Customized Apparel: From Sketch to Shirt

Customized apparel has carved its niche as a potent tool in branding, promotions, and personal expression. A thought, a design, a doodle can all take life when imprinted on fabric. But how does a simple sketch transform into a tangible, wearable piece of art? Let’s venture into the world of Blankstyle and uncover the fascinating journey of a design from a mere concept to a finished product.

Step 1: The Blueprint of Creativity – Designing

The journey begins with a design concept. Whether it’s an intricate illustration, a simple logo, or a catchy slogan, the idea should align with the intended message or the essence of a brand. The design acts as a brand’s voice, a whisper to its audience, so it’s essential to craft it with precision, ensuring it’s versatile and compatible with varying shirt colors. If designing isn’t your forte, collaborating with a professional designer can make all the difference, ensuring your vision is meticulously articulated.

Step 2: Mapping the Quantity & Budget

Before diving deep into the production process, it’s essential to delineate the quantity and budget. For wholesalers, buying in bulk is cost-efficient. However, it’s crucial to break down the sizes, remembering to provide an inclusive size range. The final quantity impacts the chosen printing technique, with some methods being more economical for bulk orders.

Step 3: Selecting the Perfect Printing Technique

Depending on the design intricacy, color palette, and budget, one must select the optimal printing method:

  • Screen Printing: The go-to for bulk orders. Each color demands a unique screen, making it ideal for designs with limited colors.
  • Vinyl Graphics: Perfect for simple, bold graphics, especially for smaller batches.
  • Direct-to-Garment (DTG): Suitable for designs bursting with details and colors but is more aligned with smaller orders.

Step 4: Finding the Right Printing Partner

A harmonious collaboration with the right printer is paramount. At Blankstyle, we champion quality and consistency. When you entrust us with your design, we ensure it’s impeccably translated onto fabric. By either visiting us or exploring online, you can gauge our commitment to excellence, ensuring you’re aligning with a printer that values your vision.

Step 5: Fabric Selection & Shirt Type

Comfort is paramount. The choice of fabric can significantly impact the final product’s feel and durability. While 100% cotton remains a classic, blends offer versatility in texture and cost. Beyond fabric, the shirt’s cut and style should reflect the target audience’s preferences. Whether it’s a V-neck, crew-neck, or a tank top, the style should resonate with the intended wearers. Pictured to the left is our Gildan 2000 Ultra Cotton T-Shirt G200.

Step 6: Design File Submission

Once the design is finalized, it’s time to hand over the baton to us. Submit your design files, ensuring they’re in the right format (preferably vector), allowing for precision in translation from digital to fabric. Find more information on how to do that with us right on our decoration info page

Step 7: Proofing for Perfection

Before the mass printing begins, we at Blankstyle believe in getting a nod of approval. A digital proof is shared to ensure the design sits perfectly, capturing every nuance.

Step 8: The Final Transformation

Once the proofs are approved, the production wheels start churning. The design takes life, imprinting itself on fabric, ready to narrate its story. Once printed, each piece undergoes a thorough quality check, ensuring it mirrors the approved design.

The Grand Finale
With Blankstyle, the journey from a sketch to a shirt is an amalgamation of meticulous planning, artistry, and commitment to quality. As you unbox the finished shirts, you’re not just looking at fabric and ink; you’re holding a tangible manifestation of a vision, ready to resonate with its audience.

Dive into the realm of customized apparel with us, and let’s transform sketches into stories, together.

Custom Logo Face Masks by Blankstyle

“Wallet, keys, phone…facemask”

This is the new morning mantra before leaving the house. Now that we find ourselves in this new normal, where face masks are an everyday essential wear, we should also have the option to design our own custom logo face masks right? Customized face masks are great for small businesses, apparel companies, and grocery stores. We have even helped supply custom face masks to US Treasury Banks. Making your own custom printed face mask could not be any easier when you shop at Blankstyle.com

Your Logo, Your Customized Face Mask

Have a logo already? Awesome! Simply visit Blankstyle Face Masks to view your mask options. You may add your choice of face mask to the shopping cart and select Add Decoration. From there you will be able to upload your own graphic for your face mask. Blankstyle’s art department will generate a digital mock-up for your custom logo face mask and we will not print until you are 100% satisfied with your digital mock up. This way we know that you will be 100% satisfied with your custom face masks. Check out some of these custom face masks we have recently done!

Wholesale Custom Face Masks – Which Do I Choose?

