T-Shirts and More!

Most customers don’t realize all the options and specialty prints that can be used in their custom printed t-shirts.  Next time your designing your t-shirts graphics you may want to keep in mind that adding foil or glitter to your artwork might really make it pop.  The foil printing method is a two step process.  The area of the design that the foil will adhere to is printed just like any other screen print except we use a foil adhesive as opposed to a pigmented ink.  The ink is then sent through the dryer to be cured.  The shirt is then placed on the heat press a piece of foil that will cover the whole design is then cut and placed on top.  The foil is heat pressed for 10-20 seconds on the heat press and then allowed to cool for another 20-30 seconds.  Once cool the foil is removed from the shirt leaving it only in the correct areas of the design.  Foil imprints can be a very powerful marketing addition to a clothing line or a way to boost profits with a college or school fundraiser.  Get a custom t-shirt quote right here. Just let us know you want them done with foil.

Being put in charge of ordering custom screen printed t-shirts for the business or organization can seem like a daunting task.  And truly, it can, depending on who you decide to work with.  The very first step is the artwork.  Decide whether your business or group will be supplying the artwork or if you’ll be having a design firm or screen printing company producing it.  If you supply your own artwork it is extremely important that it be camera ready artwork.  The term camera ready means that it is ready for print and nothing else needs to be done to it.  It’s probably been designed in a vector program such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.  Vector art can be re-sized to any size and not lose any resolution.  Quality starts with the artwork and it’s very important to have nice crisp lines.  Secondly, if you decide to contract the artwork out it may be important to look for a screen printer, who you’ll be working with anyway for the shirts, that does graphic design work.  Many times since you’ll be ordering a bunch of t-shirts you’ll get a much better price on the artwork as opposed to a graphic design firm.  On the flip side, a well experienced graphic design firm may be producing better work.

Now that our artwork is ready to go it’s time to find the best screen printer.  We’ll start with price.  This can get to be a bit tricky.  One shop may quote you $5 per shirt for 50 shirts, but they may also have a $30 screen setup and $10 film charge therefore the shirts are really $6.20 ea.  Where as another shop may be quoting you an all inclusive price of $5.99 ea.  Be very careful and always do the math (including shipping and tax) to find out what your real unit price is.  This also brings up the question on whether to shop locally or online.  There are a lot of online screen printing shops that offer free shipping and by ordering out of state you’ll also save on sales tax.  For rush orders it’s always nice to have a neighborhood shop.  The other tricky part with price is the quality.  How do I know that screen printer A is quoting me for the same thing as screen printer B?  Generally there are two types of t-shirts: the 6.1 oz. cotton tee and the 5.5 oz. cotton tee.  Most manufactures will call the 5.5 oz. t-shirt a heavyweight and 6.1 oz. t-shirt Ultra heavyweight.  Here’s the truth; the 6.1 oz. is heavyweight and the normal weight of most t-shirts you would see in a store the 5.5 oz. is lightweight.  Some shops will always quote the cheapest shirt and some will always quote the 6.1 oz. tees, so make sure you make it known which type you’d like.

Quality ranges dramatically from shop to shop.  The best way to find out is to get a referral from a friend or relative.  Most companies are using the same brands of t-shirts and blanks, so it’s not really the quality of the actual shirt to worry about.  A good shop will have great attention to detail, pride itself in good artwork and use high quality equipment and retensionable screens.  A good rule of thumb is to check out their website for creativity, quality and samples.  A screen printer should be artistic and creative; therefore their website should represent that.

Service is extremely important.  How fast do you get a quote back from the printer?  Probably one of the most important signs to whether you’ll receive good service or not.  Service is very important in this business since 90% of all orders have a deadline.  When working with deadlines it’s very important to have good communication between customer and printer.  Also, look at the turn around times that each company has before they charge you a rush fee.  Most companies have a standard turn around time of 7-10 business days.  If you need it sooner then they’ll start charging rush fees between 10%-50%, so don’t forget to calculate that into the original price.  If you find companies with shorter turn times like 3-5 business days consider if that is worth money to you.  Another important service question is what is your guarantee?  It’s important you find a printer that is willing to stand behind their work.  If you get your shirts delivered after the event date do you still have to pay for them?  What if there is a misspelled word? Do I still have to pay?  These are good things to get squared away before placing a big order.

Good Luck!

December 01, 2009

Boxercraft, Atlanta, recently donated more than 600 apparel items to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, including fleece shorts, flannel pants, hoodies, blankets and bags.

In the emergency room, kids’ clothes often are damaged or cut during treatment. Now, patients at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta have received Boxercraft apparel replacements in a variety of trendy patterns and colors, according to the company.

