Other than direct-to-garment (DTG) printing, rhinestones are the fastest growing opportunity segment in the garment decoration business. Everybody loves rhinestone BLING, and are willing to pay extra to get it.

If you are thinking about taking a slice of that opportunity, there are a number of different ways you can do it.

Method #1 – Find a company, such as Falcon Design & Graphics, that “prints” rhinestone T-shirts to order. They can provide you with ready-made rhinestone shirts that you can then sell for a profit. You can select standard designs or create your own. Such companies can even mix DTG printed designs with rhinestones for that extra sparkle. This is the easiest method and requires no costly equipment, but might not be as profitable as other the other methods discussed below.

Method #2 – Buy a heat press (see How to Select a Heat Press) and order heat-applied rhinestone transfers from companies such as Transfer Express and other companies (see links below). You can select rhinestone designs from their catalog or have them create custom designs from your own artwork. Use your heat press machine to permanently apply the rhinestones on the transfers to your blanks T-shirts. Peel off the transfer backing and you are done.

Method #3 – Make your own rhinestone heat transfers. There are two ways to do it:

The manual method. For this method, you need a vinyl cutter machine such as the economical Roland Gx-24 desktop unit and appropriate software for your PC to cut a rhinestone hole pattern into a piece of special material that will hold the rhinestones until you apply a sticky transfer tape to pick them up. This becomes your heat transfer that will be applied using a heat press. To get started, you’ll want to purchase a rhinestone apparel starter kit from Rhinestone World. You can purchase already-designed rhinestone templates from Rhinestone World or Falcon Design & Graphics. These are art image files that have been converted to rhinestone hole patterns for your vinyl cutter. Or you can buy ready-made rhinestone transfers from these same companies.

The automated method – This method requires an automated rhinestone setting machine such as the basic CAMS 1V-2P from ColDesi. The machine creates rhinestone heat transfers much faster than the manual method discussed above, but is much more expensive. If you need to create transfers with more than a couple of rhinestone colors or sizes, and need faster speed, you would consider one of the larger CAMS machines. If you are just starting in rhinestones, start with the manual method first and graduate to the automated method as your business grows.

Summary

If you are already in the apparel decorating business with embroidery, screen printing, or DTG printing, you should also be taking a look at rhinestones. If you are not in the business yet, rhinestones are a good way to get started, especially with the several options you have for how you do it. We’ve discussed those options above, which should give you the information you need to decide which way is best for you.

###

No, absolutely not.

Here’s how it works.

First you need a heat press machine. There are lots of choices in terms of type, size, features, and cost. Choose the machine that you think best fits your needs for now and the near future. As your business grows, you can upgrade to bigger and better machines. Heat presses can cost anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to a few thousand, depending on what you need. You can also find used machines for sale on the Internet. See our article How to Select a Heat Press for more details.

Now all you need are blank shirts and heat-applied transfers, both of which you can buy from a variety of sources.  Heat transfers are like decals that are applied to a T-shirt with evenly-distributed heat, at a specified temperature and pressure for a specified length of time — which is exactly what a heat press does.

We’ve mentioned in other articles that you can make your own heat transfers using a vinyl printer/cutter machine. However, you can also buy your transfers from companies such as TransferExpress at prices that are competitive with those that you might produce yourself. You simply send them your artwork (or choose from standard clip-art designs), select the type of transfer material, and wait for your order to be delivered to your door in a day or two. After that, it’s just a matter of pressing the transfers onto your shirts.

Transfers come in an infinite variety of inks, styles, colors, textures, designs, and effects. Metal foil and rhinestones are the latest and hottest trends. Transfers can cost as little as two dollars, or less for simple designs. Larger, more elaborate tansfers will cost more. Quantity discounts are usually available.

How much money can be made on T-shirts using heat-applied transfers?

Let’s assume you buy blank shirts at $2.00 each and transfers at $2.00. Your cost per shirt is $4.00. You can easily sell your shirts at double that cost, or $8.00, for $4.00 profit.  Not bad for a few minutes of your time pressing transfers onto blank shirts. A classy foil and rhinestone shirt might cost you $8.00 but you sell it for at least $16.00 for an $8.00 profit.

In summary, you don’t need expensive equipment to build a successful high-profit T-shirt business. With a heat press machine and custom-ordered transfers, you have all you need. Of course, as your business expands you will probably find that you’ll want a DTG printer or vinyl printer/cutter to keep all your work in-house and increase your profits.

###

Let’s take a look at some of the things that can practically guarantee an unsuccessful T-shirt printing and decoration business.

Excessive debt – Don’t take out a second mortgage on your house, get new credit cards, or cash in your 401K savings to finance your tee-shirt business unless you know with absolute certainty that you can generate the level of sales and income necessary to justify that debt. Don’t turn your business dreams into a high-risk gamble.   It’s much more sensible to start small and let your business pay for itself as it grows. It’s slower going but you won’t lose your shirt (pun intended).

Unrealistic expectations – Don’t expect to be an overnight success. Establishing a successful T-shirt business takes time , although maybe not as much time as some other businesses due to the high profit potential. Take time to learn good business practices, learn about your competitors, your equipment, and your market. Don’t become discouraged if things start off a little slow. Set realistic goals for yourself and measure yourself against those goals.

Inadequate technical abilities - Unfortunately, setting up and operating a tee-shirt printing business is not yet plug-and-play. It’s still pretty technical. A DTG printer is a complex machine that combines electronics, mechanics, and plumbing (ink system) that has to operate perfectly for best results. Sure, you can always call tech support when you have problems but your own technical resourcefulness will be required for most issues and problems that you will encounter. Tech support can’t make up for a complete lack of technical capability. And it’s not just the printer that requires some technical agility. The computer with it’s RIP software and graphics software — getting them to play well with the printer — is another area requiring a level of technical talent. Even a heat press requires a certain level of technical skill to operate properly.

Insufficient computer graphics skills –  Not that you have to be a computer graphics expert, but you must have the ability to learn and properly use graphics software such as Corel Draw, Photoshop, or Adobe Illustrator — and the RIP software that comes with your printer. You might have a DTG printer that works perfectly but if you don’t know how to correctly create and prepare digital graphic files that you send to the printer, your results will be very disappointing. Learning how to use graphics software requires much more time and ability than learning how to use a DTG printer. Even though it’s simple enough to quickly print a graphic image on a T-shirt without much knowledge of computer graphics software, your customers will almost certainly be disappointed at the quality of the product you produce. Unsatisfied customers will never come back.

