Printing onto darks - The options!

[Justin]

I'm getting ready for a meeting with a possible new customer tomorrow. They want me to look at printing onto dark t-shirts for them.

We need to discuss numbers but form what I gather it will be 'as and when' and could be 1 or 2 here and there.....you get the picture!

DTG would be ideal but not having one close to hand may not be an option. My second idea is to have the designs made up into screen printed transfer sheets. I've had this done before, some were excellent, some not so good. These could then be put onto any colour type/items as and when required. Does anyone on here supply screen printed transfers? From memory minimum order sizes were quite large but designs could be doubled up etc.

I can't really think of any alternative methods that would produce one offs, I don't feel transfer papers won't really give the quality of image they want, screen printing direct isn't an option unless he decided to keep a small'ish stock in and then we're limited on colours/sizes.

Appreciate any advice. I know it's tricky at this stage because I don't know what price to work to or numbers that will be required

[letsgo]

Justin,
I suppose it really depends on what they really want printing on ie image full colour or could it just be something you could knock up with coloured flex and layer it.
Also is digi flex an option you could use or come up with a deal with Stitch up to do the dtg option.
This is me thinking allowed so am bouncing around how about the magic touch WOW paper or think yolo do one similar
Gary

[Justin]

Cheers for that Gary. One of the designs looks like it may work in vinyl but would be better suited to a single colour transfer.

DTG is ideal but I really need to be able to produce these in house, I'm not expecting big numbers as the shirts etc. will run alongside usual mugs and other gifts.

I already know that they are perfectionists which is fine but they're asking how I'd produce shirts with no white edges, i.e. no transfers.

Not particuallry impressed with Wow paper, the work involved with getting a good result is time consuming and I remember comparing prices to getting transfers made up and Wow was considerably more Whilst I'm hearing good things about yolo (and others) papers, I don't think these will give the premium finish the customer will be looking for.

[Earl Smith]

I would offer to help but Im not on the Island.
I hope John at Stitch-up wont mind me saying this, but you should talk to him. We have the same DTG printers and they are ideal for this type of work. One offs are where these printers excel.
You could try subli flock or vinyl but DTG will be your best option for anything that is multi colour.
Earl.

[DS Designs]

I would tend to agree with Earl, i've had some DTG T-Shirts printed by John, very pleased with the results

[Earl Smith]

DTG does a great job.
Here is something I printed on my machine.
Earl

Sorry cant upload the image.

[Justin]

OK, well the meeting went well

Having talked at length the customer is thinking about moving away from t-shirts, too many variations probably. That said, I'm still looking at the possibility of DTG (Will give you a shout John)

He's more interested in mugs and a couple of other things now so that suits me just fine.

Thanks for your input here guys.

[smitch6]

thats handy
you cud a got a DTG off flebay for 8K rofl