This is one of the largest donations of new apparel in bulk that Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has received, and it has allowed them to have different items and sizes in stock, according to the hospital. “It’s been very helpful,” says Molly Duggan, child life specialist at Children’s Healthcare. “If we need to get a kid home or a family comfortable while they’re here, we can do that now.”

As a not-for-profit healthcare organization, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta runs largely on donations. Boxercraft’s youth apparel donation directly supports the hospital’s mission to brighten the stay of patients and their families, Duggan says.

InnoThread Graphics t shirt screen printing is proud to carry Boxercraft Spiritwear line of apparel.

Article provided by Impressions Magazine.

September 01, 2009
By Dan and Kevin Corcoran

Editor’s note: In the following pages, the authors take you step-by-step through the process of adding foil to your T-shirt artwork. First, they detail how to incorporate foil into the workflow of an automatic press. The process differs significantly for printers using a manual press, so the authors also detail how to apply foil when printing with a manual screen printing press.

For a comprehensive overview of using foil — the advantages, challenges, pricing, design philosophy, etc. — read the authors’ article “Foil Adds Sparkle and Margin,” beginning on p. 32.

Using Foil On An Automatic Press

STEP 1 — Whenever adding foil to a shirt design, print with water-based inks. Foil does not stick to water-based inks like it does to plastisol. If you want to use plastisol — or have to for any reason — it will work if you add foil release to the ink (per the manufacturer’s spec sheet).

STEP 2 — If you are using white water-based ink in your design, try to drive it down into the garment and use the highest mesh that you can get away with. White discharge has a higher pigment load than other water-based colors, so foil is more likely stick to it if it has a heavy hand.

STEP 3 — When you apply foil adhesive, use a thick stencil on a high-tension screen so you can shear a heavy deposit for the foil to stick on (two-thirds coat on a 110 mesh screen). You don’t want to drive most of the adhesive into the garment or the foil will turn out patchy-looking since it does not have enough surface to bind to.

STEP 4 — The adhesive print will just look like a wet patch on the garment. This may make registration difficult, so use a registration system if you have one, and make sure you have ample light at the press.

STEP 5 — Cure the inks in your dryer, place the garment on your heat press, and place a sheet of foil over the adhesive area.

STEP 6 — Set your heat press to 350°F with a dwell time of 15 seconds and medium-to-heavy pressure. When you lift up the hot platen, the foil will curl up at the edges. If you are not careful, the foil may “hot peel” on the edges and not adhere to the corners of your design. You can prevent this by placing parchment paper or a Teflon sheet on top of the foil. This will hold down the edges when you pop the heat press open.

STEP 7 — Rub the foil with a piece of cloth or a chalkboard eraser to help dissipate the heat quickly.

STEP 8 — Once cool, peel the foil away in one motion.

STEP 9 — Foil is a fragile decoration process compared to printing only with plastisol or water-based inks. To prevent the foil from flaking off after washing, run the finished shirts through the dryer a second time for a final cure. This will tarnish the foil, but will increase its durability. It’s better to present a finished garment with foil that is slightly less shiny than to give your customer a shirt with a foil a accent that falls off after the first wash.

Manual Press Foil Technique

STEP 1 — Essentially, you have to apply the ink to the back of foil and then heat-apply it like a transfer to your garment. To start, place a cut sheet of foil, shiny side down, on a lightly tacked platen.

STEP 2 — Burn your screen with the film reversed horizontally so that the transfer reads right when applied to the garment.

STEP 3 — Use a very healthy bead of foil adhesive, clear plastisol or plastisol tinted close to the color of your foil (to hide any imperfections). Use a slow, angled stroke to put down a good amount of ink/ adhesive, but avoid smearing, since you are printing on a very smooth, non-porous surface.

STEP 4 — Gel cure your transfer either under a flash unit or through a conveyor dryer with the temperature turned down. You do not want to fully cure the transfer since you want to re-melt the adhesive when you apply it to the garment.

STEP 5 — Lay the transfers out to cool on a clean surface. Do not stack until they have fully cooled, otherwise they will stick to each other.

STEP 6 — If you ganged up multiple transfers on a single sheet of foil, then trim the individual transfers. We weigh them down with small pieces of wood, otherwise they will curl up, making them hard to handle.

STEP 7 — Heat press onto the garment at 350°F with a dwell time of 15 seconds and medium-to-heavy pressure. Let the garment and transfer fully cool, then peel the foil off in one motion.

STEP 8 — Voila! You now have a perfect foil print.

Article provided by Impressions Magazine.

In today’s market there are a ton of different styles and brands of t-shirts to choose from.  Which one is right for you and your organization?  That’s what I’ll answer for you in this article.

