DTG BEST PRACTICES BY MIND’S EYE

Humidity at 50% or greater, what happens when its below 50% humidit and how do you humidify?

DTG BEST PRACTICES BY MIND’S EYE

As we are in a more northern climate we run into humidity issues once the heat goes on. It is critical to invest in a hygrometer (unit that checks humidity) and keep it by your DTG (preferably one at each printer). Our printing area is roughly 2000 square feet, 28000 cubic feet when you consider the ceiling height.

We tried using a couple of small localized humidifiers and found that we couldn’t keep our humidity above 50%. As you know, low humidity dries out the ink of the face of the printhead and capping station, leading to more maintenance and potentially shortens the lifespan of the consumable printing components. We looked into a humidifier for our HVAC system but it was going to be several thousand dollars. Instead we invested in 4 mid-size humidiers from Lowes that ran about $80-90 each and we run them continously in the DTG area, they keep the levels above 50%. We look at them as consumables as we would have had to spend 10-15 times as much to add this feature to our HVAC system.

Pre-Heat Pressing shirts before Pre-Treating

1. Matt Down Fibers – we pre-press all shirts (light or dark) for 5 seconds at 340′ F to dry the shirt and to lay down the fibers, the light shirts go straight on to the printer the darks are then pre-treated, wiped down with a foam brush and then pressed again for about 30 seconds to dry the pre-treat
2. Less time to cure pre-treat – we press our pre-treated shirts for about 30 seconds, basically until they are dry
3. Makes prints look less fuzzy ? – without a doubt, pre-pressing of shirts prior to pre-treating helps to lay down ther fibers – especially on more lofty stle garments

Go over some of your  multi tasking thoughts and procedures – full production on the two Vipers we have is basically a 1 1/2 person job.  I think that shop layout helps to increase the efficiency of the operation.  (see Greg’s shop layout that he emailed).  There is more time for multi=tasking on dark garments than on lights.  The throughput on lights is great enough on two machines to basically call for all hands on deck.

Other practices that give you good prints with less waist or less wasted time etc. – take the time to do a test print or two on an old garment to verify the colors, size and positioning of all elements of the graphics.  Also, do a nozzle check before starting production, make sure you have plenty of ink in your printer and all your presses are on an

d to temperature before starting production.

Lastly, the Laser Allignment,  give me a short description on how you made it, where to get the parts and about how much money it cost to make it. – Basic screenprinter trick.  Print the image to be targetted onto an old shirt in the position you think is right.  Move the entire shirtboard system over to your laser alignment station and target the areas that were printed with the lasers.  Now you use the station as a targeted loading station, taking the “guess work” out of position printing.  The whole system can be built for less than $300.

SWF Success Story, Mind’s Eye Graphics Inc.

PROFILE

Company: Mind’s Eye Graphics Inc.
Owner: Greg Kitson
Year Established: 1980
Decorating Technique: Screen Printing, Direct to Garment Printing and Embroidery
Type of business: Contract & Retail Apparel Decorating

“Why DTG made sense for my Screen Printing Business”

Q and A’s:  (Interviewer (Scott Colman, President SWF East) (Interviewee Greg Kitson, President, Minds Eye Graphics)

Hi Greg, to get us rolling, can you please give me a brief synopsis of your background in the Apparel Decorating Industry?

I started Mind’s Eye Graphics in 1980 as a back room operation of a small town family shoe store.  By 1984 my one-man screenprinting
operation had replaced the shoe store and hired its first employee.  Today, we have grown to provide custom and contract screenprinting
to decorated apparel professionals around the world. We offer industry specific technical training and business consulting at our
Decatur, Indiana production facility as well as client locations.

Now that we know a little about Greg, can you give us an idea of what Minds Eye Graphics core business activities are?
Customer Type, Equipment, Primary Decorating Methods?

Core business is screen printing on textiles.  About 65-75% contract work, balance in end user direct.  Majority of work is screen
printing – majority of work done on automatic screen printing presses.  We also do embroidery and direct to garment printing.

I  see that your core business has historically been focused on Screen Printing.. More recently you added Direct to Garment Printing.
What spurred you to consider Direct to Garment, it’s very different than the concept of conventional screen printing?

We had been watching direct to garment printing since it’s serious inception about 5 years ago.  I think I saw it for the first time at
the Long Beach ISS show in 2005.  We were like most screen printers at the time thinking it was perhaps a fad, and definitely not
for us.  As the market matured a bit we started to see the potential for it complementing the work we were already doing.
I have always believed in the philosophy that the best defense is a good offense and it is better to learn new technologies earlier
than later.  We waited a while to let the marketplace settle out and then partnered with a provider we were confident could provide
us with good equipment and support for the long run.

Makes sense… So at some point you had an “Ah ha”  moment that lead you to this new decorating technique?
What was that Ah ha moment?

I’m not sure I would call it an “ah-ha” moment so much as a realization that direct to garment was here to stay.  We realized that we were not offering our customers as many options as they might like or need and direct to garment allowed us to fill a large part of that gap.

