printing it yourself VS hiring it out

17

Apr 2009

printing it yourself VS hiring it out

[This article could be a lot longer, but as it stands, it's a bit rambling and covers a lot of ground. My apologies in advance if it's too all-over-the-place.]

I get e-mails all the time from people who want to learn screen printing and start their own t-shirt line. It’s always a very tricky issue for me to tackle, because the way I came into this business is a bit atypical and, while in retrospect things worked out nicely, it was very seat-of-my-pants, and I owe more to kindness and luck than shrewdness.

A brief introduction to how I started: I started learning from books and worked on a home made press. I screwed up a lot. I borrowed some money to get a starter set of home equipment, and screwed up a lot. Tired of screwing up, I started working in a screen printing shop, where I learned more in a week than I had in months of “teaching myself”. I kept printing on home equipment out of my basement. Eventually, my boss offered to let me use their equipment after hours. I did this for a while, then moved to NY, where I started at another shop, and worked out a similar deal with them (don’t think this is the norm – I was very lucky to find such trusting bosses TWICE). Now, I no longer work in a shop, and have hired out my printing to the last shop I worked for, because I know they do great work, and they’re nearby.

Screen printing is a rewarding craft, and I do miss not being behind a squeegee anymore (I think one day, I’ll have to set up a small studio for poster printing), but learning screen printing in order to start a clothing line is putting a bit too much on your plate at once. When I first started, I told my Uncle Phil my plans on having a well-stocked screen printing studio, and how it would save me money in the long run as I wouldn’t have to hire out printing work, and he told me basically what I tell people now: there are plenty of people out there who know how to screen print. Focus on being a good designer. Of course, I didn’t listen to the man who has a MBA and years of business experience. After all, I have a BA in Japanese Lit, so I’m pretty good at everything (right?).

As an entrepreneur, there’s a lot on your plate: marketing, designing, keeping the books, day to day operations…you want to take the time to learn to print, too? In this business, there’s no room for people who aren’t awesome at something. Focus on becoming an awesome marketer, an awesome salesman, an awesome creative director, or an awesome designer – THERE ARE PLENTY OF AWESOME PRINTERS OUT THERE WHO WILL GLADLY WORK FOR YOU.

Becoming a good screen printer takes a lot of time and practice, not to mention money for supplies and equipment. Furthermore, you can only teach yourself so much through books and practice. For those of you that have a shirt from my early days, and one from, say, any time in the past year, just compare the two. The differences may not be apparent – after years in the screen printing industry, my eye for a good print is sharper than most – but they are very different beasts. It took me YEARS to be a really good screen printer, and this was after years of working in two extremely professional screen printing shops.

I’m sorry if I’m rambling a bit. Let me just try and break it down.

Don’t learn to screen print simply because you think it will save you money on your professional t-shirt line. It won’t. If your end goal is to produce a t-shirt line, you’d be better off saving that money and using it on other elements of your business. Give some of it to a professional screen printing shop – they have already taken the plunge and poured tens of thousands of dollars into equipment, and, if you pick the right shop (more on that some other time), they’ve got a professional staff who already have all the training and expertise that it takes years to acquire on your own.

I’ve worked a lot of craft/independent designer shows, and while there are plenty of great printers out there, there are some pretty low quality prints getting sold out there, and I understand the learning curve of screen printing better than most, and I know what it’s like to be a beginner, so I’m not trying to bust on anyone, but low quality prints make us all look bad. Just think about it – what if someone comes home with something from the craft fair, and the inks fades dramatically after the first wash. Or, the print is rough, thick, or uneven. If it’s noticeable, people are going to associate this lower quality with independent designers/crafters, and they’re going to take their money somewhere else next time. Am I being a jerk here? I probably lost plenty of customers early on because my work was not the quality it is today.

Learn to screen print because you want to learn the craft. Accept that it will take a while before you can print something worth selling. It’s a beautiful craft with a rich history, and maybe you’re just the person to help keep it alive and appreciate it. There is no half-assing it. Trust me – I went into it half-assing it, and had some seriously brutal reality checks.

So, the way I see it, you have two options: either you really want to learn the craft of screen printing, or you just need to gain an understanding of the process of screen printing and judging print quality in order to help your business/designing.