No marketing – Don’t misjudge the importance of marketing your business and selling your products. Once you set up your tee-shirt printing business you’ll get a few customers simply due to word of mouth. However, as great as word of mouth advertising is, you probably won’t be able to count on it to sustain your business. You’ll need to get business cards, print brochures, and possibly set up a web site. Print sample shirts and show them to local clubs, businesses, school sports teams, and charity organizers. Make time in your schedule, regardless of how busy you are, to do the things necessary to get future business and keep work flowing in.

Underpriced products – Don’t charge too little for your work, which is a common problem. You can have a great business going with lots of work and plenty of customers but if you don’t charge enough for that work, you’ll find that you’re slowly pricing yourself out of business. You need to set your pricing to not only make a fair profit on the cost of each item you produce but also to pay your general cost-of-business expenses such as rent, utilities, equipment leases, supplies, and a salary for yourself. For more details, see T-Shirt Pricing Basics.

In summary, starting and operating a T-shirt printing business requires that you understand not only those things that will make it successful, but also those things that can bring it all down. Knowing about potential problems ahead of time will help you avoid them and keep your business healthy.

###

However we only hinted at the incredible selection of types of vinyl materials that allow many more ways to decorate T-shirts than a DTG printer can possibly do. Furthermore, vinyl transfers are designed to be applied to practically any kind of fabric, including perforated sportswear,  whereas DTG printers are typcially limited to 100% cotton or 50/50 cotton/polyester blends.

The possible applications for vinyl transfers goes far beyond simple T-shirt and sportswear decoration. Transfers can be applied to caps, golf bags, underwear, sleepwear, babies’ clothing, pillows, towels, uniforms, mouse pads, hoodies, backpacks, petwear, stadium chairs, just to name a few. Some of these applications may require special heat presses or special processes.

Vinyl materials are available from a number of reliable sources such as Stahls’ ID Direct. Order in rolls in the width required for your cutter or printer/cutter.

Let’s take a look at some of the available options in vinyl materials. Some names for materials are those used by Stahls’. All are available in a variety of colors.

Reflective – Reflects car headlights and other lights at night, which makes it great for emergency workers, joggers, and school children’s apparel.

Glitter – Provides a smooth glitter and shimmer effect to any design. Ladies love it.

Glitter Flake – Adds a textured sparkle, like gold dust or silver flake, to a design

Glow – Bright white in daylight, but glows lime in the dark. Perfect for Halloween costumes.

Gloss – Adds a high-gloss sheen that looks like expensive patent leather

Neon – Appears as a bright high-visibility neon finish

Airflow – Perfect for athletic wear that has mesh-like holes for breathability

Carbon Fiber – Classy two-tone special-effects finish that simulates a carbon fiber material

Pebble Puff – Adds attractive 3-D raised texture to any design

Metallic – A metallic foil look that is great for dancewear or holiday wear

Hologram – A shiny prism-like finish with a rainbow effect

Thermo-Flock – Provides a soft raised velvet look and feel which is great for sports team uniforms

Gorilla-Grip – Provides a solution for difficult applications such as garment bags and jackets

Felt and Twill – A variety of materials that look like applique’. Requires sewing edges after applying with heat press.

These are just some of the many types of vinyl materials available for T-shirt and garment decoration.  Most require only a vinyl cutter machine and a heat press. If you don’t have a vinyl cutter, you can order custom or stock transfers online directly from companies such as Transfer Express.

And if you have neither a vinyl cutter nor a heat press, Stahls’ can actually apply the transfers to your blank shirts for you and ship them to your customers — for a fee, of course.

Summary

Having a relatively inexpensive vinyl cutter and a heat press is a great way to start a T-shirt decoration business. With the huge variety of vinyl materials, textures, and colors that are available, you have many buiness options that are not possible with DTG printing. Even if you have a DTG printer, adding a vinyl cutter or printer/cutter opens up new opportunities.

###

Vinyl Cutters

A desktop vinyl cutter, such as the Roland CAMM-1 Gx-24, simply cuts computer-based designs from rolls of colored vinyl material. Use a PC and Roland’s provided graphic software to create the shapes or designs you want and send them to the cutter. After the design has been cut out, you can apply it to T-shirts, sports uniforms, jackets, or other garments with a heat press. Once applied, it’s permanent.

Vinyl material is available in a wide assortment of types, colors, textures, metallic, reflective, glow-in-the dark, and patterns. Multi-color designs are easily created using software provided with the cutter or other graphics software of your choice, such as Corel Draw.

Some of the applications for vinyl cutters (and cutter-printers), other than for T-shirts and garment decoration, are the following:

• Vehicle graphics and signage
• Pinstriping
• Window tinting graphics
• Signs
• Banners
• Sports jerseys and helmets
• Decals
• Labels
• Stencils
• Templates for rhinestone transfers

Vinyl cutters are available in a variety of sizes and costs. The smallest desktop units can print material about 27 inches wide and cost about $2000 new. Used machines can be found for $1000 or less.

Printer/Cutters – The Next Step Up

A simple vinyl cutter is fine if you only need to do single-color designs (or multi-color with careful alignment of separate color cuts). However, if you need to do photo-quality graphics or complex artwork designs, you might need a vinyl printer/cutter which is a combination inkjet printer and cutter. Graphics are created in a single operation consisting of two steps. First, the image is printed onto the vinyl and second, it’s cut out. Mulitple “ganged” images can be printed and cut in one operation.

Like cutters, printer/cutters are available in a wide variety of sizes, speeds, and costs. One of the smallest and newest printer/cutters from Roland is the desktop VersaStudio BN-20 which costs about $8500 and can print on 20 inch material. This machine can be leased for as little as $178 a month.

Summary

Vinyl cutters and printer/cutters can be the base for a new T-shirt business or an established garment decoration business that wants to expand into signs, decals, vehicle graphics, and other areas that can’t be handled with conventional screen printing or DTG methods. Machines are available from Roland and Graphtec in a wide assortment of sizes, capabilities, speeds, and prices.

###

Here’s why.

1. It’s free. For the most part, the trade shows are free to attend, assuming you register in advance (otherwise, pay $25-$30). Registration gives you full access to the show floor, although you will have to pay to attend workshops and seminars (see below). If you’ve already established your business, or plan to do so soon, you know of course that you can deduct your expenses of traveling to and attending a trade show from your Federal tax return.

2. See equipment, up close and personal. You’ll see new printers and other equipment, get demonstrations, pick up samples, talk to knowledgeable representatives, and get “show special” prices. Bring examples of some of your own graphic images on a thumb drive and have printer vendors create sample shirts for you. Compare shirts from muliple vendors. Some vendors even have customers present in their booths who can answer questions and discuss their own experiences with the products.