With so many mask options, you might be unsure of which mask to use for your custom printed face mask. At Blankstyle we’re happy to throw you a bone! You might consider this face mask fan favorite ST2020 Face Mask. We have seen a great number of our customers use this mask style time and time again as their go-to for wholesale custom face masks. The ST2020 Face Mask is a 100% cotton 2-ply cloth face mask, which is the perfect selection for those looking to customize face masks themselves. However, Blankstyle is always happy to do the printing for you!

DTG vs Screenprinting and which one is better?

DTG Printing: The Future of printing?

You might be asking yourself, “what the heck even is a DTG?” DTG stands for Direct to Garment. In other words, a digital printer much like the one you have in your office, but bigger. Try and imagine if you will, a desktop printer that prints directly onto a t-shirt! Pretty cool huh? For the last 12 years, DTG printing has been the “the kid” on the block. Over the years, DTG technology has made great advances. Thus positioning itself as a top player in the garment decoration industry. DTG seems to be the newer hot printing process, however, each print method has its pros and cons. Join me while we discuss and finally discover: DTG vs Screen printing and which one is better!

In 1996, an engineer by the name Matt Rhome invented the DTG printer. However, the new print process would not catch much traction until Brother put out its own DTG printer in 2004. Big corporations such as Brother, Epson & Ricoh have thrown their hat into the DTG arena. The process of DTG entails loading a single t-shirt onto a platen or table and then sending a print job from a Rasterize Image Processing program. Once the DTG printer receives the print job, you press the PRINT button and you’re off to the races. The size of the print and the settings used will dictate how long the print will take. Typically you can have a small print completed in 40 seconds or a big print completed in up to 2 and a half minutes.

Because the DTG t-shirt printing process is fully digital, this means you can print photographic images in less than a minute (if on a light t-shirt). Achieving the same effect through traditional screen printing would entail much more work (several screens/inks required). THIS is the beauty of DTG t-shirt printing; convenience and time saved (in some cases)

Pros of DTG:

  • Usually easy to get into business with  a DTG machine as they are affordable to most business owners
  • You don’t need a lot of space (basically a desktop machine)
  • Easy setup
  • Great for printing photographic images

Cons of DTG t-shirt printing:

  • Must print on 100% cotton fabric as waterbased inks will only adhere to natural fibers
  • Any image that includes white ink, the garment then MUST be pretreated with a special pretreatment liquid. This pretreat makes it so that the white ink bonds do your t-shirt. Without the pretreat, the white ink will just fall and bleed right into the shirt and the results will not be favorable.
  • If too much pretreat is applied to the shirt, this may cause staining to the garment. If too little pretreat is applied, the white ink will not adhere to the shirt and the print will be ruined.
  • When printing on dark shirts, it will first print a white layer of ink or “Underbase Layer” and then the color on top. This two-layer process, depending on the size of the image can take anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes per print (far exceeding the time it would have taken to screenprint in some cases)
  • Maintenance of the DTG machine is a huge factor when it comes to the print quality and life of the printer. Without proper maintenance, the DTG printer will yield poor print results (banded lines through print, missing color, fuzzy prints, print head clogs). Lack of maintenance could be a high cost in repair, should a print head or ink tub clog.  DTG machines are a use it or lose it type of equipment in that if the machine is left sitting with ink in the system and not being used, the machine will most likely clog and will require time and money in repairs in most cases.

Screenprinting: A process tried and true

Screen printing, on the other hand, is as old as dirt! Not quite but almost! You might be surprised that the screen print process has been dated as far back as 960-1279 AD. This print method was used in China around the time of the Song Dynasty. Screen printing made it’s way to the western world during the 18th century but did not become as popular in Europe until silk mesh easily accessible. Let us time travel to the present time where today we have screen printing very much dialed in with photo-reactive chemicals and equipment to make the process much easier.

With screen printing, 1 screen must be created per color within the graphic to be printed. So you’ll find that screen printers tend to base pricing based on how many colors are within the image. If you have a great deal of color within your graphic, this could more than likely drive up the cost significantly. Because with screen printing plastisol ink is the main type of ink used, you can expect the life of the print to really go along way, decades even! The quality usually has a texture to it that you can definitely feel, and visually the quality is very favorable. Nice and solid!

While screen printing is a manual process of a squeegee pulling ink across mesh screen of negative space, these days, there are automatic presses that will do most of the work for you, which is a screen printer’s dream! However one would still need to set up the t-shirts and create/set up the screens which do take some time. After screen setup, you’re ready to rock and print very easily.  

