# Relabeling question



## ibt70 (Oct 24, 2006)

I was wondering what kind of labels are you guys using? Printed or wooven? Does anyone use heat transfers/tagless? Also, what supplier are you using? I've found Finotex, looks like they're offering the largest selction including non-traditional shapes (flowers, butterflies..). They don't offer samples though Did anyone use them?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

I use woven labels, printed labels (on paper) feel a kinda scratchy.

Some people use pressed on or screen printed labels directly on the garment, which is usually done by their screen printer.

I bought my labels from djslabels, but we also have a forum advertiser clothinglabels4u.com that does woven labels and relabeling services. They also offer free samples, check out this thread: 
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=7589


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## ibt70 (Oct 24, 2006)

Rodney said:


> I use woven labels, printed labels (on paper) feel a kinda scratchy.
> 
> Some people use pressed on or screen printed labels directly on the garment, which is usually done by their screen printer.
> 
> ...


Thanks, Rod! You're here to help as always I agree about printed labels. I already got samples from clothinglabels4u, will check out djslabels.


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## MAU-12 (Oct 26, 2006)

I plan on screen printing my labels... I have a cool shirt by "Empyre" with a screened neck line label.. looks just as professional as a wooven label, and definately more cost effective!


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## peacegod (Jun 29, 2006)

one screen printer just quoted me for .25 a print to have the tagless labels, on top of the cost of printing on the shirt.


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## peacegod (Jun 29, 2006)

would doing the iron on tags be the cheapest method .


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> one screen printer just quoted me for .25 a print to have the tagless labels, on top of the cost of printing on the shirt


Sounds like a good deal


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## ibt70 (Oct 24, 2006)

Thank you all for the input. 
.25 cents sounds like a great deal indeed. I was able to get that kind of price only with 1000 min. 
What kind of wooven labels are using (Damask, satin)?
I am concerned about the impact of removing labesl on stitches though. Did anyone have problems with that?


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## ibt70 (Oct 24, 2006)

peacegod said:


> would doing the iron on tags be the cheapest method .


I am sorry but do you mean to do it using the heat press or regular iron? I guess it might be solution for low quantities.


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## MAU-12 (Oct 26, 2006)

> I am concerned about the impact of removing labesl on stitches though. Did anyone have problems with that?


I was wondering the same thing... If you try to remove them in-house, It would be very time consuming, because you would have to carefully remove them and also sew or screen print your new labels on in their place. Time = money.
However it seems like such a hassle to have your blanks shipped to you.. then you print them... then you send them off to get labeled, then they are shipped back to you... Is that how it goes down?

Is there a manufacturer that will make and sew YOUR label design on THEIR Tees/apparel ? Then all you do is print and ship to the customer...
That seems like it would be the most convienient and cost effective solution.


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## BluePhantom (Oct 25, 2006)

MAU-12 said:


> I was wondering the same thing... If you try to remove them in-house, It would be very time consuming, because you would have to carefully remove them and also sew or screen print your new labels on in their place. Time = money.
> However it seems like such a hassle to have your blanks shipped to you.. then you print them... then you send them off to get labeled, then they are shipped back to you... Is that how it goes down?
> 
> Is there a manufacturer that will make and sew YOUR label design on THEIR Tees/apparel ? Then all you do is print and ship to the customer...
> That seems like it would be the most convienient and cost effective solution.


Someone Suggested This Site On Another Thread Earlier (Can't Remember Who, Sorry.)

www.variantart.com



> Variant Art Merchandise and Apparel is a full service apparel manufacturing contractor and distributor for large and small clients who are interested in purchasing and printing apparels for resale, promotions, work attire, and private labels. Variant Art also offers services to fashion designers, bands, fundraisers, schools, associations, clubs, and more.


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

Apart from DJ and our forum sponsor, another good label source is LuckyLabel.

This is a good thread about labels in general, and types of label:

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=1471


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

peacegod said:


> one screen printer just quoted me for .25 a print to have the tagless labels, on top of the cost of printing on the shirt.





peacegod said:


> would doing the iron on tags be the cheapest method .


