Crickets Chirping.....

[JeridHill]

Hey everyone, I've been watching these boards more lately and noticed there really isn't much activity in the DTG section. I've been in the DTG industry since 2004 and have subscribed to this section, so if anyone has questions or comments, I'd love to hear them. I'm looking forward to participating in building up this section!

*Full Disclosure* I work for a company that manufactures direct to garment equipment. If you look at my posts anywhere, you can see my intention isn't to push equipment, but rather to help grow the industry and my discussions here are meant to pursue that purpose.

[mk162]

I am not knocking anybody here, but DTG isn't a huge thing with most of the folks here.  We've been printing since about 2002-2003 and are only CMYK at this point after not doing a great job keeping our white ink flowing.

I would say this is also a screen printing forum first and foremost, and with some of the work I see here DTG is pointless for some of the guys.

[JeridHill]

I can understand that but I've been told on more than one occasion that some people on this board are interested in DTG. I can understand why most on this board don't gravitate towards DTG. I've personally screen printed since 1998, so I understand the argument of being able to do it  faster, cheaper etc. But the reality is, DTG is still a growing industry and can actually achieve faster results than four color process screen printing up to a certain quantity and with faster printers always being released, these numbers get blurred even more.

I'm simply making myself available if anyone would like to further the DTG discussion. Thanks for the input.

[Nation03]

I can't speak for everyone, but I continue to have a debate with myself on if DTG is worth it for our business. On one hand, I'd love to offer low minimums of full color images and even 1-2 color designs. On the other hand, clients that place low quantity orders are almost always, without a question, way more annoying and require too much hand holding. I understand you can charge a premium for DTG goods, but I'm still not convinced the time investment I'd have to spend with each client would work out to the hourly rate I'd want to make. I hope I'm wrong and I hope we can offer DTG in the future. For right now I think it's more important for our business to invest in screen printing equipment and to develop our embroidery department before jumping into DTG.

[JeridHill]

Yeah, honestly I think DTG is suited well for one-off's, etc, but I think it's better if you choose the one-off's. In other words, if you have your own designs and sell what you want to sell, that's where it flows much better. I agree, when you add the customer to the equation, it can get gummed up. I know a company that sells white tees for $17 but they let the customer sit there with them as they design the shirt at no cost. I guess this is more of a loss leader in hopes of bigger business?

[Frog]

Here you go. This inspired a poll.
http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php?topic=20619.0

[inkman996]

We use our brother GT541 as a loss leader. More than anything it takes a lot of stress out of certain jobs paired with PITA customers. You know the ones that want 50 large and up shirts but also one 2T for their new born. Well the 2T now goes to the DTG. We also use it for doing names on backs and a metric ton of golf flags that used to be embroidered. With the DTG we have been able to keep a lot of customers more happy and our stress levels down.

[JeridHill]

I know the customer type! This is perfect for this type of customer. Before DTG, I had a contract customer who would order Youth Small all the way up to 3X and wanted one color screen as big as I could make it on the smallest shirt and use it for everyone. Needless to say, the smallest shirt had a very distorted image as I tried to stretch it to make as large of a graphic as possible since the customer didn't want to pay for more than one screen.

[Sbrem]

We picked up a GT-541 used a couple of years ago from a customer that was upgrading to the white ink model, but had no luck finding anyone who wanted white shirts for their projects. And the black on light colored goods was really lacking. After getting really busy and ignoring it for a while, it turned to junk. We bought the parts and had a tech come out, one look at the machine and he told us to send the parts back for a refund, and to trash the printer. Not a positive experience, but we do accept responsibility for it. Frankly, they all sound like they need way too much babying, and I don't like most of the sample prints I've seen. That being said, I farm it out when needed to Air Conway, and they have the big Kornit. The last job I got back looked great and the customer was very happy with it. Picture a semi transparent US flag over woodgrain, it would have been a major bear on press. We just don't have the extra $300K hanging around... my take anyway, though I do see it gaining more and more...

Steve

[JeridHill]

Since it's based on inkjet, it definitely needs used. If it sits for too long of a period of time with no or little use, the heads can dry out and that's where the issues begin. I am a little surprised though, the GT541 has been a pretty consistent workhorse for owners and the black ink is pretty good on that printer.

[Prince Art]

I like the concept of DTG, but it doesn't make sense for our current business model. Mine is a shop where I'm the only full-time employee, and I learned early on the way to make this work was not to diversify too much. Do what I do as well as possible, and look for the customers who need that.

I was recently in a place that seemed ideal for DTG. Boutique art/clothing/lifestyle shop. The artist-owner-operator is in the store everyday, sells almost exclusively his own designs, which he prints on-premises on a CMYK Brother printer. He only has to stock blank goods (cheaper than selling name brands!), and he has full control over the color pallet, so he can dial in choices that work well without white. (Thus avoiding the headaches of white ink.) He can print only a few pieces at a time, so he has very little waste due to unpopular designs. And of course, he's selling every shirt at full retail, without having to pay someone else to print it.

DTG is something I continue to keep my eye on. It is changing, and I expect it will slowly become more practical in more situations. But thus far, for printers who deliver in bulk, it is still a very different animal than screening, not a viable alternative to screening. For people willing to diversify & have the right plan to make it profitable, great. For me, sticking to the squeegee [almost exclusively] still makes more sense.

[JeridHill]

Yeah, DTG isn't for everyone. I no longer screen print, but when I did, I offered DTG, vinyl transfers, screen printing and embroidery. I tried to cover all the bases and when I added DTG, I was surprised at how quickly it grew. That being said, it was somewhat new technology when I added it to my shop, so the hype was growing.

[Sbrem]

Mostly, we're glad we didn't pay full price for it. I think it's best for doing your own designs, where jerks don't pick it apart for not being dead on... "It doesn't look like it does on my monitor..." I think I'm just getting too old, and tired of people in general, LOL. We tried marketing it with Facebook and direct mailings, but all we really heard was "crickets". And of course, the day to day work that doesn't go DTG just took over our time, as it usually does, so the machine went untouched, and you know the rest.

Steve

[JeridHill]

Yeah, I think one large issue this industry came across was the belief that DTG owners needed to educate the customer on the process. This sets a certain expectation that can be difficult to meet. I've seen some of the crappiest prints in screen printing sitting on a rack at major retail stores and people buy them without thinking, but add customization to it and you have a Michelangelo on your hands!

[blue moon]

Jerid, where do you see the decorating industry going? Do you think in 20 years everything will be done digitally? What bout 10?
Where is the cross over point now between analog and digital (when do you use which one of the processes)?

Where do you see digital going in the next 5-10 years? What will be the innovations brought to our industry?

pierre