My son has been working on Flash web design interfaces for simple games over the last few years. He's gotten a pirate ship to shoot canons and lines that do something or another. However, lately he's been focused on making a web design interface to allow me to show images on t-shirts similar to my barbaric version shown here at Ekay.com and here at: free-speech.com/City1
The basic concept seems simple, but I can tell he has advanced himself in his knowledge of scripting because he no longer acts like it is easy and marvels at getting some of the seemingly simple task to work properly. I think the biggest challenge is to tie any interface back in to a shopping cart, but we won't bother to go there for now as this is just fun and games.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Selling t-shirts online in the summer is like selling corn from a truck
Who isn't familiar with trucks selling corn on the side of the road in the middle of summer, or some other vegetable. Corn is what comes to mind right away, but it could be strawberries or peaches, whatever the surplus vegetable is in your area. Running a website online with t-shirts for sale in the middle of summer is sort of like that only without the stinky exhaust of trucks in your face. We sit here and wait for orders with pictures of shirts hanging over the side of the website. People drive by and look sneeringly at our products, but eventually they will be hungry and realize that we have the cheapest shirts, widest variety and heck they need t-shirts, so they buy some.
The counter-intuitive aspect of all of this is that thousands of other people also need t-shirts in the summer, so the best products are often out of stock as the summer wears on. So order weeks in advance of your event if you need something different or a wide variety of t-shirts and colors, because it may not be available at the click of a button in the middle of July.
The counter-intuitive aspect of all of this is that thousands of other people also need t-shirts in the summer, so the best products are often out of stock as the summer wears on. So order weeks in advance of your event if you need something different or a wide variety of t-shirts and colors, because it may not be available at the click of a button in the middle of July.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
T-shirts ARE forever
and ever. How many years will a t-shirt design stay around in the closet or drawer? Eventually a t-shirt may end up in Africa or in a thrift store. They inevitably come back as vintage clothing, so statistically speaking the t-shirt you wear today may still have a couple of lives left in it. T-shirts are forever.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
What IF... T-shirt printing for free
What if I calculated the cost of printing and the cost of t-shirts wholesale and removed the profit requirement from my scenario? I am pretty certain that I am working for free already, however, once I assume all of the expesnes, including taxes and other shit that is involved with running a business then I am lucky to have a profit. So What if...
I printed for FREE?
I don't mean totally free, because somebody has to get paid for doing the work and the shipping. Either children in Asia do it or sweatshop workers in your backyard do it, somebody has to print the actual t-shirts. Machines don't run themselves and there is no totally FREE LUNCH. Printing is a craft and somebody has to handle each printed t-shirt that has a design, no matter where you are from, but what if we printed for non-profit institutions for free? Personally I am only in business to make money because I have to be in business to stay alive, FUCK BUSINESS for business sakes! I hate business just to make a profit, it sucks, it takes all my time, I feel greedy, but I have to do it to make money to pay my mortgage and make sure my kids can go to college and have food to eat... I'm sure we would all rather be doing something else than playing this stupid game called making money.
The bigger picture is what I am talking about here. I can get paid by running my business as a non-profit and my long term goals are covered by insurance anyway, like if I die or something. So my biggest expenses are to pay taxes and work for the man, which make my life difficult. As a non-profit my tax profile might shift to a simpler profile and in the end breaking even is where I end up anyway. So why not be a non-profit and transition my insurance and basic expenses to that scenario. Is is reasonable to think my business could fit into a non-profit scenario if I am still planning on being paid a basic salary to cover my expenses? Does a non-profit simply mean that the additional funds a company may make get turned back into the company at the end of the year? Not sure.
Let me assume that you are a potential customer of t-shirt and t-shirt printing. If you provide me with printable artwork and you are not unrealistic about the job, then I can get you the lowest price on printing and still make enough money to survive. My problem is that I have to deal with customers that give me crappy artwork, they are potentially fraudulent and don't really know what they want to begin with. This stress is why I have to mark up my prices have to have a padding in them currently to absorb the potential for losses, credit cards etc..., but if I was printing for free then I can dictate the terms of my work and not be stressed over the outcome as much. The company requesting the service is sort of a partner and if they want the service they have to bring the correct pieces to the table to begin with.
I don't want to under-estimate my abilities, but I do a simple job and it is t-shirt printing. No more, no less. You want embroidery, go somewhere else. You want to save the world by putting a stupid slogan on a t-shirt; you got the right place. I just want to print shirts because that is what I do. The profit motive is a fantasy anyway, unless I was going to sell my company or if I had investors. None of that here. I just want to keep my shop moving forward without the stress of the business world.
If you think this concept fits with a non-profit let me know in the comments section. Is there any advantage to the consumer who is working with a non-profit, or more correctly not-for-profit?
I printed for FREE?
