Anyone do full color printing on hats?

[William]

Have a customer who needs 500 camo hats with their logo printed on front. I have the artwork in an ai file. They need them by the July 17th.
Do all customers wait until the last minute to order? smh

 

[MakeMyGraphic]

Haha yeah seems in my experience the people who want jobs done such as the one you as asking about always wait until the ultimate LAST moment... seems like an afterthought to me. I don't know about DIRECT to HAT printing, but I know that if you use Roland's Heat Soft material for this job and a Hat Press you can get away with it rather inexpensively it's this material http://www.rolanddga.com/products/media/detail.aspx?id=152 just use your in-house printer/cutter for the job and be aware that any hat with a center stitch (2 panels not sure the actual name of these types of hats) usually don't look so good because the heat transfer material might not get into the crevasse in the center area.

Personally when people come to me with such a short turnaround I give them options. Option 1 with LONGER turnaround is usually almost 50% cheaper than last minute RUSH orders, after I tack on a "rush" order to their second option (short turnaround) then they re-consider their turnaround OR just fork up the monies. I am sure other people might have better solutions these are just my 2 cents.

 

[Mike001]

You could print on to silicon release paper and sprinkle the wet ink with adhesive powder, then press on.
I do this on occasion for larger runs.
A lot cheaper than press on vinyl.

I usually screen print around 10 up. So print runs are quite short.
It also allows for multiple colours to be applied to the image before pressing.

Cheers

 

[WildWestDesigns]

it's this material http://www.rolanddga.com/products/media/detail.aspx?id=152 just use your in-house printer/cutter for the job and be aware that any hat with a center stitch (2 panels not sure the actual name of these types of hats) usually don't look so good because the heat transfer material might not get into the crevasse in the center area.

They are just usually referred to as 6 panel hats. 5 panel hats don't have the center seam.

For any type of press on application, you are going to want to watch out on the seams and the eyelets (I've done some designs that they wanted a lot of coverage). Trucker style 5 panel hats, usually make for the best substrate for heat application. At least in my experience.