T shirts design business

[WelshMoth]

Where do I start?! I have some really good ideas and I’d like to give them a go but knowing where to start is baffling me.

Finding good quality t shirts for printing is bringing me to lots of lightweight cotton providers - Id rather something better quality. I also don’t want a shiny plastic type print!

Has anyone done this?! Can anyone help?

You really Ned to put a business plan together assuming you haven’t already. Are you printing at home, do you have the kit? What % do you need to operate at to make it actually worthwhile?

what’s your price point going to be? We are going into non t shirt weather soon enough.

how are you going to sell and advertise them?

its a saturated market with lots on tik tok closing down as they can’t compete with the big players.

I used to make screen printed T shirts, and still do screen printing including textile, but haven't done T shirts (commercially) in a long time as the market got saturated. That doesn't mean don't go for it, it's often all about the marketing, which isn't my strength. (interest TBH)

Fruit of the Loom used to be high quality for screen printing, and for washing, as a starting point. (They may not be quite as good as they used to be, mine are old stock)

When you say shiny type print, I do you mean heat pressed plastic? that isn't printing, it's heat pressing vinyl to plastic.

Main printing methods I know about are screen printing, block dye press, DTG/DTR (direct to garment/fabric) and sublimation printing.(direct dye sub)

So where to start, depends if you want to print them yourself, or pay somewhere to put your designs onto T shirts...

What type of printing are you after? How intricate are the designs?
You need to find an embroidery / printing company for starters, you’ll have to give them the designs , then pay a set up fee for them to upload the designs and convert them over etc.
there is different type of printing, screen printing, vinyl, you could do it yourself on a basic machine?

Tshirt wise, look at the big suppliers - ie ralawise, see what they offer…you’d need your own labels sown in as well, and the cheap ones taken out?

Thanks! This is really helpful. I was going to outsource the printing to a third party to be honest. I’m semi-close to retirement age so would consider a move towards doing it myself this takes off. I value your expertise! Thanks again!

It would be easier to sell via a site like Redbubble or Threadless. That way you can just concentrate on the design side and not worry about production and fulfilment.

Agree with the post above. If I wanted a t shirt with an interesting design, I’d go to redbubble.

I always look for ones with no text!

Thanks - this is really useful information. I have a simple logo that would look good embroidered but I’m also happy with a good quality print.

Ideally, I’d like rather washed out colours instead of the traditionally bright coloured t shirts - a washed ‘surfed’ look? And a heavier cotton fabric so that they sit better when worn.

Someone years ago showed me how they design their t shirts on their phone, use AI to provide the modelled version, outsource, print AND send to the customer - all in their phone! It gave them a boost to their pension.

I thought at the time that I could design better and I’m kicking myself for not paying more attention to the App they used 😞

Thank you. It’s all very early stages and I’d like to just buy and sell online. I really just want to source some decent quality suppliers and see what the costs are.

I bought a lovely quality t-shirt with a logo on Etsy that’s lasted and lasted - no misshapen seams and no fading. I’d like to start by finding similar and seeing if I could do something similar but with my own logo.

Thank you! I’ll look into this.

This sounds like Redbubble or something similar.

It’s very quick fulfilment. And gives you an international market.

Machine embroidered logos are easy enough to get done too. Costing is generally dependent on stitch count.