# DTG Color - is it dull?



## brentonchad (Aug 24, 2007)

We are considering purchasing a DTG for doing short runs on light colored shirts and onsite printing. At this point we use plastisol and vinyl. 

We are signed up for about 12 softball tournaments this coming spring that we will be selling a tournament t-shirt (custom design) and stock transfers. Since we are unsure of what the market will be for the custom shirts we thought the DTG would be a great way to do these. However my wife has some concerns over the color produced by the DTG. We have only seen the Brother first hand.

Has anyone had clients/customers comment on the lack of brightness or dullness that the DTG printers produce? Will these match up with the proworld transfers we plan on using for stock.

Chad


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

I have not gotten any complaints on my color from my DTG. I would suggest that you send a file you would like to see done on a dtg to different distributors and get samples printed for you. That way you can see for yourself what the color looks like. Just send the same file to each distributor so that you can do an even comparison. I think alot of what you hear is usually from people who dont own the machines, which would not be accurate because depending on the settings the file is printed with it can greatly effect the results. The only way to tell is get samples and see for yourself


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

How many shirts are sold with the tournament graphic per a tournament? What color of shirt is it going on?

dtg is a great process, but you need to know when it is more profitable to get the shirts done another way (screen printing, plastisol transfers,...) depending on the graphic. Thus, the reason for the questions above.


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## brentonchad (Aug 24, 2007)

The shirts will be ash or white. 

Designs are being created at the time, but could be up to four colors depending on whtat we come up with. But the average tournament has 20-30 teams of 12-14 girls each. If I figure a 50% rate of sell then I am guessing ~150 shirts.

If we don't go with the DTG we will go with plastisol transfers. I want to be able to create the shirt on site when it is bought to alleviate having extra shirts that will never be sold due to the relevance of the event. This is our first year of doing this and the leagues first also - so we don't have any numbers to base this off of. I just want to make sure that the shirts that leave our booth are good quality as I look to this as a free advertising session to 300 sets of parents that could need shirts for their office, etc. But if the shirt goes home and is dull, fades, etc then I wouldnt' expect many lead from this. 

Our other market is slow pitch softball - short runs of 12 with vinyl number and logo on the front. So with the light colors we would go with DTG there possibly too.


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Onsite production is very profitable, but can be tricky. You need to be careful with some environments (humidity levels, dust,...). My gut reaction would do a little bit of both after you do a first one. Get the standard shirt done with plastisol transfers and do custom shirts (at a much higher price) with a dtg printer. You are going to need a heat press if you do dtg, so don't press the plastisol transfers in advance...do it onsite. One of the other things to consider is to gang up plastisol transfers that says 1st Place, 2nd Place and 3rd Place. Charge a couple of bucks to transfer this and then the shirt becomes a trophy as well. Did this for a karate tourny and it worked great.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

This is too funny. We got a white t from a potential client that looked all washed out. It was a very cheap screen print on a very cheap shirt and the fibers from the shirt had broken and were making the print look washed out. I figured I could do at least that good with a marker and a stencil!

Anyway, The print is rarely the problem. Cheap shirts, or rather, not the right shirt for the job will be the cause of your problems.


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## kepps2813 (Sep 27, 2007)

I have a kiosk dtg printer my colors are bright and much more then 4. I print mostly on cotton and i always tell my customers wash inside out. Havent seen any fade my first ones which i did in 06 were at the track summer 07 still looking pretty fresh. I used some really cheap shirts that was a trial for the compamy. these were gave away shirts so was really surprised to see them the following year looking so good. Hope this helps


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## brentonchad (Aug 24, 2007)

You guys are mentioning cheap shirts - what are you considering "cheap" - Gildan, Hanes, FOL?

The opportunities for other sales at the event have me leaning toward the DTG (pics of players, etc) - But again I am brand new in town and have to make sure the quality is outstanding since I will have a few places in town waiting for me to fall on my face.


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