# How do brand name clothing print their designs?



## LOLDiLOL (Nov 13, 2010)

Okay I'm having trouble figuring out how do clothing lines like neff, imaginary foundation, young and reckless, fox, etc. basically all shirts sold at zumiez and pacsun get their designs on shirts

I'm guessing its screen printing, but can anyone confirm this please.


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

It's screen printed, but by the Thousands if not millions at a time. They start printing during the Winter for the following year. 

I have some accounts that we print during the Winter, and than supply replacements for the rest of the year.


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## bornover (Apr 10, 2008)

I also confirm that the majority of what you see in Pac Sun and Zumiez is screen printed. Now and again you will see a few sublimated garments, especially girls stuff. But by and large their stuff is screen printed on automatic presses that do jumbo and/or all over printing. The main countries that you find huge facilities that do the major labels are in South America, Asia, and believe it or not, in the USA.


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

as the other posters have mentioned, the majority is screen printed.


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## MrQuestions (Dec 2, 2010)

This is a great post, and is exactly what I wanted to know. I have a t-shirt press at home, and I too want to make shirts that they sell in stores like zumiez, hot topic, and urban outfitters. Should I have a company make my transfers for me, and then put them on shirts at home myself, or should I just outsource the entire project? If so, where should I go? 

Thanks,

Mr. Questions


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## bornover (Apr 10, 2008)

MrQuestions said:


> This is a great post, and is exactly what I wanted to know. I have a t-shirt press at home, and I too want to make shirts that they sell in stores like zumiez, hot topic, and urban outfitters. Should I have a company make my transfers for me, and then put them on shirts at home myself, or should I just outsource the entire project? If so, where should I go?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Mr. Questions


The garments at retail stores are not heat pressed transfers of any kind, plastisol or not. A heat transfer does not have the durability required in a retail environment. Screen printed garments are done on a screen printing press (manual or auto) and the inks (plastisol, waterbase, discharge) are cured in a conveyor dryer. This method offers high durability and washfastness. 

Sublimated garments, although a heat press is used in the printing process, is also a super durable printing method that has superior washfastness as well. The heat presses used in commercial production of sublimated garments are huge and can infuse the dye into very large pieces of polyester fabric. 

Sublimation is not a "Heat Transfer" type of printing method, it is a method that uses heat to infuse the dye into the fabric fibers. Heat transfer printing using vinyl, pigment ink or plastisol ink is a method where the vinyl or ink is attached to the top of the fabric, not infused into the fabric fibers. Heat transfer printing has its place, especially in the economical one of a kind custom market.

If you want to market product the same quality as in the stores mentioned, you would want to outsource the production of the garments or invest a significant amount of money and time to produce your product your self.


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

Thanks Born Over. This site is slowing becoming a Transfer sites with fewer screen printers.


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## MrQuestions (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks, Bornover! I've talked to some printers who make screen printed transfers. Is that good, or is that still not what I need when it comes to making commercial quality shirts? And, is there a company you'd recommend?


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## bornover (Apr 10, 2008)

MrQuestions said:


> Thanks, Bornover! I've talked to some printers who make screen printed transfers. Is that good, or is that still not what I need when it comes to making commercial quality shirts? And, is there a company you'd recommend?


I would not recommend that route if you are trying to start your own brand to sell in retail stores. What I encourage you to do is work more on the designs and marketing of your product and to outsource your production. Depending on what market you are going to go after, you may not even need real samples to show to get sales. What you do need is finished designs and your production sourced before you tell a company you can deliver product.

You may need real samples to show depending on what market you are in. If so, you can get samples made (at premium price) to show the fit and quality. But you are not really worried about samples being expensive if you are going after volume sales to your clients.

People here can better recommend things and help you get going in the right direction if you offer more information as to what it is exactly you want to do. You know, what type of garments into to what stores.

To get your brand into retail stores is a daunting task, but not impossible. It takes time, hard work, resources and staying in the game not giving up. 

I have sold lots of garments and graphic art. I am still working to get my brand into large distribution. I have a vision of exactly how I want to do this and am a particularly uncompromising person. This makes my task to get into large distribution even harder, but that has been my choice. There are a few people here on the forum who have made it into mainline retail stores in malls and such. Hopefully one or two of them will see this thread and chime in. I can't remember their forum names to do a search on, but you should be able to find some search results that have some of what they have shared here already.


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## MrQuestions (Dec 2, 2010)

Wow, Bornover, you've got a lot of great information, and by the sound of it, a lot of experience. I literally am just starting out. I have a website that's nearly finished, and designs that I've made using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, but they've yet to be printed because I am still sort of foggy about which way to go, although, I feel like I may be finding direction because of your advice. I got some samples from Versatrans, and while they were good, they didn't seem like what I needed to make the same commercial quality of the shirts in Hot Topic, and Urban Outfitters. I'm primarily concerned with selling cotton tees, maybe cotton/polyester tees with words or images on them that don't have a hard plastic-y feel to them, but moreso, seem like they're part of the garment itself on my website first. Then, as I gain more success, I'll focus on getting into stores.