Surely if you're getting good quality labels for $0.25ea there's no need to look at cheaper lower quality alternatives? (other than the alternative of simply not doing it, which is also an option)

If you wanted to look at other methods (plastisol transfer, iron on tags, etc.) you could get your materials costs lower, but by the time you factor in labour, utility overheads, etc. it might still work out more expensive.


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## MAU-12 (Oct 26, 2006)

OK, so how do you go about removing the manufacturer tags if you just want to screen print your own label in-house? Seems like you could do two different things: 1. Try to simply cut it off, but you would really have to get in there pretty deep to not make it noticeable (if it were noticeable that would look terribly unprofessional) 2. Break the stitch on the neckline and remove the tag... But how difficult is that? also, doing it this way would require you to re-stitch the neckline seam?


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Yup, that's an accurate description of options/problems, and yes you would need to re-stitch the neckline. Unfortunately the important question is the one I can't answer:



MAU-12 said:


> But how difficult is that?


(it's on my to-do list )


I can tell you that Threadless just cut the tag out, often leaving a very noticeable stump (and pretty much always leaving something at least somewhat noticeable). On the one hand they're a huge successful company, and they get away with it. On the other hand I've seen them criticised for it a lot, both by other sellers (i.e. people here), and average customers who you might not expect to notice such details.

Does it look unprofessional? Yes. Will people notice it? Yes. Does it look unprofessional enough that it outweighs the benefit of having your own screenprinted tag? Obviously that's the difficult question to answer. I can tell you I've seen more people praise Threadless' printed neck label than I've seen criticise their ex-cloth label stump though.


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## peacegod (Jun 29, 2006)

http://www.variantart.com

there the one offering the .25 fee per shirt , but because they also custom manufacture the shirts , cost per unit is kinda high ....


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

peacegod said:


> there the one offering the .25 fee per shirt , but because they also custom manufacture the shirts , cost per unit is kinda high ....


Ah okay, so it's not as clear cut as just .25c per, since you may not be happy with other costs/etc.


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## ibt70 (Oct 24, 2006)

Solmu said:


> I can tell you that Threadless just cut the tag out, often leaving a very noticeable stump (and pretty much always leaving something at least somewhat noticeable). On the one hand they're a huge successful company, and they get away with it. On the other hand I've seen them criticised for it a lot, both by other sellers (i.e. people here), and average customers who you might not expect to notice such details.
> 
> Does it look unprofessional? Yes. Will people notice it? Yes. Does it look unprofessional enough that it outweighs the benefit of having your own screenprinted tag? Obviously that's the difficult question to answer. I can tell you I've seen more people praise Threadless' printed neck label than I've seen criticise their ex-cloth label stump though.


That's exactly what my husband offered me to do, hahaI told him this is rediculous but apparently... I think when you're a big company you can get away with lots of things. I have tagless Puma t-shirt, and it was able to last for 1 wash in my fancy washer and dryer using delicate cycle and peeled


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## MAU-12 (Oct 26, 2006)

Wow that's really strange... I would have thought that threadless would be big enough to have their shirts manufactured specifically for them, therefore not having a label sewn on during production... Are they still just cutting them off even now?


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## ibt70 (Oct 24, 2006)

MAU-12 said:


> Is there a manufacturer that will make and sew YOUR label design on THEIR Tees/apparel ? Then all you do is print and ship to the customer...
> That seems like it would be the most convienient and cost effective solution.


I think a lot of manufacturers do that. The question is min quantity in order for you to do that. American Apparel for instance has 5000 per style per color.

I've found the manufacturer who'll put my labels for 0.35-0.45cents with a very low min of 100 pieces and you can mix styles. I'm going to order some samples since it looks like they have very nice inventory of men's, women's, kids' tees and even some urban tees. 

Those of you who're using American Apparel, are you removing the sizing label since it has their name on the reverse side as well?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Are they still just cutting them off even now?


The last t-shirt I bought from there had a cut out tag.

Here's an example of how it looks (I'm surprised they don't use a seam ripper or just move to the Alstyle easy to remove perforated tags).


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## ibt70 (Oct 24, 2006)

Wow, to say the least it looks unprofessional. Does it bother you as a buyer? Or design is still the main point?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Does it bother you as a buyer? Or design is still the main point?


The design is still the main point. It does take away some bravo "points", but not enough to make me not want to buy from them.

