Teesprings facebook page

[GraphicDisorder]

That sounds more in line.

[Ross_S]

There not going to be doing 1 shirt for $10 no way in hell.  If they do then it will be a short business life.  Employees cost money and then you have taxes and possible insurance on top.  So if they pay an artist to tweak the artwork for DTG (I doubt it's as simple as hitting print) then another guy to watch it and dry it.  So how many one shirt jobs do you think they can do in an hour?

[brandon]

With everything that is coming down the pipeline with regards to technology and Amazon and other "giants" it really is the time to find your niche market. And become really freaking good at it.

[Sbrem]

With everything that is coming down the pipeline with regards to technology and Amazon and other "giants" it really is the time to find your niche market. And become really freaking good at it.

I'm afraid this is the reality I see coming as well...

Steve

[Dottonedan]

abchungThat's all true for those larger operations like Tee Springs and Custom Ink that specialize in this. They can set up to be more efficient. For this reason, this forces the cost lower across the board.

This price range would not seem to be the norm for the small to medium shops that have a retail store front where someone wants one custom full color shirt. This is not a heat transfer with vinyl letters.
I've also purchased 2 different shirts at Christmas here in my town at a local DTG franchise business on Gildan white tees for $17.99.each  That is their business. That's all they do.

[Dottonedan]

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

[IntegrityShirts]

It's my understanding that Teespring and Amazon don't have "art setups" as they art is controlled by the consumer/orderer. If  the file uploaded doesn't meet dimensional standards, it get's kicked out by the computer. I feel like the big name companies trying to be the end-all for custom tshirts are just destined to fail on one or both types of production, traditional and DTG. They jump in with investor $$, buy the equipment, underestimate the customer demand for low quantity reprints, customer service gets slashed, profits aren't met for long, quality declines, reviews roll in then....equipment auction time.

[GraphicDisorder]

You are correct ot this point. Someone will get it right though. Watch.

[blue moon]

You are correct ot this point. Someone will get it right though. Watch.

agreed, it's just a matter of time. There is some new (supposedly) DTG technology coming out soon that will get us closer and closer to digital mass production or at least mass customization.

Teespring and Amazon are typical Venture Capital investments, also called White Collar Lottery, where you throw money (not really, a lot of smart ppl analyze the concepts before they are invested in) at 10 different things and see what sticks. Seven will close down and be total loss. One will break even, and the last two will return 20x the investment in 7-10 years. Most are shooting for 5 though, thus the Teespring ramp up to 9,000,000 shirts from nothing in only two years.

Do not underestimate the ppl involved in these projects, they might be struggling, but if it turns out to be one of the two that succeeds, they could put almost all of us out of business. Think Netflix and video rental stores or google and search engines or Facebook and myspace. . .

pierre

[BorisB]

With everything that is coming down the pipeline with regards to technology and Amazon and other "giants" it really is the time to find your niche market. And become really freaking good at it.

So true!  We should all feel slight paranoia about giants entering our little industry. World is changing faster than we can change our ways of doing business.

[UltraSeps]

Big corporations and those with a ton of capital have discovered something we have known all along, and that being there's potential enormous profits in the t-shirt business.  The core product is low in cost and can be sold embellished at high margins.  All thanks to Al Gore who "invented the internet?"

The internet is both a blessing and a curse for the small business person.  Back in the day, when I started in 1977 and for decades thereafter there was very little competition and gaining new clients was like shooting fish in a barrel.  Today however, the ability to comparison shop and eventually being hidden by those with tremendous resources can be problematic.  I can see it myself with the sheer number of big players who are buying my software.  I recently sold 6 licenses to Walmart if that's an indicator.

[Frog]

Big corporations and those with a ton of capital have discovered something we have known all along, and that being there's potential enormous profits in the t-shirt business.  The core product is low in cost and can be sold embellished at high margins.  All thanks to Al Gore who "invented the internet?"

