Almost everyone has at least one T-shirt in their closet. T-shirts are part of the core outfits that have taken the world by storm, serving as a blank canvas for clients and designers alike. They are simple in design compared to other products, less complex to create pre-production samples, less cumbersome to produce, inexpensive and highly profitable. To sum up, T-shirt is one of your best choices for starting up your clothing brand.
However, before T-shirt manufacturing, you need to pay special attention to the following four aspects to ensure a better experience in your t-shirt production and sales.
1. Find your niche
Before starting your t-shirt business. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What kind of T-shirts are you interested in making?
- What are your reasons for starting a t-shirt business?
- What’s your target market?
- List a few of your favorite T-shirt brands
The market always needs brands to attract attention.
If your target is the fashion market, you need to think carefully about your brand concept in order to get more customers to know your brand. Stories are often the best way to impress consumers and resonate with customers.
For personal use or for group custom use, you need to ensure that the T-shirt design concept is consistent with the customer’s requirements.
For the most effective design, try not to follow personal tastes and focus more on client needs. Know who your target customers always are and what their needs are.
2. Balance your budget and order quantity
Budget and quantity are arguably the most important part you need to determine before making a T-shirt. Your design will be influenced by your budget and the number of t-shirts you need.
For example, budget and quantity determine how many colors you can use. Depending on the method of printing, using multiple colors may result in higher costs. If you’re on a budget, reducing color in moderation is a smart way to save money.
The production quantity also determines the production unit price. The higher the production quantity, the lower the corresponding unit price. However, too much production quantity may lead to unsalable situations. Therefore, you need to carefully consider the production quantity of T-shirts to maximize the benefits.
3. Fabric selection
A high-quality T-shirt must be both beautiful and practical, which mainly depends on the type of fabric used.
Cotton is considered one of the best fabrics for T-shirts because it is soft, breathable, and very comfortable to wear. Synthetic fibers are also often used as a material for T-shirts, which are smooth to the touch and less absorbent but can be uncomfortable for everyday wear.
But there is nothing absolute, you need to think more about your target market when choosing the fabric.
If your brand is aimed at fitness fans. You should definitely consider more moisture wicking and high stretch functional polyester and nylon fabrics.
While for the streetwear T-shirts that people wear every day, especially the T-shirts for the generation Z. A simple, soft t-shirt is no longer the only thing they are looking for. Youth are too diverse, too versatile. You can’t imagine that they would like the t-shirt made the vintage, rough, used look fabric. But don’t be surprised, this is one of the most sought-after fabrics for young people in the past two years.
Different fabrics tend to attract different consumer groups, resulting in changes in sales. The function of the T-shirt is taken into account before T-shirt manufacturing, and you need to select the fabric for your t-shirt based on your target market.
4. 2 different types of the t-shirt manufacturing process
There are two typical ways of producing T-shirts:
– Print your own logo or graphic on ready-made t-shirts from wholesale suppliers.
– Find a cut & sew clothing factory to make fully customized t-shirts.
To cut costs while launching a new clothing company, souring wholesale ready-made t-shirts from wholesalers is a good choice for you. Adding your own designs to the in-stock t-shirt is probably the most cost-effective way to start. However, there are many limits to ordering stock T-shirts. For example, you can only pick the color you need from a dozen colors. The sizes are usually no more than 7 or 8 different sizes. The styles are even needless to say. Wholesale suppliers normally only offer you a regular fit t-shirt.
But there’s no arguing that ordering in-stock T-shirts is the best way to reduce your inventory. Because wholesaler is able to offer you a very low MOQ compare with cut & sew factories. MOQ for wholesale products normally starts from just a few pieces.
When your brand grows and you can afford to invest more money. (like US$2,000 or more) It’s time for you to find a trustworthy cut & sew manufacturer which means you are able to design everything from the bottom up. Including the style, size, color, material, printing & embroidery, or even the packing bag and labels.
5. Printing techniques
Depending on your budget, you can choose from a variety of t-shirt printing methods. Here are some of the most popular and cost-effective alternatives:
Screen printing
Silkscreen Printing is a stenciling method that involves printing ink through stencils that are supported by a porous fabric mesh stretched across a frame called a screen. Silkscreen printing is perfect for graphic and solid designs.
This is one of the most popular printing technologies, and it’s ideal for t-shirt manufacturers that demand a high-quality finish.
It’s most commonly used in mass production and can be quite cost-effective for designs with few minor features. At the same time, silk screen printing is also one of the most durable printing methods. Our silkscreens can be washed up to 50+ times.
Digital printing or Direct To Garment (DTG) printing
Digital printing is a process that can be applied for complicated designs, and as its name indicates, it prints directly onto the garment via a printer that looks like the office printer you use every day.
Therefore, DTG printing has no restrictions on patterns. You can even print your dog’s photo on clothing through a DTG printer.
But DTG printing has high requirements for fabrics. The fabric must be silicone-free. Otherwise, the print will fade as soon as it is washed. Also, it is not as long-lasting as screen printing or bright-colored either.
There are various alternative printing methods are available, including:
Dye sublimation: It is a transfer printing process that works best on light and polyester textiles.
Vinyl printing: The process employs vinyl and heat pressing to produce a great finish with inexpensive setup costs. However, after 3-5 washes, it will be washed off. So generally we only do vinyl print on advertising t-shirts and election t-shirts.
More information: 4 Of The Most Popular Printing Method For Clothing
6. Make a tech pack
A complete tech pack typically includes a picture or sketch of the t-shirt you need, fabric and measurement information, an accessory page, a printing page and a private label page.
More information: How To Create A Clothing Tech Pack?
A professional tech pack is not a must-have for t-shirt production. However, it is a respectful sign for your manufacturer and it ensures that both you and your manufacturer are on the same page. A well-made tech pack will save a lot of time and money in both sampling and production.
Selecting a renowned clothes manufacturer to work with is an important step for any apparel brand looking to produce a high-quality product at a fair cost. T-shirt production, like many other textile manufacturing techniques, is a rapid and automated process that allows you to produce larger orders in shorter lead times.
Planning to create your own t-shirts? Just do not hesitate to contact us. We will patiently communicate and coordinate with you and do our best to create the perfect product for you.