To be honest, necktags are for the merchant (for branding, to make them feel better, etc ), not for the buyer. Buyers generally just care about a quality printed design on a quality t-shirt. They wouldn't care if it had no tag at all.


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## forward dc (Nov 16, 2006)

MAU-12 said:


> OK, so how do you go about removing the manufacturer tags if you just want to screen print your own label in-house?
> 
> 2. Break the stitch on the neckline and remove the tag... But how difficult is that? also, doing it this way would require you to re-stitch the neckline seam?


depending on the garment, this is really not that difficult. we generally retag our shirts like this:

1. first we screenprint all the tags so we dont mess up the sizing info by removing the tags first. just seems like the safest method. we generally gang up 4 different size labels on one screen, so it only takes one screen to print s-xl.

2. we stack all of the garments up in one stack and do all of the tag ripping at once. you just get a seam ripper (avail. in any sewing shop) or use a razor blade (carefully with precision) and cut all of the seams open to about .75" on either side of the tag. then just pull out the tag. some are sewn in a second time to the inside seam. it takes practice, but soon enough you could probably be ripping 5 seams a minute.

3. next sort shirts by color and load your first color thread into the sewing machine. set the stich to look the same as the shirt's stitching, and sew it back up. sewing skills are required. repeat with each color stack.

we charge people around 50 cents to do this (as long as we're already printing their stuff).

if you live in a metropolitan area, you can just go down to the garment district and find a sweatshop who may do this as low as 20 cents a piece (including putting in a new tag). otherwise, alteration shops will probably charge you 75 cents to $1.50 depending on quantity.

in addition here are a few good label suppliers:

http://www.pcblabel.com/
http://www.nwtag.com/


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

It's great to see a step-by-step explanation of the whole process. Thanks Dan.

Maybe someday we'll see a relabeling video, like Lou's transfer videos.


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## Vwbigmike (Nov 10, 2006)

Has anyone ever tried using like a rubber stamp with plastisol ink and cure it? It sounds so easy but Im new here and dont know a whole lot about screen printing yet. I think that would be fast, easy, cheap and might look kinda neat too.


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## forward dc (Nov 16, 2006)

Vwbigmike said:


> Has anyone ever tried using like a rubber stamp with plastisol ink and cure it? It sounds so easy but Im new here and dont know a whole lot about screen printing yet. I think that would be fast, easy, cheap and might look kinda neat too.


it works in theory, but can be a headache when it comes to consistency. i know that the idea is to have it look rough, like each stamp is unique, but it turns out to be slow and messy. your stamp will blur after one or two presses and you'll have to clean it regularly unless you want a blob on the shirt. also, your plastisol consistency will have to be just right and you've got to have a good way of getting it on your stamp. you could roll it on, or have a "plastisol-stamp-pad", but if you try to just dip your stamp in some ink it will look like mush.


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## King of Style (Aug 4, 2006)

xpresadesigns.com Is a great site for labels... I used them for my lables and they came out great... Woven labels... I talked them down to $475 for 5000 labels with your sizes printed on them... I believe up to 5 different sizes... So you'll get a 1000 of each size... at .09 each label... 

I also found a local company that specialized in Private Labeling... (Philadelphia Area if your close I'll share the company with you) and they chared $.25 to take out the label and sew the new one in... Definitely suggest them... I've heard everything from $1 to $2 per shirt... You still have to pull at the labels to get the excess from under there but it should take no more than and hour for about 50 or so shirts to do this for... I rarely had to use scizzors that i purchase just for this job. But pulling at a Woven label unravels them, after they are cut so that was sufficient in most cases... (Luxe-T) 

Good Luck...


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## RisingBlue7 (Oct 8, 2006)

Buyers critique every inch of the garment. Not to mention, the packaging as well as the stitching, fabric, design, labels, oh you bet they do...


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Buyers critique every inch of the garment. Not to mention, the packaging as well as the stitching, fabric, design, labels, oh you bet they do..


I think "retail store buyers" more so than regular consumer (end user) buyers that just want a t-shirt.

I'm sure that some consumer (end user) buyers critique all aspects of the purchase, but I think the majority of buyers are more concerned with a quality print and a quality design. Also, speed of delivery is important.


