who else see's this trend?

Living tees · August 10th, 2010, 11:43 AM

I started printing for myself in 1994. we sold white t's with 1 color both sides for 7.50. We now sell whites for 5 bucks if we're lucky. Ink has doubled, shirts went up a bit, and labor is tough to get and expensive. Am I the only one who thinks it's time to look elsewhere.

Robert Young · August 10th, 2010, 06:35 PM

yes, just find a niche that you love and your passion will show through and the money will then come. Same has happened in embroidery and embroidery digitizing... 20 years ago you could easily charge 18 bucks per thousand stitches on digitizing... now many many companies are close to 1 buck per thousand, yet as you pointed out... our costs to live have gone up considerably

Living tees · August 11th, 2010, 08:20 PM

ok , I'll do it for 1 more day.

Robert Young · August 12th, 2010, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Living tees

ok , I'll do it for 1 more day.

ha, at least give it until school starts again.

Living tees · August 16th, 2010, 08:16 PM

one of my local schools told me last year they had 68,000 in the account to buy shirts ,paper,pencils ect... This year they have 17,000 in that account. I wonder if they are going to buy the t shirts or the pencils?

sgsellsit · August 21st, 2010, 12:17 AM

I have been a printer for 20 years. I used to buy white t-shirts for .67 each and got $5-$6 printed back then. I also would like to know "What Did I Miss ?" I still don't understand these local guys giving $4.00 quotes on a $2.00 wholesale t-shirt. I was trained by one of the best artist/printers in this area. (That is Florence, AL and to all of you who have been slinging ink and thread for a while you know it was the t-shirt capitol of the world at one time.) I was brought up as screen printing being an art form and every job was an individual chance to show your talents and people took pride in that. Now its like a flea market where every body is selling the same old junk from China. I wish we had to go back to hand drawn art, rubylith, opaquing pens and true camera positives and darkroom shots. Now how many "SCREEN PRINT SHOPS WOULD THERE BE?" Quote: " Anybody can smear ink on a shirt but a real screen printer can fix his own dryer." My mentor said that back in 1992 and if you look deeper into the statement there was a lot more to it than meets the eye. Think about it and hang in there.

Living tees · August 23rd, 2010, 12:59 PM

You said rubylith. I wonder how many new shops know what it is. Opaquing pens , can't even find them anymore. I still have my camera, in a shed. went to walgreens and they have my local school shirts on sale, with the wrong gold of course for 6 bucks. I too was taught by artists, hippies for sure and we were proud of every shirt. Now it's all about the lowball quote and quality means nothing. I'm not quitting 'cause it's all i know, but it's harder to make any gravy money than ever for me. Had to rebuild my compressor last week. that was fun.

MultiHueMark · September 13th, 2010, 03:05 PM

I started my own screen printing shop in 1981. I have done direct sales & marketing and contract printing to the trade and seen many changes for the worse. The demise of profit margin for us, I believe, is directly linked to the growth of Ad Specialty Companies and their belief that 5% to 15% profit on an order of T-shirts is just fine. I lose bids all the time to ASI and PPIA members. On an order of 2000 white 100% cotton Gildan model#5000 tees I was out bid $1.96 to 2.19 for a single color job by an ASI middleman. When Staples, Office Depot, Walgreens, Walmart and other large retailers step in with big capacity while-you-wait, DTG printing, the next big shockwave will be felt in our industry and wallets!