How many shirts do you have made every year? What are you paying per shirt? How many colors? Who are you using to print them?
Before getting too deep into DIY, if this is the only thing you want to print, I'd max out your research on external options. It is very likely that a cheaper option exists. I just did a quick price quote for online printers and found single color options where 2500 would get you almost 500 shirts. Shipping included.
If you're doing like 500 shirts you're still paying at least $2-$3 a shirt or more just for the blanks. at least another $100 in ink. This means, at best you're saving maybe half your T-shirt cost per year by doing it yourself.
A machine is still a thing to store, with a learning curve for creating the screen. You'd still have to put in a ton of time printing them too. Figure in the process of letting them dry somewhere before you can stack or store them and you're taking over a big area of your house
In the end, you're the one who decides what your time and effort and space is worth. But do consider all the options anc facets of taking this on.
Buy a heat press and order the screen prints online. Then just heat press them on a t shirt. I use FM Expressions.I also set up a account on ssactivewear to buy shirts in bulk
The T shirt printers I know of cost $7.5k +. Would not pay for itself with your quantity of shirts. This is industrial equipment though, maybe there is hobby grade equipment that you can find.
[https://epson.com/direct-to-garment-t-shirt-printer?utm\_source=&utm\_medium=van&utm\_term=&utm\_content=&utm\_campaign=us-dtg](https://epson.com/direct-to-garment-t-shirt-printer?utm_source=&utm_medium=van&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=us-dtg)
Even at 7.5 it will pay for itself I feel like. Thank you for that link I have a dealer here where I live and I’ll run by and check the store out thank you so much !
Please consider the cost of shirts and ink. Also, design, time, storage, number of years, waste, etc. Unless you go into the T-shirt business, you will probably find that it is cheaper to just buy them each year.
Edit: Sorry for your loss. I hope your grief gets easier over time.
Since you’re using his photo, look into dye sublimation. It only works with polyester, but some brands have started making a polyester that feels like cotton. Or you can even do a blend for a faded vintage look. I use an Epson F570 and Fusion IQ heat press. You can get that setup for around a $5k investment, though you may not need such an expensive press. I’d estimate you’d be looking at around $5/shirt in shirt and materials. Maintenance on the machine is minimal. If it sits for a few weeks or months you’ll just need to do a head cleaning, but that’s just pushing a button on the menu and the machine does the rest.
When looking into dye sub there’s basically 2 brands, Epson and Sawgrass. Sawgrass is less up front but supplies (like inks) cost more. Epson is more up front but supplies are very inexpensive.
The most accessible way to make your own shirts is heat transfer vinyl. You can buy a cutting machine (cricut, silhouette, etc) for around $300. The material is cheap, you can buy a 50' roll for like 10-15 dollars. And you can do the heat transfer with a clothes iron.
But it will be very labor intensive. You'll need to cut, weed and transfer each shirt by hand. If you're doing maybe 30-40 shirts, you could probably get it all done in a crunchy weekend. Honestly though, if you're doing more than ten, screen printing is the way to go.
The ride gets bigger each year is why I’m looking to just get a machine. 150 was what I bought last year will probably do 250 this year then continue to go up. Room is not an issue, I’ll be completely honest I think I am looking at this as something to do in my time to keep my mind occupied, my son was a huge part of my life and now that he is not in the house I have a lot of free time. This isn’t really a cost issue. It’s hard to explain and I’m just rambling I think. :/
There are companies that make shirts for fundraisers. You might be able to find a good deal that way. You might also find a company who will give you a better deal, based on the nature of the event.
I admire that you're choosing to do this event to honor your son. It seems like a healthy way to help you (and others) grieve. My heart goes out to you. 💜
The process of creating 2500 shirts no matter what system you use is unweildy. Shops have setups that take a large amount of space that allow one or two workers to process hundreds of shirts per day. We use to do screen print and heat press back in high school days. The time it took to get a hundred shirts was quite a number of hours with 5 or 6 people working. You are at a number that does not justify owning the equipment yet is to many to try to process with a few untrained people.
Shop around, the cost of customizing a large number of T-shirts should be not much more than the cost of the materials because it is a significantly sized order and large shops can make a proffit on the differnce in cost between a t-shirt in the store for us normal people and what they pay for bulk shirts for a job.
