T-Shirt Transfer Business:
How to Start one for less than $500
T-Shirt Transfer: Are you looking for a side gig with a minimum investment of less than $500, where you’ll be your own boss, where the product value is artwork, some or all of which you can do on the board or in a camera?
Then the T-shirt transfer business might be for you. Not that you have to be an artist or anything. You can get images or witty words in many different places and start your business without much effort. The startup cost would be considered nominal by most people.
Some artists just want to put their artwork somewhere, and why not on the back or front of a T?
What Are Heat Transfer T-shirts?
This process starts with an image you want to put on a T-shirt. First, it’s printed on specially treated paper. Then, the paper is placed on top of a T-shirt on a heat press, and the press is lowered to contact the image and shirt. The heat transfers the design to the T-shirt. The process uses a printer, treated paper, the T-shirt, and a large, iron press to produce the finished garment.
If you ever drive through a summer tourist town, you’ll see plenty of places selling T-shirts produced by this heat transfer process. If you go inside, you can pick a design off their wall of designs, pick a T-shirt blank that looks like a good match color-wise, and they’ll transfer your image onto that T-shirt while you wait. You will fork over $30, which I imagine is the average price.
In all likelihood, the cost of that T-shirt for the retailer is less than $5, so that’s a pretty good profit. The truth is that people sell t-shirts online and don’t need a storefront, which helps square your money with the overhead. People are starting clothes businesses on the Internet without any overhead to speak of. I want you to understand what a heat transfer T-shirt is.
Frankly, it’s nice stuff if it’s to your taste, so plenty of people put down the money for it, so the question for an investor is, can I do this on the cheap and still ask money for it?
For the purposes of discussion, let’s say the answer is yes, then read on.
The Cost
You can move your business to the next level with only a $2000 investment, but you can start it with only $500.
That’s all the investment you need to produce a professional, store-ready T-shirt. The cost of a T-shirt, the cost to do the transfer, and have a product in hand? That can be as low as $2. And with that, you can come in with a suggested retail price of $20.
The people who do this stuff say, Never sell a T-shirt for less than $10. So you can see the profit margin.
The Artwork
What kind of subjects can you make money with? Well, that’s as wide open a question as you can ask, and when you think about it, the T-shirt transfer business is all about the artwork. The obvious subjects on T-shirts are:
- Rock Stars
- Athletic Stars
- Movie Stars
Whatever image you decide on, NEVER use images with trademarks or copywrites without rock-solid, documented permission. Free photo services on the Internet might allow it.
I’m not convinced you can use Unsplash to produce a product to sell in the marketplace. If you google “Can I use Unsplash photos on T-shirts,” you’ll get the following:
So, you must find a source for images that don’t amount to a copywriting or patent infringement.
Where to get Images, then?
So, what sources of images are available?
- Public Domain
- Photo services
- Produce your own artwork.
Try images in the public domain where the copywrite on images has expired. Old photos and artwork are available because the copywrite is too old to enforce. check this website for sources: University of Texas.
Check online sources that offer their images for the production of T-shirts. Try Printify, for example.
Produce your own artwork, independent of sources. Jokes and witticism, political punditry, etc., are all used in artwork that’s reasonably easy to do for most artists. In addition, drag out the old camera and start photographing stuff. Use photo editing software to create exciting images, so you may want to copywrite them yourself. What you want to produce is a sure-fire touchstone with many consumers.
The T-Shirt
The T-shirt you use becomes your canvas. The best results come from using cotton fabric shirts. You buy the t-shirt already manufactured, for example, and if you want to apply your own label to your clothing line, the tag in the collar is easily removed, making room for your label.
Check out the following sources for ready-to-print-on T-shirts:
- Blankstyle.com
- Jiffyshirts.com
- Gildan.com
Blankstyle.com offers a full lineup of quality T-shirts you can buy in bulk, with prices as low as $2.41.
Jiffyshirts.com offers a tear-away label shirt for $1.60 per shirt, adult unisex heavy cotton at 5.3 oz., but the price varies by the number of shirts you purchase.
Gildan offers reasonably priced quality product with sizes ranging from S to 5XL.
These companies are T-shirt dealers and manufacturers. You can buy Bella-Canvas and Gildan brands and many more.
