T-shirt Help!

[thewhit]

Im trying to find a site that will print quality shirts but at a cheaper price. I dont have a huge team so we dont need more than 25 printed. What sites can you guys recommend?

[kevin.li.rit]

usually I just search the yellow pages for t-shirt printing places nearby.

[thewhit]

Yeah but being from Kansas...nothing is near. Haha

[Elgin Clock]

We've always had ours done locally, so I can't help you with an online source, I'm afraid. Try to find a local printer who would be intereted in at least a partial donation to cut the cost. Once you have the template (with associated setup fees related with that covered) then it's just a matter of ordering in bulk to get cheaper shirts.

The biggest cost in printing shirts is the setup of the design.

To minimize that, keep your shirts to as few colors as possible, and keep in mind where you will be traveling.

White shirts get dirty very quickly in the pits.
Black, or other dark color shirts absorb that Atlanta sun like a heatsink.

I believe we order about 50-100 T-shirts each year at least, 2 sides with a design on them, blue with white and orange on them (shown in my pic above for reference) and they come out to be about $7-8 per person I think.

Maybe order extras for parents, sponsors, or to trade at competitions to see if you can get a discount.
There are plenty of people willing to trade shirts at competitions (myself included) so if you order a few extra and get some sort of discount, just advertise that fact here on CD and people will be willing to trade you.
(I take a size Large or XL btw if you DO end up doing that.. lol)

But seriously, try and find a local printing shop who may donate some of their service towards your printing needs.

Then, next year when you are established with them and you don't change your shirt design, the setup fee will be almost non-existant.

Good luck!

[Kat Kononov]

Last year my team got our t-shirts from http://www.customink.com/. They're a pretty good deal, and really good quality.