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO LEARN THE CRAFT OF SCREEN PRINTING, there are ways to go about it that don’t involve buying all kinds of equipment yourself. Lots of people seem to think that buying a press and having the whole set up in your home is the best way to go about it. There is a better way. Depending on where you live, you may be able to join a studio that will give you time on their screen printing equipment. For instance, there’s the Etsy Labs in Brooklyn. There are studios like this scattered all over that can give you the training and access to equipment that is expensive and tough to fit in a house (I used to print out of my basement – trust me, I’ve been there) for a completely reasonable membership fee. These places, in order to get access to equipment, usually have you take a class with them in order to learn how to use the equipment properly. This is awesome! If you can, TAKE SOME CLASSES! Internet tutorials and books can only teach you so much. Take some classes, rent some time on some equipment, and find out if you really like it. Get your hands dirty, and have fun!

IF YOU WANT TO BE A DESIGNER WHO UNDERSTANDS THE PROCESS, AND KNOWS A GOOD PRINT FROM A BAD ONE, start doing your homework. The better t-shirt blogs, like Hide Your Arms, will talk about the quality of the print when they do hands on reviews. Look at shirts you already own. Feel the print between your fingers – is it smooth? Is it rough and linty? You want a smooth print, with colors that pop, and ink that isn’t too thick (as this can make the garment less comfortable). Do your homework: there are plenty of sites like T-Shirt Forums that talk all about the nitty gritty of the t-shirt business, including print quality. Call up some of your local print shops, and ask to come by and see some samples. Kick it to them straight: you’re looking for a good printer, you’re shopping around, and want to see some samples.

If you find a good shop, ask if you can take a tour of the shop sometime, just to get a better understanding of the process. Nothing real in depth, but it is invaluable to actually watch shirts being printed.

Now, I must offer a disclaimer: the fact of the matter is, screen printing is a process where everything can go wrong. The fact of the matter is, you’re laying down ink on a flexible, sometimes unpredictable surface. If you get up really close, you may notice a small speck of ink in the wrong place, or a small blank spot where ink should have laid down, but didn’t. It’s important to have high standards, but make sure they’re realistic. Discuss with your print shop what you’ll accept and what you won’t accept. I have a good rule of thumb, called the Two Foot Rule.

The Two Foot Rule: if you don’t notice it at two feet, it’s probably not a huge deal. There are exceptions to this, of course, and you shouldn’t accept or sell anything you’re not comfortable with, but if you’re wearing a shirt, anyone who sees it will probably have at least two feet of distance between the shirt and their eyes. With 20/20 vision, you can actually see a considerable amount of detail at two feet, but you have to let minuscule errors go. This isn’t selling yourself short; this is understanding that some errors aren’t big enough to send back a shirt over.

The best rule of thumb is to talk this over with your printer. Make sure they have a high standard of quality and rigorous quality control, and you should never have to worry about this.

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled on long enough. I may go back and edit this if certain parts of this are too unwieldy. I just hope this helps, and I don’t want to make any enemies of independent printers. If we all work hard at stepping our game up, it can only help the independent craft industry grow. If anything needs clarification, please let me know in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer any questions, and can certainly recommend some great print shops.

Related content:

http://www.assaultshirts.com tim

You are dead on. We investigated looking into printing our own material when we first started and we were lucky to decide to outsource our printing to another shop. Finding a good shop is tough to do.

I’ve been nothing but happy with our printer though. We’re in the process of buying our own equipment and thankfully, the place we are planning on buying from offers training.

In Chicago, there’s Screwball Press, that teaches screen printing and allows you to use the equipment for a year and it’s geared towards Posters, but they also have t-shirt printing. I highly recommend learning like this before taking the financial plunge into printing equipment.
http://samehat.blogspot.com ryan

Wow, super great post, dude! I would love to hear more on specific sub-sections of this when you have time!

I’m sorta fascinated that you hear from people who: Want to start a t-shirt business AND want to learn to print for the first time. It seems really strange and mixed up to imagine not having one or the other locked down before heading down the other road.