3. Get educated. You can build your knowledge and skills by attending workshops and seminars conducted by highly qualified and experienced industry experts. At ISS, you pay $99 and attend any or all seminars offered. Some example titles are “Dynamic Design Techniques Using CorelDraw,” “How to Create Killer Artwork for Digital Printing,” and “Rhinestones are Still Relevant, Popular, and — Best of All — Popular.” Seminars and workshops can help improve your expertise in not only technical subjects, but also in pricing, business management, and work process topics.

4. Collect literature. Pick up sales literature, brochures, samples, trinkets, and catalogs from vendors to read after the show. The hussle and bussle of a trade show floor is not the best place to try to evaluate everything you think you might be interested in. If you think it might be of interest, get the handouts and other material for later.  Get business cards and let the vendor scan your badge for follow-up contact.

5. Blanks. In the T-shirt decoration and printing business, you’ll be buying lots of blank shirts and other apparel. A trade show is the best way to see and meet all the important vendors, look at their products, compare with other vendors, and get catalogs. You won’t get pricing however, because these companies sell through wholesale distributors, where you can get pricing. Some large distributors have booths at the shows.

6. Help you decide. If you’ve not yet started your business and are still evaluating your options, a trade show is the place where you can see all the different methods of garment decoration that you can choose from. You can see screen printing vendors with machines and products for all sizes of shops. You can see direct-to-garment (DTG) printer manufacturers, some with a variety of printer models. You can see embroiderary machines of all sizes and shapes. You can vinyl printer/cutters if you plan on making your own heat transfers, and you can see many varieties of heat presses. You can also see rhinestone placement machines in a range of sizes and costs. In addition, you may see laser engraving machines, dye sublimation printers, and special heat presses (such as for caps or cups).

7. People. A trade show is one of the best ways to meet other people who are willing to share knowledge and experiences with you. It’s amazing that you can simply be standing at a booth looking at a product or demonstration and the person next to you begins a conversation that results in at least one bit of useful knowledge, or results in a contact that can be valuable to you in the future. We’ve found that the people, both visitors and vendors, at garment decoration trade shows are some of the friendliess and most helpful people in the world.

8. Artwork and clip art. The foundation of a successful T-shirt printing business is it’s artwork. Although some customers will provide their own graphics and artwork, most of the work you’ll do will be based on professionally-designed clip art that you purchase from digital artwork companies. At a trade show, you can meet these companies, peruse their clip art books, see demonstrations, get prices, and make purchases, usually at “show special” prices. These companies often conduct free afterhours seminars and demonstrations of their products, and you may even get free pizza and drinks.

9. Heat transfers. One of the basic products in the apparel decorating industry are heat transfers. If you have a heat press, you can build a T-shirt business on heat transfers alone. Even if you print your own shirts, pre-printed heat transfers are sometimes the right solution. At a trade show, you’ll find at least a dozen or two companies who specialize in selling heat transfers. You’ll find a huge variety of types, designs, sizes, and prices. Rhinestone transfers are especially popular. Most vendors provide catalogs, samples, and some sell directly from the showroom floor.

10. Business contacts and marketing. If you are already in the business, a trade show is a great way to let potential customers and business contacts know who you are and what you do. Do it on the show floor. Do it after hours at the hotel bar. Do it when you’re talking to a screen printing company who may need some DTG printing help in the future. Do it when talking to a printer vendor who might know a customer who needs backup in case their workload increases. Take a good supply of your business cards. Wear your company T-shirt.

See www.issshows.com for a schedule of ISS trade shows for 2012.

###

DTG

As we’ve discussed in other articles, direct-to-garment printer technology is still in it’s early stages. Every new product that comes along now and in the near future will represent an improvement. We should expect to see faster speeds (especially for dark shirts), better brighter and more durable inks, improved reliability, longer print head life, reduced maintenance requirements, smaller sizes, and lower prices.

The new DTG machine, which is supposed to be the first in an ongoing M-Series, is 2-4 times the speed of the company’s Viper printer. It has higher resolution and more precise ink control aided by new IQ Color RIP software. It’s print area is a large 24″ x 17.7″ or 24″ x 47″ with multiple platen configurations.

The new printer has an advanced white ink management system to reduce common problems with white ink flow. It also uses a new technique to eliminate color banding, another common problem with other printers.

With the M2 printer, ColDesi includes a kit containing ink, dark shirt pretreatment sprayer and solution, and cleaning products. They offer a 2-year warranty (other companies typically offer only 1 year), and 1 day of free hands-on training in their Tampa office.

Although not confirmed, we believe the price to be in the $25,000 – $30,000 range, somewhat higher than other similar printers from Anajet and Veloci-Jet. You may be able to get lower “show special” prices if you buy at one of the large trade shows, such as ISS. Click here for a schedule of upcoming ISS shows.

###

How do I set prices on my DTG printed T-shirts?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions from people starting a T-shirt printing and decoration business.

Price-setting is a balancing act. If you set your prices too high, your customers might not want to pay and will look for cheaper service elsewhere. If you set your prices too low, you’ll not make sufficient profit to allow your business to grow, or even survive. The “right” price is somewhere in between.

There are three key factors in making pricing decisions:

1. Cost of materials

2. Cost of labor

3. Cost of doing business

New T-shirt business owners often make the mistake of only looking at the first of these costs – the cost of the materials and ink to make each shirt. In doing so, they underprice their shirts and lose money in the long run.

Cost of Materials

It’s easy enough to figure the cost of materials. It simply the cost of the shirt plus the cost of the DTG ink used, or the cost of creating or buying a heat transfer. Depending on brand, style, fabric, and size, T-shirts are relatively inexpensive when purchased wholesale — $2 or less per shirt. Calculating the average per-shirt cost of DTG ink is simply a matter of counting the number of shirts you print with a single ink cartridge, and dividing the cost of a cartridge by that number. Some DTG printers (e.g. Veloci-Jet) come with software that actually tells you the cost of the ink used for each individual shirt. Regardless, you’ll find ink cost per-shirt to be very small, less that $1 typically. Ink cost will vary by cost of cartridges or bulk ink paks, size and quality of graphic image, and whether white ink is involved (for dark shirts).

A typical costing analysis might show that you have $3.00 in materials and ink. If you sell your shirts for $6.00, you make a nice $3 profit. It seems at first glance that you are doubling your money. But that is deceiving and there’s more to it.

Cost of Labor

It takes time to prepare, print, and process T-shirts. Time is money. DTG printer manufacturers tout the speed of their products, often as little as one minute to print a shirt. But you’ll also spend time handling each shirt, preparing it (especially if it’s a dark shirt), placing it, printing it, curing the ink on a heat press, folding it, and processing it to be delivered to a customer. In many cases, you’ll spend time ordering your shirts, picking them up at a distributor, unpacking, and sorting. You will also spend time communicating with customers, and with bookkeeping and paperwork for each order.