Pros of screen printing:

  • A tried and true process
  • Solid quality print that will last a very long time
  • You can print 1 color print lightning fast
  • Various types of plastisol ink can be used (glow, puff & metallic ink)

Cons of screen printing:

  • 1 color per screen, multiple colors will result in higher price
  • Longer set up a time
  • Messy cleanup
  • Lots of expensive equipment needed
  • You must learn how to use all of the equipment
  • You need a lot of space for all of the equipment

So DTG vs Screenprinting, which one is better? This question actually cannot be definitively answered as both processes are great for different things! Instead of asking which print process is better, ask yourself, “which print process is best for this graphic?”.  If you have a photographic image with tons of color, this is not a graphic you will want to screenprint has you will need to generate many screens to even get close to an accurate depiction of what the actual image is. DTG would be a far greater option to consider for a very colorful image.

Now say you have a 1 color graphic on dark shirts, which print process would you choose?? If you answered “screenprinting” you are correct! Screen printing would be the preferred print method as you will easily be able to knock out the print job as fast as you can pull a squeegee across the screen.

Questions to ask yourself

While both print processes have their own pros and cons, as do most things in life, you want to look at your graphic/print job and ask yourself the following questions.

  • Is this a high quantity order
  • Does this have minimal color

Then it is probably a screenprint job.

  • Does this print job have a low qty
  • Is this graphic over 5 colors

Then you’re most likely looking at a DTG job.

At any rate, you can always reach out to us at Blanskstyle.com to help steer you in the right direction should you have these questions regarding which print method would be best for your design or project. Once you submit a quote on Blankstyle we will review your print order and from there we will be better able to determine which print method would be the best to proceed with. We would be more than happy to help point you in the right direction.

Gildan ActiveWear A Brief History

gildan2Gildan Activewear is one of the most well-known brands in the blank apparel industry. ­For years, Gildan has consistently produced quality products at prices well within most budgets. Starting with their signature heavyweight cotton G8000, Gildan has grown from a small fabric manufacturer for a children’s clothing line to a well-oiled corporate machine ranging a spectrum that covers areas well beyond the blank garment selections you’ll find on Blankstyle.com. CEO Glenn Chamandy has created a company that is more than a typical blank apparel manufacturer. Gildan’s mission statement is “To Deliver Better Value Through Better Design” and Mr. Chamandy has time and time again found winning combinations that embody this statement.

Gildan’s beginnings can be traced back to 1984 in 32_flMontreal, Canada. Although using a very different business model than today’s version, the Chamandy family’s initial foray as a new company had similar ideals. At the time of its inception, the family was heavily involved in children’s apparel manufacturing. In order to cut costs, Gildan was incorporated on May 8th, 1984 as a fabric manufacturer. The company produced and sold textiles to clothing lines that would produce their own garments. Over time, the company’s output far outgrew the demand for their fabric. The company changed directions and began manufacturing not only the fabric, but, also, the garments themselves. By 1994, Gildan had solely become Gildan Activewear – the wholesaler of garments we now know and love.

Gildan Activewear’s main revenue stream comes from their strategy of providing a high volume of basic branded apparel for redecoration. By keeping it simple, the company has grown to over 40,000 employees spread throughout locations including their corporate headquarters in Canada, their U.S. headquarters and distribution center in Charleston, SC, and production facilities in Barbados, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. In 2010, Gildan Activewear even invested in a manufacturing company in Asia to further their production capabilities. Gildan Activewear’s garments are most prevalent in the United States market; however, the company’s range now includes the Canadian, European, and even Latin American markets.

Over the years, Gildan Activewear has grown their product line from the original Gildan brand name to include recently acquired Gold Toe (2011) and Anvil Knitwear (2012). The company also holds several notable brand licenses including Under Armour, Mossy Oak, and New Balance. They are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (GIL).

Beyond being a strong company with high revenue and a large social presence, Gildan Activewear has even received honors as the only North American company in the Textiles, Apparel, and Luxury Goods category to be a part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Sustainability is something that Gildan prides itself on. They also received the Presidential Exporter award in 2013 for excellence in export improvement and job creation at their largest sewing facility located in Honduras. Since 2010, they have even reduced  their waste output by 25%, and now operate largely off of renewable energy–sometimes totaling over 50% per year.