I don't mean totally free, because somebody has to get paid for doing the work and the shipping. Either children in Asia do it or sweatshop workers in your backyard do it, somebody has to print the actual t-shirts. Machines don't run themselves and there is no totally FREE LUNCH. Printing is a craft and somebody has to handle each printed t-shirt that has a design, no matter where you are from, but what if we printed for non-profit institutions for free? Personally I am only in business to make money because I have to be in business to stay alive, FUCK BUSINESS for business sakes! I hate business just to make a profit, it sucks, it takes all my time, I feel greedy, but I have to do it to make money to pay my mortgage and make sure my kids can go to college and have food to eat... I'm sure we would all rather be doing something else than playing this stupid game called making money.
The bigger picture is what I am talking about here. I can get paid by running my business as a non-profit and my long term goals are covered by insurance anyway, like if I die or something. So my biggest expenses are to pay taxes and work for the man, which make my life difficult. As a non-profit my tax profile might shift to a simpler profile and in the end breaking even is where I end up anyway. So why not be a non-profit and transition my insurance and basic expenses to that scenario. Is is reasonable to think my business could fit into a non-profit scenario if I am still planning on being paid a basic salary to cover my expenses? Does a non-profit simply mean that the additional funds a company may make get turned back into the company at the end of the year? Not sure.
Let me assume that you are a potential customer of t-shirt and t-shirt printing. If you provide me with printable artwork and you are not unrealistic about the job, then I can get you the lowest price on printing and still make enough money to survive. My problem is that I have to deal with customers that give me crappy artwork, they are potentially fraudulent and don't really know what they want to begin with. This stress is why I have to mark up my prices have to have a padding in them currently to absorb the potential for losses, credit cards etc..., but if I was printing for free then I can dictate the terms of my work and not be stressed over the outcome as much. The company requesting the service is sort of a partner and if they want the service they have to bring the correct pieces to the table to begin with.
I don't want to under-estimate my abilities, but I do a simple job and it is t-shirt printing. No more, no less. You want embroidery, go somewhere else. You want to save the world by putting a stupid slogan on a t-shirt; you got the right place. I just want to print shirts because that is what I do. The profit motive is a fantasy anyway, unless I was going to sell my company or if I had investors. None of that here. I just want to keep my shop moving forward without the stress of the business world.
If you think this concept fits with a non-profit let me know in the comments section. Is there any advantage to the consumer who is working with a non-profit, or more correctly not-for-profit?
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Hi-Density Printing and the Emulsion that makes it possible
Hi-Density printing, or thick as a brick ink has always been problematic to me because of the screen making process required to have a thick enough stencil to on the screen that would allow a super thick build-up of ink when printing. I stopped at one booth at the ISS tradeshow that had a good strong hi-density screen as an example, can't remember the name of the company right now, but I was impressed with the crisp edges and durable feeling of the emulsion was. I plan to purchase a gallon of the stuff and give it a try, oh, but the good thing was that my previous experiments with the hi-density emulsion failed as I had to coat the screens many times to try and build up the thickness of the stencil. The process for this emulsion was explained as not having to dry in between coats. The way I tried high density emulsions in the past was by drying in between thick coats and it just got sloppy, messy and too difficult to expose the thickly coated screen.
Still more information about t-shirt printing and now laser versus dye sublimation
Always the last on board, I am not surprised that my devotion to laser printing is finally in question. I stalked the ISS Imprinted Sportswear t-shirt printing tradeshow in Long Beach for the Magic Touch transfer paper booth. Ideally this rather expensive paper would allow me to make multi-color t-shirt designs on dark garments, 100% cotton t-shirts, and eliminate the need for detailed trimming and weeding of the print design. This is a transfer technique, which I am also reluctant to endorse, but there are situations when transfers are appropriate, and I had a quest. The quest was strong enough that I got up before 10a.m. and got a Wellness Smoothie before driving for the last day of the show to find the Holy Grail of transfer technology.
I could not find the Magic Touch transfer demonstration at the show, so it must not exist, but I did have several conversations regarding dye sublimation and I now have a better understanding of the process. I have been reluctant to use dye sublimation because when it is used on t-shirts it requires the use of 50/50 cotton-poly t-shirts, or materials that are coated with a special chemical to capture the dye in the sublimation. As I understand it now the ink is printed on paper and then applied with heat to a garment or coated object. The heat then gasses at a high temperature in a heat press and saturates into the coating / polyester and resolidifies it's structure upon cooling.
The most interesting part of this equation is the coating, which has been described as resin of sorts, which simply means a poly resin. Hmmmm. Therefore the dye sublimation inks in gas form bond with polyester, which allows these inks to bond to the many types of plastic items that are used with the dye sublimation process. The claim is that the solidified dye sublimation inks are durable, like a polyester resin. I have not confirmed if these inks have any natural uv resistence or if they require additional coatings, like polyester resin products, to product them from degradation due to us exposure.
Laser prints are typically done with pigments ground finely to be used in toner cartridges and are printed with the printer by an evenly distributed electrostatic charge the bonds the colors to the paper until they are fused by heat. The pigments themselves have a natural resistence to uv as they are particles and the transfer papers seem to be carriers with the pigments embeded in a thin gelatin coating. I have always thought the dry, non-gassing process, was superior to the gassing dye sublimation process. However, if the gasses solidify into a resin form, like the coated material that they are bonding to, then they may structurally superior, minus the uv protection to the laser prints. The laser printed pigments are held together with the gelatin or coated material and therefore once that gelatin breaksdown the image is vulnerable.
