[bargaincrusader]

Hello all
I have been marching around this website for over a week and still cannot figure this out.
We wholesale a newer product line on the market similar to paintball. So we want to make and wholesale t-shirts, and caps to our current customers for resale. We want to be able to print on black t-shirts, full color, good quality, and durability, and startup around $5000.
Because we are only beginning we cannot know how these will sell. We have had one design made and finished. Looked all over this forum, and ruled out having a transfer company listed here as they did not understand anything I asked, and in the end said the transfers would be $7 a page roughly. That seemed rediculously high. But frustrated from their inability to communicate we moved on.
Seems plastisol is out of thepicture as we are not a print shop, too bad.
We cannot screen print
DTG seems out of the question due to price, and that in beginning we will be printing to demand. We predict maybe small runs of 12-48, and may be days between. Seems there is lots of maintenance with these also clogging if not used enough.
What is left? We are told a solvent printer, and cutter but confused. What actually is a solvent printer, how does it dffer from any other printer? I see many that look like large format printers so how do they differ? How do I know if I can use it to print on black t-shirts?
Also the weeding of the excess seems like that could take lots of time, anyone have an idea on time to do weeding?
For us what we need I think is a DTG that is not so costly, and low maintenance, and can print black tshirts with good quality, anything out there?
Why is there not a method to print using a solvent printer onto some transfer paper (kind of like making my own plastisol transfer) or is this available now and have not seen it?
What does a solvent printer print onto? Vinyl transfer paper, and or other transfers?
I guess I am asking for feedback on what I should be focused on as a solution to start out with small sporadic print runs, prints wide enough for XXL t-shirts, and has good quality, and durability. If I must spend a little more then I must but I guess I would like to know why?

 

[Rodney]

To me, it sounds like you should be outsourcing the printing for the t-shirt designs you want to produce instead of looking into investing in the equipment/training/etc.

and ruled out having a transfer company listed here as they did not understand anything I asked

It's possible that you and they were using two different types of terminology and they may not have understood what you were trying to do (you also may not have understood how the process works fully)

and in the end said the transfers would be $7 a page roughly. That seemed rediculously high

The price depends on the number of colors in your design and what quantities you are producing per design.

What is left?

Not much Every printing method have it's benefits and drawbacks.

Sometimes it's best to just let the people who have already invested in the equipment, training, maintenance do the work while you focus on your core business.

Why not come up with the designs, show them to your existing wholesale accounts, and then take pre-orders?

 

[bargaincrusader]

Because I want to wholesale the t-shirts I have not found that outsourcing would be priced feasibly. When I return to my city I will visit a few local shops and see what the costs may be to have them run 300 or so of each size. Maybe it would be less than I think. I need my cost to be under $5 not sure if it can be done.
Also I will find more about print size from them. But looking at other t-shirts seems many go from middle of shoulder blade to middle shoulder blade, and that was about 13-17 inches in width.
I also like to tinker with art so producing my designs is fun, and I need to diversify my business so doing this in house will be an end result. Maybe even screen printing, but for now we just want to get started to see where it goes.

 

[Rodney]

When I return to my city I will visit a few local shops and see what the costs may be to have them run 300 or so of each size. Maybe it would be less than I think. I need my cost to be under $5 not sure if it can be done.

With the right quantities and depending on the design and garment used, yes, you can get the costs around $5 by outsourcing the printing.

Remember though, even if you were printing them yourself, while your *costs* might be close to that on smaller orders, your actual profit on wholesale orders under $5 may not always make good business sense.

I would suggest figuring out your actual costs, then figuring out a wholesale price based on those costs, then offering them to your wholesalers at that price. So if they end up costing you $5 outsourcing the printing, then you wholesale them for $9-$10 and the retailers sell them at $20.

I also like to tinker with art so producing my designs is fun, and I need to diversify my business so doing this in house will be an end result. Maybe even screen printing, but for now we just want to get started to see where it goes.

If you like to tinker and you have the time to learn, then you may want to look closer into screen printing.

You mentioned above that you "cannot" screen print, so that's why I suggested outsourcing your printing to someone that can.

 

[bargaincrusader]

Thanks
I have not looked into screen printing with the idea it may be too time consumming to learn. But sounds like you may be encouraging me to look into it, and I say why not at least look at it as an option. I may even be able to find a local person with experience to help work at it part time, and it may grow into something big. I am not opposed to spending a little for the equipment if it makes sense. I believe we can sell 2-400 of each design a month initially. But I have ideas to sell much more if all works out.

 

[bargaincrusader]

Maybe I found something here
Screen Printing Equipment
I am thinking the seller would show me the ropes a bit also to get me started. Is this a decent setup for the price?

 

[Rodney]

Maybe I found something here
Screen Printing Equipment
I am thinking the seller would show me the ropes a bit also to get me started. Is this a decent setup for the price?

I have no idea. You may want to start a new topic with a new title in the screen printing section of the forum to ask about screen printing equipment.

I have not looked into screen printing with the idea it may be too time consumming to learn.

It can be time consuming to learn, but for some people it's worth it. For some people, they pick it up faster than others.

For other folks, it's not worth the time because they aren't in business to be "t-shirt printers", they just want to "sell t-shirts". By outsourcing printing, it frees up time so you can focus on designing, marketing, and your other business goals.

If I were you, I would continue to research the different printing methods. Read the pros and cons of each method. Maybe visit an industry tradeshow like ISS:

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/general-t-shirt-selling-discussion/t37985.html

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/general-t-shirt-selling-discussion/t48532.html

Imprinted Sportwear Shows

Some people decide to become t-shirt printers, some people decide to outsource printing.

Both can be successful business models. You just have to find where you fit in

If you think about clothing lines that you see in stores, most of those aren't done by companies who are doing their own printing. They just outsource the printing to screen printers and base their wholesale costs off of what their pricing from the printer is.

retailers related topics at T-Shirt Forums

 

[bargaincrusader]

Sorry I thought it said this was general discussion thread says it at top "This is a discussion about Newbie what to do? - which printing method should we invest in? that was posted in the General T-Shirt Selling Discussion section of the forums."

Last night I had a dream, it was a godly figure whom looked a bit like rodney dangerfield. In the dream I asked " godly figure should I screen print?" He repled 'NO" .
When I woke up I tried to decipher the meaning of the dream. I decided Rodney iDangerfield is reference of the Rodney here, and after looking at that equipment it takes up lots of room, the rent to store it in down time would eat the profits.
THANKS RODNEY!!!
So I am looking more into outsourcing, or solvent printer