# Bring your steak - customers who want to supply their own garments for printing



## ineedtshirts (Aug 15, 2007)

Dear retail,

Would you bring a steak to a restaurant and ask them to cook it for you?

Who started this trend? Small embroidery shops, economy, wholesalers selling to public.....

I average at least 4 calls per week asking if they can provide their own tees for our company to print. 

Isn't a retail t-shirt shop supposed to seek out the best deals on apparel and provide the savings to the customer? Along with design help and quality printing.

Regards,
Joe Printer


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## thutch15 (Sep 8, 2008)

*Re: Bring your steak*

haha good point... they for some reason think they are saving money. I will gladly do it, but I am going to charge for the markup in items that I am losing anyway.


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## gr8t100 (Feb 3, 2011)

*Re: Bring your steak*

god forbid ppl ask for a customized meal, next thing you know they will be for things to be taken out due to allergic reactions. Simply monsters!

Sorry but I gotta disagree on this. Sometimes there is a specific shirt the people calling you want to go with. If they have already made the purchase then it is their right to at least ask if they can provide them while you offer your t-shirt services. Just like it is your option to reject them because of the fact you work solely w/ a specific brand.

But as someone who does work with shirts and is also capable of creating my own graphics I sometimes need work done on vinyl that I cannot create. Thus I go to a vinyl store and provide them my own designs and ask them to use it instead of their designer creating something because it actually makes everyone else's life easier.

My $0.02 on the topic.


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## Louie2010 (Feb 26, 2010)

*Re: Bring your steak*

Personally, I most always take the position I only embroider on goods that I provide. So I agree with the position you take with the customer. I don't agree that there is, or even should be some type of rule.

I do think the food analogy is a poor one because of the laws and health departments overseeing the food industry makes this not even an option.

I can think of some analogy's that are more relevant.

I know of people that order their own carpet from some discount mill in GA and pay locals shops to install it.

I know of people that contract a home builder to just be a general contractor for them and to oversee all the subs for them. The home owner actually pays all the material and subs himself and the contractor usually only gets either a set fee or a cost plus arrangement. 

In both cases above, I know that the carpet store or the contractor would most often prefer to run the material through their business as well in order to maximize their profits. In comparison shirts are just penny's to these examples.

There are probably other examples as well.

I think the important thing is for each business to have a clear vision of what works best for them and to focus on doing that. Come up with a sales presentation that encourages the customer to *want *to use your methods.

I just recently did a job for a place that for years always bought shirts from WalMart and had them embroidered. They didn't even care much for entertaining a quote with me providing the shirts. I put together a sales pitch that not only got me the order, but has them excited about being able to order again from me in the fall. (they already mentioned it twice)

The ironic part is the embroiderer that used to do their shirts has now lost the account because they didn't sell the customer on the benefits of using them as a complete service. They probably thought it was easiest to take the path of least resistance by just simply providing what the customer "thought" they wanted.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

*Re: Bring your steak*



> Would you bring a steak to a restaurant and ask them to cook it for you?


I was just at a car dealership yesterday and a guy brought in his own oil for an oil change and the dealership didn't bat an eye in offering him an oil change. They smiled, got the job, and pleased the customer.

It's not as crazy sounding as it seems for people to want to try to save money or handle as much of the process as they can.

I think part of the issue is that screen printers have often marked up the cost of the blanks as a profit center instead of building their profits solely into the printing they provide.

So when a customer brings in their own garments, it cuts into profits that they expected for the whole job when that shouldn't necessarily be the case.

If you price the printing to make sure you make enough profit on the printing and then price the blanks markup separately, then it won't matter as much whether you have a customer supplying blanks or if you provide that service for customers who don't want to or don't know how to source their own.

Another issue is that customers find that some printers aren't very flexible with the blanks they will source. So if the customer wanted to use American Apparel, but the printer doesn't have an account or only knows that buying from American Apparel directly has weird minimums (instead of buying them from a distributor with no minimums), then the printer might be turned off with using AA. So the customer may want to source their own blanks so they can get the product they want.

As long as you have systems in place to deal with customer supplied garments (terms of service, communication with the customer, not blanks from Wal-Mart, etc), then it shouldn't be too much of an issue


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## JohnBee (Nov 28, 2010)

why not..... i'd cook their steak for them no problem if they agree with my price that i am happy with... i'd even let them use my plate, fork and spoon and offer them a glass of water.

