The Making of a Custom Printed Tee Shirt

Ever wonder what factors into the pricing of a custom printed tee shirt? Let me walk you through the process so that you, the novice, has a better understanding when considering getting tee shirts done for your company or an event. 

 First, plain white shirts are the cheapest, both from the manufacturer as well as processing them for printing. That being said, most people don't want plain white shirts--they want colored or most often black shirts.  So what is the difference between printing a white shirt vs a dark one--an extra step--PRETREATING, which adds time and money to the cost.

Liquid is sprayed onto area of shirt
that is going to be imprinted.

Pretreating is spraying a starch like liquid on the garment, then heat pressing the tee to dry. The liquid acts as a substrate primer for the white under base ink that must be laid down first before any color can be applied. After the spraying, the liquid must then be brushed over the area designated for printing. 

Without pre-treating, the white under base print sinks into the shirt and neither the white or any print colors on top are visible.  

Liquid is brushed into garment for even
distribution of chemical

Shirt being dried on heat press for 10-15 seconds

After the area has been brushed with the chemical, then it has to be heat pressed for approximately 10-15 seconds to dry the shirt. It's at this point where it is ready to be placed on the printer for the first design and when it comes off the printer it has to be heat pressed again for 200 seconds. 

When clients ask for both sides of a shirt to be imprinted, this process has to be repeated again, once the first side is printed, thus increasing the handling time of each piece/shirt. 

Printing a tee shirt front and back, depending on if you choose a color, can be anywhere from $14-$17 a shirt, factoring in the above process and how large the design is and how much white ink is used in the process. 


And that is how a custom tee shirt is produced!