Transfer Paper
You’ll also need a special inkjet principle heat transfer paper (PPD). According to the manufacturer, this is a commercially used transfer paper, and once applied, it will last for 25 to 30 washes.
The sheets come in two sizes for our purposes:
- 8.5 X 11 inch
- 11 X 17 inch
You can check Walmart for PPD products, or go to the Amazon.com site.
That size of paper matches most inkjet paper sizes. The PPD kits come in white and black T-shirt versions. Buy White transfer paper for white shirts and black transfer paper for black shirts. The processes differ for the two kinds of paper, so follow the instructions on the PPD paper you’ve chosen. Do not use white PPD paper for black T-shirts as it won’t print properly.
To save money, start your business by buying transfer papers online. Try Walmart or Amazon.com. Once you’re getting orders and cash flow, check out Alibaba. They offer the product at a bulk price and have a terrific website.
The Printer
To print your images on transfer paper, use an inkjet printer. If you don’t own an inkjet printer, find one at an office supply store like Office Depot, or check out the used market. If the printer works and it offers full ink cartridges, you’re in business. The ink is usually dye-based, which can degrade some in UV light, but not significantly enough to replace it.
Always use heat transfer paper, described above. Loading multiple sheets in the printing machine will keep the transfer paper in excellent condition.
Heat Press Machine
Next, you need a large heat press machine. These range in cost from under $200 to up to $3500 and much higher, so to get started in the business, the hot press machine is the biggest expense, but you can do it for less than $200. From appearances, it looks like the price determiner is the size of the printing area. So, while you work away with a smaller $200 printer, you might recognize how you could make more money with a larger printer.
The size heat press machine you can afford on a budget doesn’t intrude on your home space much. It’s kind of a glorified clothes iron, so don’t hesitate to buy it. It can be used to print designs on many clothes, even shoes.
Paper Cutter
Finally, purchase a paper cutter if you don’t want to use scissors to cut away the excess transfer paper on the image edge. It comes out of the printer like a photograph with a white border, and the white border usually gets cut away.
First, print your image onto the transfer paper. Size your image against the paper size. As a thought, you may want to try out the Canva website if you’re not already using it, to produce your image using their T-shirt template.
At Canva, pick a T-shirt template, and upload the image you’re going to print to the site, then manipulate your image in whatever way you want. If you’re more of a DIY image maker, use your Photoshop program to produce an image ready for printing. The advantage offered by Canva is that they will produce a printer-ready image in minutes. Put a design together in just a couple of minutes and it’s printer ready.
Otherwise, create your image in a Photoshop app.
Let’s make the T-shirt.
Once you’ve printed your image or design and it’s out of the printer and lying next to the T-shirt, it’s time to transfer it to the shirt. So, next, let’s pre-heat the iron to the prescribed temperature.
For White T-shirts and black T-shirt processing, turn to the instructions that come with your PPD kit. Black or white T-shirts are produced with different processes, so get it right!
Label Your Product
Some customers want to see a designer label on their T-shirts, and this is a trend you can pander to if you want. It’s not surprising to walk into a T-shirt shop in a tourist destination and see printed T-shirts without designer labels. Because they do the heat transfer right in front of you while you wait, they may not feel any pressure to label their clothes, but when buying online, the trend seems to be to offer “designer clothes” because that’s your particular design that’s transferred to the T-shirt. So, putting a label on it is both desirable and easy.
DESIGN A LABEL
First, figure out what your label should look like. Then visit Canva templates and type in “clothes labels” and create a designer label for your clothes. Go to a website like Doylabel.com and set up your logo for plastisol labels. They print your labels and send them to you. Labels can also be found on the ETSY website. Plastisol labels are the way to go. These are iron-on printed labels.
With your screen printing machine, you can create and use plastisol heat transfers with minimal investment in additional tools and equipment.
“Make sure the image is “mirrored.” Without mirroring, the letters in your label would appear backward. Be prepared to mirror all your images in the transfer process. Be sure to follow the instructions in the PPD documents. As always, check out any heat transfer classes offered in your neighborhood. It’s highly recommended.
It’s up to you whether you want to tear away the manufacturer’s label. Whatever, apply the label with your transfer iron. Your shirts are ready to be packed and shipped.
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This is one of the best postings I’ve read in quite some time. Good work.