[Rodney]

I've purchased a few t-shirts from ThreadLess.com and one thing I've noticed is that they have custom neck labels screen printed on the inside on the t-shirt.

I wonder, is this hard to acheive? It seems like an awkward print location to reach.

If it's not hard to do, this might be a solution for the many people that are looking to get custom neck labels on their new t-shirt line. By having the printer print them in while they print their designs, all the person would have to worry about is removing all the default manufacturer labels or finding a manufacturer that doesn't put neck labels in their tees.

 

[Rodney]

Looks like a pretty nice service. Thanks for the link, Adam!

It's in the UK, so shipping might be a bit much for me in the US, but at least I have a starting point.

 

[Rodney]

About once a day I have a genius idea... this one came to me around 12:15 as I read this post. Why not very carefully remove the existing tag and screenprint your own logo on the inside of the shirt below the neckline... ala hanes tagless. You muthas can have that idea for free.

Hehe, great minds must think alike. That's exactly what my first post was about

That's how threadless.com prints their labels in the neckline.

 

[Rodney]

the two most oft-cited reasons are a cleaner looking fit and no tag to irritate the back of the neck.

I've been noticing the latter a lot more lately. I've started ripping more tags out of the neckline because they irritate.

I previously thought a tag would connote a higher quality product but no one seems to think so (at least not consciously, when asked). And, in fact, Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and other companies seem to be adopting it.

I don't think it ever represented higher quality to the average end customer. I think big t-shirt companies did it for branding and smaller startup companies did it to make it seem like they were big t-shirt companies (in the hopes of being picked up by retailers and for branding).

Anyone have any thoughts on this percieved quality question?

As far as the end, paying customer goes, I don't think they could care one bit about a t-shirt having a custom neck label. It's just not a selling point. Especially online when a customer will never see or know about the neck label when they are buying the t-shirt.

Also, I've seen it mentioned briefly in other threads that removing labels is more difficult than replacing labels. Is that a serious consideration if I screen print my labels?

If you're going for the "clean" look, then you would have to remove the existing label in order to screen print your label there.

What I wonder though is if screen printing a label would be more expensive than sewing a label on (if your are outsourcing it all).

 

[Rodney]

If you go the screen printing route, you have to have a separate screen for each size shirt.

Usually the size and care instructions label is separate from the manufacturers brand label. So that you'd only have to remove one label (The manufacturer brand label) and leave the size label.

Then you could screen print your own label under that (unless you wanted no hanging neck label at all, then that would require removing the size label as well).

I've seen people with urban wear designs print on a jerzees, hanes, etc. good looking stuff, but have people laugh at it and say "man, all he did was go get some regular shirts and print on it. this stuff ain't real!"

I wouldn't say that was true for all or the majority of the urban wear market.

Sure, there will always be a percentage of customers that are very "label aware", but I've seen lots of urban wear t-shirts in stores printed on regular Jerzees or Hanes with no relabeling. Maybe it's a regional thing, or just a certian sect of customers within a demographic?

I think when you're at a tradeshow level and you're up next to the Roca Wears and the Eco Unlimited and Phat Farms, you're definitely going to need to be relabeling to be seen as on the same playing field.

 

[Rodney]

Then, I realized I have what I thought was a worthless to me hat heat transfer machine. But I bet I could use it to heat transfer labels on.

Yep, the cap press is great for putting on heat transfer labels. That's what was used to relabel some of the forum t-shirts.

 

[Rodney]

i'm not worried that if after a year of washing it fades away... i kinda like that idea...

Keep in mind that if it fades after a year, you could be fined by the FTC. They require that the labels last for the life of the garment.

 

[Rodney]

First is sizing, you will need a screen for each size you will be running

You can put multiple sizes on one screen like shown in this video:

1) Can anyone recommend a ink color and font style size that works best for this (low see-through). I heard light grey mentioned earlier?

Lighter color inks than the t-shirt usually work. I've used light gray and a beige.

2) Would it look bad if I tried to print something on the back exterior to try and cover it? With an image it might cover it pretty well, but if it's wording on the back exterior I'm afraid it will look sloppy if there's see-through from the interior.

If the intent of the back image is just to cover the interior neckline, yeah, that could look bad design-wise.

3) If I did choose to go with wording on the exterior back, do you think it would look unprofessional if the wording was surrounded by white ink to try and cover up any interior text being seen?

Seems a bit weird, but maybe I'm having a hard time picturing what you're talking about.

I don't think the ink showing through is that big of an issue if you work with your screen printer to pick the right color ink to go with the color garment that you're using.