[ZOKU]

Hey everyone...

Obviously new to the forum and somewhat new to the t-shirt industry. Just because I've been wearing them all of my life doesn't mean I understand everything that goes into them.

My wife & I are starting a company of our own and everything we've found on the Internet and especially this forum has been really helpful. I've done a search for this information but I've not really found what I'm looking for... I'm wanting to know the entire process of getting a t-shirt from start to finish. That sounds a little vague so I'll try my best to be more specific.

So... I find a wholesaler... Jerico, Alstyle Apparel, Blankstyle... whatever. So I place my order and get a few dozen shirts sent to me.

Now what?

Do I take them to a screen printer? And if I can't find one locally, just drop 'em in the mail? And where do they go from there? I want to have custom labels put in the shirts. I don't have any equipment of my own, unfortunately. I know shipping a shirt without a label is illegal... so judging from the information I've read on the website, either myself or my wife could probably remove the labels with relative ease. She is somewhat versed with a sewing machine and has a fundamental understanding of the basics... but even if she removes the labels, this brings up the previous issue that we couldn't ship them without them, correct?

So... I guess this is even more confusing to me. Would I get the shirt from the wholesaler, ship them out to someone who can remove the tag and then sew in our custom tags? And then would they ship them out to the screenprinter? I don't have any company specifically in mind for any of these tasks... I'm just asking questions.

My wife really wants "tagless" labels. But I want to obtain the research that shows the cost breakdown of have "tags" versus "tagless labels" on our shirts. Sorry for the rambling but I'm really interested in knowing what everyone else does to see this process from beginning to end. ...help?

- Scott.

 

[ZOKU]

...interesting. I didn't know that. Will most any screen printer source any of the shirts at wholesale costs? So, are we talking about a one-stop shop that more or less does *everything*? I've not found one of those yet. Someone that will give me the shirts I want at wholesale prices... screenprint my designs... design my labels... remove the sand shirt label and then sew mine in... and then ship me the finished product. I mean, I've found shirt wholesalers. I found people that do labels. I found screen printers. But what am I missing? I have it in my head that it's this long arduous process where the shirt has to go to this person... and then get shipped here... and then go here... and then go here... and then several weeks pass where I'm assuming the finished product is drop shipped to me.

 

[ZOKU]

Rodney - thanks for the info. At this point, I'll have to pick up the phone and determine exactly what can and cannot be done from the screenprinter's standpoint. Common knowledge, I know... but there really are a lot of little individual steps that the poor t-shirt has to go through before it is ultimately ready for resale.