Fulfillment
Your shirts are done! Right on! So…what’s the printer going to do at this point? They’re going to pack them back up in the boxes in which they came in what’s called printer’s dozens. The shirts may have a touch of sticky residue on the inside of them. It’s nothing to be alarmed about. It’s just a part of the process and will wash out without harming anything. Every single tee shirt you’ve ever worn in your life has gone through the same step.
Other than getting your shirts printed, some shops offer fulfillment services such as hang tagging, folding and bagging, shipping and the sort. This all requires manpower and time so in turn, requires additional charges. Not that this is something anyone would want to argue but maybe for the newbie, it’s something you can look into when choosing who prints your stuff. From my experience, those who offer fulfillment services are a little ahead of the game than those who don’t but that’s not to say every shop that doesn’t are lousy printers.
Turnarounds and Reorders
This whole process is compounded with the addition of a bunch of other people just like you trying to get their shirts printed. The average turn around time for most shops is 7 to 10 working days from the time they received art and a proper purchase order. Take into consideration all of these steps and ask your printer up front how long they expect it to take. Anyone worth his or her beans will be able to give you a good estimate.
In regards to reorders, you shouldn’t be paying for everything you paid for first time out. It varies from shop to shop but you can most likely expect to pay to set up the machine and for the printing cost only. Your film’s already been output from the time before. The screen charges most likely won’t be applied to a reorder but again, that’s up to the shop. It does take time but they may have the previous screens still on hand, just depends on the shop.
Warnings
STAY AWAY from Ad Specialty companies when getting your garments printed! If they sell pens and mouse pads and the like, you can almost guarantee they don’t have a print shop of their own and you’re paying them the middleman money you could have put into your bottom line.
I would also suggest only using printers who are classified as “Contract Screen Printers”. There are other screen printers out there who bundle everything up as one charge. They won’t let you order your own shirts and you’ll end up paying a retail price for your goods. A good way to know who they (the “bad guys”) are is if they have a storefront shop in a retail district like a strip mall. Your printer should be nestled somewhere in the industrial section of town.
In Closing
This entire process can be very fun and rewarding, especially when you have a slight understanding of how it works. Choose your artists and printers well and you’ll be off to a good start. Want to save even more money, provide the major manufacturers with your resale license number and order the blank garments for yourself at wholesale prices. Yes, most every printer will mark up the prices of the shirts, sometimes more than 50%!
Good luck and have fun! Making tee shirts for a living should be a crime, it’s so fun…so long as you know how to do it.
Tags: apparel, artist, brokers, Screen-printing, tee shirts
