Searching for Custom T-Shirt Vendor August 17, 2005 2:22 PM Subscribe
Im a looking for an inexpensive but reliable online vendor that will make me custom t-shirts with just text of various fonts on them. One t-shirt at time. Any recomendations? posted by nightocean to clothing, beauty, & fashion (15 comments total)
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B-Bam seems to do just that. No uploading like Cafepress... just type your words, pick your colour, and pay... posted by Robot Johnny at 2:45 PM on August 17, 2005
This sounds like what Oneoff Clothing does, but you'll need to supply your own art. posted by letourneau at 2:47 PM on August 17, 2005
OneOffClothing.com just hit the most popular del.icio.us links yesterday, and they will do ANY design/color you want for $20 with no setup charge, which is pretty goddamned cheap, if you ask me (considering that they've got to be spending at least .. well, a man hour making/shipping your shirt, plus about $3 for shirt that American Apparel charges).
Their quality, however, is another question -- i haven't seen any photos of their actual shirts from the site, and some of their "designs" (read clip-art ripped from clip-art books) are totally ass, so it's possible that their skills as regard to shirt printing are commensurate with their graphic design chops. posted by fishfucker at 2:47 PM on August 17, 2005
you should note that neighborhoodies charges $65 over every 14 chars, and looks like it uses iron-on letters (though probably high quality ones) rather than screening it (pro iron-on letter shirts age about as well as a screen, if not a little better -- i haven't personally owned any neighborhoodies apparel, so i can't speak to the quality, however). B-Bam looks like they'll screen but make no mention of what brand shirts they use (probably the cheapest, in that case), and Cafepress, though they are experimenting with hot-split type iron-ons, still has sub-par quality.
buy a oneoff and let us know how it goes. posted by fishfucker at 2:53 PM on August 17, 2005
whoa, $65 should read 65 cents. that's a massive typo. posted by fishfucker at 2:53 PM on August 17, 2005
Is doing your own silk-screening out of the question? more up-front cost but if your time is more plentiful than your cash perhaps that's the way to go. Or inkjet or laser iron-ons depending on your capacity for ick. posted by phearlez at 3:35 PM on August 17, 2005
I've heard good things about Spreadshirt, but have never used them. posted by Vidiot at 4:08 PM on August 17, 2005
more up-front cost but if your time is more plentiful than your cash perhaps that's the way to go.
doubtful. a true one-off shirt is a hard proposition to argue for DIY.
Here's some math: $25 worth of emulsion will coat about two screens, maybe three, and if you don't have a resale license you're looking at something like $12 for American Apparel shirts at the minimum (i guess you don't have to buy aa, but oneoff offers it). add about a buck a shirt for a positive. Factor in the inks and you're probably looking at MORE than $20* for each one off shirt, even if your time is free (however, if you're looking to do like, more than 3 shirts of the same design, you'd be saving money).
However, I do think more people *should* get involved in DIY screenprinting -- it's really not that difficult to do simple, single-color designs. If you're gonna make shirts for yourself, why not make a bunch for your friends? Hey, maybe you can even sell them for a couple bucks over your cost (which you could probably cut to $5-6 per shirt pre-labor if you make some investments) and then end up making a little money on your "one offs".
anyways, i'll shut up now **
*emulsion $8
quality shirt bought at retail $12
ink $non-zero (albeit very small after the original investment)
positive $1
your time: ?
$21+ per one off shirt, and that's assuming you already own a screen, press and squeegee (you can get a janky speedball setup for $60-100 that includes all of those plus a few inks).
I used spreadshirt recently to print a shirt design. On one side of the shirt was text, on the other side was a large color graphic. The quality of both was fairly high, and the best part was that they were able to print colors on dark t-shirts, which most places (cafe press, zazzle) will not do.
The shirt has been through three washes and has held up so far, but we'll see.
Two complaints about them:
1. If you end up printing an image (In your case, if they don't have the font that you want to use installed, you'll have to upload the text as an image), be careful about transparency.. the shirt will print exactly the way it looks on the site, including any areas that should be transparent, but are not.
2. Shipping time was a bit slow.
Otherwise, a fairly painless process. I could recommend a couple other sites, but try spreadshirt first and see if you like it. posted by Hildago at 5:40 PM on August 17, 2005
I just ordered a custom shirt from Zazzle with just one word on it and it ROCKS. They have a gazillion fonts and a really easy preview interface. posted by CunningLinguist at 7:01 PM on August 17, 2005
Neighborhoodies are awesome. The iron-on letters are high quality. My Army Of Flying Robots shirt has been through about ten washes and still looks the same as when I bought it. However, I can recommend the stitched lettering (where letters are made of cotton and sewn onto the shirt) cause it looks awesome and will last a lifetime.
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posted by zsazsa at 2:34 PM on August 17, 2005