I809_flGildan initially became well known for their heavyweight 100% cotton t-shirts. While this fabric is Gildan’s cornerstone and still sells in extraordinary fashion, the company has developed alongside its competitors and has even expanded to take on some of the more ‘fashion-forward’ brands by introducing its Ultra Cotton, DryBlend (50/50 cotton/polyester) and SoftStyle (ringspun cotton) lines.  Some of the most popular choices include the G64000 for men, the G64000L for women, and the G1200 sweatshirt. The Core Performance line (100% polyester) even offers modern style while holding up against sweat and abrasion. These contemporary blanks provide a functional and less expensive alternative to the basic styles of many fashion brands. Gildan has also expanded into socks, polos, fleece hoodies, and sweatpants.

Gildan has made a name for its’ self as the go-to brand for producing company, sport and school merchandise! Any group looking to inexpensively design their own clothing will find them as a helpful resource. Gildan has and always will strive to provide quality blank garments at lower than average prices for bulk orders. Gildan is consistently expanding their products and acquiring new brands in order to modernize their products. As they continue to grow, you can bet that they will do so without breaking your organization’s bank.

We whole-heartedly recommend these products 415_fland can’t wait to see what the future has in store for this uniquely diverse blank apparel company. In 2012, they brought us the Gildan New Mexico Bowl and in 2013, we even saw a Gildan Super Bowl commercial! Gildan Activewear continues to gain momentum and is always one of Blankstyle.com’s top sellers. We have the widest selection and best prices on the web to buy wholesale Gildan apparel, and we’re happy to help guide you in creating your own custom pieces!  The future is bright for this growing company and we here at Blankstyle.com are very happy to be on the bandwagon.

Ask your Blankstyle.com representative about your Gildan options today!

 

One Ink, One Print, Three Different Shirts

These three shirts feature the same water-based ink with a discharge undercoat.

What you would want to notice is the three different variations of shirts used for the same ink. The left most shirt is a 100% combed ringspun cotton t-shirt, similar to a 2001 American Apparel tee shirt. Notice how the colors seem to appear more vintage, faded out.

Now the same print is on the middle shirt which features a 100% Preshrunk HeavyWeight Cotton. Notice the vibrant color of the red shirt allows the print to stand out more and give the ink a more prominent look.

The third shirt features a heathered 65% polyester, 35% cotton red. Notice the tones are heavily faded out, you get a more vintage feel, and it definitely looks more translucent than the rest.

Considering the materials of your garments will help you decide how the outcome of your product. Whether you require an opaque look, or a relatively translucent look, these considerations are key in the design process prior to printing.

Testimonial: GO(O)D LIFE

Screenprinting Testimonials

Congratulations to Katy and William from GO(O)D Life for their successful launch! They started with an idea and we were able to help them envision it all the way through. Here are some words from the GO(O)D Life themselves:

Katy:
“Yes thanks guys!  We just got them!  They look great….we are so so glad to have received them today!  Thanks for the speediness and the great quality blankstyle guys, you are the best.”
We here at Blankstyle would like to thank Katy and William for allowing us to be apart of their brand! We are excited for all your future endeavors!

The Basics of Screen Printing (Part Three)

This installment of our Basics of Screen Printing will inform you about water-based inks and the comparison of water-based versus traditional plastisol inks.

Water-based inks are composed of water (as suggested by the name) suspended with pigments to create color. Designs for water-based inks can be printed on cotton, polyester, or poly/cotton blends. Colors in water-based inks are seen to be more vibrant, and can provide a softer, more sunk-in feel for the design printed on the shirt.

When properly cured, water-based ink printing can survive many trips through the washing machine. Here is an example of a water-based ink print:

The disadvantages of water-based inks can be that they are more difficult to cure than conventional plastisol inks. Improper handling of water-based ink prints can cause un-dried or mis-dried prints. These prints require a larger heating capacity than standard plastisol. Water-based ink print applications can also only be used on a small selection of mediums such as 100% cotton, and poly-cotton blends, whereas plastisol can be used in larger varieties of material including wicking fabrics. Also, the

When choosing the variety of inks for your t-shirt application, you have to make in-depth decisions in regards to the feel, the texture and the opacity of the coloration. When you have come to a consensus with these decisions, you can furthermore learn to choose which ink is best for you.

The Basics of Screen Printing (Part Two)

What are the different types of screen printing?

There are several methods of printing on garments. With these methods, you can achieve multiple feels, qualities, and distinct looks. By understanding these different methods of screen printing, you can decide which ink is suitable for your application.

