Custom printed t-shirts are great ways to identify members of a group or team, displaying unity and demonstrating team membership. For example, close your eyes and picture a baseball player for the New York Yankees? What is he wearing? The white pinstriped uniform worn by the Yankees is considered the nation’s most well-known uniform, and it’s easy for most people to call to mind. When you see a person in that uniform, you know that he’s a Yankees player. While custom t-shirt printing probably won’t afford the same level of recognition the Yankees have from their iconic uniforms, they can easily identify individuals as being part of a group.
Once you design custom t -shirts, there’s one more hurdle before they can be worn. Custom t-shirt printing is a diverse industry, and there are many shirt printing options out there. Let’s look at a few of the most popular methods for printing custom design t-shirts.
Hand Painting, Spray Painting, and Airbrushing
These are some of the preferred methods of hobbyists and artists who enjoy designing with their own hands. Though the shirts incorporate personal taste and artistic value, they’re rarely chosen for large groups because they cannot be easily replicated.
Screen Printing
Screen printed t-shirts are perhaps the most popular types of printed t-shirts. Screen shirt printing is done by burning an image onto a mesh screen. Ink is then pressed onto the screen as it sits atop the shirt, creating an image on the shirt. This method of shirt printing is popular because the investment is minimal and because the screens can be reused on several shirts.
Digital Printing
Also known as direct-to-garment shirt printing, this method involves direct printing onto shirts using specialized or modified inkjet printers. The inks are directly absorbed by the fibers of t-shirts, making the method simple. However, it is not as budget-friendly as screen printing because of the high cost of effective printers.
Heat Transfer Printing
This printing method uses heat to transfer a design printed on specialty paper onto the fabric. The high temperature of a heat press machine combined with heavy pressure transfers the design onto the shirt, resulting in the most efficient shirt printing method available.
Each method is effective in its own right and can be used to create high quality apparel for your group or team. Once you’ve designed your shirts and picked a printing method, there’s nothing left to do but call a printing company. So what are you waiting for? Get your group in uniform!