For my own screenprinting history, I never had the talent/aspiration to run a label or sell stuff really- Mostly, I liked the idea of being able to make better birthday presents for girlfriends, or to take an existing shirt (Smashing Pumpkins anyone?) and redo the design on a different colorway. I liked learning the really basic fundamentals– and did do the learning in the basement (literally), then dormroom, then apartment bathroom with a towel blocking the windows/door crack thing for 5 or 6 years before hitting a wall. I stopped after emulsion-wrecking 3 screens in one weekend in 2004 (making a PKD shirt for Alice).

That said, it was supremely fun while it lasted and I learned more about collage and layout (in a roundabout way) by being a beginner screenprinting and trying to come up with stencils that could be hand-cut with an exacto, or photo-emulsion designs that would work in single-color (OH HUH, THAT’S WHAT DOT TONE IS, DERRR!).

So, for your original original stuff, were you using like, the Speedball Screenprinting set? I’d love to hear more about the OG stuff you used and how you graduated from that. (My photo emulsion set up in my high school basement = pie tin + desk lamp + 150W bulb + weird clamp and tv dinner table + MOMDON’TOPENTHEBASEMENTDOOR).

Keep rambling and building this out — it’s fascinating! Or wait, do some of that offline— it could be the next WHATCHA MEAN WHAT’S A SCREEN (ala mark todd). It’d be cool to hear more from the print-poster making side too— do you know mickey zacchilli?
http://www.seibei.com/ David

Tim: thanks – it’s good to know the article made some sense. I am curious, though, as to why you’re making the move from outsourcing to doing it in house. Outsourcing screen printing is so driven by an economy of scale that you could just use that printing equipment money to just have more of your shirts printed at once and decrease your overhead.

Ryan: I do get e-mails from people who say they want to learn to screen print to facilitate the production of their own line, and you run into them online every so often as well.

There are some successful lines that are home printed, but they’re the exception that proves the rule, I think.

And yes, it was TOTALLY the Speedball kit when I first started out. Then I built a 4-color press using schematics from How To Print T-Shirts For Fun and Profit, which is a great starter book, and used screens and ink I’d bought from Victory Factory. With a little loan, I picked up an entry-level, legitimate four color press and a flash unit (to cure plastisol inks).

I actually used a heating lamp I’d borrowed (and forgotten to return) from a restaurant I used to work at with a 150W bulb. I’d coat a shitload of screens and stack them in the basement by a fan, and cover the whole thing with a drop cloth so accidentally turning on the basement light wouldn’t disturb them.

I’ve never heard of Mickey Zacchilli before – I am sorely behind on the ELECTRIC ANT blog. But man, his work is tops. Completely sick. I have never done any poster printing myself, so it’s a whole new world for me, but I’m eager to try it some day.
Bianca

This made me think of a infant tee I bought at one of the renegades- I put it on my client’s kid and within a few hours the print STUCK TO THE KID’S SKIN (through the non-printed side of the shirt). Neither me, the kid or my client was real happy about that. I was just kind of amazed, considering she was selling these for $20. I’ve had similar negative experiences w. chains breaking on the jewelry I buy at fairs- there’s a big difference between the people who are pros and who are not.
http://www.seibei.com/ David

Bianca: if I had to guess, I’d imagine that was printing adhesive. In order to keep the shirts in place, a specific kind of spray adhesive is used. Unfortunately, sometimes people lay it on a little too thick. Yeesh.

But yeah, this is exactly what I’m talking about! Much love to my crafty peoples, and I know accidents happen, but if you don’t commit yourself to professional-level work then people aren’t going to take you seriously. I’d hit those jewelry makers up for a new chain – they need to know that things aren’t working right, and hopefully it’s just bad luck rather than shoddy workmanship that’s to blame!
http://samehat.blogspot.com ryan

Built… a four-color press? whoa dude, that’s pretty fresh. I am imagining clamps and hinges and a spinning wheel in the middle (but it’s a bit over my head).