Plastisol Ink

Plastisol is the industry standard for inks. It achieves great longevity on t-shirts after multiple washes, a textured feel on top of the shirts, as well as vibrant coloration. There are several types of Plastisol inks that vary from standard, heavyweight and soft-feel. The standard is used by many large clothing companies such as Vans, Hurley, Nike, Supreme, and etc. This gives a light texture over the shirt depicting that the ink is firmly applied and vibrant to stand out. Here is an example of standard plastisol:

Heavy weight plastisol is typically used for shirts that require heavier prints. Imagine a basketball texture on your shirt. It is typical that those are printed using heavy weight plastisol.

 

Lightweight/Soft-Feel plastisol on the other hand mimics Water-based Ink. It creates a softer texture that is almost sunk into the shirt which isn’t as rigid as standard or heavyweight plastisol ink. Here’s a cool little example that depicts a lightweight soft-feel plastisol:

 

On later updates, we’ll continue with water-based inks, discharge inks, direct-to-garment printing, and specialty inks. Stay tuned in for more updates!

 

As always, if you have any comments, questions or concerns, feel free to contact us here at Blankstyle.

Email: tickets@blankstyle.com
Toll-Free: 866 792 5265

 

The Basics of Screen Printing (Part One)

In our multiple part series, we will be guiding you through the basics of screenprinting. This will furthermore help you understand how the process works, as well as help design purposes for your future clothing label.

The Basics of Screen Printing (Part 1)

Screenprinting is not a simple process, nor is it a difficult one either. In screenprinting, you must understand the process of color separations, design and other important factors. T-shirt screenprinting is not as simple as placing an image on a t-shirt and printing it (as seen in conventional printers to paper). Traditional screenprinting is a process of creating mesh grids, separated by color to displace ink to create an image. There are new innovations that have led up to conventional printing methods such as Direct-To-Garment but do not yield the same results. There are a few determining factors before you actually begin screenprinting.

How many colors is my image?

Images can be comprised of a huge amount of colors, or a small amount of colors. Some standard designs may look like this:

This is considered a 1-color design. After a few washes, you may get a vintage look from the print, as it is more prone to fading without a base.  However, for greater attention to detail, as well as better print longevity, a base is usually recommended (changing your design to 2-colors).  That way you have a more solid, opaque finish on your print such as:

Some more intricate designs may require more screens for colors, and can drastically bring up the pricing to print your garments. You may want to consider doing larger size runs when ordering shirts that feature more colors. Take a look at this Obey Design:

 

This design alone features the colors: white, orange, black, yellow and green. This can incur 5 set up costs for just one design. If you take that into perspective for a small order of t-shirts, the set up costs drastically increase the prices of the each shirt individually.

It is best to solidify your design and manage techniques that minimize costs. That way you can create better sample runs before investing into buying huge lots of printed garments. On the next part of the “Basics of Screenprinting” series, we will discuss the different types of ink that are used in printing, and deciding which one may be best for your case.

 

 

Keys to Starting a Successful Clothing Company

With the constant influx of new competitors entering a highly competitive market, becoming a successful clothing company all begins with basics. A solid foundation, firm design as well as clearly thought out business plan can lead to great achievements and profits within the clothing industry. Some key elements you may want to consider are:

  1. Solidarity in Designs, or Artwork
  2. Demographic (Target market)
  3. A Quality Shirt Supplier/Printer
  4. Sales goals and Promotional Talent (Marketing Ability)

You may also want to consider the scale of your business. Will you be marketing in a small online shop or are you venturing into larger territories with a plethora of vendors? When starting up a legitimate business, you may want to consult your local government in order to obtain a reseller’s license.

One of the most important questions is, “Why will the consumer buy my product?” With over 10,000 different shirt companies in this global industry, what will your company provide to the market that hasn’t already been done? Being innovative gives you that edge and market appeal.

Key considerations

If your capital to start your business is limited, begin drafting more designs and consider creating samples before investing into a big lot of garments. That way you save in overhead, and may save you from sitting on goods that aren’t able to sell.

Here at Blankstyle, our customer service representatives will guide you through the process of starting up your own t-shirt clothing line, and provide you with knowledge that will potentially lead you into success.

Our prices within our catalog are here to help you start up your business. For further screenprinting information, please go to our screenprinting page, and as always, feel free to contact us via our customer inquiry or via toll-free at (866)-792-5265.