WAYS to reduce the investment into your merchandise

BUT STILL KEEP IT HIGH QUALITY

Cheap, fast, quality- it’s often said that you cannot have all three at the same time and that you need to decide and prioritize between them. But what if I tell that you don’t need to sacrifice quality to get a better price? Read on to learn how to create more value through quality for your customers - and a better return on investment for yourself.

TIP #1: Reduce the number of colours!

You might be tempted to go with a full colour artwork, but the less colours being screen printed -the cheaper it will be.

For almost every colour in you artwork we need to create a separate screen, and these setup costs are built into the print pricing. So if you need just a small volume (i.e.25-30 shirts), the price per piece will not going to make it worthwhile due to the setup and print fees.

Whenever the quantity is relatively small (20-60 pieces) it’s best to stick with no more than 2 colours- but that doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice a great look!

Stand-out merchandise could be achieved even with limited colours too and you don`t always need to have a full photographic design to make it look cool!

Take a look at how I’ve reduced a full colour photographic album cover to only just 2 colours:

TIP #2: Choose LIGHT/pale coloured garments

Dark garments almost every time require a white base underneath to make the colours pop out (red is considered as dark as well!). Printing an underbase means that you will need to pay setup fees for an additional screen.

But white/pale yellow/light blue/light grey, etc. shirts don't require an underbase.

Also, we printing with water-based inks, which have a magical trait- when printed onto light garment, you can barely feel the print, as it becomes the part of the garment.

TIP #3: GET THE DESIGN RIGHT!

A good print starts with a good design.

If we have to make major changes to your artwork or improve quality drastically, we have to charge artwork fees. To avoid fees, if you doing your art digitally, try to supply a raster or vector file at least 300DPI resolution and in the size you want to get it printed. Forget photos, screenshots, or online mock-up-programmes.

If you draw something manually, scan it as a high resolution .tiff file, send it in and we’ll take care of it. 

TIP #4: INCORPORATE the SHIRT’s COLOUR WHEN CREATING A DESIGN

We don’t print black ink on black shirts, white ink on white shirts, and so on- because there’s no point printing the colour of the substrate- it’s already there.

So instead of adding another colour to your artwork, why not work with the shirt colour in your design? That means that you can save money, as it’s one screen less to be set up, and one colour less to be printed.

TIP #5: ADD SPECIAL EFFECTS

There are special effect techniques which I use here at Steel City Shirts, which helps to elevate your merch. Depending on the design we might be able to cut costs by using them:

First method is to print multiple colours through one screen- so in reality you pay for 1 screen setup instead of 2 or more, and it counts as a ‘one colour print’, but it will look as a multicolour print. (This method works the best with small volume, and all of the shirts will be unique.)

Also, ‘vintage style prints’ could work well with certain artworks on dark substrates. The secret is that we don’t print white underneath the colours, so you get a better price for printing as we use less ink and screens. This will result in a vintage distressed look with more muted colours- it might be something to consider if it’s matching your style and brand.

TIP #6: INCREASE QUANTITY

Why not ask others (family, friends, schoolmates, societies you are involve in) around you if they would be interested in buying a shirt off you? They might be happy to have one too!

This way you can have a better deal and split costs- as even +20 shirts make a difference in the print price/piece you get.

TIP #7: RUN A PRE-ORDER

Running pre-orders really worked for me when I was designing and selling my own collection of band shirts.

It’s a great way to test out some designs, and also saves you money, as you don’t need to invest a lot upfront- so you will already generate profit even before your shirts get printed.

Pre-orders help you to get an idea of the expected sales volume, which design sells, size and style splits - you only need to ensure that your customers feel comfortable with waiting a little longer to get their merchandise. If you provide all information beforehand to your customers need clearly (regarding sizing, expected delivery date, etc.) and have your T&C’s on point, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Pre-order checklist- include these to your product description:

  • Expected completion and shipping date

  • Brand and quality of shirts you will use with details of fit and material, you can add a description of feel (lightweight/ heavy weight/ fleece/ soft/ etc.) - it makes easier to imagine how the finished product will look and feel like

  • Printing method that you will use

  • Provide size charts (ask your printer to supply you one)- so customers can check if it will fit- and eliminates the risk of returning items due to wrong size choice

  • Return and exchange terms

  • Mock-ups (but if you have a sample products, include pictures of those)

  • Can you handle larger sizes if requested? (3XL and above)

And don’t forget to update your customers of the process in the meantime!