Federal minimum wage is currently at $7.25 (higher in some states). You’ll want to make sure you’re making enough profit on your shirt sales to meet or exceed minimum wage. Otherwise, you’ll do better working at McDonalds.

Cost of Doing Business

This is the factor most overlooked and underestimated by new T-shirt business operators.

What is the cost of doing business? It’s all the costs of running your T-shirt business that are not directly related to your per-shirt material and labor costs. Depending on your situation it can be any or all of the following:

• Rent for office/shop space
• Cost of utilities — electricity, water, gas, garbage pickup, telephone, Internet service
• Insurance
• Business license
• Property taxes
• Income taxes — Federal, state, city
• Employees – if any
• Equipment – DTG printers, heat presses, computers, desktop printers, fax, phones, lighting, furniture, office supplies
• Vehicle costs – business use of vehicle, fuel, maintenance, loan/lease payments, repairs
• Marketing costs – business cards, signs, advertising, web site, discounts, event sales fees and setup costs
• Samples and wasted shirts – cost of sample shirts given to potential customers, and shirts wasted due to printing errors and flaws
• Trade show attendance – registration fees, seminars, cost of meals and housing, vehicle mileage

Summary

Pricing your printed T-shirts must account not only for the cost of producing each shirt but also on recovery of other indirect business expenses — and paying yourself a reasonable salary — and leaving some profit that will allow you grow your business for the future.

It’s up to you to determine the right price to charge for your printed T-shirts, whether it’s $8, $18, or $28, but if you don’t price correctly, you’re simply operating an expensive hobby and you’ll eventually be out of business.

Notice that we’ve made no mention of competitors’ prices as a factor in setting your own prices. We have our reasons. First, competition is rarely a large pricing factor for DTG printing — maybe for high-volume or wholesale screen-printing, but not so much for lower-volume custom, full-color digital printing which very few people are actually doing right now. Second, you don’t know if your competitors’ low prices are making them money or not. They may be willing to lose money in hopes of getting more profitable business in the future — or their quality and service isn’t that great and they make up for it with low prices. You shouldn’t feel compelled to follow in their footsteps.

As a side note, the most important tool for knowing how your business is doing and whether you’re making a profit is a good bookkeeping software package such as Quickbooks. Good bookkeeping habits combined with accounting software and spreadsheets will keep you in close touch with your business.

###

The problem was that the GT-541 only printed on white or light colored t-shirts because it could not print white ink which is necessary to print on dark t-shirts.

Although the GT-782 dual platen machine could print white ink, it was large, bulky, and very expensive compared to other machines like the Anajet and Veloci-Jet that print both white and dark t-shirts at a much lower cost.

Now all that has changed.

Brother just announced a new GT3-Series of DTG printers — the GT-341 (white shirts only), GT-361 (2 white ink print heads), and the GT-381 (4 white ink print heads).

These new direct-to-garment printers, called GraffiTee by Brother, advance the bar in DTG technology. First, the GT-361 and GT-381 print white ink (for dark shirts) and colored ink in a single pass, not two passes as with other DTG printers. This creates much faster printer times.

Even if you first buy the economical GT-341, you can upgrade it to one of the white-ink machines later. No need to trade or sell your old machine.

Print area on these new printers is 14″ x 16″; they measure at 53.9″ x 41.1″ x 26″; print at up to 1200 DPI for photo quality; and require no RIP software.

Delivery is expected to be April 2012 and prices, although not finalized, will be about $19,995 for the GT-341, $22,995 for the GT-361, and $25,995 for the GT-381. Distributors are currently taking pre-order deposits at the time of this writing. If you buy at a trade show, you’ll usually be able to get a nice “show special” discount.

These printers represent an advancement in DTG technology and make a good choice for anyone just starting a t-shirt business, or for an established shop wanting to expand.

You can see the new Brother GraffiTee DTG printers at national and regional garment decorating shows. Upcoming national shows are the ISS Orlando show, Feb. 17-18, 2012 and ISS Atlantic City, March 9-11, 2012.

###

Where most of your business comes from

However, the majority of a successful T-shirt printing business’ work will come from 1) large orders that result from earlier small orders, 2) repeat business from previous customers, and 3) word-of-mouth referrals in which one customer recommends you to other customers. A single print job can easily snowball into a ton of business with little or no effort from you.

How it works

Let’s take a look at a couple of typical scenarios.

You place a listing for your business on www.PrinterListings.com. A small local charity in another state sees your listing and contacts you. Because they only need a few T-shirts for their chariy workers, their local screen printer wasn’t interested in the job. You do the job, get paid, and send them the shirts. One of the charity workers is the owner of a large home painting company whose employees constantly need printed logo T-shirts. He likes your work and contacts you to do his shirts for the next year. The owner is also a volunteer fireman. His firehouse needs T-shirts and you get the job. And so on and so on.

Another typical and very real scenario goes like this: You make a T-shirt for your high-school son with his favorite music group’s name and slogan. His friends like the shirt and want to know where to buy them (from you, or course). The school’s sport director sees the shirts and asks about the source. He contacts you to make T-shirts and jerseys for the school lacrosse team. The mother of one of the team members sees her daughter’s jersey, finds out that you made them, and recommends you to her son’s middle school football coach who is looking for team shirts. His wife is head of the cheer squad and wants school-logo shirts and decals for their fund raising events. And so on and so on.

What does it take to make it work?

There is one common element in each of these scenarios — each customer along the line has to be happy, even delighted, with you and your work in order to recommend you to the next person in the chain. This requires that you be skilled at what you do and that you do it well. Your work product must be top quality and meet or exceed the customer’s expectations. It also requires that you make reasonable promises regarding delivery, and constantly meet or exceed those promises.

Just to be clear, having a successful T-shirt printing business does not mean selling at the lowest prices. Most new-comers to the T-shirt printing business think that having low prices is the secret to success and repeat business. It’s true that most customers are conscious of prices and don’t want to over-pay but they are also willing to pay the cost of custom design work, high-quality print results, fast turn-around, and met promises. The reason that many customers will come to you is that they have been disappointed elsewhere. This kind of situation, in particular, gives you a huge opportunity to earn their business now and in the future — as well as the business of the people they know and come in contact with.

###

Each of the methods we’ll discuss are unique in terms of technology, methodology, ease of use, cost, and productivity.

If you are beginning a T-shirt business, you will choose the method that best suits your needs and your budget.

The five T-shirt printing methods are direct-to-garment (DTG) printers, heat transfers, emboidery, screen printing, and vinyl printer/cutters.