How long have you been doing the DTG process now and how many prints would you estimate?

Our equipment was installed about 8 months ago.  I haven’t really tallied the number of garments we have printed but I would estimate it at 2-3 dozen per day, five days a week.  We are still in the ramp up period with the equipment, but I haven’t had to worry about sales from the DTG’s not making the loan payment as well as covering other costs – even in the early stages.

That’s interesting, I still think the big question mark for DTG and Screen Printing, is … How to determine which decorating technique makes sense for either process .  The question arises from a profitability stand point as well as a finished product look and feel.  How do you determine, or what is your thought process on which decorating technique  is best for a particular job?

(download Greg’s inkjet vs screenprint breakover spreadsheet)
This is a major factor for screenprinters and not an easy question to answer.  The answer lies in a number of factors – probability of re-orders, number of colors, range of garment sizes (does the artwork need to fit youth-XXL shirts?) and the like.  One benefit of direct to garment over screenprinting is the ability to produce a quick final output for approval as opposed to a mock-up on a computer.  It can also help you “close the deal” by letting the client actually see their sample printed, the “wow” factor of direct to garment is high.

Wow, you have really come up with a pretty black and white process of choosing DTG or Screen as needed.. Do you have any case studies on designs or customers that you can share with us?

We just did a job for a church group that was returning froma mission trip to Haiti.  They needed 27 shirts and wanted a picture on them.  This job would have been 8 colors minimum to setup – $160 before we printed the first shirt.   As it was, we were able to print the 27 shirts on the DTG in less time than it woulld have taken to burn the screens and set up the press.  Plus, the customer in comforted in knowing that they can get re-orders with no setup fees.

Thank you for the example, I think this helps fill in some of the blanks…  What has been your biggest success with DTG… how about biggest challenge?

Our biggest success has been in doing items that are hard to screenprint, especially tote bags.  We often offer these now as a “plus” to other jobs we do.  By being able to offer the same image on a variety of garment types, we can increase our bottom line, while also adding value to our customer.  Along the same line, we can offer items like infant sizes, sweat pants, and the like – screenprint the core sizes and garments and direct to garment print the “fringe” items.  Herein also lies our biggest challenge.  Reasonable color matching between press and printer.  We have done a good job of figuring out how to tweek our artwork to give a good match between the two methods.

I know that Minds Eye Graphics is well respected in the Apparel Decorating industry for quality work and ethical business dealings.  Please describe some of the services that you can provide to other Decorators, particularly other DTG owners?

I know that a lot of the customers that SWF East sells to are start-up or small to mid size businsses.  These type businesses are some of the hardest working folks in our industry.  The problem is that they will sometimes run into orders that are too large for their DTG and they don’t want to source their screenprinting locally for fear of potentially losing their customer.  We can fulfill their large screenprint order and also provide them with DTG ready artwork that they can use to fill in re-orders themselves.  Basically this allows all of us to focus on our strengths and allows them to compete with the larger local screenprinters without fear of losing his customers.  It is a win-win proposition.  Another angle we can take is to screen print orders that will need variable data and provide you with a template to use to fill in the variable data information with your DTG.  We can also help fulfill larger embroidery orders as well.

Thank you for all of this great information.. As a closing, what advice would you give to either a Screen Printer or anyone else considering DTG as part of the business?

First off, don’t be afraid of this technology, it has matured immensely in the last 5 years and is at what I would consider a “plateau” right now.  What do I mean by plateau?  I don’t expect any radical developments in the next couple of years that will leave you wishing that you had waited 6-12 more months to get started.  The first few years were that way.  Companies like DTG Digital have come up with very clever ways of handling the inherent issues with digital printing with white ink (ranging from white ink circulation to effective pre-treatment machines).

Once you get the equipment, take the time to learn the technology before going “live” with it to your customers.  Resist the tempatation to advertise the abilities before you have them mastered.  Secondly, take any and all training offered.  Be it from the distributor or at trade shows in the form of seminars.  Knowledge is king.

Professional Threads Embroidery

Profile

Company: Professional Threads Embroidery Owner: Mike Gibson Number of employees: 1 Year Established: 2007 Sales: 2007 – $32,000 2008 – $62,000 2009 – $85,000 Type of business: Home Based Apparel Decorator

To start, who is Mike Gibson (laugh)?
Well that’s a good place to start! From Mentor, Ohio (outside of Cleveland), married to a lovely wife and have two beautiful younger children. My conventional profession is being a Fire Fighter/EMT, my wife works for the school board so we are pretty busy. I now consider myself a little bit of an entrepreneur after I started our home-based business, Professional Threads. Both of us still work but my goal is to create enough income with the business for my wife to work less if she wants to, not because she has to.

How did your business get started and why?
As a professional Firefighter/EMT, my schedule has me working several consecutive days on and off. During my days off I was looking for an opportunity to supplement the family income. I needed something that was flexible that could work around my schedule and being my own boss seemed like a good idea.

