Melbourne? wholesale t-shirt source info for Australia

Re: Melbourne? source info

madmaxx

Yes, like me, you are finding the quality blank situation in Australia pretty dire.

I found Dollarshirts to be too expensive, also, because of their shipping charges - do some calculations, and I think you'll see what I'm saying. Maybe they're ok for very large orders.

Ounce was utterly useless in my experience - I tried to get a simple quote on some Ts and shipping to Perth and they didn't reply to my emails, then apologised and said they'd get back to me, ignored two subsequent reminders from me, then said they'd lost my emails and asked me to resend them. I did so, and they never got back to me, ignoring a further reminder. I will not reward that sort of inefficiency with my business, so they're permanently crossed off my list.

Sanmar is the best US blank source I've found so far (incidentally, many of the US wholesalers that look promising from their websites won't ship to Aust, or internationally generally - apart from Hawaii for obvious reasons, and US Forces bases).

If you are not concerned about name brands, it is possible to source nice heavyweight Chinese blanks.

I forget who, but someone told me of a Chinese retailer in Melbourne who sells good heavyweight cotton Chinese Ts @ 2 for $7, but only in Men's styles and only in black or white...that's as good a price as I've seen in many months of researching Aust sources, BUT the Ts are not the well-known brands like Gildan, FOL, Hanes, Port and Co etc that are relatively cheap and commonplace in the States...don't know if this matters to you, but I fear that prospective customers would be put off by no-name Chinese Ts, even if the quality is good.

The other route I've been exploring is sourcing blanks direct from China, but so far, I have not had any success. It's very difficult when the web is your only contact source. Most Chinese manufacturers/agents/wholesalers deal in container-loads. My initial order limit would be in the hundreds max, so many lose interest when they become aware of that.

One last comment: Kmart has started selling Gildan Ultracotton 2000, which I think is a good quality T - they were on special a couple of weeks ago @ $15 for 2. That's about as good as it gets in Oz, for Gildans - in my experience, at least.

You might consider using an American fulfilment company to do your printing and supply American-brand Ts. It seems ridiculous that it is cheaper for Aussies to have our Ts printed and supplied from the States, but for small operators, it is the best option I have come across so far. I think at least one of your fellow Melbournians, Monkeylantern, carries on his business using Aust sourcing, but from what I can work out, he has a decent sized business. Scale is the big problem if you're just starting out. Nothing is cheap when you are ordering small numbers (same in any business, of course), but it does seem particularly expensive for T designing/printing start-offs in Aust.

All very annoying.

Re: Melbourne? source info

Rodney said:

There must be something like this out there?

Click to expand...

You'd think so wouldn't you?

I keep thinking there must be and I just don't have the connections to find it yet.

I can tell you that most screenprinted tees I see in Melbourne are manufactured by the same Melbourne based company. They're sweatshop free accredited at least, but they're more expensive than importing Gildan, etc. and about the same price as importing AA (at lesser quality though). They also have the ugliest tags I've ever seen on a wholesale blank.

The next most common blank is Gildan, but they're a distant second. Some people use AA, but not many.

I've heard from a couple of large Australian t-shirt brands, and they outsource to China and Vietnam. I get the impression this might be a bit easier for people in Australia than in the US (due to pre-existing trade setups, etc.).

Re: Melbourne? source info

Hey, just joining the list of people unhappy with Ounce... I was planning to order AA's kid tees with them and have them screenprint them as well. After many attempts to place an order and being ignored I was told my emails had accidently ended up in the trash... I finally received most of my order a few weeks later (the rest was placed on back order which I received in another couple weeks...). The whole process was very discouraging to someone just starting out.

In September I attended Fashion Exposed in Melbourne where I was surprised to see an AA site. These guys turned out to be from BYM INTERNATIONAL and were claiming to be the new official distributer of AA gear. When I told them that I had ordered AA gear from Ounce they were straight on the phone and were adament that companies like Ounce were not aloud to re-sell AA gear anymore since they now had the official distributing rights. I got in contact with AA to check this out and Ray from AA told me that although they did distribute AA gear, they were not their 'official' distributer. Who knows what to believe...

I do know that Dwayne Armstrong is the BYM rep in Melbourne and he has told me that they can service from 1-10,000 pieces (which means no minimums for colours,sizes) and that they will fill an order in two weeks. I have recently received a price list from BYM, stating a manufacturers price which is cheaper than wholesale. I can get an infant t-shirt for $7.40 (+GST) where it is $9.25 wholesale ($8.75 from Ounce). For those of you who want adult tees the price is $8.75, where wholesale is $11.35. I have not put an order in with BYM yet (as i'm waiting on my screenprinter to receive new boards and arms so he can print my little tees) but i'll let you know how they go when I do. It's tough out there but I love it...

Dave