# Looking for Heat Press Vendor



## diveares (Oct 26, 2010)

Need a quality Heat press vendor in the NYC area that can print SHORT RUN on BLACK SHIRTS. Photographs are my stock in trade. I have shirt accounts to ship blanks if needed. Most vendors are too expensive, too small (one man bands), unreliable, bad quality press or bad quality cuts. Please help. I do not need a link to 50,000 poorly filtered NYC vendors that silkscreen.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

Sounds like you'd be better off buying a heat press and doing the work yourself. There are very few methods for printing on black shirts. Screen printing is one, DTG is another, heat pressing plastisol prints is yet another. There are heat transfers for dark fabrics but I've never heard a good review on them. If you want to print photos on those shirts I think DTG would be your best bet. They can do short runs.


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## diveares (Oct 26, 2010)

lben said:


> Sounds like you'd be better off buying a heat press and doing the work yourself. There are very few methods for printing on black shirts. Screen printing is one, DTG is another, heat pressing plastisol prints is yet another. There are heat transfers for dark fabrics but I've never heard a good review on them. If you want to print photos on those shirts I think DTG would be your best bet. They can do short runs.


Can't to do the work myself. Proper equipment too expensive for me. I am a photographer and have enough jobs to cover that description alone. Am using DTG for my higher line. Had a printer last year that did almost acceptable work but did poor cutting and had a nasty attitude. I know laser cutters exist, trying to find vendors that do it and can handle short runs. FYI - overall not happy with the quality of dealing with this business. Quality is not a priority of most vendors. Very disappointed.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

:: Service request post moved to the proper Service Referrals/Recommendations section of the forum. Read more here  ::​


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I know laser cutters exist, trying to find vendors that do it and can handle short runs


Can you clarify what type of heat transfers you're looking for?

You said "laser cutters" but that's not an apparel decoration method I'm familiar with.

There are:

Vinyl Transfers (made with a vinyl cutter)
Inkjet heat transfers (made with a desktop inkjet printer)
Laser Heat transfers (made with a desktop laser printer)
Eco-solvent transfer (made with a vinyl cutter that doubles as a printer)
Plastisol transfers (made by a screen printer who prints onto transfer paper)
Dye sublimation (made with a desktop printer and only goes on 100% polyester white t-shirts)



> Most vendors are too expensive, too small (one man bands), unreliable, bad quality press or bad quality cuts


What do you consider "too expensive"? 

The price usually depends on how many t-shirts you're getting printed of the same design and the type of heat transfers you need.

If you don't want a professional that charges the appropriate amount for their time and experience that allows them to do a quality job or a smaller (one man band) shop that may have less overhead but a similar skillset, unfortunately it sounds like you may be narrowing your options too much to allow us to give you a useful recommendation.



> Am using DTG for my higher line


DTG can be used for all types of printing. It doesn't have to just be higher end stuff.


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## diveares (Oct 26, 2010)

Reply agin tomorrow. Sunday night and fading. Good questions and better prepared actually on Tuesday. Please resend then.


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