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Just bought a DyeSub printer…
A customer/supplier/friend took me down to the printwear and promotion show last weekend, as he’s not really interested in doing our smaller jobs, yet assures me there’s money to be made if I do it myself.
We already have the solvent printer and plotter and used to do t-shirts when I first set out, but working from a shop it seemed to be more trouble than it was worth, mainly being mithered for 1off shirts.
As we’re no longer on the high street, and doing more commercial work we’ve just bought a new Sawgrass A3+ printer, mug press & hearpress.
Like the look of the Grafityp Grafi-C colour transfer vinyl, and BTC & PenCarrie are looking good for clothing suppliers.
Any suggestions of the best place to source Sub Paper, mugs and anything else we can now print?
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12 Replies
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Not sure if I can do this, please delete admin if I can’t, go over to
http://www.dyesubforum.co.uk and have a good look here. -
Xpres or the magic touch are always good for ink and consumables when it comes to sublimation in my experience.
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Hi David,
I make most garments as an add on for existing customers and do quite well from it, I get 95% of my clothing from Ralawise.com and my textile vinyl is almost exclusively the siser PS film from Grafityp.I generally buy my sawgrass inks (for the A3 ricoh) from Magic Touch. I had a couple of expensive issues with two of their films (purchased through ralawise at the time) which involved the film being a nightmare to get stuck – I ultimately used so much pressure that hoodies came out as flat as tee’s but it still fell off withn days or at best, in the first wash. TMT said it was my methods / heatpress at fault – despite the siser film and other colours working perfectly the same day and blew me out… I will never go back to their films.
If you’re doing sub, the AWDI t’s are ok but thin, as are most these days, for sporty / event stuff I use a lot of the Ralawise awdi performance tee’s which have a great range of colours that you can sub on to.
I generally avoid mugs and the like -unless the customer is prepared to pay a sensible price and the job affords decent xpres mugs.
The siser just works 100% every time.
regards,
Hugh -
Cheers Guys,
Hugh we’re in a similar situation here, the guy we use now to print workwear isn’t interested in 2-3 garments, and we’re missing out on a fair bit of work branding hoodies etc for existing clients.
I’m not sure though which designs are better dye sub printed, or transfer printed, suppose that’ll come with experience.
The mug’s is just another add on, but again we’re not going to mess about doing singles, and have minimum order quantities on those.
I’m planning to get some samples of hoodies etc in and print some up, for customers to see the sizes/colours, and just use a small range of clothing.
What brand/make of hoodies/jumpers/tee’s would you recommend as a half decent garment?
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We use Gildan T’s and hoodies for transfer printing and get mugs from BMS
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Any particular hoodie/shirt from the Gildan range??
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Gildan 5000 and 2000 for T’s and 18500 and 12500 for hoodies, most customers are happy with the 5000 and 18500 range.
We also use Gildan Polos, the DryBlend ones are quite popular.
Ask the supplier for swatch books for Gildan, Fruit of the Loom, etc as the colours in the catalogue are not accurate.
We use Grafityp PS textile vinyls, ask them for a swatch book as well. -
Hi David,
I do do the odd small order but try to do minimums of five, anything less than ten I usually tell them there’s a £12 courier charge on small orders.I do quite a few for events etc, those I try to dye sub but it’s not always possible, large quantities I’ll sub to a screen printer but that’s rare.
if people order ones or two’s I’ll tell them thats fine, there’s either a £10 surcharge or they can wait until I have a larger order to complete and do them then, otherwise it’s just not worth turning the heat press on for one or two tee’s.
to be fair though, charging £13 for a £2 tee with a quids worth of textile film on the back & front is ok if you’re doing other stuff while it’s heating up – as long as it’s not a ridiculously fiddly design.
Had a guy come in yesterday, dropped off 30 hoodies he’d got himself, £5 each to print a simple two colour logo on the rear only, will be 2-3hrs work and £25 of material so relatively hassle free money really!
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I also use the Gildan brand as my ‘go to’ garments,
the dryblend hoods are good but I found the polo’s and tee’s didn’t hold shape so well – thus i tend to just use their ultra cotton / heavy blend / premium ranges for that.
AWDI vartisy hoodies are also very popular with the contrasting lining, also the awdi ‘Chunky’ hood is a good buy for those wanting heavier hoods.
both brands are good ‘value workwear’, I base my pricing on them and then go up accordingly.
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Just ordering in some samples of the Gildan Hoodies/Tee’s/Sweats & polo’s and some soft shell jackets, and the russell shirts that can be dye sub printed. Going to print them up to show the print quality/colours.
As it’s more of an add on we’re providing, we’re keeping choice of garments to a minimum, with a choice of colours & sizes to try on. The garments will be priced, but with a min order quantity or value as you say Hugh.
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Fruit of the Loom for polos and Kustom Kit too.
RTY are good for sweatshirts, least shrinkage
AWD for Hoodies
Gildan for T shirts.If you get a chance have a look at Papini, real quality http://papini.co.uk/
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Cheers Guys,
Got some Gildan Samples on order should be with tomorrow.
Now I need to work out how to price it. We run clarity so the print side is straight forward, just determining the margin on the garments and time pressing.
Same with other Dye Sub items, I need to work out how we will price those, as clarity doesnt quite work on that size printer.
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