[samdkelley]

To cut and press vinyl or to go DTG for single to 20 shirt orders?
I ask this question because we have been in the cut and press for 3 years with steady growth and now have branches that are doing well. I have been looking at the dtg market for about a year now and can't seem to find numbers on existing stores that would show how this change would effect our bottom line. Do any of you have reports or first hand experience in the model? If so please let me know

 

[Dandy Lion]

I had a DTG for a year. Biggest waste of money ever! I had more problems with it that I can even explain. I sold it, bought a cutter/plotter and my business has soared. If you are looking for new ways to do shirts, look somewhere else besides DTG.

 

[jeron]

i don't know about that dandy lion

I screen print so i have no idea how good or bad DTG is but i hear way more good than i do bad. So hopefully someone will chime in that has actually made it work so you can have something to base your decision on.

 

[soko61]

I've had a dtg printer for 4 months now and I have to say it's very challenging and time consuming, regarding maintenance and humidity, not to mention the cost of running a dtg machine. If your cut and press vinyl business is doing well, stick with what is working. Of course my opinion.

 

[ETA]

I do some DTG work! It does require quite a bit of maintenance and things do go wrong. But honestly, I think we make FAR more money off DTG than off vinyl or screen printing. So for us, it has been well worth the extra time and effort to put into it. But you need to be willing to do extensive training and accept that you will probably lose money at first until you have it all figured out perfectly.

Honestly, though, if you're doing well with vinyl, unless there is a good reason to switch or you just have a bunch of money to invest in a new project, I would say stay focused on that. It's always a big risk adding in a new service like that, and this one has a pretty large overhead cost. So if you are comfortable enough with money, maybe it will be worth your time, but otherwise, you are obviously doing something right in the vinyl business