DTG Printing

In no particular order, let’s begin with DTG printing. DTG printers are essentially ink-jet printers that are designed for T-shirts and other similar garments. They are larger and more expensive than a desktop inkjet printer, use special inks for fabrics, and attach to a PC or Mac computer. Images are printed from the computer and can be full-color photographic quality on cotton or cotton-blend fabrics. To print on dark shirts, you need a DTG printer that is specially designed with that capability. DTG printers are rather costly — $12, 000 or more — but are incredibly versitile and relatively easy to use.

Heat Transfers

You can create heat transfers in a variety of ways. One way is using a computer and a desktop inkjet or laser printer to print your designs on special transfer paper. Using a heat press, the image is tranfered to a T-shirt or other garment.

You can also use a dye-sublimation printer, which is similar to a desktop ink-jet printer. After printing using a special transfer paper, the image can be applied to fabric (or other materials, such as coffee mugs) using a a heat press. Small dye-sub printers cost about $300-$500.

You can also buy heat transfers from companies such as Stahls Transfer Express and Quicktrans. You can create your own design or select from a large catalog of ready-made designs including sports uniform numbers and letters, school mascot images, public service images, and much more. You only need a heat press to apply the transfers to shirts or other fabric items.

Or you can create your own transfers with a vinyl cutter, or vinyl printer/cutter, which we’ll discuss in a moment.

Embroidery

Embroidery is technically not printing but can be considered as “printing” on fabric using a needle and colored threads that are woven into the fabric. Impressive designs and lettering can be achieved with a variety of types of threads and yarn. Embroidery can be used on T-shirts, bags, hats, and other fabric items.

Embroidery machines are available in a wide variety of types and costs, from an inexpensive one-needle, single-thread bobbin tabletop hobby machine to large professional multi-station, multi-needle, multi-bobbin machines costing thousands of dollars.

Embroidery is not as versitle as other printing methods and not as cost effective, but delivers very high quality and long-lasting results.

Screen Printing

Screen printing is the traditional way that T-shirts have been printed for years. In T-shirt screen printing, a shirt is stretched over a wood or metal frame. A stencil is then created (one for each color in the image) using a special screen-like material, which is placed over the shirt. Ink is forced through the open areas of the screen, creating an image on the shirt. This process is repeated for each color of the design being applied.

Screen printing can produce bright colorful images but is messy and somewhat difficult to learn. It is most cost-effective for large T-shirt print orders due to the necessary setup cost. A small single-station screen printing operation can be started for about $2000. Professional automated multi-station machines cost thousands of dollars.

Vinyl Printer/Cutter

You can make your own heat transfers with a vinyl printer/cutter — a combination of ink-jet printer and cutter (to cut out images after printing). Printing and cutting are automated and controlled by special computer software. Very high quality multi-color images can be printed and transfered to T-shirts with a heat press. Vinyl material is available in a wide variety of colors, textures, patterns, and effects (reflective, glitter, glow-in-dark, metalic).

Printer/cutter machines are available from companies such as Roland and Graphtec at prices that range from about $5000 up to many thousands of dollars, depending primarily on size (width of print area).

If you want to start small, you can produce single-color transfers with a vinyl cutter — no need for a printer. Multi-color designs can be created by separately cutting different colored image segments and computer software that helps keep the different segments aligned properly. Simple cutters are available for $200-$2000. For more details, see Start Small with a Vinyl Cutter or Printer-Cutter.

After printing and cutting, images are transfered to T-shirts and other fabric garments using a heat press.

###

Why would you want to start a T-shirt printing business?  Why now?

The short answer to these questions comes down to the following three simple words: opportunity, ease-of-entry, and affordability.

Let’s explain:

1. Opportunity
The printed T-shirt business is healthy, growing, and has been virtually recession-proof. Look around when you go to the mall or to a sporting event. It seems that everyone is wearing a printed or decorated T-shirt, jersey, hoodie, or sweatshirt. People love them and will keep buying them long into the future, regardless of the economy.

People who wear printed T-shirts don’t just have one — they have several, and they keep buying more. They buy new shirts when old ones become worn or outdated. School sports teams buy jerseys each new season.  New schools with new names and new sports programs pop up every year. Students at college want shirts. School team spirit is is best expressed with colorful T-shirts or jerseys. Clever shirt slogans are always popular. Fads come and go. There’s always demand for printed shirts — everywhere you look.

Teenagers love expressing their individuality with printed shirts. Personal interests change; political opinions change — often to be expressed on new T-shirts. New parents love buying cute shirts, jam-jams, and onesies for the baby. Kids are so cute in cute shirts.

Many companies like for their employees to wear logo shirts. Other companies give away decorated shirts as advertising. Members of family reunions like wearing special shirts for the occasion. Printed shirts mark holidays, special events, anniversaries, and concerts. Antique car collectors want images of their cars on shirts. Motorcycle riders love biking themes and patriotic shirts.

Decorated T-shirts and other garments are everywhere and are here to stay. The demand is out there and future growth potential is amazing. T-shirt printing is a great opportunity for people who are looking to start a small company or home-based business.

2. Ease of Entry
Printed T-shirts have been around for decades. However, until just about 3-4 years ago, the complexity and cost of entering the business was prohibitive. The method, called screen printing, involved a series of complicated steps using expensive equipment, messy chemicals and inks, and printed only one color at a time. Because of the high cost and time required, screen printing was only cost effective for large runs of printed shirts. Screen printing is not practical for single shirts or small volumes. It also cannot print photographic images that contain thousands of colors and gradations.

Things are different now, thanks to recent advancements in two technology developments that make it possible to easily and economically start a highly profitable T-shirt decoration business. These developments now allow entrepreneurs to take advantage of a business opportunity that traditional screen printing companies have left virtually untouched.

The two developments are: heat press transfers and direct-to-garment printers. Although we’ll be discussing these in more detail in later articles, let’s take a quick look now.

Heat press transfers are like decals printed on special release paper for application to cloth with a heat press. You can order transfers with stock designs — or you can design your own — for all types of fabric and applications.  Digitally printed transfers can contain full color photos, graphic images, gradients, and fancy text.  You can also buy transfers with glitter, metal foil, or rhinestone incorporated into the designs. You must have a heat press machine that is made to control time, temperature, and pressure in applying transfers to shirts, hats, bags, or other garments. You cannot use a home iron to apply transfers.

Direct-to-garment printers are a kind of oversized ink-jet printer that will print on T-shirts, garments, bags, mouse pads and other items. Direct-to-garment (DTG) printers are relatively new technology and attach to your computer the same way your ink-jet document printer attaches. Essentially, any image on your computer can be digitally printed to a T-shirt, which is what makes this breakthrough technology so exciting. Unlike screen printing, you can now easily print small numbers of shirts (or single shirts) with customized designs quickly and economically.  For a few cents worth of ink and a blank T-shirt that cost less than $2.00, you have the ingredients for a profitable product that could sell for $15 or more. In very few businesses will you find that kind of profit margin.

