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[tpitman]

You've got to figure in art time also.  How many walk in and have art that is ready?

Almost none of 'em.

[brandon]

So Amazon, and any other venture looking to break into these markets, will need screen printing at some point in the near future, at least until DTG can match the output, versatility and quality of our print technique.  How far away is that?  And where do us screen printers fit in and for how long?

In my opinion the unwashed masses see the humble shirt as a throw away item. My buddies (one runs and one owns) that print amazing poster art have the key. I just typed poster "art," not poster throw away item. I hope I am wrong and I really do for all of us but I can see in 10 to 15 years automatic printing as we know it now going the way of the taxi cab. Screens, seps, the whole industry. Holy crap I hope I am so wrong. But in 10 to 15 years from now there will be no human taxi cabs in any major US city. UPS, FedEx? Ha, don't get me started. But I can see in 25 or so years two dudes finding a manual press somewhere and manually printing shirts and starting a "retro" business.

It is kind of like CD's and Vinyl and digital music now. Vinyl far, far outsells CD's and is considered art. So...... how long till t-shirts go full circle?

[UltraSeps]

In my opinion the unwashed masses see the humble shirt as a throw away item. My buddies (one runs and one owns) that print amazing poster art have the key. I just typed poster "art," not poster throw away item. I hope I am wrong and I really do for all of us but I can see in 10 to 15 years automatic printing as we know it now going the way of the taxi cab. Screens, seps, the whole industry. Holy crap I hope I am so wrong. But in 10 to 15 years from now there will be no human taxi cabs in any major US city. UPS, FedEx? Ha, don't get me started. But I can see in 25 or so years two dudes finding a manual press somewhere and manually printing shirts and starting a "retro" business.

It is kind of like CD's and Vinyl and digital music now. Vinyl far, far outsells CD's and is considered art. So...... how long till t-shirts go full circle?

A true visionary and most likely on target with your forecast.  In fact, I have similar thoughts on the future of screen printing.  Overall, t-shirt printing is a task and labor intensive process.  To produce a great looking full color image on a t-shirt requires a tremendous amount of time and work at different levels.  At some point, although who knows when, the process as we know it may no longer exist, although I don't think a further refined inkjet style device is the final destination.  I believe something totally different will be developed that will eventually replace that 12 armed monster sitting on the production floor.  I'll probably be long gone by them and never see it along with most others here as well.

[Sbrem]

In my opinion the unwashed masses see the humble shirt as a throw away item. My buddies (one runs and one owns) that print amazing poster art have the key. I just typed poster "art," not poster throw away item. I hope I am wrong and I really do for all of us but I can see in 10 to 15 years automatic printing as we know it now going the way of the taxi cab. Screens, seps, the whole industry. Holy crap I hope I am so wrong. But in 10 to 15 years from now there will be no human taxi cabs in any major US city. UPS, FedEx? Ha, don't get me started. But I can see in 25 or so years two dudes finding a manual press somewhere and manually printing shirts and starting a "retro" business.

It is kind of like CD's and Vinyl and digital music now. Vinyl far, far outsells CD's and is considered art. So...... how long till t-shirts go full circle?

A true visionary and most likely on target with your forecast.  In fact, I have similar thoughts on the future of screen printing.  Overall, t-shirt printing is a task and labor intensive process.  To produce a great looking full color image on a t-shirt requires a tremendous amount of time and work at different levels.  At some point, although who knows when, the process as we know it may no longer exist, although I don't think a further refined inkjet style device is the final destination.  I believe something totally different will be developed that will eventually replace that 12 armed monster sitting on the production floor.  I'll probably be long gone by them and never see it along with most others here as well.

And I hope we can turn to the 12 armed monster makers to be ahead of the curve in getting us ready, though in 15 years I'll be pushing 80 and not involved. One process I've seen that makes me think a little differently is the new transfers from Transfer Express, the "Stretch Litho". I somehow ran across the inkjet printer that makes these, and I have to admit that it looks like a game changer for many items that use heat transfers... no contour lines, separate white text, or any color for that matter. Of course it's not just buying the machine and voila, everyone shows up at your door as so many think when they buy their startup packages, but using it to produce very short run full color will be a niche for some I think. It's hard to imagine not printing anymore, as I've been doing most of my life now, but things change, and we have to change with it to survive.