IMHO, these are still clients and potential good/regular clients that will bring you business or possibly will spread the word about your business... that's how i see it.

and of course, i also see your point clearly.


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## pxs93710 (Jun 21, 2010)

Bottom line is to make a reasonable profit to stay in business. Keep the customer happy and offer them value for their money.


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

i don't think that's a fair comparison, using a restaurant as an example even tho i get what you're saying. 
Most print shops are selling the embellishing service, not the blank garments, that's a bonus in my opinion. If a client can get a better deal on the blanks or wants different blanks then you can provide then what's the issue? you should be making the profit off the embellishing service and any profit off blanks is extra, it's an extra service you are providing. This is one of the reasons print shops get better deals then a walk in customer. In some cases suppliers won't even sell to general public, only manufacturers.


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## selzler (Apr 4, 2007)

Hi:
Right now 90% of my embroidery and printing is done on the customer items. I'm realy starting to like this ajusted my prices and they really don'n seam to mind I'm looking at uping my prices again because costs for shipping is going thru the roof. I do tell them that from time to time things go wrong and we do not replace the items that go bad unless we use the wrong color to print or embroider or miss spell something. I do like the printers and embroiders in my area they think like a lot of people on this site it has to be my items. This mind set is making my business grow so fast. The customer may not be saving money at all but they want to use their items.


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

I stated this in another thread, but I get customers all the time wanting to bring me their own shirts for me to put my designs on. This is why I don't mark up the price of the shirts. All of my price is for the design time and cost of rhinestones. I know you're not talking about rhinestones, but it's the same concept.

I tell people that because I get my shirts wholesale at about $3 each, I will discount the cost of the shirt by $3 if they want to bring me their own. If they argue that, then I explain to them that they've already paid a mark up on their shirt by going to Target or wherever. 

Explain to the customer that you're not profiting from the blank shirt but rather from the service of putting a design on that shirt. That usually goes over really well and people are understanding.


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## LUV DEM TIGERS (Jul 25, 2008)

DivineBling said:


> I stated this in another thread, but I get customers all the time wanting to bring me their own shirts for me to put my designs on. This is why I don't mark up the price of the shirts. All of my price is for the design time and cost of rhinestones. I know you're not talking about rhinestones, but it's the same concept.
> 
> I tell people that because I get my shirts wholesale at about $3 each, I will discount the cost of the shirt by $3 if they want to bring me their own. If they argue that, then I explain to them that they've already paid a mark up on their shirt by going to Target or wherever.
> 
> Explain to the customer that you're not profiting from the blank shirt but rather from the service of putting a design on that shirt. That usually goes over really well and people are understanding.




That's pretty much what I do. If I have a set price for a shirt plus the print/embroidery/rhinestone then if they bring the shirts, I just back out my wholesale cost of the shirts, not my resale cost.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

DivineBling said:


> This is why I don't mark up the price of the shirts. All of my price is for the design time and cost of rhinestones. I know you're not talking about rhinestones, but it's the same concept.


Ditto. 

When the job is done I love asking them how much they paid for the shirts they provided. Then I tell them what I could have gotten them for based on my volume buying. 99% of the time I'm lower.

Everyone thinks they have the ultimate hook-up for the 60 shirts they're providing. Little do they know.


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## jiarby (Feb 8, 2007)

we get this alot with engraving... people bring in something they bought elsewhere and want me to engrave it. 

An example... we sell a cheap trophy (figure on a base... with a plate for $7.95) but if someone comes in wanting just the plate to put on their own award I also charge $7.95

The real reason I do not want to work with customer material is because of the risk of screwing it up. If I make a mistake then who is responsible? If it was my material I would just make another one but with the customer supplying it they do not usually bring a spare. 

I used to have a customer that rented audio equipment... He would buy a case of expensive microphones and wireless transmitters. We engraved his logo on them. I loaded on piece upside down and it engraved his logo into the lcd screen on the wireless transmitter instead of the metal. So, I googled it to see how much a new one was... 

$2700! <gasp>

OMG! 

Same thing with doing cell phones, ipods, etc... Not alot of profit and lots of risk. 

Generally now I decline to do custy supplied material. 

