Not a beginner in the sign industry. Would like to start a t shirt business.

[kylebrk]

Would like to start a custom t shirt business. Going to start off small. My wife is a designer with a small following. I'm trying to decide what vinyl cutter/heat press combo to go with. I don't want to spend a ton but I don't want to waste money by buying something that will be flaky.

I know I can buy Roland and the quality will be there. The question is can I buy something of less name recognition and still be alright. I'm guessing that at most, I would like to produce 10 shirts a week with this equipment. If we can sustain that, I will invest in better equipment.

I would like any and all thoughts. I haven't been in the sign industry since I sold my company in 2012.

 

[henryz]

I think you can get a starter low budget cutter and heat press from US cutters for what you want to do. Yeah it might not compare to a Graphtec or Roland but 10 - 20 shirts shouldn't be a problem, just remember you been in the business and bought equipment that you said to yourself I should have spent the extra $$$ and got the bigger / better model afterwards.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

The question is can I buy something of less name recognition and still be alright.

I think your playing more russian roulette by trying to go the no-name route. I would suggest hunting deals for name brand equipment then hope to get a really good no name.

Now, you can get bad even with a name brand ones, it's just the odds are typically against it. Not to say that it won't happen.

There are some that shop no names and do quite well, not to say that there isn't a chance of getting a good one, I just never have much luck with it.

I happen to like the 24" Roland cutter (I know a lot here don't, but for me what I do (appliqué, patches, cut vinyl (not for signage though, mainly garments) and it goes all day, every day. Ironically, there are have been some that have reported issues with it. So go figure.

For heat presses, I prefer Geo Knight. There are other good ones, that's just my preference. For me, I think the heat press is kinda of an unsung hero as far as equipment goes for a lowly embroidery shop. Even for embroidery it gets used for a lot of things. But I digress.

 

[kylebrk]

I love Roland. I have always had great success with them. I would love a Roland cutter but I have a stomach ache investing that into a machine my wife MIGHT make enough to pay for. Do used machines come up for sale often?

 

[Pat Whatley]

If you're looking at doing one off customs buy a cheap plotter and go to town. I seriously think every woman I've ever seen at a craft show or flea market making heat transfer shirts is using a USCutter plotter they bought off ebay (same goes for every guy making peeing Calvin and Salt Life decals).

If you're looking at doing short runs look at fmexpressions.com. Their price on short-run heat transfers is insane, you can get the prints and then just heat press them on demand. No pain in the butt weeding and no rubbery feel of thermo-flex, no sitting on inventory doing traditional screenprinting.

 

[StarSign]

10 shirts a week sounds like a hobby not a business. Will you supply the shirt? Full color transfers or just black, white, red, blue, etc. What about design? Have you tried to figure a ROI on even the cheap equipment? Not saying it's a bad thing but at the end of the day you have to make $$$

 

[WildWestDesigns]

If you're looking at doing one off customs buy a cheap plotter and go to town. I seriously think every woman I've ever seen at a craft show or flea market making heat transfer shirts is using a USCutter plotter they bought off ebay (same goes for every guy making peeing Calvin and Salt Life decals).

Here it's actually the Cameo. What irritates me is that they even sell that at the trade shows as well. Not even the commercial version, just the home version.

 

[kylebrk]

10 shirts a week sounds like a hobby not a business. Will you supply the shirt? Full color transfers or just black, white, red, blue, etc. What about design? Have you tried to figure a ROI on even the cheap equipment? Not saying it's a bad thing but at the end of the day you have to make $$$

Great questions. At most three color designs. The goal is to come up with two or three designs a month that can be quickly customized. It appears the best approach at this point will be to have the customers provide their own apparel at this time. If business picks up and we prove to have a viable business model, I will look in to sourcing garments. My wife is an excellent designer who has been a professional in the industry for a long time with an extensive background in both wide format printing and computer cut vinyl. Thinking of designs in terms of layers is not a foreign concept to her at all.

The ROI will be slow but she's really good and Im confident we will sell a lot more than she thinks we will.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

One other thing to keep in mind for the combo is how big of a design well she want to do. Cutter's don't usually have an issue, it typically has more to do with the press, but keep in mind what one has to do with registration in order to line up 2-3-more colors.

You may want to institute an overage policy if they are supplying the shirts (or offset having no overage with a higher price point), at some point customer supplied seems to bite everyone.

 

[kylebrk]

One other thing to keep in mind for the combo is how big of a design well she want to do. Cutter's don't usually have an issue, it typically has more to do with the press, but keep in mind what one has to do with registration in order to line up 2-3-more colors.

You may want to institute an overage policy if they are supplying the shirts (or offset having no overage with a higher price point), at some point customer supplied seems to bite everyone.

Will do. That's good info. Thank you!

 

[signgirl]

as said above I'd definitely look into f&m expressions or versatrans. Doing cut vinyl for shirts is fun for awhile but having them sent to my door and pressing them free up so much time!

 

[signwizz]

try looking into dye sublimation a lot cheaper to get into and you can make tons of stuff, just the shirts have to be light and 100% poly

 

[WildWestDesigns]

try looking into dye sublimation a lot cheaper to get into and you can make tons of stuff, just the shirts have to be light and 100% poly

Dye sublimation in the small realm isn't the cheapest to get into (if "you're" not able to do a bulk ink system or 3rd party inks outside of Sawgrass, ink costs are high, especially Sawgrass inks) and "you" really need to keep that ink flowing. Even the good printers will gum up fairly easy if one doesn't have the work to keep it flowing.

As far as shirts, "you" can print on a blend, however, it won't bond to the cotton, but that will give "you" a grunge effect that depending on the design, might work well.

To get dark shirts to work, need to have a wide format to print the for the entire substrate. Start with white fabric and flood it with ink. Typically unfinished garments or if "you" are able to design/sew "your" own garments.

Sublimation has the advantage of "no hand" to the finished feel, but not something that I would suggest unless there is indeed a good demand for it for "you". Especially on the small scale.

 

[ams]

Usually a low profit margin in the tshirt business, if you are doing runs of 48+ it's okay, but if you are taking orders of 1 - 10 shirts per order, it's going to be very hard.

 

[Gino]

Your competition will most likely be very stiff. Many of the online places have this down pat..... to a science. They usually work based on volume, but will do short runs. Your more local competition in many cases... are people who are already working at places and tend to take remnants home at night, especially when they have a job coming up. Therefore, they have very little overhead invested, inventory or time. They can be dirt cheap and still make a good extra buck. to be that specialized is not gonna be fun to start.