Oh yeah, Mickey Zacchilli = Michaela Colette Zacchilli. She screens posters and does screened centerfolds and covers by hand for all her comics. It’s really kinetic and insane stuff, like hyah: http://www.michaelacolette.com/silkscreensposters/
http://samehat.blogspot.com ryan

here too: http://www.designbyhumans.com/humans/detail/6105
I can introduce you, she’s one of my favorite illustrators (stationed in providence)
http://www.seibei.com/ David

Yeah, she’s absolutely nuts. I’m sure I’ll find a reason to talk to her one of these days – her work is fantastic.

The four color press I built was really good in theory only and eventually broke down. It was essentially a square base with a platen arm coming off of it, and atop that was a Lazy Susan-type bearing, which connected it to another square piece with two hinge clamps on each side for holding screens. There was a bit more to it than that, and it may have been good if I’d worked with better materials, but in the end it was just a good learning experience rather than a good piece of equipment. I think I’ve heard of people building some good stuff off of those plans, though…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/integralapparel Rashaun

Great read, like I tweeted to you, I thought I would get a small table top press and slowly learn the process of printing while I am saving money outsourcing! After some talks with a good friend that actuallys works in business, and a buyer for Best Buy he knows the ins and outs of creating income and profit and told me, it would be easier for me to focus on designing and outsourcing the printing to people who can do it better, and probabaly cheaper then me by myself! I thought a simple press for $300 and some ink and I will be set, boy was I wrong, now I found a good local printer and will move forward with them this summer for my new release! Great read and inspiration to us “little guys” in the industry.
http://www.assaultshirts.com tim

We’re now moving to print in house for several reasons.

1. Currently we’re bound by a minimum shirt print for every design. Without knowing or not if it’s going to sell, it kinda sucks to have to drop between 300-600 dollars to get a quantity of a design done. Printing our own will allow us to print limited inventory, and then reprint as needed

2. Wholesale orders and lead time are too long at most printers. We want to be able to fulfill orders for wholesale and our custom design clients on a more immediate timeframe

3. Expansion, when you have limited funds, it’s easier to expand to 50+ designs on multiple different types of apparel if you’re printing your own shirts in house.

4. New Services – I may have covered this above, but instead of just being a retail/wholesale company, you can become a professional services company as well and supplement your income with alternative means. It’d be real nice to be a one stop shop for bands, and other clothing lines if you can design and print shirts for them.

Just a few of our reasons. If I was just going to stick with the wholesale/retail aspect of owning my own line, I would def always outsource it and spend the money on marketing.
http://www.t-shirtforums.com Rodney

HOLY CRAP! You took the words right out of my head. This is a great article about avoiding the lure of the “doing it yourself will save you time” siren song.

One thing that people often leave out of the equation is *time*. Not only the time to learn how to print, but the time to actually print the orders on top of all the other stuff you have to do as an entrepreneur.

Great read!
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http://www.seibei.com/ David

Tim: totally fair. I definitely miss having the freedom of printing my own stuff, being able to try new designs on a whim, etc. There are definitely advantages to every side of it – and you’ve obviously done your homework and know what you’re getting into, so best of luck!

Rodney: Thanks – it’s good to hear that from you. Time is definitely a huge factor – I probably spent an extra 10-20 hours a week printing my own stuff (and was spending 30-40 hours a week working at the shop so I’d have access to the equipment). Yeesh.
http://fullmetaltshirt.com Aubrey

Excellent read, and not too rambling at all.

Good stuff, and wise advice.
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http://www.seibei.com/ David

thanks guys! so THIS is what it’s like to have a blog post people actually want to talk about. I should do this more often.
http://tshirtdekonstruction.com/ Dekonstruct

As someone who had to learn this the hard (and expensive) way, I concur that this is great advice. Unless you already know a lot about screen printing, you’re not going to save money by getting your own press. In fact you’ll waste a lot of product and money.

