[hackerspaces] Curiosity...where is a cheap place to order t-shirts

[Jesse Krembs]

We make out own. We buy shirts from a local paint supply place and then
make (or use the one we already have).
http://www.laboratoryb.org/?p=793

DIY!


On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 9:30 PM, Jamie Schwettmann <
jamie.schwettmann at gmail.com> wrote:

> Local places almost always beat out online printers, esp on-demand
> services, in terms of both price and quality, even for relatively large
> orders.
>
> It's a really good idea to ask a couple of qualifying questions when
> evaluating a screen print shop.
>
> 1. Process
>
> If they print a base white layer regardless of whether your design
> contains white, using excuses like "because it's a dark shirt" run the
> other way, because they're obviously cutting corners.  Those images will
> crack and fade like crap in no time flat, and the colors will look washed
> out, even when new. On top of that, they will probably also want to charge
> you extra setup fees for the "necessary" white screen mask.
>
> Many online shops have digital print processes that automatically and
> unavoidably print white first, resulting in the same crap quality with
> absolutely no room for technical negotiation.
>
> A quality screen printing shop knows they can save screens (saving you
> money, and saving them screen-making overhead) by using more paint instead
> of more screens. They will print the colors in your design multiple times
> over to achieve appropriate vibrancy, rather than screw up the quality with
> a superfluous white layer.  This results in a design that ages considerably
> more slowly and gracefully than the alternative.
>
> 2. Graphic design assistance
>
> Of course your rasterized jpeg design is perfect... Except that it isn't.
>
> A crappy shop (or an online shop) will encourage you to send the jpeg,
> then feed your naive input straight into their crappy process, described
> above. You will be nonplussed by the result, fast as it may be.
>
> A quality shop knows they have to manually color separate, color *match*,
> font match/replace and scale your design appropriately for the garments
> they're printing, and will send you proofs to choose from until you are
> satisfied.  They're going to be entirely reworking that unscalable raster
> image into several two-tone vector images representing the separate
> screens.  They may or may not charge a fee for this, so if you can do any
> of that to spec yourself, you might save some $$$. Most of the time,
> however, it's a good idea to let the professionals at the shop do some work
> on it, since they know best what their process requires, even if your
> design has already previously been professionally worked up for screen
> printing.
>
> Anticipate and allow up to two weeks to complete the proofing process, and
> expect to be actively involved.
>
> 3. Community-focused service
>
> Large/bulk/online/low-quality shops simply don't care about the
> particulars of your organization, just their bottom line.
>
> Quality shops are populated by creative professionals who realize their
> customers are their community. They are far more likely to be interested in
> learning more about your organization than the big/crap shops, and will
> concern themselves with creative suggestions or changes that actually
> contextually suit your order.
>
> The best experience I ever had with a  screen printing shop was in
> ordering shirts for the local society of physics students chapter.  The
> shop we got not only reworked and laboriously proofed the design for us
> even after we'd done lots of that by committee, but they triple printed the
> bright colors onto quality black shirts for us, and even took the creative
> initiative to surprise us with glow-in-the-dark and UV-reactive additive to
> our radiation-themed design!! So awesome!
>
> I hope this info helps!!
>
> -Jamie
>
> On Oct 20, 2013 4:01 PM, "William Macfarlane" <wmacfarl at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > ++on local t-shirt printing -- it's something where, on small-scale, you
> really aren't going to get better pricing on the internet.  The printers
> are getting better bulk discounts on the t-shirts then you are likely to
> get from an internet printing service since they're buying lots more.
> >
> > Also the people who run little screen printing businesses tend to be
> pretty cool and fun to get to know.
> >
> > We screen-print our own, though, mostly.  It's easy, and fun, and when
> someone asks if they can get a t-shirt it's fun to have them print it
> themselves.
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 10:35 AM, Joshua Pritt <ramgarden at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> We have an artist mall type place in an old mill.  There's a t-shirt
> printing place in there.  We were able to save a lot by not paying for
> shipping since we just walked in and picked them up.
> >> It would be worth your time to find a local place.
> >>
> >> On Oct 20, 2013 6:31 AM, "hadez" <hadez.hso at nrrd.de> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 8:40 AM, john lunger <justj1915 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >>> > Anyone know of a cheap place to order t-shirts?
> >>>
> >>> we found a local screen printing company that's actually a rehab
> >>> location for recovering drug addicts.
> >>> they have competitive prices, good service, high quality and the warm
> >>> and fuzzy feeling ;)
> >>>
> >>> regarding the shirts itself we found that going really "cheap" will
> >>> leave you with crappy and thin wares that you wash once and throw
> >>> away.
> >>> but what worked for us is finding a company that just sells plain
> >>> clothing at a good price, buy those and have them printed.
> >>> you might have something similar where you live, so check it out.
> >>> the printing company might be able to recommend a clothing supplier,
> too.
> >>> --
> >>> hadez
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Discuss mailing list
> >>> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> >>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > -Will
> > www.partsandcrafts.org
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
>
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>


-- 
Jesse Krembs
802.233.7051
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