T shirt printers

What do we think of when we are looking for T shirt printers?

Price

Price is perhaps the first thing we consider when we’re looking for T shirt printers. How cheap will it be? The better the price, the more money we’re going to make when we sell our T shirts, and in search of the best price should we order larger quantities, or is that too big a commitment for designs which are as yet un tested, which may or may not sell. And then sometimes another little voice whispers in our ear…’If the price is too good, is it too good to be true, what about the…’

Quality?

We want the best quality, but what does that mean? One T shirt printers idea of quality is another T shirt printers idea of disaster. Do we want a T shirt to be light weight and semi fitted, heavy and fitted, light weight and oversized, heavy and square cut, is it soft, will it wear well, can it be vintage, can it be more clean and minimal, is the neck too tight, is the neck too loose, in fact…what is the best quality, and if we find it, if it exists, how will we embellish it, do we want….

Screen print?

With all its craft and its story and its multitude of textures, in the hands of the right T shirt printers, is screen print the answer with its initial set up costs and yet cheaper unit costs, will screen print give us all the water based and solvent based and discharge inks that bring our collection to life, will screen print be best if we have many colours in our image, can we screen print full colour photographs, well yes we can but do we need…

Digital print?

Without set up costs will digital print be cheaper in the long run, will digital print (direct to garment printing or digital t-shirt printing) give us every colour under the sun from our friendly neighbourhood T shirt printers, but equally will digital print set us apart, is it too easy, can anyone buy a digital print online and will we all look the same and then again, we hear of a technique to rival digital print, someone has told us about…

Sublimation

Sublimation, what does that even mean? Sounds almost like subjugation and yet it’s not, though some say we can have infinite colours again, and a soft texture sounds nice, and large format images, and yet to use a sublimation print we must have polyester based garments and do we want that from our T shirt printers, do we not prefer 100% cotton, we’re not sure, especially if our printer offers us…

Litho transfers

Or even screen printed transfers….litho transfers, screen printed transfers, amazing brochure quality detail, but did our T shirt printers tell us that that we may get a more papery feel and do we want that? We’re not sure that we do perhaps, and what if any of the above might work well as…

Embroidery

Our T shirt printers offer embroidery, but does that mean they’re as good at embroidery, or is it an afterthought they’ve bolted on…at heart, are they really T shirt printers or embroiderers, in fact will they even do it in house, or take our cash and give the embroidery to a bloke…

Down the road

Are my T shirt printers down the road, and does that matter? Well no, but if they’re not down the road will they invite us into their secret space to see all their screen printing equipment, will we be able to be there and watch them when they are printing so we’re sure we’re getting what we want, so we don’t just wait for a box to arrive and it’s a whole big box of disappointment… will they give us tea, and coffee, and help, and what happens if we feel a bit emotional?

What do we think of when we are looking for T shirt printers?

T shirt printers – Is it people who in another time and place, and under different circumstances, we think we might just call friends?