If I had just spent the money on getting a good printer I’d have started with better designs and more time to promote my designs, instead my designs and sales suffered because I was wasting my time behind the squeegee.
http://samehat.blogspot.com ryan

blogging > twitter, though it’s a way bigger pain in the ass
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http://www.aaronsscreenprinting.com Aaron

I’ve seen my share of bad prints in my day where the person offering the garment is doing exactly what you just described Seibei. It really comes down to making a choice as to whether you want to be a designer and run a line, or a screen printing who knows and loves your craft. I couldn’t agree more. Getting high quality prints to the market is what gives screen printing it’s staying power!
http://www.seibei.com/ David

thanks for all the feedback, guys – it’s good to know I made some sense here. I think a lot of people just don’t understand just how WIDE the gap between screen printing hobbyists and screen printing professionals is.
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danielle

As a screen printer myself, you are ABSOULTLY right! Most people like to think of it as one of the easiest things in the world, or when your first learning, the hardest thing in the world. I’m glad you cleared this up for so many people.
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http://kingscreenprinting.com sam

youtees.net

Great read! Great advice!
Above is the site of a good guy, Lee, who has developed some really cool “micro-tuners” that make printing for the hobbyist very inexpensive but very accurate. He has posted a bunch of instructional videos under “YOU TEES” on youtube.com

Can’t wait to read more on this blog! Keep up the great work!

Sam
Ken

Hi David,

Great article. I am a brand new newbie into this world and just soaking as much up as possible. I have a question that I hope doesn’t offend the sensibilities of the old-school screenprinters who do this for the love of the craft.

In regard to your discussion about printing yourself or outsourcing, I wanted to take it one step further. I gathered from yours (and others’) posts and replies that if someone is more into designing art, etc, then it is more cost-effective to outsource your printing needs. Now what about the newest trend in POD? Do you recommend using any of these companies/websites as a viable option alternative to outsourcing screenprinting locally, with respect to cost, quality, etc. And if so, do you, or anyone else have any opinions on which sites are better and why? I have seen discussions on this topic and nothing has been shown to be truly definitive. The main three that I see out there are CafePress, Zazzle and Printfection. What are your thoughts on these and/or any other POD sites out there?

And if any of you old-school screen printers are out there, I apologize in advance if this is a really naive question.
http://www.seibei.com/ David

I don’t trust any of the POD sites myself. I’m sure they’ve gotten better over the years, but if I find out a site is using a service like CafePress or Zazzle, I immediately disregard them. In my opinion, CafePress is for people trying to make a few quick bucks on the side who don’t care about print quality. That may be a really unfair generalization, and I’m sure there are plenty of CafePress supporters out there, but most everyone I know feels this way.

I have heard DTG (direct to garment) is getting better and better, but I will always stick with screen printing.
http://brooklynhardcoreclothing.com sal sgroi

I remember when my cuz told me of a website like cafepress, it just didnt sound right a website where im gonna send my designs and wait for the tee in the mail and it really didnt work out for him. doing it yourself at home is great but if you want to have a real shot at having time to market and sell i cant see printing it yourself.I started that way to and it was great and i will go back to it from time to time if i get an order for something custom, but if you want a clothing line that can have a great shot at making money for a long time to come i think you have to find the right printer which is not easy even a graffic designer can help with your vision thats where i am out now with more time to focus on the books, designs, marketing, website, etc, you name it, well just wanted to say this blog really helped me be more confident about where i am at right now thanks.
http://www.seibei.com/ David

awesome, thanks Sal! good luck!
Carnap

Suggesting that printing in house won’t save you money is not accurate, there are a number of ways it can save you money. For someone that is not established, it allows you to print a much larger variety of prints than you could otherwise with the same amount of initial capital. This will certainly give you an edge. For an established line, it will allow you the ability to be more agile. You can print in smaller lots and print on demand which saves both capital and allows you to experiment more without worrying about how you’re going to get rid of XXX number of shirts that did not sell.

Starting out a line with little money and out-sourcing the prints is rather hard to do, so your advice here is good if the goal is to prevent competition in the market!
http://www.seibei.com/ David

It really depends. You need to factor in the initial cost of printing space, a legitimate screen printing setup (which can easily run thousands of dollars on the low end), the time and cost of learning how to actually screen print. There are plenty of people on the craft circuit who aren’t professional-level printers.

