Using a cutter to create one or 2 color vinyl designs for heat pressing on to t-shirts is a great way to get started in the custom t-shirt business – b ut if you’re reading this then you have run squarely into the limitations of building a real, viable business on that technology.
Weeding is the act of revealing the design that your cutter has produced in rolled vinyl by using “pick” tools (think of the last time you got your teeth cleaned). Once a design is cut, you lay that piece of vinyl on a table and peel the unwanted material away from the design itself. Next you’ll throw away the unused vinyl material and heat press the design onto a t-shirt. If you’re trying to produce a multi-color design you’ll repeat the process with a different color roll of vinyl in the cutter.
There are things you can do to make this easier.. like using a good quality vinyl, and with practice you can get pretty fast. But in the end you will still have significant time and labor invested just in weeding each vinyl design, each color, for every shirt you sell.
Weeding Vinyl is SLOW
When you are filling an order for 5 or 10 custom t shirts, like with those first orders after you open up your t-shirt business, weeding time seems very reasonable. After all, you might be a home based or part time business and you can do all of this in your spare time.
Sample Weeding Times:
Basic Design | One Color 1 minute to weed
Basic Design | Two Colors 2 minutes to weed
Of course, if it’s a more complex design it may take longer, but you can see an average 1 or 2 minutes per shirt for a simple design. So if you are filling a 10 shirt order, that’s just 10 or 20 minutes to prep your transfers for heat pressing.
But if you have grown past that 10 shirt order to a 50 shirt order, now you’re spending an hour, or TWO hours just on weeding the designs. That’s not including actually cutting the design, loading the rolls for 2 different colors or layering the vinyl properly for a 2 color print. What if it’s 60 shirts? Or 100?
If you are in the vinyl t shirt business, you know what it’s like to sit around the table with your employees, or your family, and weed, weed, weed.
And you also know what it’s like to gather up balls of discarded and expensive vinyl that has been weeded out. Just picture yourself outside in the yard weeding your garden and filling up that trash bag with cash instead of unwanted weeds –everything you remove from that vinyl design ends up in the garbage too.. what a waste!
Inventory is a Problem
If you are in the vinyl business you immediately recognize the OTHER problem that you’ll be anxious to grow out of – vinyl inventory.
It’s not just having to keep a stable of popular colors for clients to choose from, because having 8-10 big rolls on the shelf is a good investment anyway. It’s when those same customers don’t want THAT color red, or want glitter, or saw a pink that they really like. Not having the color your customer wants in stock means overnight shipping costs and extra vinyl on the shelf that you may never use.. and of course you’ll have a great time trying to explain why you’ll have to charge more money.
Custom T-Shirts = Full Color Images
If you only offer vinyl tees, you are LOSING BUSINESS.
You may start out with a local baseball team or dance squad that’s happy with that glitter vinyl, gray or red 2-tone color numbers and simple cut out version of the team logo, but it won’t stay that way for long.
Once your customers get a taste of getting custom shirts made they become very impatient with any limitation your vinyl system puts on their choices.
How many times have you said “no”, subcontracted full color shirts or, worse yet, simply sent your hard-earned customers to another business? How many 50 shirt orders, 100 shirt orders have you never even been asked about because they want their full color logo, full color image, full color photo printed on a shirt..
In today’s marketplace, there are so many places your customers can find full color custom tees online you have to at least offer the same ability to keep them in place and buying from you.
Adding Full Color Transfers, Full Color T-Shirts is Easy
Using the “Print” ½ of the Pantograms Stitch N Print System, an advanced white toner color laser printer is so simple it only takes a few minutes to get up and running.
- You don’t need any particular software to create your graphics, you can use your customer’s image, Corel Draw, Illustrator or any graphics application to do your designs.
- No need to count colors. Even screen printers use this Print System in order to produce full color short runs because they don’t have to worry about charging for an extra screen, and extra time, for each color. Now you won’t need to worry about what vinyl you have in stock either. Just make sure you have white and color toner enough to finish any job.
- Training takes minutes, not hours or days. You’ll be relieved at how simple it is to output great quality, full color transfers. It’s a laser printer after all.
Don’t let the simplicity and the price fool you, this is an industrial, commercial quality system designed for high production volumes. It’s just also designed to be simple to operate and maintain.
Your business is ready for MORE
The DigitalHeat FX system and the team at Pantograms are ready to deliver:
- MORE PROFITS – Less Waste – in fact, since DFX transfers require NO WEEDING can use 100% of your printable. Remember that 50 shirt, 2 color order, just think about how much vinyl will end up in the trash can.
- MORE TIME – Faster Production – a good quality commercial vinyl cutter can cut a design pretty fast, but not nearly as quick as a professional color white toner laser printer can print a full color design. How does 15 transfers per minute printing time sound? There’s still a few steps to the process before you heat press, but it’s one of the fastest full color solutions on the market.
- MORE CUSTOMERS – Full Color Orders – there’s no way for us to estimate how much business you’ve lost to full color alternatives, how much you’ve subcontracted or sent to competitors, or how much MORE business you’ll get by offering full color prints. BUT WE’RE SURE IT WILL BE MORE!
Don’t take our word for all this. If you are in the vinyl t-shirt business or want to start your own custom tshirt printing company and are ready for MORE click here to Contact Us or chat with us now.