The internet is both a blessing and a curse for the small business person.  Back in the day, when I started in 1977 and for decades thereafter there was very little competition and gaining new clients was like shooting fish in a barrel.  Today however, the ability to comparison shop and eventually being hidden by those with tremendous resources can be problematic.  I can see it myself with the sheer number of big players who are buying my software.  I recently sold 6 licenses to Walmart if that's an indicator.

Probably (hopefully) meant as a joke from you, but of course, helps cement an untruth (or at least major exaggeration) into our American legend.  As he boasted of accomplishments made by the Congress in which he served and took credit thusly..."During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system." At the time, and in the context of the answer given to Wolf Blitzer, his meaning was clear, whether worded well, or not.

Just for the record, one of the true fathers of the internet happened to be one of my best buddy's brother, Jon Postel, who I met when we moved to Berkeley back in '68. I had absolutely no appreciation of just how big a thing he was involved with.

Like you said, it has changed the face of our industry, and I hold it against him as, a few years back, I really thought that my business was going to slowly die away and I would be happily retired by now. But suddenly, folks found me online even before I had a website! Curse you Jon!,  And damn that Yelp!

I do realize that I am in a minority.

[UltraSeps]

Big corporations and those with a ton of capital have discovered something we have known all along, and that being there's potential enormous profits in the t-shirt business.  The core product is low in cost and can be sold embellished at high margins.  All thanks to Al Gore who "invented the internet?"

The internet is both a blessing and a curse for the small business person.  Back in the day, when I started in 1977 and for decades thereafter there was very little competition and gaining new clients was like shooting fish in a barrel.  Today however, the ability to comparison shop and eventually being hidden by those with tremendous resources can be problematic.  I can see it myself with the sheer number of big players who are buying my software.  I recently sold 6 licenses to Walmart if that's an indicator.

Probably (hopefully) meant as a joke from you, but of course, helps cement an untruth (or at least major exaggeration) into our American legend.  As he boasted of accomplishments made by the Congress in which he served and took credit thusly..."During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system." At the time, and in the context of the answer given to Wolf Blitzer, his meaning was clear, whether worded well, or not.

Just for the record, one of the true fathers of the internet happened to be one of my best buddy's brother, Jon Postel, who I met when we moved to Berkeley back in '68. I had absolutely no appreciation of just how big a thing he was involved with.

Like you said, it has changed the face of our industry, and I hold it against him as, a few years back, I really thought that my business was going to slowly die away and I would be happily retired by now. But suddenly, folks found me online even before I had a website! Curse you Jon!,  And damn that Yelp!

I do realize that I am in a minority.

Of course that comment was to be taken in jest.  As I see it, today, if in the t-shirt business one not only needs to be proficient at their craft but also align themselves to target niche markets and offer quality services not easily attainable elsewhere.  Simply being a me-too business is going to be difficult at best.

Best of luck to all.

[Frog]

Back on track, interestingly, about eight years ago, way ahead of the curve of retailers providing decorating services, my local Macy's added custom cad-cut designs at their store, only to bail in a few months apparently when they realized that it still involved actual work. Of course, many of the new breed are middlemen, whose main concern is establishing policy for their complicated logistics. Back then, many of the local Kinko's tried digital transfers and one by one bailed as well.

[ZooCity]

This is interesting.  We are involved in part of the market Amazon appears to be targeting here to some degree.  What happens is that you have a swarm of small timers who cannot invest in their merch initially and need a service like this. Inevitably, and especially with the pool of users that Amazon will have, some of them will become big timers, and quickly. 

What does Amazon do when the "creators" that started off selling a few shirts a quarter need 1k pc and up runs?  My understanding is that a line of 10 or more of the best DTG machines available will not be able to handle this in a cost effective manner.   Amazon is unique in that their clients can ship POs of product to Amazon to distribute, that infrastructure is in place already and is top of market, and may be where and why they succeed where others have failed.

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?