Especially since many of the past posts state that the choice between silk screening vs. heat transfer depends on the scenario.
Somewhat, but it also depends heavily on the user. When we're trying to play nice with each other we'll talk about different applications, different needs, etc. to avoid a fight. But really, most of us (myself included) would prefer to shoehorn whatever we personally use into every task that comes along
We'd all like to think our own choices are the smartest ones, so we're not particularly objective.
This thread is about two years old, so things have changed a bit. DTG printing has settled in a little.
At this point, I've shed a lot of the fear I had of DTG ousting screenprinting. Eventually, sure. But not soon enough to worry about it.
But I also think DTG has established itself enough to put the hurt on heat press. Dye sublimation is, to a certain extent, a separate industry. It's largely unaffected by these changes. Vinyl is much what it always was (for better or worse). But digital transfers are more obsolete than ever.
They just don't really make sense. They were always a reluctant "because I can't do anything else" option anyway, so with DTG right there to be taken advantage of, there's simply always a better option.
Small hip restaurant. Would like to sell t-shirts with multi-color logos.
Screenprint a small inventory to have in a storeroom ready for sale. Alternatively, DTG print an even smaller inventory to have in a storeroom ready for sale. Depends how many you expect to sell, and what level of risk you wish to take.
If market research suggests 4-5 sales a day is realistic (for a restaurant, I'm skeptical) then a small screenprinted inventory should be practical.
Dont mind investing some time and elbow greese in doing my own designs and pressing.
With an unrelated business to run you've got (or should have) better things to do than learn to print. It really doesn't make sense in this scenario to do the decorating yourself.
(I would argue that most folks that buy a t-shirt at a restaurant aren't super concerned on quality and are doing more of an impulse buy).
Why
do people buy t-shirts at a restaurant? To commemorate a particularly good meal? Remember a fond holiday trip? Because they're a regular? What do they do with the t-shirt afterwards? Throw it in a drawer and forget about it? Wear it proudly to show they were at Location X?
I don't really understand the impulse, so I'm trying to understand the mindset of the customer.
Of course I wouldn't want to sell something that falls apart with one wash, but I am also not trying to build a brand name, since t-shirts aren't my focus.
You're not trying to build a brand name for your t-shirts, but presumably you are trying to build one for your restaurant. Everything you do under that name reflects on you, and just as you wouldn't serve a shoddy meal, you wouldn't want to serve a shoddy t-shirt. If it has your name on it, you're being judged by it.
Fortunately that's not really a problem. You're direct retailing, which means there isn't a retail middleman wanting a cut. Which means you can afford to produce to (at least) a standard acceptable sort of a quality, and still make a decent profit.
There are plenty of affordable blanks that won't fall apart after a wash (Gildan is popular if you just want something basic), and both DTG and screenprinting will last many washes (longer than the garment itself if done properly is the claim - though manufacturer's own DTG samples often show otherwise).
