If you are like me you have entered the world of shirts with plenty of questions in mind including what type of shirts to buy for your business, Where to buy them and how to get your art onto said shirts. Today I will give you a brief overview of my intro to the world of Plastisol transfers as an option for printing on Tees.
Plastisol Transfers (for those who may not know) is the process of screen printing directly onto transfers for later use.
Here are some advantages to Plastisol Transfers
-Can store thousands of them without taking up much space (literally the size of paper sheets).
-Helps manage shirt inventory (will not waste shirts you do not need because you can easily apply to each order).
-Will save time ( pressing transfers take usually 8-10 seconds each and you are done)
-Less labor and time on transfers is more time you can focus on customers and sales
-Low cost to start- Screen printing can cost 15,000-20,000 and upwards for all of the correct equipment. All you need to apply transfers is a good heat press that you can pick up for around $250.
-Good Quality. Screen printing is as popular as it is because it works and it lasts. Plastisol transfers are essentially screen printing. Same process and ink but with one more step in between application.
-Almost zero clean up. Screen printing can be a big hassle to clean up with all of the inks on several different screens. With transfers you peel the sheet off the shirt and dispose!
- Can make to order!
Difficulties with transfers
-lots of transfer companies to choose from, hard to know who to use.
-No transfer type is exactly alike so allot of people have issues figuring out pressure, temperature and time to set their heat press at.
-Might waste transfers figuring out correct heat press settings.
Transfers are generally more expensive in comparison to Screen printing shirts directly.
Set up fees with screen printers for screens and colors can be steep.
Dont let this detour you from Plastisol transfers though! Some websites offer vary reasonable rates as well as great quality and I believe along with many others that it is well worth your while!
So you might end up paying a bit more for a transfer in the long run then on a Screen print order but like mentioned earlier (YOU SAVE TIME). Have you ever heard the popular expression "Time is money friend!?" I thought so. With little time pressing the shirts and little to no clean up you have all the time in the world to advertise and to establish yourself with your customers. You get to do all of this while the hard work dedicated screen printer next door is locked away in the back with all of his/her messy inks. When you start thinking in terms of how $/hr of work and consider the time you save you are actually making out ahead. For this reason you can charge a reasonable price and crank out much more product to make up for the small amount of difference that could be in the initial investment of the transfers. Also with second time orders of transfers you can look for companies that only charge a per color charge or just a screen charge which saves for returning customers. Bulk buying in any case will just about always get discounts as well (watch out for shipping). Free shipping is always a plus.
Ganging your prints. Being able to gang multiple images on one transfer is always a big $$$ saver to look for. For example we offer tee's with prints on just the pocket area. With a 3-3 1/2 inch print we can put 9 images onto 1 transfer sheet. Even with minimal orders we end up paying just a little over 1$ per image in this case.
If you have a reliable shirt wholesaler that is in driving distance you don't even have to buy your shirts until you get orders. This way you can save on $$$ up front. We use an online shirt company for better quality shirts then what is available over on the Oregon Coast but in case of emergency (out of extra large's or so fourth) we can get some shirts last minutes from a local vender as to keep our customers from waiting!
Though I am all for the promotion of screen printing and sublimation processes I do not recommend any other transfers other then Plastisol. I have done countless hours of searching transferring and using jet-pro and others that claim to be the best on the market but have found that though they have come along way from years back they do not last like Plastisol does. If you sell home printed versions to customers you will probably have angry customers who will not return. I ended up gifting out all of the trials I went through to family while letting them know that they were good only for a few wears. (photo on left is a plastisol Jet opaque Iron on heat transfer after 1 wash. The actual graphic felt like paper on the shirt and the snow flakes (white spots began expanding) color began wearing away from sides after just one wash.Some Companies I will recommend.
Dowling Graphics.
I did thorough research before choosing to try Dowling with plenty of great reviews read. You can send a message and request a packet of examples from them and they will get back to you about immediately. They have excellent customer service. Are vary helpful and will send you actual "exact"quotes on projects. They charge a per hour to turn your art into a vector format if it is not already and can usually start projects within a couple days. Watch out for deals on their website because certain times you can luck upon things like (half off Screens and inks) which will cut initial purchase pricing immensely. Second time orders are only a $10 charge per color which is nice. Getting a art reformatted printed and shipped to us only took about 1 week (business days). My only issue was that the shipping charges seemed steeper then they should have been. We will definitely continue doing business with Dowling though for the quality of the transfers were amazing. Sturdy but soft and vibrant! Dowling's prices definitely budget out better ganging pictures and with larger orders!
First edition
Like Dowling you can request some transfers to test the product. First edition also has vary fast customer service from what we experienced. For art work they quote about the same per hour as Dowling but did not give an exact quote on how many hours it would take. About a week and a half and we received our Test transfers free of charge. Be careful when you open the transfers not to start tossing them around because they send a few different types which are both hot split and cold peel. Hard to determine which are which if you aren't experienced or separate them from the instructions. The transfers went onto the shirts easily and beautifully. Vary user friendly with nice colors. They have lots of attractive gem and glitter colors that they show off as well. Its nice to test out both the cold and hot split transfers to see the difference if you are new to the transfers.
F&M Expressions
This is a good one to go for lower quantity orders. It seems to be popular in the tee community because they do not have a upfront charge on screens and inks. They have special deal 15cent transfers for single color projects which would work great on a budget. We just requested some transfers to test out and will get back to you after use.
Remember- A good way to test transfers is to take one and cut it up into multiple pieces. This way you can test it multiple times on different color garments and get your heat press to optimal settings!
This blog will be updated as we further test recommended companies for your benefit.
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