I'm thinking of starting a t shirt selling business. I just want to know a few things. Do i need to have my own machines to do it? Or do i just have a partnership with a business who has them and i order thme off them? It seems ideal for me to do this as i like designing so i could design the shirts myself. Thanks.
You would be better off with your own machine. I had a flea market t-shirt business for a few years on the weekends and I ordered my t-shirts. I did great but now t-shirts are so cheap at places like Walmart and K-Mart that the profit is low if you want to compete. If you have your own equipment and can do custom shirts on the spot, you have a much better niche and can set a good price.
Which kind are you going for.. theres different machines...silk screen, heat transfer, and an inkjet type printer style...there could be more
If I were you I'd go in partnership with a company who has the best, when your company gets bigger I'd get your own then. Good luck, hope all goes well for me.
Look up the heat transfer presses and what their materials needed to run t-shirts through it... I believe those would be the easiest for your situation
Were you expecting less than that? How much money are you willing to spend on this? If you aren't willing to spend a couple bucks to have your own press, outsource your work to a T-shirt vendor until you can come up with the money.
If you want to really go into business, you will need to plan to invest in an inventory. I started with $3000 in just inventory and that was 6 years ago. If you are planning to just do it in the Internet, you may be able to find a drop shipper but the competition will be huge. I would say for a nice set up, you are looking in the $2000-$3000 range for a descent machine and some basic inventory. What are looking at, local or Internet?
It depends - what's your business model? Flea Markets? E-commerce? Store level distribution? How many designs/colors/locations? Brands? (American Apparel, Anvil, Fruit of the Loom, Gildan, Hanes, ProClub, etc.) Are you going to function as an affiliate for already-established brands? Who is your direct competition? (In the world of t-shirts, there are many vertical niches and wide-spectrum markets.) Have you explored companies that inventory blank shirts and can do the imprinting for you? (And don't go through a promotional products company - they're middlemen. Find a direct garment imprinter/screener.) Hope that gives you some stuff to reflect on. Del
hi, i am interested as well, can anyone give me websites for those machines? would like to take a look at them. how profitable is this business? how much are you guys profitting per month?
You should definitely check out a great resource for folks like yourself who are getting into the t-shirt business as well as those who share their advice here: t-shirtforums.com (Just cut and paste - am too new to post live links) I've browsed there a few times and came away with some great advice for t-shirts for our online store. That forum is much like this one, 'cept for t-shirts only. In our case, since we don't have much time to make the shirts ourselves, what we do is do up the designs and take them to the local t-shirt shop that we've made an arrangement with and have them run shirts for us at a low minimum quantity. We get wholesale pricing as a result and can turn around and make quite a bit off the margin. In some cases we could get shirts done as low as $4 a shirt (shirt included!). Best to hunt around for the local screen printing shops and see if you can work something out with them. Some will even do it credit, but mostly only for established businesses. I like what shirt.woot.com is doing - check them out - they have tons of original designs and their concept is very unique. Ray
Well, i would suggest that you have 2 sort of partnerships once for printing and the other for shipping. Create a good flow system so there are no screw ups.
just another questions, is screen printing better or heat presses ? what are the difference between both?
I would say that this is going to be a very difficult niche to get into unless you can create a unique brand and/or a snappy design. It is also worth looking at something funny or patriotic as people really don't mind spending a bit extra on shirts like this.
Screen printing usually yields longer lasting designs, while heat allows for more digital stuff (photos, etc.). Heat is better for short runs, screen for long runs. Ray
thanks for your reply, that means screen printing shirts will have a higher quality then heat press? cos colors or designs are longer lasting right?
Have a look at my my site, custom dropship. We supply custom made shirts and dropship them internationally. The link is www.customdropship.com