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## The Youngin (Nov 26, 2007)

Shirts at these stores must be screen printed and be top level at that. To print for stores like hot-topic one must be audited by them to verify that you, your facility, and your supplies meet their criteria. I know this first hand because I'm in the middle of a job for Hot-Topic. 
These types of stores will pull you entire contract just because they found an ink on the rack that isn't certified phalate free.

The auditors also rank facilities to what types of jobs they feel you are qualified for.

It's not nessarily a fun process but it is what you are required to do.

Jason


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## csstyles (Dec 4, 2010)

I work for a company that actually prints designs for other companies like Urban Outfitters and Hot Topic and there are two ways we do these large all over prints. First, is on the automatic press with very large pallets and they can print over collars and seams or the other way is we print on piece of fabric and sent the printed fabric to a company that specializes in "cut and sews" which can be very expensive. We usually use a waterbase or a waterbase discharge inks, when washed there is no feel to the design.


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## The Youngin (Nov 26, 2007)

csstyles said:


> I work for a company that actually prints designs for other companies like Urban Outfitters and Hot Topic and there are two ways we do these large all over prints. First, is on the automatic press with very large pallets and they can print over collars and seams or the other way is we print on piece of fabric and sent the printed fabric to a company that specializes in "cut and sews" which can be very expensive. We usually use a waterbase or a waterbase discharge inks, when washed there is no feel to the design.


100% correct !!! It's not an easy process but it's just the way it must be. We also do a lot of mixed designs that employ waterbased, specialty plastisol and foils.


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## bornover (Apr 10, 2008)

MrQuestions said:


> ... I literally am just starting out. I have a website that's nearly finished, and designs that I've made using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, but they've yet to be printed because I am still sort of foggy about which way to go ...


From your comments, it seems you do not own much printing equipment right now, and your goal is not to be a promotional printer or local community print shop, but to have your own apparel brand. If that is correct, like I mentioned earlier, your focus should be on design, marketing and production sourcing. 

There are many contract printers that can produce product for you at very good prices. The samples would be expensive, but a production run gives you per piece prices that are very low. I believe, when you are ready, you definitely want to outsource your production with a good contract printer or two.



MrQuestions said:


> I got some samples from Versatrans, and while they were good, they didn't seem like what I needed to make the same commercial quality of the shirts in Hot Topic, and Urban Outfitters.


Your observation is exactly right. I believe only two apparel printing methods are acceptable in a true retail environment; screen printing and sublimation. Possibly Direct to Garment (DTG) printing could be ready for retail as well. But I still have some reservations about durability and washfastness, plus DTG is an expensive and slow process compared to screen printing.



MrQuestions said:


> I'm primarily concerned with selling cotton tees, maybe cotton/polyester tees with words or images on them that don't have a hard plastic-y feel to them, but moreso, seem like they're part of the garment itself on my website first.


With cotton garments that are 100% cotton, or cotton/poly blends that are primarily cotton, you have to screen print, sublimation is not an option with those fabrics. With screen printing, to get a print with what we call "no hand" (meaning you can't feel the ink on the garment), inks such as Jason mentioned are used; water base and discharge. But a design that purposely incorporates a tactile feel on the garment with specialty inks, like gels, puffs and flocks, is also very popular (but I would recommend to wait on designs like this until you have a good handle on understanding these inks). Then there are foils and metallics which are really cool as well for the super shiny and highlight stuff.

If doing some garments that were 100% polyester or poly/cotton blends that are primarily polyester, you then sublimate. Sublimation has absolutely zero hand, is super robust and virtually does not fade. Now with those wonderful things said about sublimation, here are the main drawbacks of sublimation. You can really only sublimate white fabric, so any colors have to be sublimated along with the design. For example, if you want a design on a black garment, you have to add the black color to the white fabric in the printing process. This leads to having to do cut & sew (meaning added cost) if you do not want any voids on the garment when printed. Also, sublimation inks are quite a bit more expensive than screen printing inks. 



MrQuestions said:


> Then, as I gain more success, I'll focus on getting into stores.


I recommend that before you invest a lot of money on having product made, you need to have a sales channel in place that you can expect to have a reasonable amount of traffic, in your target demographic, directed to. You need a marketing strategy way more than you need product sitting on shelves tying up your money while you are hoping people find your website. Never ever produce produce for retail stores before you have commercial buyers and contracts. In that arena, you sell first, produce second.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

To say that heat transfer are not viable in a retail store is just wrong.......May not be the best quality but certainly works in some instances......I know at least 1 wagon jobber that travels across Canada calling on mostly sporting good stores.....

He goes into the stores, sells and order and then presses the shirts on demand in his old school bus.....He has 100s if not thousands on sports designs in his collection.....

Certainly not a "get rich" scheme but profitable and a great way to see the country.....


In my local Walmart I see some "tourist" type tees that are heat transfers....Also in Marks Work Wearhouse I see heat transfer....


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