3. Affordability
With the new garment printing technology comes new affordability. It no longer requires a small fortune to start a money-making T-shirt business. You can easily set up a business in your home or small shop.

If you take the route of buying transfers and applying them with a heat press, your only investment is a heat press machine and possibly a small supply of transfers and blank shirts. Heat presses are available from a number of sources and cost as little as $350. You pay more money for larger sizes and more automated functions, which are not necessary to get started. Transfers average about $1.50 each and blank white shirts cost less than $2.00.

If you take the DTG printer route, your investment will be greater. Direct-to-garment printers will cost about $16,000-$25,000 new, or less if you can find a used one. Companies who sell DTG printers usually have a convenient payment or lease plan that allows you pay as you go. If you do the math (which we’ll do in an upcoming article), you will see that with only a modest amount of business, the printer easily pays for itself. By the way, you also need a heat press, which is required to “set” the printed ink design into your shirts.

Summary
In just the last few years, new developments in heat transfers and direct-to-garment printers have made it possible for small businesses to be created to take advantage of the huge T-shirt printing opportunity. The equipment only requires a small amount of space and can easily be set up in a room at home. Relatively few people are using this incredible new technology right now. In fact, not many people are even aware that the technology exists. It’s a great time to jump in before the crowd finds out about it.

If you are looking for a good business niche that you can work from home or in your spare time, T-shirt design and printing might be the right answer for you. Self-employment is a great way to escape the world of corporate layoffs, frustrating job hunting, and financial trauma.

We will explore and explain this exciting new opportunity in much more detail in coming articles on this web site. Stay tuned.

###

What is a heat press?

A heat press is an essential piece of equipment if you are printing T-shirts, regardless of whether you are using heat transfers or directly printing your shirts with a direct-to-garment printer. The machine is designed to apply uniform heat and pressure for a period of time to permanently imprint ink images to fabric or other materials.

Heat presses are available in a wide variety of brands, models, sizes, types, manual or automated operation — and prices.

Important factors in choosing a heat press

Size
Size is the first factor you should consider when buying a heat press.  Size refers to the table, or platen, that your garment will rest on. Although small 9 inch by 12 inch “hobby” presses are available, this is usually too small for typical T-shirt printing. Other sizes are 15″ x 15″ (or 16″ x 16″), 16″ x 20″, 11″ x 15″, and 22″ x 22″. For greatest versatility, buy the 16″ x 20″ size, which is good for all sizes of  T-shirts.

If you plan to take your heat press on the road to events and art shows, select the smallest machine that will do the job and have a manageable weight.

Manual or automatic?
The most automated heat presses let you precisely set temperature, pressure, and time using digital controls and readouts — and will automatically open at the end of a heating cycle. This allows for more consistent results, while minimizing the time you must spend hovering over the press.

Less automated (and less expensive) heat press machines may let you set temperature and time, but sound an alarm at the end of the heating cycle, which requires that it be opened immediately to prevent overheating the garment. If you work alone and need to maximize your work flow (multi-tasking), a machine that automatically opens at the end of the cycle will better fit your needs.

Other less sophisticated machines may only let you roughly set temperature and pressure, and may have no timer.

The most full-featured automated heated presses are also the most expensive.  Generally speaking, a good 16″ x 20″ press will cost between about $300 to $3000, depending on type and features.

Types of heat presses

First is the “clam” or “clamshell” type that is hinged at the rear and open up at the front like a clam shell. It is the simplest of the three types and generally the least expensive and easiest to operate. Simply pull or push the handle to open and close. It also requires the least amount of space. The disadvantage of this type press is that, if you must work with the garment while on the platen, you don’t have much vertical room with which to work near the back. For most uses, however, this is not a problem.

Another type of heat press is the “swinger” or “swing-away” style. The top portion of the press swings to the side to allow full access to the garment, such as you might need if you are placing heat-press rhinestones on your design. The most advanced of this type of press is an “air swinger” or “pneumatic swinger” that, along with digital control functions, allows almost totally automated operation. Swinging presses require more space on your work table and are generally more expensive than presses of the clam type.

The third type is the “draw press” which, like the “swinger,” allows full access to a garment, but the lower platen pulls out like a drawer toward the operator, and moves back in for the press part of the cycle. It has the advantages of the swing-away with the smaller space requirements of the clamshell type. Many people feel the draw press is less tiring for long production runs. It usually costs more than a clamshell but less than a swinger. One company, HotTronix, offers a duel-mode press that works as either a draw type or as a swing-away.

Warranty and manufacturer support

When choosing a heat press brand, choose companies that provide at least a one year warranty and offer customer support. Some distributors offer inexpensive extended warranties.

Heat presses with digital controls are a little more difficult to learn than a simple manual press, but you can usually find out everything you need to know from the provided user manual. No training is necessary.

Be careful buying used heat presses. If you buy a press on which the warranty has expired, make sure it works properly before you hand over your cash.

Quality, heat and pressure, and consistency

Choose a heat press from a reputable company for best quality; there are cheap presses from China that might not be worth buying.

Choose a press that has a smooth easy hinge and platen movement mechanism to minimize work effort and fatigue.  Make sure it provides even heat and pressure across the entire platen. Some cheap brands have “hot spots” that create uneven heating and pressure.

Where to buy a heat press

One of the easiest and most convenient ways to shop for a heat press is through Amazon.comwhere you can find a wide variety of brands, models, and prices — starting from $199.99. User reviews are available for many of these presses.

Otherwise, you can go to dealer/distributor web sites (see links below) to research and purchase your heat press.

Heat Press Brands:

• Stahl’s Hotronix
• Stahl’s MAXX
• Hix
• Geo Knight
• iDek
• AIT/ASTEK

Heat Press Sales and Service Companies:

• Best Blanks
• Pro World
• HeatPress Nation
• Coastal Business Supplies

Manufacturer’s Web Sites

• Hotronix
• Hix Corp
• Geo Knight

Priced at about $25,000 the new direct-to-garment printer is targeted primarily to high-volume production. It is capable of printing a 12″ x 10″ full-color graphic image on a T-shirt in as little as 16 seconds. This is considerably faster than the Sprint and most other printers in its class.

The new mPower also has updated print head technology and an improved ink delivery system that promises fewer clogs and reduced maintenance.

The printer comes with a set of ink cartridges and RIP software that allows you to get up and running almost immediately. We recommend however that you take advantage of the free hands-on training that Anajet provides at its California headquarters. You’ll learn essential operational and maintenance techniques that will save you time as you get started.

Although this new DTG printer represents a significant advancement in the technology, the starting price might be a little high for someone just entering the T-shirt printing business. You might start with the more economical Anajet Sprint and move up to the mPower as your business grows. The Sprint is a very capable machine and has proven itself over time.

