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I've been unable to find an answer from my searching. Generally, is it better to purchase the T-shirts through your screen printer or provide them by purchasing them through a wholesaler?
Provide T-shirts or purchase them through your screen printer
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Depends on your printer, some add an up charge if customer supplies. If a customer brings in the shirts we don't replace misprinted shirts if we supply we do and were not responsible for wrong sizes quantity sent from your supplier. We pay a lot less wholesale because of the quantities be buy over a year, so even if we make the shirt up a little its about the same the small guy pays at wholesale.
Hope it helps, John
Hope it helps, John
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One thing to keep in mind, you probably won't find a "better" deal per se' if you supplied your own shirts.
1. If you supply your own shirts, your printer probably charge you a higher print price. (some printers charge their customers less for printing while they make money on blanks, this all depends on their pricing structure.)
2. If you supply your own shirts, the printer will most likely not replace your misprinted shirts or be responsible for vendor mistakes.
1. If you supply your own shirts, your printer probably charge you a higher print price. (some printers charge their customers less for printing while they make money on blanks, this all depends on their pricing structure.)
2. If you supply your own shirts, the printer will most likely not replace your misprinted shirts or be responsible for vendor mistakes.
I think that typically most printers would prefer to print shirt they get from their suppliers as opposed to customer supplied shirts. The reason for this is that a printer may not be able to replace a customer supplied shirt if it is damaged during printing.
Another thing to keep in mind is that custom garment decorators usually get better prices than you simply due to the volume of shirts they buy from the manufacturers or distributors... When you first start looking at buying shirts yourself, the cost seems great compared to retail prices, but most printers are getting a deeper discount, sometimes such a big discount the prices aren't even published.
In addition, if you supply the shirts, you are responsible for the shipping to get them to your printer, and usually the shipping to get them back to you, if the printer supplies the shirts, inbound (to the printer) freight is usually included in your final cost.
In addition, if you supply the shirts, you are responsible for the shipping to get them to your printer, and usually the shipping to get them back to you, if the printer supplies the shirts, inbound (to the printer) freight is usually included in your final cost.
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Get pricing both ways and see if it is worth it for you. As everyone else said, generally with their buying power, printers can get shirts cheaper than you can.
My printer would charge me the exact price he was getting from the supplier. The upside for me was he did not charge me shipping like I would have been charged had i ordered them directly.
My printer would charge me the exact price he was getting from the supplier. The upside for me was he did not charge me shipping like I would have been charged had i ordered them directly.
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Any more opinions on this matter? I just got an account with TSC Apparel so I can purchase American Apparel shirts on the "cheap" and I like that there is no minimums and the pricing seems pretty good. Now I'm wondering how much my local screen printer really gets them for and if it makes more financial sense to buy the blanks myself and provide them to the printer.
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You won't know until you ask. My guy was able to get my shirts cheaper than I could get them myself due to his buying power. Obviously, when he ordered stock he ordered mine plus everyone else that placed a print order with him today. So he always qualifies for free shipping.
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Scott, it depends on how big you printer is. Discounts from suppliers are figured on monthly or yearly purchase's not one time. If a customer buy's the shirts we print what we receive, not whats on the PO so if its short on 1 size bad luck, but not for us as you sent the shirts. If we buy the shirts even if we have a misprint we replace it, not with customer supplied.
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Thanks John. I plan on touching base with my local screen printer to get a quote from them. My motivation for getting the shirts myself and taking them to the printer is two-fold.
First, if I can purchase for a better price than my printer then that is a plus but I understand why they may actually get a better price than me due to the quantity they annually order.
Second, I'm just starting up so I am trying to pinch pennies where I can. As such I was planning on having the shirt shipped to me. Removing the tags myself and then handing them over to the printer to print the design and screen printed tags inside the shirt.
I figured that by getting the shirts myself and doing the tag removing myself it may be cheaper than having the printer do it all. I'm just getting my feet wet though so I guess I will learn as I go.
This is a good idea to save some money by investing your time and labour. When removing labels you will want to re-sew the neck tapping, i believe an over lock machine is used to match the look of the original stitching.
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Remember too that you can remove labels anytime. Including after the tagless has been printed and you receive the finished shirts back from your printer.
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Here's an easier method.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUSYqrvdQa0&feature=related[/media]
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Yes this video shows exactly how I am planning on doing it. I have practiced on a few shirts so far and it's been successful.Here's an easier method.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUSYqrvdQa0&feature=related[/media]
ahhhh right, you're not sewing in a label after, just printing the label.
Thanks for posting the vid Splat!
notice in the slow motion part, you see that she does not cut the tag completely off, she leaves a bit on the corner so she call pull the extra piece of label out from under the neck taping. That is an important step, leaving that piece of label fabric under the taping looks terrible, she just yanks it out with the rest of the label. wonder if this works on all labels sewn in like that.
Thanks for posting the vid Splat!
notice in the slow motion part, you see that she does not cut the tag completely off, she leaves a bit on the corner so she call pull the extra piece of label out from under the neck taping. That is an important step, leaving that piece of label fabric under the taping looks terrible, she just yanks it out with the rest of the label. wonder if this works on all labels sewn in like that.
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