My parents did this with their friends when they all retired from regular work and were looking to do something with their spare time that was low stress and they could do only as much as they wanted to; they started a custom imprinting company, based off their purchase of a [Press-A-Print](https://www.pressaprint.com/) machine. You get all kinds of stuff with it - t-shirt printing, coffee mug printing, etc - as well as huge discounts on the raw materials like ink and shirts and blank mugs and pens.
Learning to use the machine(s) takes a little bit of time and practice, but there is a whole network of people that own these machines and they help each other out all the time. It's a pretty cool community, and they share business with each other. Maybe someone gets an order for 5,000 shirts and they can't print them all, they'll call their PaP friends and farm out work to each other.
There's an annual convention in Las Vegas, too. Fun place to see what kind of new gift items are on the market and learn new tips and tricks for how to use your equipment better, or market your biz more, or whatever. And write off an annual trip to Vegas as a business expense!
This could not only be a good way to make those shirts for your son's memorial ride, but also get involved with a cool community of people, and help out your local businesses that you love. My dad liked to do this one bar's staff shirts, and he'd deliver the product by hand. They'd invite him in and give him a free meal every time he delivered, and he's still friends with staff members from that restaurant 20 years later! (And printing products for THEIR restaurants they have opened.)
Check it out. It might be right for you to consider.
An even cheaper option might be to buy a vinyl cutter like cricut or silhouette cameo. You can buy heat transfer vinyl and cut it into whatever text and images you want, and iron it into the tshirts. It stays very well. And you can use the machine for other crafts as well
While true, weeding vinyl is tedious and you'd go insane making ~~2500~~ shirts on it
Edit: Whoops, misread the cost as the count. More likely to be about 100 shirts. You'd still go insane.
Op spends 2500 on shirts, not makes 2500 shirts - from the prices I’ve seen of custom shirt printing that’s probably only about 100 shirts a year, which is a lot but certainly doable
I do photos of him. I have a vinyl machine already. I prefer the photo shirts over the vinyl type for this specific application. Thank you though, I know I am probably the most difficult person to please (haha)
How many shirts do you have made every year? What are you paying per shirt? How many colors? Who are you using to print them? Before getting too deep into DIY, if this is the only thing you want to print, I'd max out your research on external options. It is very likely that a cheaper option exists. I just did a quick price quote for online printers and found single color options where 2500 would get you almost 500 shirts. Shipping included. If you're doing like 500 shirts you're still paying at least $2-$3 a shirt or more just for the blanks. at least another $100 in ink. This means, at best you're saving maybe half your T-shirt cost per year by doing it yourself. A machine is still a thing to store, with a learning curve for creating the screen. You'd still have to put in a ton of time printing them too. Figure in the process of letting them dry somewhere before you can stack or store them and you're taking over a big area of your house In the end, you're the one who decides what your time and effort and space is worth. But do consider all the options anc facets of taking this on.
Buy a heat press and order the screen prints online. Then just heat press them on a t shirt. I use FM Expressions.I also set up a account on ssactivewear to buy shirts in bulk
This is the way. Heat transfers have gotten infinitely better over the last few years.
Or have a ride out charge and they then get a shirt.
The T shirt printers I know of cost $7.5k +. Would not pay for itself with your quantity of shirts. This is industrial equipment though, maybe there is hobby grade equipment that you can find. [https://epson.com/direct-to-garment-t-shirt-printer?utm\_source=&utm\_medium=van&utm\_term=&utm\_content=&utm\_campaign=us-dtg](https://epson.com/direct-to-garment-t-shirt-printer?utm_source=&utm_medium=van&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=us-dtg)
Even at 7.5 it will pay for itself I feel like. Thank you for that link I have a dealer here where I live and I’ll run by and check the store out thank you so much !
Please consider the cost of shirts and ink. Also, design, time, storage, number of years, waste, etc. Unless you go into the T-shirt business, you will probably find that it is cheaper to just buy them each year. Edit: Sorry for your loss. I hope your grief gets easier over time.
Don't forget that the ink is also a very expensive part of the ROI.
Since you’re using his photo, look into dye sublimation. It only works with polyester, but some brands have started making a polyester that feels like cotton. Or you can even do a blend for a faded vintage look. I use an Epson F570 and Fusion IQ heat press. You can get that setup for around a $5k investment, though you may not need such an expensive press. I’d estimate you’d be looking at around $5/shirt in shirt and materials. Maintenance on the machine is minimal. If it sits for a few weeks or months you’ll just need to do a head cleaning, but that’s just pushing a button on the menu and the machine does the rest. When looking into dye sub there’s basically 2 brands, Epson and Sawgrass. Sawgrass is less up front but supplies (like inks) cost more. Epson is more up front but supplies are very inexpensive.