Anajet offers free training, free technical support, and an online user forum that are great resources to make the use of their products as easy as possible. Although the company’s technical support (email or telephone) is top-notch, a weak point is that they have no regional tech support representatives around the county to provide on-site support if a machine breaks down and the problem can’t be resolved via email or telephone support. This means if a machine breaks, even under warranty, it must be freight-shipped back to the factory in California.

In summary, the new Anajet mPower is an advancement in DTG printer technology and is worth serious consideration by anyone in a high-volume T-shirt printing business, or by existing screenprint shops looking to expand into DTG printing.

###

What are the best digital DTG printers for a small start-up T-shirt printing business?

There are a number of excellent direct-to-garment (DTG) printer brands and models from which to choose when starting a T-shirt printing business.

We’ll help you sort out your options and give you our recommendations for best DTG printer.

Since this web site is specifically for people who want to start a small T-shirt printing business, we will limit our DTG printer candidates to those that are designed for that market, which will generally be the less expensive models — those not necessarily suited to a large high-volume printing company.

All the printers we discuss are available for about $12K-$20K , except where noted. Although this might seem to be a lot of money for a start-up business, financing can be arranged for about $450-$650 a month, which is easily achievable for a business that has such high profit margins as a T-shirt printing business (see T-Shirt Printing Business Profits). It doesn’t take much business to make the monthly payments and have plenty of money left over.

Also note that you can generally get better prices on DTG printers by attending a garment/apparel decorating trade show and getting “show special” prices. It’s a good way to buy because you can see and compare different DTG printers all at the same place. Even take one of your own digital color images or photographs and let the different DTG printer companies print sample shirts for you to compare. Although we will not discuss high-end or industrial garment printers in much detail, you might be interested in those machines in the future as your small business becomes a larger business. Kornit, in particular, is a company that sells DTG printers that are out of the price range we consider reasonable for new T-shirt printing businesses. DTG (brand name) also makes high-end garment printers that we don’t discuss.

DTG Printer Comparisons and Reviews

We will be discussing the following DTG printer models, in no particular order:

• Brother GT-541 and Brother GT-782 (and new GT-300 series)
• Anajet Sprint (and new mPower)
• Veloci-Jet XL
• DTG (brandname) HM1-C, and DTG Viper (and new M2 model)
• M&R i-Dot 2100 and 4100

————————————————————

Brother® GT-541 and  GT-782 DTG Printers

Brother International, a Japanese company, is well known for its printers, fax machines, sewing machines, and embroidery products. It also produces two digital direct-to-garment printers, the GT-541 and GT-782.

The Brother GT-541 is the least expensive of the two models but only prints on white shirts (or very light colors). This may not be a limitation if you know that you will only be printing white shirt designs. The printer has a generous 14″ x 16″ printing area, requires about 4′ x 3″ table space, and weighs 220 lbs. It uses sealed 4 color (CYMK) ink cartridges. There are no white ink cartridges since it doesn’t print dark shirts. It will print on 100% cotton or 50/50 cotton polyester fabric.

The Brother GT-782 is much larger and more expensive DTG printer with dual-platens (two shirts at a time) that prints both white and dark shirts. It has a 16″ x 18″ print area, requires about 9′ x 4′ table space, and weighs 485 lbs. It uses 4 color (CYMK) cartridges and 4 white cartridges (for dark shirt undercolor).

NEW: Brother has announced a new line of three DTG printers, called GraffiTee, which contains three models, two of which print both light and dark shirts in a single pass. See Amazing New DTG Printers from Brother for more details.

These printers have an excellent reputation for reliability, quality, useability, and are well-liked by users, based on user-forum feedback. Print speed is fast and colors are vibrant. Print table options are available for youth-size  or baby-size garments. The company provides training and support through its distributors, such as SewingMachine.com. Standard limted warranty is for 1 year.

For more information on Brother DTG printers, click here.

AnaJet® Sprint™ DTG Printer

AnaJet®  is a U.S. (California) based company that produces the AnaJet Sprint™ direct-to-garment printer. The printer prints on both white and dark shirts, using 4 CYMK sealed ink cartridges and 4 white ink cartridges (for dark shirt undercolor). It has a 12.5″ x 16″ print area, requires about 3′ x 3′ table space, and weights only 82 lbs.

Update: Anajet has announced a brand new high-end DTG printer called the mPower that is much more expensive than the Sprint described in this article. See the Anajet web site for more details.

This printer will print on 100% cotton, 50/50 blends, or synthetic fabrics (using special PolyBright ink cartridges). Many DTG printer brands do not print on polyester. Anajet also provides applications for applying metal foil to its printed shirts, as well as techniques for printing stunning 3D images on fabric. Kits and materials are available for printing artwork to canvas.

The AnaJet Sprint enjoys an excellent reputation for reliability, quality, and useability, based on user feedback. It is fast, has an easy-to-use interface, and prints vibrant colors. It comes with a limited 1 year warranty and lifetime customer support. The company provides a 1-day hands-on training course as well as DVDs, videos, and frequent webinars for its customers. Technical support is very good according to most user reports, although a weak point is that they do not have service techs around the country who can come to your business location to fix broken machines.

New: Anajet has announced a new DTG printer called mPower that has new improved print head technology and advanced ink flow managment for reduced maintenance. See New DTG Printer from Anajet for more details.

The company manufactures, sells, and supports its product directly from its headquarters in Costa Mesa, California. It sells and supports international customers through worldwide distributors. For more information go to Anajet.com.

Veloci-Jet XL ® DTG Printer

The Veloci-Jet XL digital garment printer is assembled in the U.S., sold, and supported by EquipmentZone. It has a large 13″ x 24″ print area, a little “longer” than usual. Various platen options are available to allow, for example, printing two shirts in one pass — a very nice feature. We don’t have physical size and weight but it is obviously designed for heavy-duty operation.

It comes with RIP software and a number of handy graphics program aids (EZ Artist), primarily in the form of Photoshop plugins.

It uses bulk (bottle) ink, which reduces ink cost when compared to sealed cartridge systems. The company also offers an optional sealed bag ink system. Print head height automatically adjusts up to about 6.5 inches, which allows printing on extremely thick items. Print speed is fast and operating costs are somewhat cheaper than with some competing machines.

Users report that the Veloci-Jet produces superior print quality and vibrant colors. Reliability seems to be very good.

The company also sells a SpeedTreater which automates and speeds up the pretreatment of dark shirts.

18 months limited warranty and 18 months free support. After 18 months, support plans are available at extra cost. User reports regarding the Veloci-Jet and EquipmentZone support are very positive. The company has service technicians who can travel to repair broken machines.

