Custom Shirts

At the same place you get the existing symbols/pics screened on. But multiple colors get really expensive in silkscreening, so you need to do lots and lots and lots of shirts to bring the cost per shirt down to a reasonable level.

I think I was looking at $500 for the color screens for a 4-color picture (red, orange, yellow, and white on a black shirt) when I was looking at getting some done for my sub. Prices have almost certainly changed since then.

 

I'm a screen printer. As @Section9 said, one off screen printed shirts are stupidly expensive. There are other options that are less expensive, but they have their own quirks.

What are you looking for?

 

I don't know. Maybe this varies from where you live and what you want to print. My brother went to a shirt printer for printing one custom shirt we both designed together for me and while I was looking for the cost, it was like 20-50€, if I remember well. It costs but if it is for only one shirt you're going to wear more than once, it can be worth it.

 

If you want a thermal transfer design, you should be able to fine someone who can print it for less than 30€, shirt included. I have one at least, just to say...

But you need to prepare the graphic yourself.

Remember that using copyrighted materiel is allowed only for personal use. You cannot use sites that store and resell the uploaded project.

 

Direct-to-Garment (DTG) prints can be done as one off's. Quality on them is a totally reliant on the original art quality and the quality of the DTG printer that is being used. A single DTG print will likely run $20 - 40 depending on size of print and local.

DTG is a good option for short runs with stupid amounts of color. Screen printing is better and cheaper for quantity. Transfers (vinyl printed) are an adequate short term solution if they are available.

Screen printing is high durability, even if you don't wash your shirts properly, 2+ years/lifespan of the shirt.
DTG is good durability, 1-2 years before the print is going to be showing it's age.
Transfers are low durability 1 year maybe, if you take care with washing.

Another option, if you like 100% polyester shirts, is dye sublimation. Only works on light colored shirts, but the ink is embedded in the shirt permanently. Adds no weight, doesn't change the feel or performance of the shirt. White and light grey shirts are best. The process can't print white, so everything color shifts based on shirt color. Price will vary depending on if the process is in house or not, and quantity.



A General Slightly Bitchy Guide to Screen Printing:

- Cost = number of colors + number of print locations + number of shirts + cost of shirts.
- Dark shirts cost more to print.
- Time is required to get things done. Screen printing isn't magical, it is labor intensive and time consuming. It is basically the same amount of labor to print 12 shirts as it is 50.
- The more you call and check on an order, the more your printer hates you. They will tell you what production time is, believe them. If they miss the stated production time, then you can get upset.
- If you send crappy art in, you will get charged to make it usable.
- Plan ahead. Don't walk in or call on Wednesday asking for shirts before the weekend and complain about price. If they can actually get the job done that fast every printer I know will happily charge massive rush fees.
- Don't complain about rush fees, you brought them on yourself procrastinator.
- Don't complain about art fees. Your crap art needs fixing. Most graphic designers don't know anything about screen printing. It take me longer on average to fix a graphic designers "good" art files than it does to create art based on chicken scratches and stick figures that a soccer mom or landscaper brings in on a napkin.
- Cave paintings and stick figures are all that is needed for the printers artist. Bring something in for them to work from. Google is at your disposal, use it. Saying "I have no idea what I want" is the worst possible thing to hear from a customer. It means time consuming teeth pulling conversations and wasted art time trying to come up with designs that will be discarded as soon as they are seen and the customer then tells us what they actually want.