Customizing a T-Shirt with an All-Over Print from Heat Press Vinyl.
Businesses models can be totally different even though the equipment is the same. If you own a heat press and a vinyl cutter you have flexibility. In addition to traditional group and organization sales some venture into retail one off garments, some even make an entire business of it.
A retail space can be a brick and mortar location, a mall kiosk, a booth at an event or even an online store. To make money you don’t have to sell large groups at a time, producing orders of 12 pieces or more…. Frankly, you don’t even have to do 2 pieces or more…. Often a customer wants just one piece – this is retail customization. Of course there are doubters that don’t believe this can be a profitable model and it may not fit your shop, but on the other hand there are doers – those that take customization and run with it. Take for instance, Custom Ink, Cafe Press, Spreadshirt or Zazzle, these mass customization storefronts have created a model that can be very profitable even one piece at a time. These are large operations. If going BIG isn’t within your grasp, no worries….the one piece at a time model exists on a much smaller scale, just visit a few local malls and chances are you’ll find at least one t-shirt shop that customizes apparel with inks, heat applied film or air brushing. These stores have made it too! There are also thousands online that understand that doing one piece means charging a price that is profitable!
In the spirit of this retail model, we’ve created this week’s edition of Tip Jar. Watch in as we use 5 different colors of heat applied film to make a completely custom all over print t-shirt.
IF a client approached you and asked for this type of shirt, would you accept the job? Then, what would you charge?
Please leave your thoughts and ideas about completely customized shirts in the comments. Thanks for reading and watching!
We’ve done a few shirts that have taken so long we joke and say “There’s a $100 shirt!”. Of course most of them are for family, making them a priceless (or profitless) shirt. You mentioned the cost of this shirt being $25, and selling price of $50. How long did it take an expert to make this? (I know an amateur like me would probably take over an hour!).
So Josh, if you do an all over print, what pressure do you recommend on the heat press, somewhere between a 6-9 setting on the Fusion ? I’m looking to do ProWorld transfers that have all over prints and after looking at this I want to make sure I get the right pressure setting so that the transfer goes over the seams, plus, if I want to do some of my tribal prints I would need to know that. What do you recommend?
Thanks again for the great videos. The information is great and useful.
Your vinyls are the best but I am yet to find a relaible product for white shirts.
Thanks!
P.S. Custom Ink, Cafe Press, Spreadshirt or Zazzle, as far as I know use DTG.
cool idea, but what a waste of vinyl! You could cut those letters in the bottom 2 inches of the sheet, scissor them out toss them sticky side down on the shirt and press with *not* that much more time spent.. I suppose when you have unlimited vinyl to cut from.. 🙂
@funkyjedi you’re right on, would have done it that way if I had to do over again. Thx for the comment.
@Mabuzi Thanks for the comments. I know some of these fulfillment companies mix in some other techniques such as heat applied vinyl.
@Raeann You definitely need to bump the pressure up to account for the seams, if the transfer call for a light pressure, I would bump to a medium…if it calls for a medium I would go to a heavy…make sense?
@ABC Gifts this shirt took be about 30 minutes in labor…I chose a stencil font so I wouldn’t have too many cavities to remove with the weeding tool.
Love, Love, Love that you answer the blogs……Great job!!!