DTG  HM1-C and Viper DTG Printers

The DTG (brand name) direct-to-garment printers are manufactured in Australia, sold by distributors in the U.S. (MESA Distributors, Inc. in the West and ColDesi in the East) as well as internationally.

The DTG HM1-C,  and Viper are DTG’s digital garment printers. The printers use the latest technology in ink management, print head protection, and encoder strip protection. The differences between these printers are primarily in size, operational characteristics, and options. Anyone considering any of these printers should attend a trade show or distributor showroom to see them in action before making a decision.

All DTG printers will print on both white and dark shirts of 100% cotton or cotton/poly blends. The printers use CYMK/White pressurized refillable bulk ink bottles, which reduces ink cost over sealed cartridge systems. Print areas are 12″ x 21.2″ (HM1-C),  and 13″ x 16.5″ (Viper). The Viper can be optionally equiped with various platens (2/4/6 shirts) and a conveyor roller system to allow larger print sizes and multiple prints per pass. The Viper requires 3″ x 4″ table space and weighs 120 lb.

DTG printers come with RipPro software and WIMS (White Ink Management System) that prevents white ink clogging.

NEW: DTG has recently announced a new direct-to-garment printer, the DTG M2, that prints both white and dark shirts. It has advanced print technology, is 2-4 times faster than the Viper, and comes with new RIP software. For more details, see New M2 Printer from DTG.

DTG printers include 2-day hands-on training in Tampa (for Eastern U.S. by SWF East; unknown for Western U.S. by MESA). Also includes a 2 year warranty and an unspecified support period.

M&R i-Dot™ DTG Printers – 2100 and 4100

M&R Companies  produces two direct-to-garment printers, the i-Dot 2100 and i-Dot 4100. The 2100 prints only on white or very light colored shirts, while the 4100 prints both white and dark shirts. Both use 4 CYMK color cartridges and can print on 100% cotton or 50/50 cotton/polyester blend fabrics, as well as “some” polyesters.

Both printers have 16″ x 20″ print areas and have essentially the same features, although the 4100 is more robust and comes with a bulk ink system, a touch screen control panel, 4 white ink cartridges (for dark shirts), and includes free 2-day training.  The printers have a 1-year limited warranty. On-call technical support  is available from the company. Length of support period is not known.

Interestingly, the M&R i-Dot printers also come with a computer, flat-screen monitor, and keyboard. The 4100 also comes with a separate touch-screen control console.  The computer has the necessary RIP printer software already included but customers must supply their own graphics programs. It’s not known if the computer has the power and memory necessary to adequately handle large graphics programs such as Photoshop.

Summary & Recommendations

Choosing from among the various DTG printer products is not an easy task. The products are in many ways very similar, but can have significant differences as well. There are more companies and products than we have discussed here, although we have chosen those that we feel best fit the needs of start-up T-shirt printing companies.

The DTG printer industry is moving very fast. New technology and updated printer models come out every year that replace older less advanced, less reliable models. Be sure you aren’t buying last year’s printers. Some old-technology printers, such as Fast T-Jet, are available as inexpensive reburbished units, but you should be very careful about buying such products.

It is also important to select the right printer company or dealer. A great printer from a company that doesn’t provide adequate customer training and support is not acceptable.

————————————————————

Our Recommendation for Best Direct-to-Garment (DTG) Printer

We feel the AnaJet Sprint™  is currently the best overall DTG printer choice for start-up T-shirt and garment printing businesses.

Here’s why:

AnaJet’s only business is its DTG printers, unlike other manufacturers or distributors who are primarily in the screen printing or embroidery equipment business and have added DTG printers as a sideline. Anajet doesn’t depend on distributors or dealers (in the U.S.) for sales, training, and support. They do it all themselves, including manufacturing, directly from their plant in California.  The company has developed a reputation for outstanding customer support and product reliability.

The AnaJet Sprint direct-to-garment printer prints to both white and dark shirts, prints on polyester materials (unlike many competitors), is fast, uses a sealed-cartridge ink management system, and requires little manual maintenance. The printer comes with a 1-year warranty on parts and labor, which includes a 90-day warranty on the print head (many companies don’t warranty the print head at all). It also comes with two full sets of color ink cartridges (most competitors only supply one set).  The company recently reduced its ink cartridge prices (by up to 35%), making it competitive with less convenient bulk ink systems.

AnaJet offers a variety of options including different print table (platen) sizes, pretreatment sprayer, heat press, PolyBright inks (for polyester), a pre-treatment sprayer (for dark shirts), clip-art graphics CDs, and an extended warranty. They also offer an ARTprint Starter Kit that includes all the materials to make high-profit art prints on canvas.

The company offers a 1-day hands-on training course (strongly suggested), DVD and video training, regular online webinars, and even a handy book, ”The T-Shirt Revolution: Building Your Business Using a Digital Apparel Printer.”

Oh, and one other thing, the AnaJet Sprint looks good, is stylishly attractive, and is relatively lightweight, unlike the heavy factory-industrial designs of many of its competitors. This might be important if it’s going to sit on your dining room table as you get your T-shirt business started, or if you intend to make it portable and carry it to art shows or events.

Other Recommendations

Although we have recommended the AnaJet Sprint as the best overall choice, there may be reasons to consider other DTG printers.

For example, the Veloci-Jet XL allows print head height adjustment up to 6.5″ (0.8″ on the AnaJet) which might be important if you plan to print on unusually thick objects. The Veloci-Jet XL is slightly less expensive than most other DTG printers, ink costs are somewhat less (bulk ink system), and print head replacement can be less expensive. Customer support is excellent.

The Brother GT-541 may be a good alternative to the AnaJet printer, but only if you never plan to print on dark or black shirts. Owner feedback on user forums regarding reliability and support is generally very positive. The heavy duty white-and-dark dual-platen GT-782 is too expensive for most start-up T-shirt printing companies.

The DTG (brandname) printers (HM1-C, and Viper) from SWF East (we’re not impressed with the West Coast distributor) are also worthy of your consideration, primairly due to the company’s attention to keeping the product line updated with the latest technology. Just make sure you buy the latest models, for example the HM1-C, not the older less advanced Kiosk.

The M&R i-Dot printers (2100 and 4100) are interesting in that they come with a computer/monitor, have an optional bulk-ink system (standard on 4100), offer both white-shirt-only (2100) and white-and-dark (4100) printers at reasonable prices (unlike Brother’s GT-782).

————

Regardless of what we say here or the recommendations we have made, it is important that you assess your own needs, do your own research, visit manufacturer’s web sites, attend trade shows, ask for dealer demonstrations, and visit user forums to determine which DTG printer is best for you.

>> Return to beginning of Best Direct-to-Garment DTG Printers