For basic transfers and t-shirts or indoor items most of the durability questions are not relevant, but when you get into imitating fired items like ceramic cups and exterior tiles the durability is relevant. Also the gassing of the die sublimation is similar to the concept of the photo-fresco process that I have been working with, only it is the process through polyester resins versus the gypsum based materials that I have been working with. This does explain why some of the results I get when combining materials work better when I have used polyester resins and epoxy as the base material and ending up with the dye sublimation might be a natural progression. I always end up in the areas that I have tried to avoid the most, so this is no different.
I could not find the Magic Touch transfer demonstration at the show, so it must not exist, but I did have several conversations regarding dye sublimation and I now have a better understanding of the process. I have been reluctant to use dye sublimation because when it is used on t-shirts it requires the use of 50/50 cotton-poly t-shirts, or materials that are coated with a special chemical to capture the dye in the sublimation. As I understand it now the ink is printed on paper and then applied with heat to a garment or coated object. The heat then gasses at a high temperature in a heat press and saturates into the coating / polyester and resolidifies it's structure upon cooling.
The most interesting part of this equation is the coating, which has been described as resin of sorts, which simply means a poly resin. Hmmmm. Therefore the dye sublimation inks in gas form bond with polyester, which allows these inks to bond to the many types of plastic items that are used with the dye sublimation process. The claim is that the solidified dye sublimation inks are durable, like a polyester resin. I have not confirmed if these inks have any natural uv resistence or if they require additional coatings, like polyester resin products, to product them from degradation due to us exposure.
Laser prints are typically done with pigments ground finely to be used in toner cartridges and are printed with the printer by an evenly distributed electrostatic charge the bonds the colors to the paper until they are fused by heat. The pigments themselves have a natural resistence to uv as they are particles and the transfer papers seem to be carriers with the pigments embeded in a thin gelatin coating. I have always thought the dry, non-gassing process, was superior to the gassing dye sublimation process. However, if the gasses solidify into a resin form, like the coated material that they are bonding to, then they may structurally superior, minus the uv protection to the laser prints. The laser printed pigments are held together with the gelatin or coated material and therefore once that gelatin breaksdown the image is vulnerable.
For basic transfers and t-shirts or indoor items most of the durability questions are not relevant, but when you get into imitating fired items like ceramic cups and exterior tiles the durability is relevant. Also the gassing of the die sublimation is similar to the concept of the photo-fresco process that I have been working with, only it is the process through polyester resins versus the gypsum based materials that I have been working with. This does explain why some of the results I get when combining materials work better when I have used polyester resins and epoxy as the base material and ending up with the dye sublimation might be a natural progression. I always end up in the areas that I have tried to avoid the most, so this is no different.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
No Sleep Til' LONG BEACH - T-shirt Printing Tradeshow
I am always overwhelmed by how much information I can find at tradeshows and the Imprinted Sportswear tradeshow has not been a let down. First off I must warn you, I don't care that much about the latest trendy cut of t-shirts, there is always something there, but in the end my customers stay within a range of available goods and when they ask for it I get it. So I can find anything and I simply add a bunch of new companies product catalogs to my product line, but not very much of it performs over the long run. However, technical details with "experts" is my way of entertaining myself and finding out how little I have been doing to expand my t-shirt printing universe.
I focused on mesh adhesion and emulsions with my questioning of the Ulano and Sefert and IT sales people. I have found out that mesh is pourous, which means it will absorb chemicals that it is submerged, or embedded in, such as photosensitive emulsions for screen printing. I also found out that there is a clear, although not optically clear, emulsion and it may be possible to add pigment (liquid) to the emulsion in a variety of colors.
My other interesting exchanges were about discharge inks and Wilflex has a discharge ink that does not emit an odor or sulfur smell and does not require the final garment to be washed before it is sold. This ink has been popular in Europe, but is just being released in the United States and I'm all in. I've done some discharge through contractors, but have avoided using it directly as the smell and toxicity of the garments remains a problem if the shirts aren't washed before they are sold. Next step is to make samples of some new designs.
I focused on mesh adhesion and emulsions with my questioning of the Ulano and Sefert and IT sales people. I have found out that mesh is pourous, which means it will absorb chemicals that it is submerged, or embedded in, such as photosensitive emulsions for screen printing. I also found out that there is a clear, although not optically clear, emulsion and it may be possible to add pigment (liquid) to the emulsion in a variety of colors.
My other interesting exchanges were about discharge inks and Wilflex has a discharge ink that does not emit an odor or sulfur smell and does not require the final garment to be washed before it is sold. This ink has been popular in Europe, but is just being released in the United States and I'm all in. I've done some discharge through contractors, but have avoided using it directly as the smell and toxicity of the garments remains a problem if the shirts aren't washed before they are sold. Next step is to make samples of some new designs.
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