Dye Sub - yea or nay?

[ZooCity]

Our largest "A list" client has asked us to add dye sub.  They wouldn't bring enough dye sub work to justify getting into it alone but, I'm thinking that dropping CMYK sawgrass inks into our 4800, (7 of 8 channels being currently occupied by carts filled with cleaning solution) and getting a multi rip would be a fairly low risk endeavor provided we could use dye sub for other orders. 

I see potential to use it for:

• Simple, solid color fill art, on tech and poly garments to retain 100% of the fabrics breathability.
• Low qty orders needing full color and OK with going onto white/dye sub friendly. including Ts, coozies, caps, etc.
• Assorted flatstock projects, where appropriate and, if cheaper to do in house, mugs and various promo thingys.
• Potentially, private labels when needed in short run.
• Light front panel trucker caps, freeing us from the dark tyranny of printing multi color plastisol transfers.

Much of this depends on the cost per sq.in just to successfully print the dye sub ink onto the paper with correct color. 

More seems to depend on proper application.  We've worked around trickier heat press applications on weird materials in the past but I see posts that look like hell on wheels trying to get a proper application without the heat/pressure distorting the garment.  We would certainly upgrade at least one of our heat presses to something fancy with digital controls all around.

My question is, for those print shops who have added this, was it worth it for you?

[Dottonedan]

I've just been researching this myself. For me, I have a lot of walk ins that want 1-5 shirts. We've been selling reg sized prints (fast turn time) Good mark up (friendly to the customers since it's full color) and low cost for basic dye sub on regular sized prints.  When they see the detail and soft feel they get the wallet out.


We are going to start out with a small printer to do the reg sized but MAN do I also see people not afraid to drop $25.00-$30.00 per for a small order of 12 shirts on an all over print. Simple to do with the right contract printer for those oversized all overs, but of course, I'm not going to bank my short lived experience on a few examples before making a larger printer purchase and do it myself.


Down side, Not as many varieties of garment styles available in 100% poly.

[GHEENEE1]

This co. makes custom dye sub transfers, he's a member of another forum I belong to.
http://www.skmfg.com/

[sweetts]

I have one it only does 8.5 x 14  though I did more mugs and awards than anything. To do one shirt I would go with a vinyl cutter I use that more than anything for the small runs much cheaper. A batch of ink is close to $400.00 and if you don't use it daily you are just paying to put ink in the waste bucket where vinyl can sit for a long time with no issues. I guess if it's something you feel you will use a couple times a week then do it but if not I wouldn't I have had more than one person say they did not like the poly shirts so that could be an issue too.


Roger
RT screen designs
Www.rtscreendesigns. Com

[Dottonedan]

Here for me, I'd probably use that printer about 5 times a week on average. Almost every day for a small 1-5 piece order and some into as many as 50 shirts (full color on white sublavie).  V neck and round.  I did a order for a full color photo print. They re-ordered every monday 50 shirts for the last 4 weeks for a 4 week event. Needed them for the event on Fi. For this example, it's a good option. We like offering options. DTG, Screen print, Discharge, Plastisol, Vinyl, Sublimation, Custom art, stock transfer designs etc. It's been getting better for us. Just enough to pay the lease now.


For me here, I have not had anyone say they don't like the Poly. Not that there won't be, but I give options of services and options of shirts to go with each. These newer Poly's. There are some good options in the Polys feel of the garment from brand to brand.


Sublavie seems best so far...but we just got a MONAG (made in india) sample in and it's great for a Poly tee. Feels like cotton. A little heavier as well and the due sub is SUPER BRIGHT as is on a Sublavie.


We tried this new Gildan 100% poly (supposed to feel like cotton) but it bleeds. It has a slight heather texture to it although it's 100% and for some reason, the Dye sub print bleeds just a little. Not enough to be a major deciding factor for most of my customers but it did bleed so buyer beware on that.