Everyone has at least one favorite t-shirt that they love and most likely it’s because of the way it fits.  That’s right, it’s not necessarily the design, but they way it hugs their body just right.  Now, obviously not everyone has the same body type and therefore not one brand of shirt is going to fit everyone perfect, but we can make a good decision on what brand or style to go with by the majority of our customers or members.

The Basic Tees

In the screen printing world there are two types of basic tees the premium 6.1 oz. and the heavyweight 5.5 oz.  A lot of printers, including myself, will only quote the 6.1 oz. 100% cotton t-shirts, since this is the standard weight for the industry.  Most manufacturers like Hanes and Gildan reference their 5.5 oz. tees as heavyweight, but in reality that is a big misconception and misleading.  What they are is a mid weight shirt.  The 5.5 oz. tee does come in handy when the t-shirts are giveaways or if they will be worn outdoors in the heat such as gardening companies, painters, construction, etc., however, they’re only about a quarter cheaper than the 6 oz. tee.  The two leading shirts in the industry are the Gildan Ultra Cotton Tee and the Hanes Authentic tee. Both shirts have a pretty basic fit, not to slim and not too wide.  The Gildan Ultra Cotton tee has over 60 color to choose from making it the most popular choice and best bang for your buck.  The Hanes Authentic tee offers just over 40 colors and sports a tagless printed label.

What about the Hanes Beefy Tee?

What sets the Hanes Beefy Tee apart from the basic tee category is the fact that the cotton is ring spun.  Ring spun cotton creates a softer feel which is why when the Hanes Beefy tee, Jerzees ZT or American Apparel tee are compared with a non ring spun shirt you can tell by the touch.  Expect to pay a premium for ring spun cotton t-shirts anywhere between $1-$2.

Fashion forward t-shirts

The screen printing industry was introduced to these new shirts at about the time American Apparel, Inc. first started in 2003.  It took the demanding youth to change the minds of some of the old timer printers out there to actually start purchasing this new light weight (4.3 oz. ) t-shirt.  For a long time a t-shirts quality was based on it’s weight by yard, so how could this new American Apparel 4.3 oz. tee be any good?  Here’s why: these new tees sported the soft ring spun cotton feel, had a slimming fit and because of the quality yarn and needlework had even less shrinkage.  Oh, and I almost forgot, they’re made in good Ol’ America by a sweatshop free labor force in Los Angeles, California.

Since American Apparel’s conception many more companies have followed with a very similar product and some at a much cheaper price.  Some of these brands include Alternative Apparel, Royal Apparel, Sun Apparel, Tultex, District Threads, Alstyle Apparel and even some of the big boys such as Gildan and Anvil.

Alternative Apparel is unique in their own right since they produce a much more fashion forward style.  Some of their tees include distressed (frayed collars and hems), acid wash, vintage looks and more.  Despite their cool and original looks their price is just too high.  Unless you can expect to produce shirts that sell upwards of $40 these t-shirts are probably not for you.

American Apparel’s fine jersey tee is probably one of the most popular shirts on the market for college students and other young adults.  In fact, many will demand to have their designs printed only on American Apparel fine jersey tees.  These t-shirts are available in 45 different and  unique colors.

The Tultex, Gildan and Anvil fitted tees are knock offs of the American Apparel tee.  For those who still want the soft feel and slim fit tee but don’t want to pay the premium price for a Made in America garment these are for you.  However,  they are knock offs not replicas.  Their quality still suffers a bit when compared to the American Apparel tee, but I guess that is what to expect when they sell for half the price.

In Conclusion

Below is a breakdown of what type of shirt you should look into or order samples from before proceeding with your print order.

Give Aways/ Promotional:  Look at any of the big mills such as Gildan, Hanes, Anvil, Jerzees and Fruit of the Loom.  Specifically at their heavyweight (really mid weight) tees.  Also, most t-shirt vendors are always running specials on these brands, so ask your printer what brand might have a sale going and order those.  Remember, white shirts are always the cheapest.

Service Industry:  A standard basic 6 oz. tee is probably your best choice.  You’ll have a vast array of colors to choose from to fit your companies colors, you’ll get a reasonable price and the quality will be good enough for the purpose at hand.

Clothing Lines: In today’s market it would be almost impossible to do anything less than a fashion fitted tee.  Look at American Apparel, Tultex, Royal Apparel, Alstyle Apparel and Sun Apparel.

College Clubs / Universities: With the young adult crowd it is probably wise to go for a fashion fitted tee as well.  American Apparel has gotten extremely popular with college students, however, they’re budget may say otherwise.  If this is the case look at the Tultex tee for half the price and the same fit.

We have just launched an online store where many products can be purchased online for much lower pricing. Custom printed t-shirts, embroidered polo’s, custom pens and even custom coffee mugs can be bought directly online. And better yet, it’s always free shipping! You can visit the store by visiting us at www.InnoThreadGraphics.com.