# What is Threadless start up stock?



## nocrid (Jun 10, 2006)

I come across this thread http://www.t-shirtforums.com/business-finance/t86647.html

and others recommended by the system but I couldn't find what I want. I hope I am not repeating those threads here.

I am starting a website/portal doing competition of t-shirts design only for students from some design school design school in my place. Something what Threadless and DesignByHuman is doing.

*I am wondering how Threadless (those started from small) have their stocks ready for selling. I mean if there are 10 designs per day coming in, and they decided to print it out. A dozen of each design will cost them huge fortune. I don't know if they really print it out all of them but for me I would like to minimize the stock/inventory as low as possible. I was hoping to print upon order.*

I owned a heatpress and some printers doing heat transfer tees but heat transfer only comply limited designs' criteria. 

I know some of the printing ways that offer cheap sampling such as DTG, but the quality is not that consistent due to the infancy of the technology (correct me if I am wrong).


----------



## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Threadless does about $30 million in sales a year, so they can afford to print and stock the vast number of tees they produce. I believe their blog may have some pictures of their warehouse. It's huge.

How many designs do you anticipate having available for sale at any one time?

Screenprinting multiple color designs on-demand will bankrupt you. 

You could do plastisol transfers. These are screen printed designs on paper instead of directly on the shirts. You would need a heat press to apply them. This way, you could keep stock down to a minimum, and heat press the designs on shirts as orders are received. It would also allow you to offer designs on more than one color shirt without having to worry about warehousing a large inventory of shirts.


----------



## nocrid (Jun 10, 2006)

splathead said:


> Threadless does about $30 million in sales a year, so they can afford to print and stock the vast number of tees they produce. I believe their blog may have some pictures of their warehouse. It's huge.


Yeah...but during their *day one* when they started it and with the concept of print on demand on any approved/winning design, how they keep the stock to print on demand?



splathead said:


> How many designs do you anticipate having available for sale at any one time?


Once the launch is done, it will be around 50-100 designs a week because we have reached a deal with the lecturers and teachers of these design schools to make it as an assignment/curriculum. 



splathead said:


> You could do plastisol transfers. These are screen printed designs on paper instead of directly on the shirts. You would need a heat press to apply them. This way, you could keep stock down to a minimum, and heat press the designs on shirts as orders are received. It would also allow you to offer designs on more than one color shirt without having to worry about warehousing a large inventory of shirts.


It's a good idea using plastisol but then again, there is a minimum quantity that I need to comply as it is screenprint only now we "delay" one of the step of putting it on the t-shirts.


Thanks for the reply.


----------



## ReThink Clothing (Jan 15, 2008)

Printing on order you will never make any money. After artist fee's and all other expenses print on demand only works if you are huge and can use others to do everything for you. It might help you start, but printing 50-100 designs a week is going to be incredibly time consuming and overload the customers who already have too many options.


----------



## aminaic (Dec 18, 2009)

splathead said:


> Threadless does about $30 million in sales a year, so they can afford to print and stock the vast number of tees they produce. I believe their blog may have some pictures of their warehouse. It's huge.
> 
> How many designs do you anticipate having available for sale at any one time?
> 
> ...


wow..30 million I did NOT know they were so big...WHAT A SHOCK


----------



## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

aminaic said:


> wow..30 million I did NOT know they were so big...WHAT A SHOCK


Yeah, I was pretty shocked myself. Here is the article The Customer is the Company: How Threadless Uses Crowdsourcing


----------



## sdguy (Nov 18, 2009)

ReThink Clothing said:


> Printing on order you will never make any money. After artist fee's and all other expenses print on demand only works if you are huge and can use others to do everything for you. It might help you start, but printing 50-100 designs a week is going to be incredibly time consuming and overload the customers who already have too many options.


If using plastisol transfers like splathead suggested, it seems that an independent operator can stock transfers and produce shirts as orders come in to reduce inventory and offer more colors. I think I read that with a heat press someone can make 30 shirts an hour or so. Am I wrong?


----------



## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

sdguy said:


> I think I read that with a heat press someone can make 30 shirts an hour or so. Am I wrong?



The dwell time on plastisol transfers is only 8 seconds or so. So conceivable, if you were in production mode, you could easily do 100+ shirts an hour.


----------



## sdguy (Nov 18, 2009)

So if someone can buy a heat press for like $800, stock plastisol transfers, and then pick up shirts and produce product as orders come in, it seems like a decent solution for an on-demand business. What am I missing?


----------



## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

sdguy said:


> What am I missing?


Nothing 

See my post #2 above.


----------



## sdguy (Nov 18, 2009)

Hah! Must not have processed that last bit. Do you have much experience with plastisol transfers? I have some design experience and a lot of ideas (who doesn't?) and am thinking about trying the heat transfer method to see if I can sell some shirts. I've read that they're soft hand but aren't an option with white, tho I've also read white is available, so not sure at this point. Are there any factors that I'm completely missing as a noob?


----------



## Flagrant-T (Nov 11, 2009)

The only thing to be careful with plastisol transfers, is that if you are doing trendy or fashion clothing (which I imagine you will be doing for art students) you will probably want to use a hot split or hot peal transfer. In general, these are priced by number of colors, and to an extent, size.

A lot of colors in smaller orders of transfers can get expensive in a hurry. 

If you are dealing with art students, you might want to put some parameters on your designs (e.g. 3 colors, 12” X 14” max) before you have a bunch of 12 color – all over prints.

Good luck!
Nick


----------



## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

sdguy said:


> Hah! Must not have processed that last bit. Do you have much experience with plastisol transfers? I have some design experience and a lot of ideas (who doesn't?) and am thinking about trying the heat transfer method to see if I can sell some shirts. I've read that they're soft hand but aren't an option with white, tho I've also read white is available, so not sure at this point. Are there any factors that I'm completely missing as a noob?


Yes I have a lot of experience with plastisol transfers. They can be applied to any color garment, including white garments &/or white ink. Just like screen printing, if you are applying to dark garments, they should have a white ink underbase.

However, plastisol transfers do have about the same hand as if you screen printed directly to the shirt. 

I think you are confusing plastisol transfers with inkjet transfers? Totally different animals.


----------



## sdguy (Nov 18, 2009)

Maybe I am, I thought I'd read that plastisols are a better heat transfer method because of longevity and ability to print white, but maybe I'm wrong. I should probably search the site for more info on each, do you know of any other good resources off-hand for me to pick up the differences?


----------