Printing your own stuff in house can save you money in the long run, but as an initial investment it’s terrible, particularly if you don’t already know how to screen print at a professional level. True, it does give you greater flexibility, but it takes a lot of money to get that equipment and to learn how to use it properly. If it’s so hard for you to afford some professional screen printing (which, if you work with a shop that does contract printing and you purchase the shirts from a wholesaler yourself [so the shop doesn't mark them up which adds to the cost], should run you a few dollars per shirt at most), then how do you expect to afford printing space, a decent press, an exposure unit, a heating unit/conveyor belt dryer to dry the ink properly, etc etc. I’m not talking about a one color unit that anyone can build; I’m talking about some entry-level equipment that allows you to print multi-color work remotely on par with what you’d pay for at a print shop.

Obviously I’m not trying to prevent competition. I’m trying to give some legitimate advice from someone who has printed their own work, outsourced work, and worked as a professional screen printer for a few years, which gives me a better perspective on the whole situation.
Carnap

Certainly learning to print correctly takes time, but I think you are exaggerating the difficulty in your post. But the time it will take to get professional results also depends on the nature of your art work. One does not need to learn how to become a general purpose screen printer, rather one just needs to learn the techniques involved in printing your work.

Not sure why you think its “terrible” as an initial investment. You can get up and running with around $1,000~1,200, depending on the shirts used you’d only be able to get 3~4 designs printed with $1,200. Doing it in house will enable you to release more designs for the same dollars and with less waste. Perhaps you’re trying to argue that you need a press with micros, flash and belt dryer to get “professional results”. But you can get professional results with a basic (but solid) 4-color press and a decent flash dryer, it will just take you more time to get the work done. As you grow you can upgrade your equipment. There is also the possibility of renting space to do your printing, I know of a couple of places that do this around here.

In terms of initial start-up costs I think the primary question is what resources you have more of, that is do you have money or time? If you are low on cash, but have time than I think doing the printing yourself is more likely to lead to a successful line than the alternative. In terms of more long term operation, it becomes a question of how agile you want to be. I think the benefits to being vertically integrated are well worth the capital costs associated with the required equipment. Its also not a either/or situation, you can remain agile by doing short runs and respond rapidly to unexpected demand with in-house printing and out-sourcing longer runs on established designs.
http://www.seibei.com/ David

Certainly it can work for some people, but I think on the whole people underestimate the time and effort it takes to become a legitimate screen printer, and overestimate how much outsourcing your printing costs. You’re obviously smarter than the average bear here, but I have seen plenty of people jump into screen printing without knowing what they’re getting into. I’m saying that people shouldn’t think that professional screen printing is out of their reach financially.

Once you get your $1200 screen printing setup working, you still have to pay for the cost of shirts and then take the time to print them. If it’s $1200 to have a screen printing setup and no shirts, or $1200 to have a few designs professionally printed and ready to sell, it may be in your best interest to get the product and spend your time working on selling them and getting them out there.

As I’ve run the whole business by myself, I’m talking about single person situations, where the person who runs the business is also the one standing in his basement over a four color press and curing every shirt with a flash dryer. If you’re trying to work on new designs, market your company, and do day to day administrative stuff (and probably balance a day job as well), taking on the printing seriously eats into time you have to work on other aspects of your business where your time may be better spent. If there are a few of you, then if someone’s willing to work at it, then it could work out for you. When there are a number of good shops out there, it may be worth it to cut into your margin a bit to have it handled by professionals rather than use up time that could be better spent on other aspects of the business.
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Amber

Thanks for the input and the healthy discussion. It has really made me rethink my stance and make sure I’m on the right path for my business needs. Thanks guys!
http://www.pylonpress.net/inksiframe.html Wendie Akim

Hello! Just had to chime in. I really loved this article
http://twitter.com/colushavenga colus havenga

great article!
apol

hi can you tell me where to buy a t-shirt printing machine?thanks a lot
Esbenmr

This was a great article, thanks alot!
Samantha

Great article
Lorne Bourdo

This is a great article! �I am trying to get my company started and am outsourcing my prints as it’s merely a hobby this point. �Let me know what you think: http://www.activestatedesigns.com
MarciMcGee

hello! �i am learning to be a printer. �i am wondering what the average production pay is per shirt, and if this includes studio time. �studio time includes reclaiming screens and making new screens. �thanks!
Jnrfes

NICE ONE BROTHER!!! Very, very informative. That has helped me out in so many ways. Thank you so very much.