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## RisingBlue7 (Oct 8, 2006)

Oh, I assumed you were talking about retail buyers...my bad...




Rodney said:


> I think "retail store buyers" more so than regular consumer (end user) buyers that just want a t-shirt.
> 
> I'm sure that some consumer (end user) buyers critique all aspects of the purchase, but I think the majority of buyers are more concerned with a quality print and a quality design. Also, speed of delivery is important.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

MAU-12 said:


> Wow that's really strange... I would have thought that threadless would be big enough to have their shirts manufactured specifically for them, therefore not having a label sewn on during production... Are they still just cutting them off even now?


Yes, they are still cutting them off even now.

They've been talking about getting their own blanks manufactured for years (and keep dropping hints as if it were just around the corner), but it still hasn't happened. It probably will eventually though (especially now they have vc - maybe that's the kind of reason they wanted it).

As they've said before, since they're so large/use so many t-shirts, changing brands is actually a very big deal, which I suppose is slowing things.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

ibt70 said:


> Wow, to say the least it looks unprofessional. Does it bother you as a buyer?


In terms of the end product it doesn't bother me in the least, though it does tell me something about the company which could sow the seed of doubt.

I suppose other customers who aren't aware that relabelling other brands is standard might be more concerned (and that's going to be a large part of your customer base I would assume, judging by some of the reactions I've seen from the general public to the issue).

I think most people though would take one glance at it say "that's a bit shabby", then never think of it ever again.


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## BluePhantom (Oct 25, 2006)

As a consumer I never buy a shirt because of its beautiful tag. I always look for a unique design or just something that catches my eyes, as a matter of fact I would never check the quality of the print. But once i got home if i liked the tag i would hold on to it and then later on google the company name and or website in search of more of their product.


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## MAU-12 (Oct 26, 2006)

Man... I would at least try and take a sharpie or somekind of ink to at least blend the tag stump in with the rest of the shirt...


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Man... I would at least try and take a sharpie or somekind of ink to at least blend the tag stump in with the rest of the shirt...


When you sell 50,000+ shirts a month (like threadless claims to), those little details can be overlooked because of the time it would take to do it. You want to speed up the production and fulfillment process as quick as possible.


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

MAU-12 said:


> Man... I would at least try and take a sharpie or somekind of ink to at least blend the tag stump in with the rest of the shirt...


The sharpie ink might bleed on the shirt when you wash it.


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## ibt70 (Oct 24, 2006)

Solmu said:


> In terms of the end product it doesn't bother me in the least, though it does tell me something about the company which could sow the seed of doubt.


 I guess it wouldn't bother me at all since it's just a t-shirt. When I am buying knitted Saint John's jacket for $600 than yes I expect them to stand behind their warranties 100% and I want everything to be perfect. On the other hand if I have the choice between threadless and other company who takes care of relabeling I'd definitely go with latter but only if the designs would be the same. So in the end in case of t-shirt it does come out to design for me.


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## TAKEPRIDE (Feb 15, 2007)

Hey, I'm not in Philly... But would appreciate the tip on this re-labeling company. Thanks.


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## King of Style (Aug 4, 2006)

Send me a personal email, I'm not sure if it's ethical to post contact information on here.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Send me a personal email, I'm not sure if it's ethical to post contact information on here


As long as it's not your company that you're promoting, then it's fine to share vendor sources


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## alatvis (Mar 15, 2007)

King of Style said:


> xpresadesigns.com Is a great site for labels... I used them for my lables and they came out great... Woven labels... I talked them down to $475 for 5000 labels with your sizes printed on them... I believe up to 5 different sizes... So you'll get a 1000 of each size... at .09 each label...
> 
> I also found a local company that specialized in Private Labeling... (Philadelphia Area if your close I'll share the company with you) and they chared $.25 to take out the label and sew the new one in... Definitely suggest them... I've heard everything from $1 to $2 per shirt... You still have to pull at the labels to get the excess from under there but it should take no more than and hour for about 50 or so shirts to do this for... I rarely had to use scizzors that i purchase just for this job. But pulling at a Woven label unravels them, after they are cut so that was sufficient in most cases... (Luxe-T)
> 
> Good Luck...


i am in upstate new york but i too would be interested in this private labeler. . .


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