I would probably do shirts though... but I would not lower the price much.... if at all.


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## allhamps (Mar 15, 2007)

Rodney said it first, and others have pitched in. I strictly consider my profits in the "embellishment", not the garment. 95% of what I do is rhinestone transfers. 80% of that is supplying the transfers only. That suits me fine, as my pricing matrix is designed to make maximum profit on the time and materials it takes to create that transfer, and not the shirt or the 2-3 additional minutes it takes to press it on. If I have to supply the garment, then of course I build in a profit margin. However, I'd much prefer to have them supply their own, as long as they sign my hold harmless agreement and bring a couple of extras.


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## LivingThread (Feb 25, 2008)

My profit remains the same if i buy the garments and sell them to a customer or if he brings them to me. 

I need to make $x an hour to reach my goal. If i have to raise the price OVER what i would charge if i bought them, i do. If he doesnt like it he can go elsewhere. If i feel like taking the job and making less than usual, I do. I really dont see a problem with who buys the shirt. If the guy is the business of blank garments, who are you to say he cant bring them? Just turn him away .... and I'll do it.


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## jiarby (Feb 8, 2007)

> I need to make $x an hour to reach my goal.


only one x??


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

jiarby said:


> only one x??


LOL! I always have to make at LEAST two.


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## scuba_steve2699 (Nov 15, 2006)

jiarby said:


> we get this alot with engraving... people bring in something they bought elsewhere and want me to engrave it.
> 
> An example... we sell a cheap trophy (figure on a base... with a plate for $7.95) but if someone comes in wanting just the plate to put on their own award I also charge $7.95
> 
> ...



Perfect example and why we do not like working with customer supplied garments in my wifes shop. We will, only after they have signed an agreement that we are not responsible for any damage from the embellishment process. If they do not want to sign, we do not embellish. I lost $250 on a spyder skiing jacket on this once and will never again has this issue.


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## RitterDisp (May 20, 2009)

We price everything based on the value added not the price of the garment. So if they choose to bring their own (usually because it's something we don't have access too) then we're not out anything. 

We do make them sign an agreement that we cannot guarantee customer provided garments and so far not a single problem! Of course we'd prefer to provide our own but every now and then that's just not what the customer wants.


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## irish (Dec 13, 2008)

We will not use customer provided t's, hats or sweatshirts in our embroidery or printing. Too many customers were bringing in really cheaply made goods and wanting decorating that cost 10x what they paid for the garment and expecting it to look as good as a more suitable garment. In some cases I could have gotten them better garments for about what they paid for the cheap ones. 

Now jackets are another story as there are many jackets we can't get. We do have them sign a release and we won't replace unless it is our mistake. At some horse shows we do the personalization on the championship jackets that cost $200-500 and we won't replace those. We make sure that all information is correct before starting and they do have to sign a release. We have replaced a couple - our fault and that is bad enough.


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## catago (Sep 2, 2010)

I have a min charge of $15.00 so if someone brings in their shirt they still pay $15.00 and I DO NOT guarantee the bring in shirt that’s on one’s if they want an order for screen printing and more than 10 shirts I DO NOT guarantee the Ink will act the same on a shirt I am not use to using….I also add the markup value to their order so I do not loose either way.


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## freebird1963 (Jan 21, 2007)

Guess no Earl Sheib's on this list. LOL


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

We add $2 per garment to our pricing if the customer supplies them.


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## Ner (Apr 2, 2011)

I think it is not only a saving-money-thing. Sometimes the specifications like size and quality of some shirts fit the customers needs perfectly. So I buy a lot of them there and choose another one to print them as this specific printer/designer seems to be the best for what I need but the shirts he use are not my type of product.


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## ChameleonPrints (Apr 7, 2007)

Some others have touched on this, but I think a lot of the reason why we get so many requests from customers to supply their own shirts is because of the "pricing for dummies" model that many printers have used in the past. Those who did not take the time to learn their costs and figure out a good price for the embellishment often just marked up the item 300% and called it good. If everyone would base the pricing more on the embellishment and not so much on the shirt mark up, then I am sure we would see about 90% of this go away as customers learn they won't save any money buy buying it themselves.


