Promo t-shirts

[Steve Browning]

Having seen the propensity for people to buy band t-shirts, even at quite humble venues, my band is thinking of offering such quality merchandise itself. Does anyone have any recommendations for suppliers?

We are looking at a logo on a plain black t-shirt.

[Lozz196]

I`ll get in touch with our band leader re this and PM the details over Steve, the guy we use is great, his products are top quality too.

[BigRedX]

Awesome Merchandise or Shirtysomething.

It doesn't matter how many skinny hipsters are in your audience, the people who buy band T-shirts are invariably size Large and bigger, so skew your size quantities towards these.

[Steve Browning]

Thanks both. Yes, I was intending to buy according to audience girth!!

[FinnDave]

We were selling Grateful Dudes T shirts at SoL, Steve, and rather unexpectedly ran out of Large, Medium, and Small shirts, but had plenty of XL shirts left over for the next time we play.

Edited August 28, 2018 by FinnDave

[Dad3353]

Ah, but did you start off with the same number of each, eh..? 

[FinnDave]

9 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Ah, but did you start off with the same number of each, eh..? 

Quite honestly, I can't remember - fewer small than the others, I know that, but we were surprised that the demand for S, M & L sizes exceeded that for XL & 2SXL (we did sell one 4XL at an earlier gig).

The mix of sizes of the first run was advised by the T shirt printer, we used the data collected (scribbled on the back of an envelope in pencil) at the first gig this year to order a second run. I must remember to get some more made before our Halloween party in Leicester.

[NancyJohnson]

Gonna give you a pointer.  

Try and mix up the logo sizes so that they look good on the shirts.  We supplied a single logo for the shirts we had printed; they looked fine on the XL and 2XL shirts, but wrong on the S/M/L ones (logos were too big).

[BigRedX]

2 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

Gonna give you a pointer.  

Try and mix up the logo sizes so that they look good on the shirts.  We supplied a single logo for the shirts we had printed; they looked fine on the XL and 2XL shirts, but wrong on the S/M/L ones (logos were too big).

That does work out more expensive as you will incur extra screen costs for each colour front and back as well as additional setup charges.

I've done 3 different T-shirst where a single print size worked across the whole range of shirt sizes, but they were full shirt designs and the logo was only part of the whole design. If you make your design work on the medium and large shirts it should work for all sizes from Ladies Small up to 2XL.

It always surprises me that people are prepared to spend £10 - £15 on a T-shirt with a unit cost of under £4, whereas they won't be so ready to buy your CD or Vinyl for the same price, where you are probably only just breaking even. 

[uk_lefty]

We managed to sell out of all the small t shirt runs we've had done just for a local covers band. Got some more on order for this weekend but the supplier we use is also the drummers work wear supplier so we get treated well by them through that association. 

Sportswear companies are good at this kind of thing too, they will have the embroidery and heat printing stuff ready. So if there's a supplier you already know, and they don't have to be a "specialist band t shirt provider", you may get more flexibility than someone who takes your order literally and doesn't apply any of their own initiative, but still takes your cash 

Edited August 29, 2018 by uk_lefty

[Steve Browning]

Thank you all for your comments. Some good information and all being filed away!

[BigRedX]

2 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

Sportswear companies are good at this kind of thing too, they will have the embroidery and heat printing stuff ready. 

IME embroidery and heat printing are all wrong for band T-Shirts. Embroidery says you are employed by a company trying too hard to be casual, and heat printing is "Lads on a Stag Weekend P!ss-up".

Go for good old screen printing, bright colour(s) on decent quality (Gildan) black Tees. 100 T-Shirts with a single colour on one side will cost you around £3 per shirt. Price them at £10 each and you only need to sell 30 or so to get your money back. If you don't think you can do that, you probably shouldn't be bothering in the first place.

[BassTractor]

A personal pet peeve of mine: Specify the distance from the top of the logo to the top of the shirt. If you don't do that, then many t-shirt companies wil put the logo somewhere where it looks good whilst on the machine, but will be too low when the shirt is tucked in someone's trousers (sorry for the non-English).

Belly logo: not pretty!

Edited August 29, 2018 by BassTractor

[uk_lefty]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

IME embroidery and heat printing are all wrong for band T-Shirts. Embroidery says you are employed by a company trying too hard to be casual, and heat printing is "Lads on a Stag Weekend P!ss-up".

Go for good old screen printing, bright colour(s) on decent quality (Gildan) black Tees. 100 T-Shirts with a single colour on one side will cost you around £3 per shirt. Price them at £10 each and you only need to sell 30 or so to get your money back. If you don't think you can do that, you probably shouldn't be bothering in the first place.

Fair comment! Might be worth checking how they print then.

[Skybone]

Another recommendation for ShirtySomething. Great to deal with, and the owner's a bass player as well.