TE's new UltraColor Soft transfers

[Sbrem]

Hey everybody, I have potential transfer job, and priced it out with my current vendor, but TE's UltraColor Soft are about 20% less. Has anyone tried these out yet? I would suspect Transfer Express' usual good quality, but I like to find other folks' experiences. I hope all are well.

Steve

[zanegun08]

I have not tried Transfer Expresses DTF transfers, however it looks like their pricing is a little better than Apex https://www.apextransfers.com/ultra-ink.php

I'd say it really comes down to the size of transfer, and if you want to gang them on a sheet or not, and the quantity?

Looks like Transfer Express may be less than Supa Color supacolor.com as well.

If their turnaround and shipping is competitive, I bet the two are pretty close in comparison, Transfer Express may be the best option of the 3 offering better gang sheet pricing, as well as lower pricing for similar sizes.

I wasn't aware they were offering these, I ordered some samples and can compare them to Supa / Apex, I still like Apex as they feel more rubbery, but Supa's prices, turnaround and proximity to Oregon make better sense.

[Sbrem]

I also just ordered some samples from TE, I've be using Supacolor with good success.

Steve

[zanegun08]

Got samples from Transfer Express, who sent 1 transfer of each style, so SupaColors transfer samples are much better as you have more than one chance to test. 

I pressed them all together on the same garment, they all have similar application settings and cold peel. 

I personally like the Transfer Express Ultra Stretch or Stretch Blocker in feel the best.  However these have excessive glue on them, which then I post pressed all of them after peeling with Kraft paper as it helps get rid of the glue around the edges.  As I have said before, the SUPA transfers feel plasticy, and more like a vinyl transfer which to mean feels a little cheap, and the Apex / Transfer Express have a more rubber / silicon feel so it feels a little more premium.

However I asked a co-worker today which he preferred, and he said the SUPA because "it feels smoother" so it really is personal preference, and comes down to cost / production time / end use.  On a hat or tote or apron I think they are interchangeable, for a small left chest any will work, but for a larger print I think the Apex / Transfer Express version is preferable, however that is personal preference.

Basically all 3 are great options, and a job I have already had produced at SUPA for headwear transfers in a lower quantity, I'm now having done at Apex on a gang sheet for $500 vs over $1000 from SUPA for the same thing.  SUPA is annoying that you can't gang images, if I pay for the area I should be able to use it how I want, but that's their model, so when it makes sense I will order elsewhere even though their website does make it "SUPAeasy"

In summary, they all work great, use what works best for you and your proximity and order requirement.  Price your job accordingly, and then shop the transfer as depending on the case there could be major savings over sending the order to one of the 3 options.

[Frog]

SUPA is annoying that you can't gang images, if I pay for the area I should be able to use it how I want, but that's their model, so when it makes sense I will order elsewhere even though their website does make it "SUPAeasy"

That determination could get a little fuzzy if an image is an image comprised of a number of sponsors, or when that same image is defined as a dozen images ganged together

[Sbrem]

What a nice, succinct presentation, thanks for your hard work. We have had a lot of folks looking for short run full color work, and I'm really getting tired of quoting 10 ways of doing it. I think for the the 48 and under crowd, full color is simply going to mean transfers or outsourced DTG instead of screening. Thanks again.

Steve

[mikee440]

Regarding the ganging up of jobs with Supacolor, they do say no ganged images. That being said, I recently placed an order of two different left chest sized images on 1 sheet.  1 color images, no problems or questions from Supa and I even took advantage of a 20% off sale

[3Deep]

We got a few samples in, but I when out and bought the L1800 and all the stuff to go with it and we printed DTF sample this weekend, not to wild about the feel of it but it's going to help on short run full color jobs that we would send to our inkjet transfer buddy down the road.  We did white and color shirts some with white background some without, one thing I know from our samples is we are going to have to adjust our color doing the art or play with the setting a little in AcroRip.

[Homer]

We got a few samples in, but I when out and bought the L1800 and all the stuff to go with it and we printed DTF sample this weekend, not to wild about the feel of it but it's going to help on short run full color jobs that we would send to our inkjet transfer buddy down the road.  We did white and color shirts some with white background some without, one thing I know from our samples is we are going to have to adjust our color doing the art or play with the setting a little in AcroRip.

make sure you are printing with a color profile. I'll text you a pic of it later.

[zanegun08]

Regarding the ganging up of jobs with Supacolor, they do say no ganged images. That being said, I recently placed an order of two different left chest sized images on 1 sheet.  1 color images, no problems or questions from Supa and I even took advantage of a 20% off sale

I submitted some art with two images and got this

"This order was submitted as a gang with multiple designs on the same sheet.

Supacolor is sold one design per sheet. Each design must be individually entered in the order form by clicking Add New Transfer when ordering.

Please click the Request Change Button and use the text box to tell us how many of each design you would like for us to print. We will modify the order, then send you an approval request with new pricing."

If you can make your art look like one image then you can skirt by, but they will call you out.

[Frog]

I was thinking that you need something like this

[mk162]

I was thinking that you need something like this

I had all of these ideas on how it should be done.  I do it with digitizing and vectorizing all the time.  That should work...just make them waste more ink and powder because they have dumb rules.

[Frog]

It's a funny situation. As long as I've dealt with transfers, and that's a long time, ganging is common, actually standard practice.