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

There is a legitimate gripe about customers who bring you questionable garments... but mostly this happens (in my experience) with ball teams who sometimes want you to print on used jerseys or bring garments with no label; in those cases I tell them there is no guarantee on the print and I will not replace any misprints. But I build my profit into the printing, not into the blanks.


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## ProperGnar (Dec 19, 2010)

i bring my garments when i have to use local shops. for some reason only one of the shops around here carry AA, and the one time i used them they did the colors on my shirts all wrong.


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## Mtnview (Nov 5, 2009)

splathead said:


> Ditto.
> 
> When the job is done I love asking them how much they paid for the shirts they provided. Then I tell them what I could have gotten them for based on my volume buying. 99% of the time I'm lower.
> 
> Everyone thinks they have the ultimate hook-up for the 60 shirts they're providing. Little do they know.


Why not mark up the apparel some? The stores they bought their shirts from that they want to bring in didn't sell them at their cost.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Mtnview said:


> Why not mark up the apparel some? The stores they bought their shirts from that they want to bring in didn't sell them at their cost.


Mainly because when I first started out my screen printer allowed me to bring my own in without upcharge. It just seems like the fair thing to do. 

The more screen printers who don't allow it means the more business opportunities I get.


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## Mabuzi (Jul 3, 2007)

I think some consumers believe they will save if they provide BYO garments. We only allow a 5% discount.
We do allow BYO garments only on heat transfers or vinyl lettering. We do not allow BYO garments on processes that have a higher fault rate no matter the quantities. And we definetly dont allow BYO gamrents for DTG.
The question really is to educate your customers.


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## familyfanclub (Jan 22, 2008)

Only a couple people have mentioned it, so I'll throw in my two cents...I'm reluctant to print on customer provided garments for the simple reason of accountability. We primarily do dye sublimation and through trial & error identified the products/brands that we will and won't sublimate on. If I make a mistake, I'm responsible to fix it and I can fix it because I have a wholesale relationship with the supplier. For a customer supplied garment, I don't know for sure how dye sub process will interact with the garment (it's not the same for all 100% poly garments) and if I make a mistake...where / how do I get a replacement.

Our pricing model is based on our time spent + consideration for the market. We don't mark-up the garment itself.

Getting into heat applied vinyl now, but from initial experiences, different garments, different heating times means opportunity for screw up and replacements. 

Customer provided garments is not part of our model.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

I think it is the business choice to accept customer supplied garments or not. We accept them but I know others do not. I can tell you a lot of crap comes in the door when you accept them. Seconds, old used and dirty, sometimes even torn. 

We assess each one as it comes in and issue a warning when we see something that will turn out bad.


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## cartoad (Mar 17, 2008)

Good comments on this. It is our policy not to print or apply transfers to customer supplied items, period. Things can and do go wrong, and even if you have them sign a waiver they will still look at you to replace the damaged item. We extend that to other parts of our operation, we do not laminate customer supplied items, and we do not under any circumstances install vinyl graphics the customer has purchased from who knows where. This policy has served us well over the years and saved us countless problems.


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## Blazed T (Nov 12, 2006)

I agree you open yourself up to problems when the customer supplies their own materials. I've been a tile contractor for 15years and am very used to customers supplying the tile. Some want to do the tear out and floor prep (most do not do a thorough enough job), but who am I to say no? They want to save money and it's their right. If it's going to make things more difficult, they should know why. Education is key. Make sure they understand that they are "chipping" away at what makes a great installer great. Good materials, good prep, and great craftsmanship. You get what you pay for.

Now, back to shirts. We've been in business 8 years now and have supplied our own garments for the better part of it. I think we've been fortunate cause the volume of shirts we purchased from our supplier gave us better prices than ANY print shop was offering. Yes we pay extra when getting printing done, but the savings overall has been worth it. Not to mention we've established great relationships with the garment suppliers. 

Yes, I long for the days when I could mark up tile to a customer. But the dynamics have changed and folks like Home Depot have squeezed out the mark up days for us craftsman who prefer a certain product or style which provides the best results and keeps our professionalism just that. Professional. Did I really make a point here?


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## GladRagsInk (Nov 30, 2010)

If you're pricing is set right you wont lose any money at all. What I charge for printing is what it cost me to print a garment, and what I charge for the garment it the garments price plus the time it takes to order, ship, and sort those garments.
I have many customers and large account that provide their own garments.


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