T-shirt Manufactures Didn't Want My Business...

Tshirts are very popular today among all types of companies these days, not just RPG publishers. Every company seems to have at least their logo pasted across the front of the tee. Sometimes their entire catch phase runs across the chest of loyalist. These companies throws the design to a site like Zazzle.com and because of Zazzle's overhead is forced to charge their customers upwards of 35$ bucks a tee.

Me, I wanted to do something a bit different and I certainly didn't want to charge 35 dollars Conflict t-shirts. That's just too expensive. My other goal was to have a t-shirt design that I wouldn't mind wearing anywhere or giving it to anyone, like my father in law or even a likable boss. .

With those goals in mind, I started designing. I won't bore you with the details however, let just say a few vector graphics, Adobe illustrator CS3 (can't afford CS5) and a few days later and poof—a new concept tshirt. The artwork ended up all over the collar, the sleeves, the sides of the shirts, and even the very bottom of the tee and I like it! Too me it definitely looks stylish. Some parts of this design is so intricate, it look like draft for a painting.

I posted the mockup of the t-shirt on the Conflict Facebook Fan Page for feedback. To my delight I got a good deal of feedback. (Greg Bender is the man!). So based on my facebook fans, it looks like everyone is digging the tee. So I said to myself, let's get it printed..

And that when the problems started.

I contacted 5 or more t-shirt vendors to get pricing and turnaround time. The first of the them told me, they couldn't print to that size or angle. I also hear several times, "We can't print over the steams" or "I can but there might be ink gathering by the steams and you will still be responsible for it"

WTF –man!!

I see these types of shirts in all the big time retailers. Why can't you do it? Instead of email I started calling these printshops for more information. One of them heard the desperation in voice. I said he could get my design printed but it would cost me 20 bucks a shirt and I need to print at least 144 of them.

WTF –man!!

Why is it so bloody expenses, my fellow gamers can't dish out that type of cash! So desperate my frustration, I research it a bit an found a few forums on the matter. Thanks goodness because after a few therds I realized why I was having such a hard time. The vendors I was talking to where screen printers, and it' wasn't that the vendors don't want the business; it's just that the printers used have boundaries that can't be broken. The t-shirt boundaries are usually 11x11 inches on the front and back of the shirt. Generally, the screen printers cannot stray from the boundaries. If a t-shirt design is all over the shirt, the printer may cut the design off.

Ahhh… Now I understand.

The type of printing I needed was referred to as All-Over Printing. The true definition of all-over printing is artwork that is printed over the seams. The type of printer that prints over the seams is called a belt screen printer (although there are a few different techniques). Belt screen printer allows you to create the all-over designs I saw in the magazines and stores and the one I designed myself.
There are many advantages to using a belt screen printer machine.

With benefits like these, why wouldn't every t-shirt vendor use the belt printer, right? Well, with every good machine come its disadvantages.


The moral of the story is, if there more than a handful of other companies do it, you can do it too. Also, if you are looking for t-shirt that will be printed over the steams you will have to search for printshops that will able to do all-over-prints.

Here is the listing I found:

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