What made you choose decorated apparel?
I could operate the business out of my basement. There are no dangerous chemicals needed which is important for me since I have two small children. Embroidery has a high-perceived value and I thought it would be profitable.

What type of equipment did you purchase and why?
I have a SWF 2 head multi-head embroidery machine, 2 heat presses and 1 DTG Viper. I started with the 2 head machine because I wanted to be able to handle more production than with a single head. Once I got started, I was receiving a lot of inquiry about printed t-shirts so I invested in the DTG Viper. I chose the Viper because it is capable of printing on dark shirts and has a larger print area.

What is your target market?
Since I work as a firefighter, I first offered my service to my firefighter friends and their families. My hobby is boating so I also reached out to my boating friends and Yacht club associations. My circle of friends and co-workers is how I started and my business grew through referrals.

How did you decide what market to go after?
My profession as a firefighter created the market. Before I got into the business I was sourcing patches and embroidered uniform shirts for my department. I saw how much was needed and how profitable it was. When I realized the volume of business, I decided I could handle the orders myself.

How did you determine pricing?
I researched what my competitors were charging as a guideline but not as pricing war. My goal is to make it easier for the customer. I quote each job individually. I take the time to build a relationship of trust and high quality. When you build your business around your circle of contacts they know you will do what is best for them.

What is your product range?
With the combination of embroidery machine and DTG printer I can decorate just about anything. It’s true what the industry says, “if you can hoop it you CAN embroider it.” The majority of my products are hats, team apparel, t-shirts and sweatshirts for public service, schools, sport teams and special events.

How do you reach out to new customers?
I have been very fortunate they are coming to me by word of mouth. Being social and simply letting people know what goods and services I offer is one of the keys to my success.

Where are you with your business now?
My business is 3 years old with steady growth, so I’d say I’m getting established. I get calls daily for new business and am able to fulfill my orders as a part-time business; I dedicate about 20 hours a week on average.

Name something interesting about your business that you want people to know about.
I operate my business out of my basement! Most people can’t believe that I am running a business out of my basement. It’s hard work but it has paid off. I’d like to build this company for my family, so when my children are older it will be there for them.

What is your most challenging obstacle?
Sourcing, finding the garments and supplies at wholesale prices. Learning the equipment took a little time in the beginning. I was doing orders right after I got my machines and was proficient operating the equipment after 6 months, so learning the process wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The training and support from SWF East was very helpful in getting me jump-started.

What is your greatest achievement in your business and the reason why it is all worth it?
The financial aspect is rewarding and I like the challenge. I am proud to say I have my own business and that I am in control of my financial destiny. I’m my own boss.

What’s on your equipment wish list?
I am working towards getting a SWF 4-head dual-function embroidery machine through the SWF Guaranteed Trade in Program so I can be working multiple jobs at the same time.

What advice would you give someone starting?
If you’re gonna do this, do it! I wish I would have started earlier but no regrets. Also, don’t think you’re a car salesman when you tell people about what you do. Surprisingly as I started to tell my friends and family I was getting an embroidery machine, I had people wanting to order before I had received my equipment so don’t be afraid to tell people what you are doing. One other thing that I really notice now is how much embroidery and printing is used, there is a huge demand and shirts wear out, so there almost always are re-orders.

Here are some questions that were asked

Do I do Advertising? I do not have any formal advertising.  All my advertising is word of mouth and referrals.  Word of mouth and referrals are one of the best marketing approaches for a small company.  I tell everyone I meet what I do.  As I’m talking to them its conversation but also marketing, I hand them a business card and tell them if they need any thing let me know.  I also get a lot of my business through referrals.   I post  a few things on Face book once and awhile.

Family and Friends?  That’s very simple; when you start a business your Friends and family are the ones that want you to succeed the most other than yourself.  They are a great resource when it comes to spreading the word that you have started a business.

Out of town orders? I do most of my business around my area that I live in but also have customers that I ship to also. My website is one page information page that once I give a perspective customer a business card to if they need any info they can get from the website.

Artwork? When I purchased the DTG I had no formal Training in graphic arts.  I purchased Corel and Photoshop and have become proficient in both programs.  There are so much free tutorials on line for beginners that it’s easy to grasp the programs.   It would be great if all of my customers sent ready to print art work but it’s not always the case.  For art work that is over my head that needs work I send it out to companies that do that sort of thing.  I also out source my digitizing (Embroidery designs).

SWF-East has been great for me.  My equipment has worked great and I have had no major issues with any of there machines.  There support/ Tech Department has always been able to help with the issues I have had.

I encourage anyone starting out to attend as much training as possible.  It just makes the process of starting out easier.  Trade shows are a great way to see new products and meet people that are doing the same things that you are doing yourself.  They also offer classes at trade show that you can take advantage of. There are many wholesalers out there. I use Sanmar and Alphahshirt company. But again there are many good ones out there.  Trade shows are a great way to find wholesaler that fit the products you intend to focus on and Sell.