Re: tie-dyed - what do you think?
Nancy D. said:
Here's what I have on hand. I have been dying my woven stuff for years, so I have Procion dyes and the needed auxilliaries, a dedicated dye area with table at appropriate height and sinks, textiles paints, handcarved stamps, Print Gocco. Given that, I thought the natural transition would be to tie-dyed t-shirts. What do you folks think. Am I betraying my age (yeah, early fifties) Is tie-dye at all popular now or is it just too retro - can you really have too much retro?
Cool, you've certainly got a lot of translatable equipment then.
As for tie-dye... I don't rightly know, but if I had to bet (i.e. would I invest in it for example) I'd say no. I like it and wear it a bit, but most people I know would call it "hippy crap" and not wear it.
It's very demographic dependent and, presumably, location dependent though. If it's something you're interested in doing I'd definitely look into it... see if there's a market for it. There are a couple of t-shirt manufacturers who do tie-dyed shirts, so they evidently perceive a market.
Basically I'm sceptical, but I wouldn't want to discourage you when I don't rightly know myself.
I think it's too risky an area to dive into without research and a business plan, but when it's something you want to do and have the equipment and the skillset for it would be silly not to consider it. I guess research could be a matter of doing a small run and seeing how they sell.