Founders Blog: Larry Levine Artbrands

Heat transfers or DTG ?

I would like to know your thoughts on this subject .  Here are mine. When cable television first came out I remember signs on movie theatres that said we should ban cable television because it would kill movie theatres. Billions upon billions later for both the cable and movie theatres later they are both still here and are thriving.

DTG has its place . They are decent if you are making samples, doing one of a kind designs on the internet etc. They are however very expensive still to buy ( I dont care what kind of payments schemes there are out there) . They are most importantly very expensive per shirt to print.

I have seen dark shirt printing cost as much as 8 dollars with the average probably being 2 to 4 dollars a piece.

Here is what they don’t tell you. There are misprints. The cost of labor ( even if you are standing there doing nothing still has a cost) . The pre treatment all add up. Finally the end product can be acceptable but in my opinion can never match the colors, intensity of a beautiful screen printed ( screen printed heat transfers as well) garment or product.

There is also a few other factors. They are slow unless you purchase the industrial strength ones one cannot survive printing 20 to 30 shirts an hour if you are lucky. Each shirt takes way too much time for production. A heat transfer depending on the size, complexity, process can be as little as 25 cents on up to 5 dollars.

Our screen printed transfers also have special effects, glitter, neon, color change ( in the sun) . reflective, glow in the dark.

Our “Deco Trans” product line is a digital heat transfer that is very effective for short runs. It has been very successfujl with customers reordering consistently.

Tell me your thoughts . I may even tell you which DTG machines that I like . I have seen them all.

Larry Levine

Artbrands