure is planning, always.

Use crazedlist.org to search craigslist in a bunch of cities @ the same time as opposed to going to craigslist for each item.

The reason I suggest craigslist over ebay is that you avoid seller's fees and you'll more than likely get some individualized training from the person selling and more often than not, gain an invaluable resource for knowledge, outside of this forum..

That's how I got started...

 

[standardgraphics]

get a job at a local sp shop , if no ones hiring , ask about working for prints (be upfront about your plans)
this way everyone wins the print shop gets good a employee , someone that is excited about learning, and you get knowledge and your printing done for time not cash.

as a shop owner and as a former shop employee i would say the employee walks away with more but it is still win win