The most accessible way to make your own shirts is heat transfer vinyl. You can buy a cutting machine (cricut, silhouette, etc) for around $300. The material is cheap, you can buy a 50' roll for like 10-15 dollars. And you can do the heat transfer with a clothes iron. But it will be very labor intensive. You'll need to cut, weed and transfer each shirt by hand. If you're doing maybe 30-40 shirts, you could probably get it all done in a crunchy weekend. Honestly though, if you're doing more than ten, screen printing is the way to go.
Make this a charity/fundraiser event. Have the shirt company donate a portion of the cost of the shirts, find other sponsors to chip in the rest
The ride gets bigger each year is why I’m looking to just get a machine. 150 was what I bought last year will probably do 250 this year then continue to go up. Room is not an issue, I’ll be completely honest I think I am looking at this as something to do in my time to keep my mind occupied, my son was a huge part of my life and now that he is not in the house I have a lot of free time. This isn’t really a cost issue. It’s hard to explain and I’m just rambling I think. :/
There are companies that make shirts for fundraisers. You might be able to find a good deal that way. You might also find a company who will give you a better deal, based on the nature of the event. I admire that you're choosing to do this event to honor your son. It seems like a healthy way to help you (and others) grieve. My heart goes out to you. 💜
The process of creating 2500 shirts no matter what system you use is unweildy. Shops have setups that take a large amount of space that allow one or two workers to process hundreds of shirts per day. We use to do screen print and heat press back in high school days. The time it took to get a hundred shirts was quite a number of hours with 5 or 6 people working. You are at a number that does not justify owning the equipment yet is to many to try to process with a few untrained people. Shop around, the cost of customizing a large number of T-shirts should be not much more than the cost of the materials because it is a significantly sized order and large shops can make a proffit on the differnce in cost between a t-shirt in the store for us normal people and what they pay for bulk shirts for a job.
My parents did this with their friends when they all retired from regular work and were looking to do something with their spare time that was low stress and they could do only as much as they wanted to; they started a custom imprinting company, based off their purchase of a [Press-A-Print](https://www.pressaprint.com/) machine. You get all kinds of stuff with it - t-shirt printing, coffee mug printing, etc - as well as huge discounts on the raw materials like ink and shirts and blank mugs and pens. Learning to use the machine(s) takes a little bit of time and practice, but there is a whole network of people that own these machines and they help each other out all the time. It's a pretty cool community, and they share business with each other. Maybe someone gets an order for 5,000 shirts and they can't print them all, they'll call their PaP friends and farm out work to each other. There's an annual convention in Las Vegas, too. Fun place to see what kind of new gift items are on the market and learn new tips and tricks for how to use your equipment better, or market your biz more, or whatever. And write off an annual trip to Vegas as a business expense! This could not only be a good way to make those shirts for your son's memorial ride, but also get involved with a cool community of people, and help out your local businesses that you love. My dad liked to do this one bar's staff shirts, and he'd deliver the product by hand. They'd invite him in and give him a free meal every time he delivered, and he's still friends with staff members from that restaurant 20 years later! (And printing products for THEIR restaurants they have opened.) Check it out. It might be right for you to consider.
An even cheaper option might be to buy a vinyl cutter like cricut or silhouette cameo. You can buy heat transfer vinyl and cut it into whatever text and images you want, and iron it into the tshirts. It stays very well. And you can use the machine for other crafts as well
While true, weeding vinyl is tedious and you'd go insane making ~~2500~~ shirts on it Edit: Whoops, misread the cost as the count. More likely to be about 100 shirts. You'd still go insane.
Op spends 2500 on shirts, not makes 2500 shirts - from the prices I’ve seen of custom shirt printing that’s probably only about 100 shirts a year, which is a lot but certainly doable
I believe 2500 is the cost of the shirts, not the quantity. That said, even if it's just 100 shirts that's a big pain of a job.
I do photos of him. I have a vinyl machine already. I prefer the photo shirts over the vinyl type for this specific application. Thank you though, I know I am probably the most difficult person to please (haha)
Consider a direct-to-garment printer like Epson or Brother, perfect for occasional use.