Steve

[AAMike]

I just can't fathom the speed ever reaching the point of making high volume runs economical. What will be telling in the future is when companies offer both and their cut-off from DTG to traditional printing gets higher.

[GraphicDisorder]

Even if speed was there there are so many limitations on DTG with garment types that screen printing isn't going anywhere any time soon.

[Dottonedan]

on average, about how much time does it take to complete a 8 color shirt from load to pull the next printed one?

Where I'm going, is how much time is it that a completed auto shirt compared to a completed load/pull from a DTG?

[abchung]

I think we all agree that Screen printing is cheaper and more efficient than DTG.

But the DTG model can be for new or hobby artist that don't want to take the financial risk. So they would go to a print shop that can offer risk free solution. Where the print shop might have a website that sells tshirts for local artist and give the artist a cut from the sales.

If the design works, then the artist might be willing to take more risk by screen printing 50 plus shirts at a time to make more profit per shirt and sell it by Fulfillment.
Both ways the print shop makes money (printing the product, renting the storage, packaging cost etc).

A lot of people out their have great ideas but many don't go ahead with it because of the "What if I lose a lot of money?"

[Catnhat]

Who remembers seeing this @ SGIA circa. 2006? 
DTG at automatic press speeds.  Was going to revolutionize printing and change the industry.  Traditional screen printing was on it's way out.

Industry definitely changed after the fallout of that mess.  And fortunately, we ended up with this place.

Screen printing will adapt and evolve, just like it has for the last 2000+ years.  Teespring, CustomInk, Amazon, each of us...we will adapt and evolve with it, or get out of it.
Venture capitalists and angel investors will only throw money away for so long.  If they don't start getting a return on their investments, the money dries up and they move on.

One thing none of these online places that sells to the end user/retail public has been able to do, and we've all seen it - heard the horror stories from our own clients,... is provide decent customer service.  Before, during and after the sale.
It somehow always comes back to Price, Quality, Service.....Pick 2.  Even the stingiest, cheapest, buys on price alone type of customer, will only take being treated like crap for so long until they move on to somebody else, who they think will treat them better for less.

[Catnhat]

A couple more old pics I found.

Watching this thing run was actually really impressive.  And listening to Scott & Mike talk about it....me being fairly new to the industry at that time, I was (almost) sold on DTG taking over.
But then, out of the 3 days I was at 2006 SGIA Vegas......i think I only saw the machine actually run about 15 minutes total.  For the 6 figure price tag it had....it became a definite NO. 
Wonder where that machine ended up?

[jsheridan]

Let em have DTG, the price point to enter is now beyond the average shop.

It's PVC free and HSA inks the direct printers should have their focus on.

[Action1]

Nice Pictures of Scots machine. I'm pretty sure we made the pallet/ shuttle system I see in the pictures. 

[GraphicDisorder]

DTG will become more popular I believe.  But I believe most of us will retire before DTG will replace or even become the majority player in the shirt game.

[ZooCity]

So Amazon, and any other venture looking to break into these markets, will need screen printing at some point in the near future, at least until DTG can match the output, versatility and quality of our print technique.  How far away is that?  And where do us screen printers fit in and for how long?

In my opinion the unwashed masses see the humble shirt as a throw away item. My buddies (one runs and one owns) that print amazing poster art have the key. I just typed poster "art," not poster throw away item. I hope I am wrong and I really do for all of us but I can see in 10 to 15 years automatic printing as we know it now going the way of the taxi cab. Screens, seps, the whole industry. Holy crap I hope I am so wrong. But in 10 to 15 years from now there will be no human taxi cabs in any major US city. UPS, FedEx? Ha, don't get me started. But I can see in 25 or so years two dudes finding a manual press somewhere and manually printing shirts and starting a "retro" business.

It is kind of like CD's and Vinyl and digital music now. Vinyl far, far outsells CD's and is considered art. So...... how long till t-shirts go full circle?

I would absolutely love it if this happened and, in a way, it's how I started.

[kingscreen]

DTG, in my opinion, serves a very important market in the custom apparel industry.  That being the PITA customer market.
After our brief exploration into adding DTG to our operation last year, we quickly realized that we simply didn't want to have to deal with the type of customer that DTG printing attracts.  More power to them if they want to accept that challenge. 

DTG will never replace screen printing.  None of us will see the end of the screen printing industry in our lifetime.