When shopping for screen printed t-shirts it is important to
know who you are purchasing from.  When
comparing prices from one t-shirt company to another it may look like you are
comparing apples to apples but often lower prices mean lower quality.
Take the above t-shirt for example…. This was a free t-shirt
that was recently given to me.  It has
not been worn or washed yet notice all the cracking in the screen printed ink
from a simple stretch of the fabric.  Why
did this happen?  Most likely the person
in charge of purchasing selected the vendor with lowest price.  While to most that sounds like the logical
business savvy decision it wasn’t. 
Bottom line, everyone is in business to make as much money as
So where did the savvy business person go wrong?  Most likely they compared quotes, and all
companies were offering the same Gildan Brand T-shirt, and all were offering
pricing on a two color front design. 
Seems like apples to apples but the screen printing company with that “Great
Deal” still has to make money!  In this
situation they chose to spend less money creating the custom printed t-shirt by
using low quality screen printing ink and to save overhead on electricity they
did not keep their dryer set at the best temperature to properly cure the ink.  This way they produce a product that looks
just like the others but definitely won’t outlast the competition.
Now that you know a secret of the screen printing business
how can you avoid getting taken for a fool like the savvy business person who
thought they were making the best decision possible?  Get to know your printer!  Is your screen printing company an actualscreen printer?  Many of the on-line custom
t-shirt retailers are simply order takers that then outsource your custom
t-shirt order to a screen printer in your local area.  You are paying more, and the screen printers
receive less than if you had gone directly to them.  It’s important to purchase from screen
printers who actually own and use their own equipment.  This will assure you the better price and
most likely a higher quality product.   

The purpose of the custom t-shirt above is
promotional tool but most likely it won’t be worn by many due the low quality
of the screen printed logo.  Sometimes saving
a few pennies is not a savings at all.