Custom Apparel Printing

There’s no shortage of places to buy custom printed or embroidered apparel. The problem arises when you want to step out beyond the ordinary. Most of these places only have a low wage “production artist” which requires you to be the expert with a plan and professional design. That’s not a criticism of screen printers, it’s just the reality of their competitive market.

It’s also why we’re different and set up to help you surpass the ordinary. We realize you require more than just spending money on custom apparel. It needs to put money back in your coffers, not serve as another expense. Planning, purpose, and effective design is the best way to attain this goal. When you want to achieve more with your custom apparel, that’s a good reason to contact us. Since your custom apparel is only one piece of a much larger puzzle, you’ll be glad to know that this “big picture” service provider is crafting this piece with a much larger perspective on your overall strategy.

Whether it’s for your company, a sporting event, or for a personal project, custom apparel printing can do wonders to enhance your objectives. However, t-shirt printing doesn’t just involve picking a design and printing it on a shirt, jacket, hats, or even socks. There’s a whole process involved with custom apparel printing, and PLC Print is here to walk you through it.

Process for Creating Custom Branded Apparel

Depending on several factors like the complexity of the design, the fabric type, and the printing process, custom apparel printing can take a few weeks to a few months. After all, you don’t want to just print any design on your shirt, especially if you’re going for a bulk order. You want to make sure that everything is in order, from the design down to the printing method used. So, here’s a rundown of the process involved in creating custom branded apparel:

Come up With a Design

Coming up with a great design is the first but most important step in custom apparel printing. Of course, the design will depend on what the custom printed shirts are going to be used for. When coming up with a design for shirts, hats, socks, or other clothing ask yourself the following questions:

Does it aptly reflect the brand or message I want to show?
Does it appeal to my target audience or group?
Do the design’s colors match the color of the shirt it will be printed on?
Is the design clearly seen when the apparel is worn?

If you have a knack for design, you can do this step yourself and let your creativity flow. Otherwise, it’s a good idea to hire an actual professional designer to make sure that the design you pick will match the questions above.

Choose a Fabric

Cotton is the most common and comfortable fabric choice, but this again depends on what the custom branded apparel will be used for. For instance, if you’ll be printing sports jerseys, keep in mind that jersey fabric is made of synthetic fibers and cotton. For socks, polyester is better for custom printing compared to cotton socks, which may need embroidered designs instead.

Also, you need to choose the color of the fabric. The color should nicely complement or contrast with the design you want to print. This is especially true for smaller apparel like hats or cloth masks as a dark print on an already dark fabric can make a small design nearly invisible.

Coordinate With the Printer

Once you’ve chosen your design and fabric type, it’s time to coordinate directly with PLC Print, so we can guide you directly on the right file format and color calibration. Most design files are submitted in vector format and can come in file extensions AI, PDF, or EPS. PDF is the most versatile file format and is available in most, if not all, design programs.

Color calibration is also important in this stage as your file needs to have the right CMYK or Pantone color codes to make sure that they come out in the way you intended.

Check Design Proofs

Before printing, PLC Print will send you design proofs to check. This can either be a test print or digital proof of how the item will look once the design is printed. When checking digital proofs, pay attention to:

The alignment of the design
The spelling of the words, if including typography
Any numbers included in the design
The colors of the design if adjustments need to be made

When reviewing, you can also ask a third party to check the proofs, so you have a fresh set of eyes.

Print Your Custom Apparel

There are different ways of printing various custom apparel designs. Some of these include:

Screen printing: The most popular of all t-shirt printing methods. High-quality screen printing ink gets absorbed deeply, resulting in vibrant colors. It is also compatible for most fabrics and can accommodate bulk orders.
Direct-to-garment printing: DTG printing is similar to screen printing, but for designs that are more complex. Good quality DTG printing machines can mix more colors and can print even the tiniest details. However, this is more suited for printing only a handful of shirts unless you have a big budget.
Heat transfer printing: The design is first printed onto a special heat transfer paper. When the shirt is pressed with a heat machine, the transfer paper will then transfer the design onto the fabric. The different types of heat transfer printing are dye-sublimation, plastisol transfer, and computer-aided design (CAD) cut printing.

Benefits of Branded Apparel

Now that you know the process involved in custom branded printing, you can finally decide on what kind of design, fabric, and printing type you’ll be using. If you’re not convinced about the advantages of custom branded apparel, here are some of the many benefits you can gain with this type of clothing:

Identity: Whether you want custom company apparel, sports apparel, custom branded apparel will give your staff or team a recognizable identity at any event. Custom apparel will let you stand out from other participants or make it easier for clients to approach you since they know which people are from your company’s staff. Shirts, hats, jackets, and even cloth masks can be winning pieces that distinguish you from the crowd.
Giveaways: Custom branded apparel can also work well as giveaways during seminars or other events. Printed jackets, cloth masks, hoodies, and even socks are not only practical giveaways, but sometimes they’re also considered somewhat of a collector’s item.
Marketing: Aside from being useful giveaways, custom branded apparel can also double as marketing materials. Branded shirts, jackets, or hats can be used to promote your company, business, or event without you having to spend on expensive advertising.

Get Custom Printed Apparel Today

With PLC Print, you can get high-quality custom printed apparel for your company, sports team, or organization. Also, if you’re starting an apparel business from home PLC Print can produce your shirts and you can sell them on your website. Work with PLC Print to get quality custom printed apparel today!

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