# T shirt services without digital printing



## reado (Feb 10, 2009)

Hey.

I've been trying to create a T-shirt website while trying to avoid digital printing (as I've been lead to believe that they produce lower quality t-shirts).

This lead me to begin using spreadshirt for the flock and flex printing services. However since they are extremely restrictive on how many colours you can use and also on what can and can't be printed I've head a dead end.

Does anyone know of a decent t shirt site that offers similar services to Spreadshirt?

Thanks.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Check out printmojo.com. they use silkscreening.


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## reado (Feb 10, 2009)

Oh thanks.

I was considering PrintMojo but since I want to do this as a hobby I was looking for drop shipping as well.

I guess I can't have everything!


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

They drop ship.


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## reado (Feb 10, 2009)

Ah yes sorry my mistake. I meant print on demand.


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## nycmerch (Mar 29, 2009)

How many are you printing on demand at a time? a dozen or two? More?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I've been trying to create a T-shirt website while trying to avoid digital printing (as I've been lead to believe that they produce lower quality t-shirts).


Print on Demand will always be done by "digital printing".

Digital printing could mean DTG, sometimes it means dye sublimation, sometimes it means heat transfers.

I wouldn't get put off by some reports of the quality of digital printing. The print on demand places like Zazzle, Spreadshirt, CafePress print for 1000's of customers a day and get lots of repeat business and high customer ratings.

Because they have such a high volume of customers, you will see reports of bad prints, but that will be true for just about any company.

Overall, the printing from those companies is very high, and mistakes are the exception, not the norm.

If you want printing on demand, then cafepress, zazzle, printfection, spreadshirt, etc are the way to go.

Screen printing will not be done as a print on demand service. It's just too labor intensive and has a totally different setup process than DTG, dye sub, flex or other types of digital printing.


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## reado (Feb 10, 2009)

Hmm ok so would you suggest that digital printing would be fine and that I should not worry digital printing and just go for that?


Also I am setting this up for a hobby and have no idea how many t-shirts I would be printing at a time. So the cheapest and easiest set up is probably the best.


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## nycmerch (Mar 29, 2009)

if you dont have any idea of what you are looking at for runsd.. which means you can be printing one or 2 shirts at a time... DTG is the only option. 

Good luck with it.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

reado said:


> Hmm ok so would you suggest that digital printing would be fine and that I should not worry digital printing and just go for that?
> 
> 
> Also I am setting this up for a hobby and have no idea how many t-shirts I would be printing at a time. So the cheapest and easiest set up is probably the best.


Yes, I would suggest that you try out digital printing 

Since there are generally no minimums, all you have to do is upload your design and buy one from one (or more) of the print on demand services like printfection, spreadshirt, cafepress, zazzle, etc and see how you like it. They all stand behind their products.

If you want low startup and _no_ minimums, it's pretty much the only way to go.


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## reado (Feb 10, 2009)

Okay thanks guys. I'll just have to sacrifice my desire to be a perfectionist just this once.


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## yodude711 (Feb 20, 2010)

Rodney said:


> Print on Demand will always be done by "digital printing".


Not true anymore. Yes, screen printing is labor intensive and the setup is a whole different process, but if you search long enough and hard enough, you can find a screen printer that is willing to screen print shirts on demand and drop ship them out to your customer. 

This is what I do in my own online t-shirt business.


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## Dennis Graves (Apr 27, 2009)

yodude, I just visited your On Demand site. You don't seem very fond of digital printing. I went through your order form to find out how much you would charge to print 1 white shirt with a 2 color front and 2 color back.

The order form came up with $72 plus shipping, for 1 shirt.

Did I do it right?

I realize the $35 set-up fee really kills the single shirt order and would be lower per shirt if I ordered 10 shirts. It was hard to tell if the $35 would be charged on re-orders, but it looks like it isn't.

Thanks,

Dennis Graves


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## yodude711 (Feb 20, 2010)

hey dennis,
you must have gone to the NoMinimum site since the OnDemand site is not up and running yet for you to get a price quote. 

the two sites will have 2 different pricing structures, the NoMinimum site is setup for people that want to order custom designed shirts one or two times. the OnDemand site will be setup for people that want to print a particular shirt design over and over again, as you would if you were selling them online or offline. 

on NoMinimum, the setup fee is $35 flat each time for non-wholesale members. on OnDemand, the setup fee will be around $30/screen, but will only be charged the FIRST time a design is ordered - no screen or setup fees for future orders. 

not sure what you may have selected to order to get your price up to $72 plus shipping, but if you go to the order page on NoMinimum and price it out for a basic gildan t-shirt with a 2-color imprint on front, and a 2-color imprint on back, it should come out to $52 plus shipping. 

HOWEVER, if you sign up as a "Wholesale Buyer's Club Member" you can get the maximum bulk discount automatically applied to any size order. so the price for that same shirt would then be $36.72 plus shipping. the wholesale buyer's club membership fee is only $17/month, so if you ordered more than one shirt in a month, the membership would pay for itself. sort of like buying a season pass to disneyland. if you go to the park at least twice in one year, the season pass pays for itself. i'm sure you get the idea. 

you can check the wholesale pricing yourself before becoming a member by using the wholesale demo shopping cart. just click "wholesale club" in the navbar at the top and you'll see the link there towards the middle of the page. 

keep in mind, our pricing does not include discounts for white shirts as opposed to dark colored shirts. on the flip side of that, we do not charge extra for XXL or bigger sizes. just one flat price for each type of shirt no matter what color or size. 

hope this helps!


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## mailbag (Aug 10, 2009)

yodude711 said:


> on NoMinimum, the setup fee is $35 flat each time for non-wholesale members. on OnDemand, the setup fee will be around $30/screen, but will only be charged the FIRST time a design is ordered - no screen or setup fees for future orders.


If I wanted to have the ability to print a design on both dark and light colored shirts would I need to pay $30 for two different screen setups or could the same screen be used to print different colored versions of the same design?


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

mailbag said:


> If I wanted to have the ability to print a design on both dark and light colored shirts would I need to pay $30 for two different screen setups or could the same screen be used to print different colored versions of the same design?


Not sure what the charge would be, different printers charge different prices, but to print on dark garments, it would be considered a 2 color job. White base plus the top color.

You could get away with 1 screen if the top color is also white. Otherwise you would need 2 screens.


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## yodude711 (Feb 20, 2010)

mailbag said:


> If I wanted to have the ability to print a design on both dark and light colored shirts would I need to pay $30 for two different screen setups or could the same screen be used to print different colored versions of the same design?


Unfortunately, you'd have to have 2 different "Designs" with us, aka 2 different screen setups. I understand what you're saying about it being the same screens, however, to keep everything straight in the order system so that there's absolutely no confusion, each individual "Design" must be defined by not only its screens, but also the ink colors used in the print. 

Plus, if you are printing on light- and dark-colored shirts, sometimes there are actually different screens needed for the dark-colored shirts - an underbase screen if you are printing lighter colors on darker shirts. We would not charge you for this underbase screen, but this is an example of why we would need to keep the 2 Designs separate - totally different colors used, different process.


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